Blease Lyon W. Suvorof

New York: E. P. Dutton & Company Publishers, 1920. — 366 p.In the following pages the life story is told of a veryremarkable man, of a principal performer in some of the most memorable events in modern history, of the foremost of Russians with the solitary exception of Peter the Great. They present us with the picture of a singular personality, of an ardent patriot, of an exceptionally brilliant and successful soldier. Strange as were Suvorof's ways and interesting as was his individuality in his private capacity, it is rather in his character of leader of troops and commander in the field that his career must ever be instructive to posterity and attractive to the student of history. Fought for the most part in regions far removed from centres of culture and of military thought, his campaigns have perhaps scarcely been studied as assiduously in the past as they ought to have been, seeing how varied and how far-reaching are the lessons that are to be deduced from them. They shed a beacon light upon the art of countering the mercurial methods of the partisan, which often prove so great a bugbear to leaders of a trained and disciplined soldiery. Of effective achievement mainly and primarily attributable to the fostering of mobility and elasticity in the field, they afford numerous, diversified and striking examples. Those dramatic events of 1800 in Switzerland — the desperate affray by the Devil's Bridge, the sudden tidings of Korsakof's discomfiture, the escape from the trap, the weary retreat over the heights to Chur, admirably indicate what strategical uncertainties and perplexing tactical problems a general may find himself beset with when he undertakes operations at the head of a formidable force in a mountain country. Nor does the history of war furnish us with many more convincing examples of the dangers and difficulties which assail armies in the field when the plans of their leaders are interfered with by chatterers in distant capitals, than is to be found in the conduct of the Aulic Council and its consequences, after the famous Russian chieftain had been entrusted with the task of driving back the French legions out of the territories which they had overrun.