Career
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 December 6, 1741, when she mounted the Russian throne on the shoulders of the Preobrazhensky Grenadiers. On January 3, 1742, Vorontsov married countess Anna Karlovna Skavronskaya, the empress"s maternal first cousin, and in 1744 was created a count and vice-chancellor. His envy of Aleksei Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin induced him to participate in Count Lestocq"s conspiracy against that statesman.
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.
Mikhail Vorontsov may be said to have revived the fortunes of his ancient and illustrious family. His name is preserved in the lavish Street St. Petersburg palace that he commissioned from the imperial architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli.
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.
