The Mind in the Machine
Long Jive Count Suvorov!
Thou livest by the truth
And Jeadest us soldiers justly!^7221The third area where the rules of wa1 wc:n: noi observed was the most impor
tant: the campaigns against Muslim powers. The four Russo-Turkish wars c
this period were fought with a savagery that had few parallels in other Eure
pean theatres. This may have been partly due to a desire to avenge the humili<:
tions of the 'Tatar yoke', which left lasting traces in the Russian folk memor:-
and partly to popular prejudice against the Muslims as 'infidels' (basurmany
as they were called. It was widely believed that the Ottomans took n'
prisoners, and certainly those Russians whom they did capture had an unenvi
able fate: in 1808 Paskevich found that even officers had been put to work o
the galleys in chains.^73 This practice may explain why some Turkish prisoner
also had to serve in Russian galleys in the Baltic during the war of 1788-9r
against Sweden,^74 but in general Ottoman subjects captured by the Russian
probably fared rather better-too well, in Paskevich's opinion. Nevertheles
as late as 1828 one-third to one-half of a party of 12,000 Turkish prisoner
perished within a few days as they were being marched back from the Danubiai
principalities under the supervision of a Cossack general named Yefremov.^75
Suvorov also had much to answer for. At Ochakov in 1788 and two year
later at Izmail his conduct foreshadowed that in Warsaw in 1794: he gave hi
men the run of the town after it had been ta~en. On the first occasion 10,00(
and on the second 30,000 enemy troops are said to have been killed,^76 and th<
men also took many coins which they 'exchanged by the hatful'.^77 Tht
rampage became common knowledge throughout Europe and adverseb
affected Russian prestige.^78 Cossack atrocities against Crimean Tatars an
documented by Shtrandman, who states that they 'mutilated everyone in thei1
path, not excluding women and children'.^79 The atmosphere in this regior.
after the peace of Kuchuk-Kainardji in 1774 (which gave Russia indirec:n Pesni sobr. Kireyevskim, ix. 326. This item is not reproduced in modern Soviet collections'.
Suvorov's conduct at Praga is represented as humane by Kochetkov, 'K voprosu', p. 160.
73 Stcherbatow, Paskevitsch, pp. 30-1.
74 Tuchkov, Zapiski, p. 34.. 1s Von Hansen, Zwei Kriegsjahre, pp. 200-7; 'Vospominaniya neizvestnogo o turetskon-
pokhode 1828 g. ', Shchukin, Sbornik. vi. 270; but cf. P. P ., 'Vosp. kaval. ofitsera', pp. 98, 126
76 Bogdanovich, Russkaya armiya, pp. 27, 30. Civilian casualties may account for the differinf
estimates. Kersnovsky (lstoriya, i. 133) states that at lzmail 34,000 men were killed and 6,()()(
taken prisoner. B&E xxiv. 850 puts the casualties at 23,000, de Madariaga (Catherine, p. 415) at
26,000 and 9,000 prisoners. Cf. also Duffy, Russia's Military Way, p. 188.
77 Mosolov, 'Zapiski', p. 139. For a graphic description see Richelieu, 'Journal', pp. 175-84.
78 Ami de la Verite, Coup d'ail, p. 149. Lowenstern claims (Memoires, i. 64) that Suvorov late1
regretted the bloodshed, which was allegedly imposed on him by 'the impetuosity of his troops'.
but Masson more plausibly suggests the reverse (Memoires, ii. 67; cf. iii. 133).
79 Von Shtrandman, 'Zapiski', p. 306. During the second invasion of the Crimea ( 1778) troop~
under General de Batmen burned most of Ka ff a (Kefe) and slaughtered all the Tatars in the town:
Fisher, Crimean Tatars, p. 66; id., Russ. Annexation, p. 94, where the number of victims is put at
600.