Career
He began his career at the age of fifteen in the Izmailovsky regiment of the Guards. Catherine II created him a senator and president of the Board of Trade. But she never liked him, and ultimately (1791) compelled him to retire from public life.
In 1802, Alexander I summoned him back to office and appointed him imperial chancellor.
The rupture with Napoleon in 1803 is mainly attributable to him. He also took a leading part in the internal administration and was in favour of a thorough reform of the Governing Senate and the ministries.
He retired in 1804. A lifelong bachelor, he possessed an extraordinary memory and a firm and wide grasp of history.
His Memoirs of My Own Times is printed in volunteer VII of the Vorontsov Archives.