As a result of his distinguished service for Sweden, Poland and Russia he rose in ranks from trooper to full general, and became a principal advisor and close friend of Tsar Peter the Great.

He was not the only Scottish soldier in the Tsar's service; his compatriots Paul Menzies, Alexander Livingston and many others were among those from lesser houses, or who had little chance of a claim to inheritance, seeking to make a name for themselves.

Later in 1689 a coup broke out in Moscow, and with the troops under his command Gordon virtually decided events in favour of Peter the Great,[3] and against the Regent, Tsarevna Sophia Alekseyevna.

An incomplete and faulty German translation, edited by Dr Moritz Posselt (Tagebuch des Generals Patrick Gordon) was published, the first volume at Moscow in 1849, the second at St Petersburg in 1851, and the third at St Petersburg in 1853; and Passages from the Diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries (1635–1699), was printed, under the editorship of Joseph Robertson, for the Spalding Club, at Aberdeen, Scotland, 1859.

A new full scholarly edition of Gordon's Diary in English was published by the Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies in Aberdeen (6 vols, 2009–2016), as well as its translation into Russian.

His daughter Catherine was married firstly to the German-Russian Colonel Rudolf Strasburg, and then from 1698 to his kinsman in the Russian service Alexander Gordon of Auchintoul, author of The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia.