"Swiss campaign of Suvorov" Automatic translate

220 years ago, on September 21, 1799, the Swiss campaign of Alexander Vasilievich Suvorov (1730–1800) began: the transfer of Russian troops from Italy to Switzerland through the Alps during the 2nd coalition war against France.

By this memorable anniversary, the Lefortovo History Museum and the Battle of Borodino Panorama Museum present an exhibition of one exhibit, Suvorov’s Swiss Campaign. The exhibition will present for the first time the unique album “Suvorov’s Path through the Alps” by Vasily Petrovich Engelhardt (1828–1915), which includes handwritten texts, maps, diagrams, photographs and drawings.

Engelhardt, a Russian astronomer and public figure, personally went along the legendary route of the Russian army in Switzerland, creating a series of unique photo documents supplemented by engravings, illustrations, maps, manuscripts and drawings.

Here is what the author wrote about his work: “The photographs in this album were shot by my order in the summer and fall of 1898, 1899 and 1900 by five Swiss photographers. Each photographer was provided with maps of the area <…> indicating places <…> that deserve special attention. <…> It was the duty of photographers: to ask the guide and local old-timers about the Suvorov trail, about the trails adjacent to it, the names of the surrounding mountains and localities, collect legends about the Suvorov campaign and look for relics of the Suvorov campaign for me. <…> Photographic work in the mountains is fraught with great difficulties, you have to climb steep paths, climb to heights much more than 2000 meters, sometimes stand with the apparatus in the snow, etc. In bad weather you have to interrupt work and go down to the original place, which is distant sometimes for several hours, because the situation in the mountain huts is the poorest. I looked for all the houses in which Suvorov stayed in Switzerland, photographs were taken from them, and in order to keep the memory of Suvorov’s stay in them for a long time, I put memorial plaques in these houses… ”