Battles Against Polish Uprising
Immediately after the peace with the Ottoman Empire was signed, Suvorov was again transferred to Poland, where he assumed the command of one of the corps and took part in the Battle of Maciejowice, in which he captured the Polish commander-in-chief Tadeusz Kościuszko. On November 4, 1794, Suvorov's forces stormed Warsaw and captured Praga, one of its boroughs.
The massacre of approximately 20,000 civilians in Praga broke the spirits of the defenders and soon put an end to the Kościuszko Uprising. According to some sources the massacre was the deed of Cossacks who were semi-independent and were not directly subordinate to Suvorov. The Russian general was supposedly trying to stop the massacre and even went to the extent of ordering the destruction of the bridge to Warsaw over the Vistula river with the purpose of preventing the spread of violence to Warsaw from its suburb. Other historians dispute this, but most sources make no reference to Suvorov either deliberately encouraging or attempting to prevent the massacre. Suvorov nonetheless allowed his troops to loot the city for a much longer period than was usually accepted, which might have been seen by some, particularly the unruly Cossacks, as a green light to do whatever they wanted.
Suvorov sent a report to his sovereign consisting of only three words: "Hurrah, Warsaw's ours!" (Ура, Варшава наша!). Catherine replied in two words: "Hurrah, Fieldmarshal!" (rus. Ура, фельдмаршал!—that is, awarding him this title). The newly-appointed field marshal remained in Poland until 1795, when he returned to Saint Petersburg. But his sovereign and friend Catherine died in 1796, and her son and successor Paul I dismissed the veteran in disgrace.
Read more about this topic: Alexander Suvorov
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