Vorontsov, Mikhail Illarionovich, 1714-1767

Count Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov was a Russian statesman and diplomat, who laid foundations for the fortunes of the Vorontsov family. At 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. 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 and later imperial chancellor. His name is preserved in the lavish St Petersburg palace that he commissioned from the imperial architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli.