Alexander Suvorov

Count Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov-Rymniksky, Prince of Italy (Russian: Князь Италийский граф Александр Васильевич Суворов-Рымникский, romanized: Kni͡az' Italiyskiy graf Aleksandr Vasil'yevič Suvorov-Rymnikskiy; IPA: [ɐlʲɪkˈsandr vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ sʊˈvorəf]; 24 November [O.S. 13 November] 1729 or 1730 – 18 May [O.S. 6 May] 1800), was a Russian general and military theorist in service of the Russian Empire and the Habsburg monarchy. He was Count of Rymnik (1789), Graf of the Holy Roman Empire (1789), Feldmarschall of the Holy Roman Empire (1799), Prince of the Kingdom of Sardinia (1799), Grand marshal of the Kingdom of Sardinia (1799), Prince or Knyaz of the Russian Empire (1799), Field marshal (1794) and the last Generalissimo (1799) of the Russian Empire. Suvorov is considered the single greatest military commander in Russian history, one of the greatest generals in world history, and the most gifted commander of the eighteenth century. He was awarded numerous medals, titles, and honors by Russia, as well as by other countries. He authored several military manuals, the most famous being The Science of Victory (or The Science of Winning; Russian: Наука побеждать), which is considered to be one of the most important works in military literature, and was also noted for several of his sayings. He never lost a single battle he commanded, with the exception of a couple of minor non-field engagements, in which he withdrew to preserve men, and his military record is extensive; Suvorov won in a total of 63 battles without suffering a major defeat. He raised Russian military glory to an unprecedented height, secured Russia's expanded borders and renewed military prestige and left a legacy of theories on warfare. In Russia, several military academies, monuments, villages, museums, and orders are dedicated to him.

Born in Moscow, he studied military history as a young boy and joined the Imperial Russian Army at the age of 17. Suvorov was promoted to colonel in 1762 for his numerous successes on the battlefield during the Seven Years' War.

When war broke out with the Bar Confederation in 1768, Suvorov, commanding a detachment of Ivan Weymarn's army, captured the Polish capital Kraków, then defeated the Poles of Casimir Pulaski at Orzechowo, routed general Dumouriez near Lanckorona, and subsequently overthrew the Polish forces at Stołowicze. These and other victories marked the start of the partitions of Poland. He was promoted to general and next fought in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 under Saltykov's supervision, taking Turtukaya twice and winning a decisive victory at the battle of Kozludzha.

In 1774 Suvorov interrogated the captured Yemelyan Pugachev and in the same year married into the well-connected Golitsyn family. Four years later, he averted a Russo-Turkish war, then in 1783 suppressed the Nogai uprising. Becoming the General of the Infantry in 1783, he led Russian forces in the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792 under the command of Potemkin and participated in the siege of Ochakov, as well as victories at Kinburn and Focșani.

Suvorov and the Austro-Bavarian general Josias of Coburg then won one of the most decisive successes of their careers at the battle of Rymnik, and afterwards Suvorov crushingly defeated the Ottomans in the storming of Izmail, which is commemorated as one of the days of Russian military honour and immortalized with the song "Let the Thunder of Victory Rumble!". For Suvorov's accomplishments, he was made a Count of both the Russian Empire and Holy Roman Empire, having been given the glorifying title Rymniksky (a suffix to his surname in honour of the victory at Rymnik). His victories at Focșani and Rymnik established him as the most brilliant general in the Russian army, if not in all of Europe. In 1794, while in Repnin's army, he put down the Polish uprising, defeating them at the battle of Brest and others, as well as at the storming of Praga, a faubourg of Warsaw.

While a close associate of Empress Catherine the Great, Suvorov often quarreled with her son and heir apparent, Paul. After Catherine died of a stroke in 1796, Paul I was crowned Emperor and dismissed Suvorov for disregarding his orders. However, he was forced to reinstate Suvorov and make him a field marshal at the insistence of the coalition allies for the French Revolutionary Wars.

Suvorov was given command of the Austro-Russian army and the Italian campaign of 1799 began. He captured Milan and Turin, thereafter driving the French out of nearly all of Italy through his triumphs at Cassano (the Adda River), the Trebbia River, and Novi. The Italian strongholds of Alessandria and Mantua fell. Suvorov was promoted to a new title: he was made a "Prince of Italy" (or Knyaz Italiysky) for his deeds, and he became known as the Prince of Italy, Count Suvorov-Rymniksky. Suvorov had successfully forced Republican France out of Italy, and had nearly erased all of Bonaparte’s Italian conquests of 1796–97. Afterwards, he was ordered to head the Swiss campaign to assist allied operations. He became cut off by André Masséna and later surrounded in the Swiss Alps by the French after an allied Russo-Austrian army under Alexander Korsakov and Friedrich von Hotze — which he was supposed to reinforce — suffered defeats at Zurich and on the Linth River. Suvorov led the strategic withdrawal of exhausted and ill-supplied Russian troops dealing with French forces three times the size of his own: 27,000 against 77,000 in the theater of operations. He defeated a larger French army during the Battle of Muottental, with the French general Masséna nearly captured. He finally broke through the French trap and battled his way across the central spine of the Alps to the Alpine Rhine, marching thence all the way to Lake Constance; as a result of all this, the army returned from the Helvetic Republic to Russia with minimal casualties. For this exploit, he became the fourth Generalissimo of Russia. Masséna would later confess that he would exchange all his victories for Suvorov’s passage of the Alps. He died in 1800 of illness in Saint Petersburg.

His maneuvering of the Alps and his escape led him to be called the "Russian Hannibal". The French king, Louis XVIII, compared Suvorov to Attila the Hun.

Military historian Micheal Clodfelter, in his work "Warfare and Armed Conflicts", described Suvorov as the best general the French First Republic ever fought (with the possible exception of Archduke Charles). Philip Longworth noted that he was never defeated and that he was "one of those rare generals who were consistently successful despite suffering from considerable disadvantages". In many of his battles and campaigns he was outnumbered yet managed victory, and also defeated some of the best generals of their countries at the time, such as Masséna, Moreau, and Macdonald of France, and Aydoslu Mehmed Pasha of the Ottoman Empire. Suvorov is seen as having anticipated Napoleon's tactics, and is regarded as being on par with him in terms of military genius, and perhaps superior in terms of endurance. Suvorov was also admired by his soldiers throughout his whole military life, and was respected for his honest service and truthfulness.