Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov

At the age of fourteen, Vorontsov was appointed a kammerjunker at the court of the tsesarevna Yelizaveta Petrovna, whom he materially assisted during the famous coup d'etat of 6 December 1741, when she mounted the Russian throne on the shoulders of the Preobrazhensky Grenadiers.

[1] On 3 January 1742 Vorontsov married countess Anna Karlovna Skavronskaya, the empress's maternal first cousin, and in 1744 was created a count and vice-chancellor.

The empress's affection for him (she owed much to his skilful pen and still more to the liberality of his rich kinsfolk) saved him from the fate of his accomplices, but he lived in a state of semi-eclipse during Bestuzhev's ascendancy.

For example, under Elizabeth he was an avowed enemy of Prussia and a warm friend of Austria and France, but he made no effort to prevent Peter III from reversing the policy of his predecessor.

He squandered most of his personal fortune on that edifice but was subsequently obliged to sell it to the crown for lack of the funds required to complete its interior decoration.