 He received a high quality education at home, in 1768 joined the army, took part in Wallachian and Crimean campaigns but in 1782 (for reasons that remained unclear), retired to engage himself in agricultural activities in his Tula estate.It was in the early 1780s that he first started to write poetry.In 1790 Prince Gorchakov rejoined the Russian army as a volunteer, took part in the battle at Izmail, was seriously wounded and was praised for courage by Aleksandr Suvorov.