Count Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov-Rymniksky, Prince of Italy (; ; ), was a Russian general in service of the Russian Empire and the Habsburg monarchy. He was Count of Rymnik (1789), Graf of the Holy Roman Empire (1789), Feldmarschall of the Holy Roman Empire (1799), Prince of the Kingdom of Sardinia (1799), Grand marshal of the Kingdom of Sardinia (1799), Prince or Knyaz of the Russian Empire (1799), Field marshal (1794) and the last Generalissimo (1799) of the Russian Empire. Suvorov is considered one of the greatest military commanders in Russian history and one of the great generals of the early modern period. He was awarded numerous medals, titles, and honors by Russia, as well as by other countries. Suvorov secured Russia's expanded borders and renewed military prestige and left a legacy of theories on warfare. He was the author of several military manuals, the most famous being The Science of Victory (or The Science of Winning; ), and was noted for several of his sayings. He never lost a single battle he commanded, and his military record is extensive; Suvorov won in a total of 63 battles without suffering a major defeat. He raised Russian military glory to a height to which it had never reached. Several military academies, monuments, villages, museums, and orders in Russia are dedicated to him.
Born in Moscow, he studied military history as a young boy and joined the Imperial Russian Army at the age of 17. Suvorov was promoted to colonel in 1762 for his numerous successes on the battlefield during the Seven Years' War.
When war broke out with the Bar Confederation in 1768, Suvorov, commanding a detachment of Ivan Weymarn's army, captured the Polish capital Kraków, defeated the Poles of Casimir Pulaski at Orzechowo, routed general Dumouriez near Lanckorona, and then overthrew the Polish forces at Stołowicze. This marked the start of the partitions of Poland. He was promoted to general and next fought in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 under Saltykov's supervision, taking Turtukaya twice and winning a decisive victory at the battle of Kozludzha.
In 1774 Suvorov interrogated the captured Yemelyan Pugachev and in the same year married into the well-connected Golitsyn family. Four years later, he averted a Russo-Turkish war. In 1783 suppressed the Nogai uprising. Becoming the General of the Infantry in 1783, he led Russian forces in the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792 under the command of Potemkin and participated in the siege of Ochakov, as well as victories at Kinburn and Focșani.
Suvorov and the Austro-Bavarian general Josias of Coburg then won one of the most decisive successes in their career at the battle of Rymnik, and afterwards Suvorov crushingly defeated the Ottomans in the storming of Izmail, which is commemorated as one of the days of Russian military honour and immortalized with the song "Let the Thunder of Victory Rumble!". For Suvorov's accomplishments, he was made a Count of both the Russian Empire and Holy Roman Empire, having been given the honorific title Rymniksky (a suffix to his surname in honour of the victory at Rymnik).
In 1794, while in Repnin's army, he put down the Polish uprising, defeating them at the battle of Brest and others, as well as at the storming of Praga, a faubourg of Warsaw.
While a close associate of Empress Catherine the Great, Suvorov often quarreled with her son and heir apparent, Paul. After Catherine died of a stroke in 1796, Paul I was crowned Emperor and dismissed Suvorov for disregarding his orders. However, he was forced to reinstate Suvorov and make him a field marshal at the insistence of the coalition allies for the French Revolutionary Wars.