The Mind in the Machine 211
certain outstanding individuals who bore this heavy burden could, in his view,
play a redemptive role by interceding for the humble. Such men merited
veneration, and a cult developed around them reminiscent of that of saints in
the Church. Among the benevolent intermediaries between the Power ~nd the
People were, for the peasant, the many pretenders to the throne whose colour-
ful careers enlivened the history of the period.^47 Soldiers attributed a positive
role also to certain great commanders. Not of course that anyone dared to
impersonate Suvorov in the way that Pugachev claimed to be Peter III; but,
along with some other generals of his time, notably Rumyantsev and Kutuzov,
he received much the same naive and quasi-religious adulation. Long after his
death soldiers reputedly invoked him thus: 'Appear to us, father, and lead us
wheresoever thou wilst, and we are thine to the last drop of our blood. •^48
An important ingredient in Suvorov's 'magic' seems to have been his ability
to communicate his ideas in a form readily comprehensible to the men, with
the use of earthy aphorisms and idiomatic phrases (for example, 'knowledge is
light, ignorance darkness') which lose much in translation. Together with this
went an eccentricity of behaviour and an easy informality that did not,
however, signify any readiness to weaken the army's authority structure.
Suvorov stood foursquare for maintenance of hierarchical gradations of rank.
His devotees accepted this. What they wanted was a genuinely paternalistic
leader, a father figure; and Suvorov came as close as anyone to making a reality
of this intrinsically unrealistic principle of social organization. Glinka has a. veteran recalling fondly that 'none of us was a stranger to Mikhail Ivanovich;
he shared his kasha with us soldiers'.^49 In their minds a commander's sociability
and straightforwardness outweighed his insistence on strict discipline, so long
as the rules were applied even-handedly.
It is curious that Suvorov enjoyed greater popularity in the ranks than
Potemkin, although the latter was more humane and sparing of the lives of his
men.so Likewise, Rumy~ntsev was less benevolent than Peter Panin, but had a
higher reputation with the troops.^51 Paskevich claims that a similar aura sur-
rounded General I. I. Michelson (1740-1807), a relatively little-known com-
mander of Russian troops on the Dniester in 1806-7.^52 As with the pretenders,
the image was more important than the reality. Suvorov seems to have
deliberately encouraged the myth-making by adopting a bizarre style of dress,
47 Peter III and Grand Duke Constantine, both harsh disciplinarians in real life, were popularly
regarded as potential 'liberators'. For recent studies of the Pretender myth see Chistov, Legendy;
Longworth, 'Pretender Phenomenon'; Siegelbaum, 'Peasant Disorders'.
48 Rasskazy starogo voina (1847). as cited by Karayev, Suvorovskaya 'Nauka pobezhdar'',
p. 29.
49 Glinka, Zapiski, p. 216. Suvorov's first names were actually Aleksandr Vasi!'yevich.
50 Ibid., p. 135; Bogdanovich, Russkaya armiya, p. 27.
51 Von Shtrandman, 'Zapiski', p. 317; Engel'gardt, Zapiski, pp. 76, 130.
52 Stcherbatow, Paskevitsch, p. 23. Another popular hero was General Kul'nev who, according
to Antonovsky ('Zapiski', p. 88), 'was loved by everyone in the regiment [the 26th Chasseurs) and
could ser_ve as a model soldier'; he was killed in battle in July 1812.