After Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Josef Stalin officially resurrected many pre-1917 heroes, hoping that their examples would serve to arouse feelings of patriotism that would enable the Russian people to defeat yet another would-be conqueror. Of these heroes, the czarist military figure to whom Stalin referred most often was not the seemingly appropriate Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov, who had resisted Napoleon's invasion in 1812, but rather the greatest of all Russia's commanders--Aleksandr Vasilevich Suvorov, Count of Rymniksky and Prince of Italy. Stalin himself adopted the supreme rank that only Suvorov had ever held before him--generalissimo. Military academies were established, monuments erected, villages renamed and museums constructed in his honor, and a medal--the three-grade Order of Suvorov--was instituted.

A short, wiry, sickly and physically unattractive man whose personal life was spartan, Suvorov was an outstanding military theorist, tactician and strategist who combined an immense experience in warfare with courage, an indomitable will, sarcastic wit and enlightened intelligence--along with eccentricity that often verged on madness. Suvorov was seriously wounded six times in the course of his career, but he was credited with winning 63 battles without suffering a single major defeat. He was awarded countless medals, titles and honors (including estates and serfs) by his native Russia, as well as by other countries.

Born in Moscow in 1729 to a reform-minded family of the lesser nobility with a long military tradition, Suvorov enlisted as a private in a guards regiment in 1742 and began his active service in 1748. After six years in the ranks, he was commissioned a lieutenant in 1754. Suvorov received his baptism of fire during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), fighting at Kunersdorf, Berlin and Kolberg. In 1762, he was promoted to colonel and appointed commander of the Suzdal Regiment, with whom he wrote his famous Suzdal Regulations. He was promoted to major general in 1770 and participated in the Polish Civil War (1768-1776), winning battles at Orekhovo, Landskorn, Saowicz and Krakow. A lieutenant general in 1773, Suvorov went on to fight in Czarina Catherine the Great's First Turkish War (1768-1774), winning two different battles at Turkutai and successfully storming the fort at Hirsov on September 14, 1773. His victory over the much larger Turkish army of Abder-Rezak Pasha at Kozludji on June 19, 1774, established Suvorov's reputation for tactical brilliance.

Recalled to Russia in 1774 to deal with the peasant revolt of Emilion I. Pugachov, Suvorov arrived too late to suppress the rebellion, but escorted its leader into captivity. In 1775, he married into the well-connected Golitsyn family. Between 1774 and 1786, Suvorov commanded various divisions and corps in the Kuban, the Crimea, Finland and in Russia itself. In 1778, he prevented a Turkish landing in the Crimea, squelching another Russo-Turkish war.

Appointed general-in-chief in 1787, Suvorov fought in Catherine's Second Turkish War (1787-1792), during which he defended the coastal fortress of Kinburn against two Turkish seaborne assaults in September and October 1787, stormed and took Ochakov on December 17, 1788, and teamed up with Austrian General Prince Josias von Saxe-Coburg to defeat Osman Pasha at Focsani on August 1, 1789. On September 22, Suvorov drove Yusuf Pasha's main army from its camps on the Rymnik River, upsetting Turkish offensive plans so badly that Suvorov was given the title of Count Rymniksky for his victory.

On December 22, 1790, Suvorov gained fame for the storming of the fortress of Izmail, but also notoriety for the subsequent slaughter of most of its defenders. In 1793, Suvorov commanded the Russian forces that suppressed Thaddeusz Kosciuszko's Polish Revolt and won more victories at Krupshchitse, Brest-Litovsk, Kobila and Praga-Warszawa. He was promoted to field marshal in 1794, but the slaughters that followed the captures of Ochakov, Izmail and Praga-Warszawa tainted his reputation in Western eyes. Suvorov generally tried to control the excesses of his soldiers, declaring that "humaneness can conquer a foe no less than weapons." In Poland, however, he gave orders that no prisoners were to be taken, and he later participated in two tragic incidents--the forced resettlement of Christians in the Crimea and the pursuit and massacre of the Nogai tribe in the Kuban. "I have shed rivers of blood," the troubled Suvorov confessed, "and this horrifies me."

Like Napoleon, to whom he is most often compared, Suvorov believed that opportunities in battle are created by fortune but exploited by intelligence, experience and an intuitive eye. To him, mastery of the art and science of war was not, therefore, purely instinctive.

Beginning in his youth, Suvorov pursued that knowledge. He avidly studied mathematics, literature, philosophy, geography and, in particular, works of ancient and modern military theory and practice, thus developing a good understanding of engineering, siege warfare, artillery and fortification. He kept up with events in Eur ope by subscribing to foreign newspapers and journals. Suvorov also believed that "a military man must know the languages of the nations with whom he is fighting," so he developed a fluent command of French, German, Greek, Turkish, Italian, Polish and Latin, as well as some knowledge of Arabic, Finnish and Persian. He also rejected a suggestion that the Russian army rid itself of its musicians, saying, "Music doubles, trebles the force of an army."

If command over the hearts and minds of the rank and file is the hallmark of a great general, then Suvorov must be reckoned second to none. He possessed an ability to communicate his thoughts in a form readily comprehensible to his officers and troops, through the use of aphorisms, idiomatic phrases and even rhymes. He demanded that operational orders covering force dispositions be as clear and concise as possible, but he delegated total freedom of action to his most trusted lieutenants, and he rewarded initiative and resourcefulness as much as he did bravery.

A master of logistics, Suvorov ordered his officers, quartermasters and doctors to keep the welfare and fitness of the soldiers in the forefront of their attentions. He severely punished, often with courts-martial, any officers who senselessly or cruelly drilled their troops or who failed to maintain his high sanitary and health standards. Although a strict disciplinarian, he took extenuating circumstances into account. Once a soldier or officer had been punished or reprimanded, Suvorov would do his utmost to rehabilitate him.

Suvorov always chose to be in the most exposed position on the battlefield, for he believed in sharing the same risks and discomforts as his soldiers. For example, he always slept on a simple bed of straw. More than any of his contemporaries, the paternalistic Suvorov appreciated the courage and endurance of the Russian soldier. In return, he enjoyed the loyalty, respect and affection of his troops.

Suvorov's revolutionary methods of waging war endure in his prodigious literary, documentary and epistolary output, which include his two well-known treatises, the Suzdal Regulations and The Science of Victory, and lesser-known works such as Rules for the Kuban and Crimean Corps, Rules for the Conduct of Military Actions in the Mountains (written during his Swiss campaign), and Rules for the Medical Officers. It is also interesting to note that Suvorov and Napoleon independently evolved similar progressive theories of war. Suvorov's methods were too innovative and demanding for men rigidly trained in the traditional manner, but were readily understood by seasoned soldiers. He extolled patient, systematic, practical and rigorous training under simulated battlefield conditions. "Train hard, fight easy," he wrote. "Train easy and you will have hard fighting."

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