On September 10 in the Julian calendar, 21,000 soldiers, in two columns, marched out of the town of Taverne at the foot of the Alps.

Anyone wishing to know what happened next could see it in the painting Suvorov Crossing the Alps by Vasily Surikov at the State Russian Museum.

Explanation for those whose interests go beyond paintings: there was a clumsily named war

– the War of the Second Coalition; Russia was part of the coalition

of anti-French forces and Suvorov chose a direct route across the Alps as the fastest way to reach and reinforce the Austro-British troops in the Muten Valley. Suvorov crossed the St. Gotthard Pass, fought his way past the Devil's Bridge, came too late to help, and barely survived.

Yet he never lost a battle.