Count Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov-Rymniksky, Prince of Italy (24 November [O.S. 13 November] 1729 or 1730 – 18 May [O.S. 6 May] 1800) was a Russian general and military theorist in the service of the Russian Empire. Born in Moscow, he studied military history as a young boy and joined the Imperial Russian Army at the age of 17. Promoted to colonel in 1762 for his successes during the Seven Years' War, his victories during the War of the Bar Confederation included the capture of Kraków and victories at Orzechowo, Lanckorona, and Stołowicze. His reputation rose further when, in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774, he captured Turtukaya twice and won a decisive victory at Kozludzha. After a period of little progress, he was promoted to general and led Russian forces in the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792, participating in the siege of Ochakov, as well as victories at Kinburn and Focșani. Suvorov won a decisive victory at the Battle of Rymnik, and afterwards decisively defeated the Ottomans in the storming of Izmail. His victories at Focșani and Rymnik established him as the most brilliant general in Russia, if not in all of Europe. In 1794, he put down the Polish uprising, defeating them at the battle of Praga and elsewhere. After Catherine the Great died in 1796, her successor Paul I often quarrelled with Suvorov. After a period of ill-favour, Suvorov was recalled to a field marshal position at the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars. He was given command of the Austro-Russian army, and after a series of victories, such as the battle of the Trebbia, he captured Milan and Turin, and nearly erased all of Napoleon's Italian conquests of 1796–97. After an Austro-Russian army was defeated in Switzerland, Suvorov, ordered to reinforce them, was cut off by André Masséna and later surrounded in the Swiss Alps. Suvorov's successful extraction of the exhausted, ill-supplied, and heavily-outnumbered Russian army was rewarded by a promotion to generalissimo (Russian: генералиссимус, romanized: generalissimus). The most prominent battle was in the Muottental. According to one statement, Masséna himself would later confess that he would exchange all of his victories for Suvorov's passage of the Alps; as per another, Masséna said that he would never forgive him for the crossing accomplished by him in Switzerland. Suvorov died in 1800 of illness in Saint Petersburg. He was instrumental in expanding the Russian Empire, as his success ensured Russia's conquering of Kuban, Crimea, and New Russia. He was one of the foremost generals in all of military history, and considered the greatest military commander in Russian history. Undefeated in major engagements, he has been described as the best general Republican France ever fought against, and noted as "one of those rare generals who were consistently successful despite suffering from considerable disadvantages and lack of support and resources." Suvorov was also admired by his soldiers throughout his whole military life, and was respected for his honest service and truthfulness.
Early life
Origins
Alexander Suvorov was born into a noble family originating from Novgorod at the Moscow mansion in Arbat, given as dowry from his maternal grandfather, Fedosey Manukov. His father, Vasily Ivanovich Suvorov, was a general-in-chief and a senator in the Governing Senate, and was credited with translating Vauban's works into Russian. His mother, Avdotya Fedoseyevna (née Manukova), was the daughter of judge Fedosey Manukov, and is considered an ethnic Russian. However, the name Manuk or Manukyan points to an Armenian origin, and likely a russified Armenian root. According to a family legend his paternal ancestor named Suvor had emigrated from Karelia, at the time ruled by the Swedish Empire, with his family in 1622 and enlisted at the Russian service to serve Tsar Michael Feodorovich (his descendants became Suvorovs). Suvorov himself narrated for the record the historical account of his family to his aide, colonel Anthing, telling particularly that his Swedish-born ancestor was of noble descent, having engaged under the Russian banner in the wars against the Tatars and Poles. These exploits were rewarded by Tsars with lands and peasants. This version, however, was questioned recently by prominent Russian linguists, professors Nikolay Baskakov and Alexandra Superanskaya, who pointed out that the word Suvorov more likely comes from the ancient Russian male name Suvor based on the adjective suvory, an equivalent of surovy, which means "severe" in Russian. Baskakov also pointed to the fact that the Suvorovs' family coat of arms lacks any Swedish symbols, implying its Russian origins. Among the first of those who pointed to the Russian origin of the name were Empress Catherine II, who noted in a letter to Johann von Zimmerman in 1790: "It is beyond doubt that the name of the Suvorovs has long been noble, is Russian from time immemorial and resides in Russia", and Count Semyon Vorontsov in 1811, a person familiar with the Suvorovs. Their views were supported by later historians: it was estimated that by 1699 there were at least 19 Russian landlord families of the same name in Russia, not counting their namesakes of lower status, and they all could not descend from a single foreigner who arrived only in 1622. Moreover, genealogy studies indicated a Russian landowner named Suvor mentioned under the year 1498, whereas documents of the 16th century mention Vasily and Savely Suvorovs, with the last of them being a proven ancestor of General Alexander Suvorov. The Swedish version of Suvorov's genealogy had been debunked in the Genealogical collection of Russian noble families by V. Rummel and V. Golubtsov (1887) tracing Suvorov's ancestors from the 17th-century Tver gentry. In 1756 Alexander Suvorov's first cousin, Sergey Ivanovich Suvorov, in his statement of background (skazka) for his son said that he did not have any proof of nobility; he started his genealogy from his great-grandfather, Grigory Ivanovich Suvorov, who served as a dvorovy boyar scion at Kashin.
=== Childhood === As a boy, Suvorov was a sickly child and his father assumed he would work in civil service as an adult. However, he proved to be an excellent learner, avidly studying mathematics, literature, philosophy, and geography, learning to read French, German, Polish, and Italian, and with his father's vast library devoted himself to intense study of military history, strategy, tactics, and several military authors including Plutarch, Quintus Curtius, Cornelius Nepos, Julius Caesar, and Charles XII. This also helped him develop a good understanding of engineering, siege warfare, artillery, and fortification. His father, however, insisted that he was unfit for military affairs. However, when Alexander was young, General Gannibal asked to speak to the child, and was so impressed with the boy that he persuaded the father to allow him to pursue the career of his choice.
Early career
=== First military experience === Suvorov entered the military in 1745 and served in the Semyonovsky Lifeguard Regiment for nine years. During this period he continued his studies attending classes at Cadet Corps of Land Forces. He spent most of his time in the barracks: the troops loved him, though everyone considered him eccentric. Besides, he was sent with diplomatic dispatches to Dresden and Vienna; to carry out these assignments on 16 March 1752, he received a diplomatic courier passport, signed by the Chancellor Count Alexey Bestuzhev-Ryumin. From 1756 to 1758 Alexander next worked on the College of War; from 1758 he was engaged in forming reserve units, and was commandant of Memel. Suvorov gained his first battle experience fighting against the Prussians during the Seven Years' and the Third Silesian wars (1756–1763). His first skirmish occurred on 25 July 1759 under Crossen, when Suvorov with a cavalry squadron attacked and routed Prussian dragoons;—he was serving in General-Major Mikhail Volkonsky's brigade. The following month Suvorov participated in the complete victory over Frederick the Great at the battle of Kunersdorf, after which the so-called Miracle of the House of Brandenburg happened. At the time when Pyotr Semyonovich Saltykov, upon his Kunersdorf victory, remained unmoved and did not even send Cossacks to pursue the fleeing enemy, Suvorov said to William Fermor: "if I were commander-in-chief, I would go to Berlin right now". Fortunately for Frederick, he did not face Suvorov.
1761
Then, Alexander served under the command of General-Major Maxim Berg. Suvorov successfully defended his positions at Reichenbach, but contrary to his future rules did not pursue the retreating enemy, if the only surviving account of this action is accurate. At the skirmish of Schweidnitz, in a third assault, Suvorov managed to take the hill occupied by the hussar picket; in this clash 60 Cossacks opposed 100 hussars. For another example, in the combat of Landsberg on 15 September 1761, his Cossack-hussar cavalry unit defeated 3 squadrons of the Prussian hussars. On leaving the Friedberg Forest, he hit General Platen's side units and took many prisoners. He also fought minor battles at Bunzelwitz, Birstein, Weisentine, Költsch, and seized the small fortified town of Golnau. After repeatedly distinguishing himself in battle Suvorov will become a colonel in 1762, aged around 33. Soon afterwards, following the capture of Golnau, he was given temporary command of the Tver Dragoon Regiment until the regimental commander recovered. Prussian observation detachments had spread far from Kolberg; Berg moved there in two columns, the left he led himself, and the right, which consisted of three Hussar, two Cossack, and Tver Dragoon regiments, he entrusted to Suvorov. In the village of Naugard the Prussians positioned themselves with 2 battalions of infantry and a weak dragoon regiment. Forming his unit in two lines, Suvorov began the attack. He felled the dragoons, struck one of the battalions, killed many on the spot and took at least a hundred prisoners. At Stargard, Suvorov attacked the rearguard of Platen, during which Suvorov cut into the enemy cavalry and infantry, and it was reported that "many were taken and beaten from the enemy". Suvorov managed to avoid heavy losses. All the battles described took place at the same time as the siege of Kolberg (1761) in Pomerania.
=== Freemasonry, Berlin === It is stated that Suvorov visited Prussian Masonic lodge. But it is doubtful that he himself was ever a Freemason. Just before his career in 1761, he took part in the raid on Berlin by Zakhar Chernyshev's forces (one year after the Kunersdorf). Suvorov took in a young boy, took care of him during the whole campaign, and on arrival at the quarters sent to the widow, the boy's mother, a letter reading:
"Dear mother, your little son is safe with me. If you want to leave him with me, he will not lack anything and I will take care of him as if he were my own son. If you wish to keep him with you, you can take him from here or write me where to send him."
Wars against Poland–Lithuania
Dissolution of the Bar Confederation (1768–1772)
==== Outbreak of war and setbacks ==== Suvorov next served in Poland during the Confederation of Bar. Leading a unit of the army of Ivan Ivanovich Weymarn, he dispersed the Polish forces under Pułaski at Orzechowo, captured Kraków (1768), overthrew the Poles of Moszyński near Nawodzice in the spring of 1770, before defeating Moszyński's Polish troops at Opatów in July. The following year Alexander Suvorov won a small combat with Charles Dumouriez's army at Lanckorona, but he failed in the storming of the Lanckorona Castle, being injured here; and then on 20 May 1771, he unsuccessfully stormed the mountain near Tyniec Abbey, which included a strong redoubt enclosed by a palisade, trous de loup, and strengthened with two guns. The Russians under Suvorov and Lieutenant Colonel Shepelev captured the fortification twice, but were beaten back. Fearing to lose a lot of troops and time, Suvorov retreated. It was among the few tactical setbacks in his career, however, these were not field engagements. Slightly earlier than at Tyniec, however, Suvorov had won small victories over the Confederates at Rachów and Kraśnik (27 & 28 February 1771), capturing an entire wagon train in the first of these clashes. By a "happy coincidence", Suvorov survived in it. After their failure at the Lanckorona Castle, Suzdalian infantrymen, the victors at Orzechowo, restored their reputation in Suvorov's eyes, not only at Kraśnik but also in Rachów. He wrote to Weymarn:
The infantry acted with great subordination, and I made my peace with them.
==== Retaliatory strike ==== Follow-up clashes rectify Suvorov's situation: the battle of Lanckorona one day after an incident at Tyniec, where Dumouriez, the future hero of the French Republic, was severely defeated; the combat of Zamość on 22 May 1771; the battle of Stołowicze; and the siege of the Wawel Castle (Kraków Castle), where the French and the szlachta, under the leadership of Brigadier Marquess Gabriel de Claude, made a sortie from the fortifications, and a force of Tyniec moved towards them – the Poles and their French allies were "defeated by brutal shooting and put to flight", paving the way for the first partition of Poland between Austria, Prussia and Russia. Suvorov meanwhile reached the rank of major-general.
Battles against Polish uprising (1794)
==== Turning victories ==== More than two years after the signing of the treaty of Iași (Jassy) with the Ottoman Empire, Suvorov was yet again transferred to Poland where he assumed the command of one of the corps and led the victorious battles of Dywin, Kobryń, Krupczyce, and the battle of Brest where he vanquished the forces of the Polish commander Karol Sierakowski; afterwards, Suvorov won the battle at Kobyłka. The cavalry attacks at Brest and Kobyłka resemble of Suvorov's offence at Lanckorona 22 years earlier, which ended in the defeat of Dumouriez. The battle showed that there was stability in his tactical rules, and he did not act on momentary impulse. Suvorov was praised and exalted, anecdotes were told about him, his letters were quoted. It became known that he wrote a letter to Platon Zubov, in which, congratulating Zubov "with local victories," he proceeded: "I recommend to your favour my brothers and children, squires of the Great Catherine, who is so illustrious thanks to them". Suvorov sent to his daughter poems, where he described his working life:
The heavens have given usTwenty-four hours.I do not indulge my fate,But sacrifice it to my Monarch,And to end [die] suddenly,I sleep and eat when at leisure.Hello, Natasha and her household.
==== Triumph and tragedy in Praga ==== On 4 November 1794, Suvorov's forces stormed Warsaw, held by Józef Zajączek's troops, and captured Praga, one of its boroughs (a suburb or the so-called faubourg). The massacre of 12,000 civilians in Praga broke the spirits of the defenders and soon put an end to the Kościuszko Uprising. During the event, Russian forces looted and burned the entire borough. This carnage was committed by the troops in revenge for the slaughter of the Russian garrison in Warsaw during the Warsaw Uprising in April 1794, when up to 4,000 Russian soldiers died. According to some sources the massacre was the deed of Cossacks who were semi-independent and were not directly subordinate to Suvorov. Suvorov supposedly tried to stop the massacre and even went to the extent of ordering the destruction of the bridge to Warsaw over the Vistula River with the purpose of preventing the spread of violence to Warsaw from its suburb. Other historians dispute this, but most sources make no reference to Suvorov either deliberately encouraging or attempting to prevent the massacre. "I have shed rivers of blood," the troubled Suvorov confessed, "and this horrifies me". A total of 11,000 to 13,000 Poles were taken prisoner (approximately 450 officers), including captured with weapons, unarmed and wounded. Of the men taken alive and wounded, more than 6,000 were sent home; up to 4,000 were sent to Kiev, – from the regular army, without the scythemen, who were set at liberty with other non-military men.
Many writers call the storming of Praga a simple slaughterhouse. As historian Alexander Petrushevsky notes, Suvorov's dispositions of the troops were characterised by remarkable thoroughness; such was that of Praga according to Petrushevsky. "It is homogeneous with the Izmailian at its core and identical to it in many basic details. Both show a remarkable military calculation, which includes not only figures, but knowledge of the enemy's character, properties and general strength, a correct estimation of their own resources, moral and material, and a choice of means based on these data. But even more than the plan (the storming programme), what is striking is its execution, in which some features of the plan turned out to be additional steps to the Russian victory. Only troops who are perfectly trained and between whom and their leader there is complete harmony can act in this way".
==== Culmination, impact of campaign ==== Despite early successes on a battlefield, the organizer of the uprising, Tadeusz Kościuszko, was captured by the Don Cossack general Fyodor P. Denisov at the battle of Maciejowice, where Kościuszko was defeated at the hand of Baron Fersen's larger forces. Suvorov's and other Russians' victories led to the third partition of Poland. He sent a report to his sovereign consisting of only three words:
"Hurrah, Warsaw's ours!" (Russian: Ура, Варшава наша!) Catherine replied in two words:
"Hurrah, Field-Marshal!" (Russian: Ура, фельдмаршал! – that is, awarding him this rank) The newly appointed field marshal remained in Poland until 1795, when he returned to Saint Petersburg. But his sovereign and friend Catherine died in 1796, and her son and successor Paul I dismissed the veteran in disgrace.
Wars with the Ottoman Empire
1st war against the Ottomans
Developments
By this time period, the Ottoman Empire had become significantly weakened militarily and politically. The Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 saw his first successful campaigns against the Turks between 1773 and 1774, and particularly in the battle of Kozludža (1774); Suvorov laid the foundations of his reputation there. During the same conflict, the Imperial Russian Navy triumphed over the Ottoman Navy at the battle of Cheshme, and Peter (Pyotr) Rumyantsev, likewise one of the most capable Russian commanders of the era as per statistician Gaston Bodart and historian K. Osipov, routed the Ottomans at the battle of Kagul. Petrushevsky states the following: "The battles of Larga, Chesma, and Kagul were balm for the Russian heart of Suvorov, but at the same time a vexation stirred up in him from the fact that he had not participated there. While in Poland, Suvorov's displeasure, inflated by his self-love and unsatisfied thirst for activity, was fed by news from the Turkish theatre of war. There was (or he thought there was) what he wanted, that "comfort" about which he wrote to Yakov Bulgakov in January 1771. Especially strong was to ignite in Suvorov is the desire to go to the main army after its glorious deeds of 1770". It was then that he had already started pushing for a transfer from Poland to Turkey. His later earned victories against the Ottomans bolstered the morale of his soldiers who were usually outnumbered, such as the stormings of Turtukaya from 21 May to 28 June 1773, and the repelling of the assault on Hirsovo fortress with a subsequent counterattack on 14 September that year. In Suvorov's first reconnaissance to Turtukaya the troops pulled up to the tract of Oltenița, not far from the Danube, waiting for dawn. Suvorov stayed at the outposts, wrapped himself in a cloak and went to bed not far from the Danube shore. It was not yet daybreak when he heard loud shouts: "alla, alla"; jumping to his feet, he saw several Turkish horsemen, who with raised sabres were rushing towards him. He had barely time to jump on his horse and gallop away. Carabiniers were immediately sent to assist the attacked Cossacks, and those first-mentioned attacked the Turks in the flank, while they, having struck down the Cossacks, carried on to the heights. The Turks were repulsed, throwing themselves to the ships and hurriedly departed from the shore; there were only 900 of them, of whom 85 were killed, more were sunk; several men were taken prisoners, including the chief of the detachment. According to the testimony of the prisoners Suvorov managed to find out how many men were in the Turtukaya stronghold, and following its capture, even before sunrise, Suvorov wrote in pencil on a small piece of paper and sent to Lieutenant-General Count Ivan Saltykov, in whose division he served, the following short report: "Your Excellency, we have won; thank God, thank you". Suvorov also sent another report to the Commander-in-Chief Rumyantsev, consisting of couplets:
Glory to God, glory to you,Turtukaya is taken and I am there too. The war ended with the treaty of Küçük Kaynarca. Suvorov's astuteness in war was uncanny and he also proved a self-willed subordinate who acted upon his own initiative. Rumyantsev's putting Suvorov on trial for his arbitrary reconnaissance of Turtukaya belongs to the realm of pure fiction. Rumyantsev was not dissatisfied with Suvorov, but with Ivan Saltykov. There was inactivity in Wallachia after Suvorov's initial capture of Turtukaya; Saltykov did not take advantage of the successful Turtukaya engagement despite the insistence of Rumyantsev; and Ottoman communications on the Danube became unimpeded. Lieutenant-General Mikhail Kamensky, with whose help Suvorov defeated the Turks at Kozludzha, not liking Suvorov, at the same time teased Ivan Saltykov with the mention of Alexander Vasilyevich. In one "decent, but rather unpleasant" letter to Saltykov, he amuses himself about the second Turtukaya victory of Suvorov and the inaction of Saltykov himself. Plus, a little earlier several reconnaissances had been made from Saltykov's division and one of them very unsuccessful. Colonel Prince Repnin was taken prisoner with 3 staff officers, more than 200 Russians were killed and missing, 2 ships, and 2 cannons were recaptured.
2nd war against the Ottomans
Beginning
From 1787 to 1791, under the overall command of Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin, he again fought the Turks during the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792 and won many victories; he was wounded twice at the hard-won Kinburn engagement (1787) and saved only thanks to the intervention of the grenadier Stepan Novikov. Novikov heard the call of his chief, threw himself at the Turks; he stabbed one, shot another and turned to the third, but that one fled, and with him the rest. The retreating Russian grenadiers noticed Suvorov, shouted: "Brothers, the general stayed in front!" and rushed again upon the Ottomans. The fight resumed, and the bewildered Turkish soldiers began again to rapidly lose one trench after another. Suvorov suffered greatly from grievous wounds and huge loss of blood; although he kept on his feet, he often fainted, and this went on for a month.
Suvorov was also soon involved in the costly siege of Ochakov (Özi). Energetic and courageous as usual, Alexander Suvorov proposed to take the fortress by storm, but Potemkin was cautious. "That's not how we beat the Poles and the Turks," Suvorov said in a close group of people; "one look will not take the fortress. If you had listened to me, Ochakov would have been in our hands long ago". The siege that took place was supported by a blockade of the Black Sea flotilla of Charles Henri de Nassau-Siegen under John Paul Jones, a renowned fighter for American independence. After a fierce naval combat, the Russian rowing vessels surrounded the flagship and took it; only Kapudan-ı Derya Hasan Pasha managed to escape. However, when great damage was done to the Ottoman fortress plus fleet, "as if inviting" the besiegers to storm, Potemkin still continued the siege, which Rumyantsev wryly called the siege of Troy, and Suvorov described in couplet that he was: Sitting on a stone so cold,Watching Ochakov as of old. The mortality rate was extreme, from one cold 30–40 people a day: the soldiers were stiff in their dugouts, suffering terrible want of essentials, and so were the horses. During Potemkin's visit to the camp, the soldiers took the courage to personally ask him to storm, but this did not work. At last there was a deafening murmur among the whole army. Only having reached such a hopeless situation Potemkin decided to storm, setting it for 17 December, in which Suvorov did not participate due to a bullet wound that penetrated his neck and stopped at the back of his head. This happened during a successful Ottoman sortie from the fortress.
==== The apex of military deeds ==== In 1789, after the joint Russian and Habsburg victorious battle of Focșani, he and the talented Austro-Bavarian general Josias of Coburg fought most decisive victories in their career. First at the battle of Rymnik, where, despite the vast inferiority in numbers (a Russian–Austrian force of 25,000 against 100,000 Turks), Suvorov persuaded the Austrian commander to attack; with the bold flanking maneuver of Suvorov and the resilience of the Austrians, together they routed the Ottoman army within a few hours, losing only 500 men in the process. Suvorov earned the nickname "General Forward" in the ranks of the Austrian corps for the latter victory; the word combination came to his attention and gave him sincere pleasure, as he later recalled this martial assessment of his person. Suvorov's 11th Fanagoriysky Grenadier Regiment was formed from soldiers who took part at Rymnik. Catherine the Great, in turn, made Suvorov a count with the name Rymniksky (or Rimniksky) as a victory title in addition to his own name, and the Emperor Joseph II made him a count of the Holy Roman Empire. The second one came at the storming of Izmail in Bessarabia on 22 December 1790. On 20 December Suvorov convened a military council. Petrushevsky writes as follows: "Suvorov had nothing to consult about, but by doing so, he acted on the basis of the law and used this means to communicate his decision to others, to make his view their view, his conviction – their conviction." Petrushevsky further observes: "This is very difficult for ordinary commanders who do not tower over their subordinates in anything other than their position; but easy for such as Suvorov. There is no need for ranting, or intricately woven evidence; it is the winning authority that persuades, the unbending will that fascinates". Suvorov spoke a little in council and nevertheless brought everyone into raptures, he enthralled the very people who a few days ago considered the same assault unrealisable. The youngest of those present, Brigadier Platov, said the word assault, and the decision to assault was taken by all 13 persons without exception. The council determined:
"approaching Izmail, according to the disposition to storm it without delay, in order to give the enemy no time for further strengthening, and therefore there is no need for reference to his lordship the commander-in-chief [Grigory Potemkin]. Serasker's request is to be refused. The siege must not be turned into a blockade. Retreat is reprehensible to Her Imperial Majesty's victorious troops. By virtue of chapter fourteen of the military regulations." Turkish forces inside the fortress had the orders to stand their ground to the end and haughtily declined the Russian ultimatum. Despite the fact that Mehmed Pasha was a resolute and firm commander, and inflicted serious losses on the Russians, his army was destroyed. Their defeat was seen as a major catastrophe in the Ottoman Empire, and in Russian military history there has never been a similar instantaneous storming of a fortress in terms of numbers and casualties as that of Izmail, much less without a proper siege. An unofficial Russian national anthem in the late 18th and early 19th centuries "Grom pobedy, razdavaysya!" ("Let the Thunder of Victory Rumble!"; by Gavrila Derzhavin and Józef Kozłowski) immortalized Suvorov's victory and 24 December is today commemorated as a Day of Military Honour in Russia. In this war Fyodor Ushakov also won many famous naval victories, as in the battle of Tendra, which deprived the Ottomans of Izmail's support from the Danube. Suvorov announced the capture of Ismail in 1791 to the Empress Catherine in a doggerel couplet. The war ended with the treaty of Jassy.
== Cossack Rebellion (1774) == From 1774 to 1797, Suvorov stayed and served in Russia itself, that is, in Transvolga or "Zavolzhye", in Astrakhan, Kremenchug, the Russian capital Saint Petersburg; in Crimea, or, more accurately, Little Tartary (Kuban which is in the North Caucasus, and Kherson); in the recently former Poland (Tulchin, Kobrin); and in the Vyborg Governorate, on the border with Swedish Finland.
In the footsteps of Pugachev
In 1774, Suvorov was dispatched to suppress Pugachev's Rebellion, whose leader Yemelyan Pugachev claimed to be the assassinated Tsar Peter III. Count Pyotr Panin, appointed for operations against Pugachev, asked to appoint a general to assist him, who could replace him in case of illness or death. On the very day of the news' arrival of Pugachev's passage to the right bank of the Volga, Rumyantsev sent orders – to send Suvorov to Moscow as soon as possible. Suvorov, who was in Moldavia, immediately rushed out at full speed, met in Moscow with his wife and father. On the order left by Panin, in one caftan and without luggage, raced to the village of Ukholovo, between Shatsk and Pereyaslavl Ryazansky. He arrived in Ukholovo on September 3 (NS), just at the time when Panin received notice of Alexander Vasilyevich's appointment. Panin gave him broad powers and ordered the military and civil authorities – to execute all Suvorov's orders.
After receiving instructions, Suvorov the same day set out on the road, in the direction of Arzamas and Penza to Saratov, with a small escort of 50 men. Panin reported to the Empress on the rapid performance of his new subordinate, which "promised in the circumstances of the time a lot of good ahead and therefore worthy of attention". Thanking him for such zeal and speed, the Empress granted him 2,000 chervonets to equip the crew. Reaching Saratov, Suvorov learned that tireless Ivan Mikhelson, who "like a shadow" followed everywhere after Pugachev and repeatedly defeated him, again defeated him badly. Strengthening his detachment here, Suvorov hurried to Tsaritsyn, but a lot of horses went to Pugachev, there was a lack of them, and Suvorov was forced to continue the journey by water. Defeated by Mikhelson, Pugachev slipped away; having somehow crossed the Volga with a small number of his loyalists, he disappeared into the vast steppe. Hasty arrival of Suvorov in Tsaritsyn drew the attention of the Empress, who announced her pleasure to Count Panin. But Suvorov was still essentially late. However, Suvorov did not stop it, he assigned to his detachment 2 squadrons, 2 Cossack sotnias, using horses captured by Mikhelson put on horseback 300 infantrymen, seized 2 light guns, and after spending less than a day on it all, crossed the Volga. Apparently, for reconnaissance on the rebels, he first moved upriver, came to a large village, which kept the Pugachev side, took 50 oxen, and then seeing that around the quiet, turned to the steppe. This vast steppe, which stretched for several hundred km., desolate, woodless, homeless, was a "dead desert, where even without the enemy's weapons was threatened with death". Suvorov had very little bread; he ordered to kill, salt and bake on fire some of the taken cattle and use the slices of meat for people instead of bread, as he did in the last campaign of the Seven Years' War. Thus secured for some time, Suvorov's detachment went deeper into the steppe. "They followed the sun by day and the stars by night; there were no roads, they followed the traces and moved as fast as they could, not paying attention to any atmospheric changes, because there was no place to hide from them". In different places Suvorov was overtaken and joined by several detachments, who went before him from Tsaritsyn; on 23 September, he came to the Maly Uzen River, divided his squad into four parts and went to the Bolshoy Uzen in different directions. Soon they stumbled on Pugachev's trail; they found out that Pugachev was here in the morning, that his men, seeing an unstoppable pursuit, lost faith in the success of their cause, revolted, tied Pugachev and took him to Yaitsk, to extradite the leader to save themselves. And indeed Pugachev was arrested, as it turned out later, at this time, some 53 km (33 mi) from Suvorov. Suvorov arrived at the scene only in time to conduct the first interrogation of the rebel leader, but Suvorov missed the chance to defeat him in battle, who had been betrayed by his fellow Cossacks and was eventually beheaded in Moscow.
