[2][3] He was the nephew of Imperial Chancellor Alexander Vorontsov, Elizaveta Vorontsova and Princess Dashkova, a friend of Catherine the Great and a conspirator in the coup d'état that deposed Tsar Peter III and put his wife on the throne.

[5] He commanded the composite grenadiers division in Prince Petr Bagration's Second Western Army during Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812.

In the year of the start of the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829, Vorontsov succeeded the wounded Menshikov as commander of the forces besieging Varna, which he captured on 28 September 1828.

[5] For his campaign against Shamil, and for his difficult march through the dangerous forests of Ichkeria, he was raised to the dignity of prince, with the title of Serene Highness.

Her brother was Count Władysław Grzegorz Branicki who married Countess Róża Potocka (daughter of Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki).

His wife reportedly had a liaison with Alexander Pushkin during her stay in Odessa, which resulted in some of the finest poems in the Russian language.

[citation needed] Together, Mikhail and Elisabeth were the parents of: Prince Vorontsov died on 18 November 1856 in Odessa.

As his son died without issue, his grandson through his daughter Sofya, Count Mikhail Andreyevich Shuvalov (1850–1903), inherited the title of Prince Vorontsov.

Upon his death, without issue in 1903, the Vorontsov fortune passed to his elder sister, Countess Elizabeth Andreevna Shuvalova (1845–1924), who had married Count Illarion Vorontsov-Dashkov.