1799. aasta Alpide kampaania kui Vene mägisõjadoktriini lävepakk
The Alpine Campaign of 1799 as a Stepping Stone to a Doctrine of Mountain Warfare

Summary/Abstract: The Imperial Russian Army fought in the mountains for the first time in 1799, when Alexander Suvorov led his corps from Italy across the Swiss Alps to join Russian forces near Zurich and drive the French Army out of Switzerland. His soldiers were seasoned professionals who had won an impressive number of battles against the French in Italy. Suvorov did not foresee the difficulties that might arise in the Alps and was convinced that he would easily wipe out the French garrisons that had moved there. However, lacking experience in mountain warfare, Suvorov's corps encountered enormous strategic, tactical, and logistical problems, lost half of its manpower, and failed to achieve its objectives. The Swiss campaign showed that there is no place for amateurs, dilettantes and spontaneity in mountain warfare. Later, when fighting in the mountains along Russia's borders, the Russian and then the Soviet armies also ignored the peculiarities of mountain warfare and fought all these campaigns as if on the plains - with predictably dire consequences.

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