about the museum
The first memorial museum in Russia
The Suvorov Memorial Museum in St. Petersburg, the historical capital city of Imperial Russia, is devoted to one of the greatest commanders of the World - Alexander Suvorov (sometimes spelled Souvaroff, Suwarrow, etc). His brilliant victories in the second half of the 18th century, in the Age of Enlightenment, Catherine the Great, and the French Revolution, not only gave territories and prestige to Russia and her European allies of that time, but also brought about glorious military traditions in Russia. Idolized by his contemporaries, “Immortal Suvorov” is popularly believed in Russia to have never lost any single battle during his decades-long combat activity in the East and the West.
The Suvorov Museum has been the first memorial museum of Russia and also the third Russian museum to be housed in a specially constructed building. It was built by Emperor Nicholas II's decree of 1899 under the direct patronage of the Czar and opened in the presence of His Majesty in 1904. Designed by architect Alexander von Gogen and constructed between 1901 and 1904, it stylistically borrows from old Russian fortress architecture (especially from the Kremlin in Moscow) to stress the fact that the museum is dedicated to the greatest Russian military leader.
Since 1904 the museum facade has been decorated with two mosaic panels. One of them, copied by mosaicist Mikhail Zoshchenko, the father of the famous Soviet writer-to-be, from the original by painter Nikolay Shabunin, represented Field-Marshal Suvorov's departure from his family estate, the village of Konchanskoye, for the Italian campaign of 1799. The second, Suvorov crossing the Swiss Alps, was a mosaic reproduction by Nikolay Maslennikov of the picture by Aleksey Popov.
Owing to the revolutionary events the museum was closed in 1918. It was not reopened until Stalin seeking to increase the feeling of patriotism among the Soviet people after the Nazi attack during WWII had to officially resurrect the glorious name of Suvorov. In 1945 Stalin assumed the supreme military rank that Suvorov had held before him, Generalissimus. However, the museum was opened in 1951 not as Suvorov's memorial, but as Suvorov museum of military history. Only since 1991 it has been the Suvorov memorial museum again.
Born in Moscow in 1729 to the lesser noble family of Vassily Suvorov, a godson of Peter the Great, Alexander Vassilyevich Suvorov joined the Life Guards in his youth and then was awarded army officer's rank.
He received his baptism of fire in the Seven Years' War against Frederick the Great of Prussia. Then Suvorov did well in the Polish Civil War of 1768-1772, fought in Czarina Catherine's First Turkish War of 1768-1774, escorted Cossack Emilian Pugachov, the leader of the peasant rebellion, into captivity in 1774, and subjugated the Nogai tribes on the Kuban in 1783.
In the army of G. Potemkin (Prince of Taurida or Crimea), General-in-Chief Suvorov fought in Catherine the Great's Second Turkish War of 1787-1791. He defended the coastal fortress of Kinburn in 1787. This helped Russian admirals Prince von Nassau-Siegen and American John Paul Jones defeat the Turkish navy next year. Then he twice teamed up with the Austrian troops of Prince von Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld to save them and defeat the much larger Turkish armies at Focsani and on the Rimnic River (1789). He was made Count Suvorov-Rymniksky (Suvorov of the Rimnic) and Count of the Holy Roman Empire (Germany) after the victory.
In 1790 sixty-year-old Suvorov gained a world-wide fame for the storming of Ismail, the inaccessible Turkish fortress on the Danube. Then he fortified “Russian Finland” and a little later ended Thaddeusz Kosciuszko's Polish revolt of 1794 after the two partitions of Poland by Austria, Russia, and Prussia. In a swift campaign, culminating in the storming of Warsaw's suburb Praga, the General made Warsaw surrender and reported, “Hurrah, Warsaw's ours!” The Czarina answered, “Hurrah, Field-Marshal Suvorov!” Despite the slaughter of Russians that had taken place at the beginning of the spontaneous rising in Warsaw, he did not let his own fighting troops invade into the capital of Poland. Such humanity and also amnesty, declared by Suvorov, helped bring about peace no less than weapons and that was why he was given by the city government a gold snuff-box with the Polish words Warszawa zbawcu swemu (from Warsaw to her savior) on it.
After Emperor Paul I had succeeded Catherine the Great the old Field-Marshal fell in disgrace and resigned. However, at the beginning of 1799, in the epoch of the French Revolutionary Wars, the Czar called Suvorov up “to save the Kings” and made him Knight Grand Cross (Bailie) of the Sovereign Order of Malta. At the request of the European Powers, Suvorov was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Austrian and Russian Combined Armies that were to campaign against the armies of the French Republic in Italy while Russian Admiral Ushakov was in charge of the Russo-Turkish fleet against the French in the Mediterranean Sea region.
In the War of the Second Coalition the Czar and Kaiser's Field-Marshal-General Count Suvorov erased practically all Bonaparte's Italian gains after Nelson had blocked Napoleon in Egypt. Suvorov's reputation reached its peak throughout Europe.
Nicknamed Liberator of Italy, Suvorov routed Bonaparte's ablest lieutenants - Moreau at Cassano d'Adda and, having taken Milan and Turin, Macdonald on the Trebbia River, and Joubert at Novi as well. He was created Prince Italiysky (Prince of Italy), Grandee of the Kingdom of Sardinia with hereditary title of Prince and Royal Cousin, and also made Grand Marshal of the army of Piemonte.
Thus, Northern Italy was freed from French rule. Sometime later Napoleon took advantage of the failures of the French Directory (Revolutionary Government) losing its popularity to depose it.
Nevertheless, the Supreme War Council in Vienna (Hoffkriegsrat) feared that the Russian presence in Italy threatened Austrian influence. Suvorov was ordered to Switzerland to replace there the Austrian element of an Austro-Russian army and drive the French out of Switzerland. Before he could join the Russian forces of General Rimsky-Korsakov, Archduke Charles and his Austrian troops had been transferred to the Rhine.
As a result, French General Massena defeated Rimsky-Korsakov's greatly outnumbered troops at Zurich (Sept. 1799).
Prince Suvorov was still struggling over St. Gotthard Pass and further over the Swiss Alps when news of Rimsky-Korsakov's disaster reached him. Harassed by the French, Suvorov succeeded in leading his half-starved and ragged men including his own fifteen-year-old son Arkady and Czar Paul's son Grand Duke Konstantin of Russia out of enemy encirclement to Glarus and then over impassable Panixer Pass to the Rhine. Thus, seventy-year-old Suvorov managed not only simply to cross the Alps like his forerunners, such as Hannibal, Julius Caesar, and Eugene of Savoy, but also to push the way through the Alpine mountain paths with daily fights. Czar Paul I, disappointed by such Austrian policy, withdrew from the coalition. Field-Marshal-General Prince Suvorov, having been given the title of Generalissimo of the Russian armies and rewarded by King Louis XVIII of France in exile, died in 1800 in St. Petersburg. He was buried here in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery.
Being married with the princess Varvara Ivanovna Prozorovskaya (1750-1806) Suvorov had two children: a daughter Natalia (1775-1844) whom he tenderly named "Suvorochka", countess Zubova after marriage, and a son Arcady (1784-1811) - the lieutenant-general, tragically perished during the passage through the Rymnik river.
Alexander Vasilievich Suvorov had the titles of Rymnik column and Italiysky prince, prince and "cousin" of the king of Sardinia and Piedmont. He was decorated with all Russian and many foreign honours: Prussian Black and Red Eagle, Sardinian St. Lady Day and St..Mauritius and St. Lazar, Austrian Maria-Theresia, Bavarian St. Huberth, French St.Virgin Karmelskaya.
