The Book Of Yesterday | May 18
GENERALISSIMO ALEXANDER SUVOROV OF RUSSIA DIED
May 18, 1800
On this day in 1800, one of the great generals of the Russian nation and one of the great military leaders of his time Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov passed away. Generalissimo Suvorov died at the age of 70, and despite his very high rank, he was buried with the honor of a field marshal, inside the Church of Anunciation in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg. Petersburg, Russia.
Born in the city of Moscow on November 24, 1729, Alexander Suvorov was of Russian nobility. At an early age he studied military history and military tactics and at the age of 17 he enlisted in the army. He was promoted to the rank of colonel during the Seven Years War in recognition of his outstanding military service, and was among those won against Poland. His rank further rose as General and became General of the Army during the two series of Russian wars against Turkey in 1768-1774 and 1787-1792, and led successful battles against the Ottoman Empire. As a result, he was made Conde of Russia and the Holy Roman Empire, and led the suppression of a rebellion in Poland in 1794.
General and Conde Suvorov were one of the supporters of Empress Catherine the Great, but because she did not agree with her son Paul, the new real Tsar Paul removed General Suvorov from office after the Empress' death in 1796. But when faced Russia in the war against France during the French Revolutionary Wars, allied countries Austria, Britain and Prussia reinstated General Suvorov in the military, and even raised his rank as field marshal. He led with the Austrians in expelling the French from Italy, and even made him Prince of Italy.
He led the campaign of the Russians and Austrians against the French in Switzerland, but this time they were surrounded by French troops, so he decided to repel the Russians from the Alps. He was able to escape the French without nearly losing his troops. As a result, he became the fourth Russian general to be promoted to the rank of Generalissimo.
Even in the Soviet military the memory of Generalissimo Suvorov is revered, for which a Soviet-era medal was named after him, the Order of Suvorov, and a prestigious military academy in Russia was also named after him.
General Alexander Suvorov is known in history as one of the great generals in Europe, who participated in seven major wars, led over 60 battles and never lost one of them.
TSAR NICHOLAS II WAS BORN OF RUSSIA
May 18, 1868
On this day in 1868, the last Tsar or Emperor of Imperial Russia under the Romanov dynasty - Tsar Nicholas II was born. He was born as Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov in the imperial palace in St. Petersburg. Petersburg, capital of Imperial Russia, and son of Tsar Alexander III and Tsarina Maria Feodorovna. Although a Russian, the blood of foreign nobles in Europe lay in his blood; he was a cousin of the future king of Britain George V, his mother and maternal parents were Danish, and he was also a cousin of Haakon IV of Norway, King Christian IX of Denmark and King Constantine I of Greece.
As the eldest of Tsar Alexander III's six children he was expected to inherit the throne as Tsar, but he was aware of his inability to rule the third largest empire in the world. Also, he was not close to his father, but the young man Nikolai Alexandrovich could be considered a mama's boy.
When his father died the crown automatically fell to him on the first day of November, 1894. He was crowned as Tsar Nicholas II, and his German wife, Alix of Hesse of Germany, as Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, on the th May 26, 1896. At his coronation the stampede that took place in the celebration of his coronation in Moscow, in which more than 1,200 people died, seemed to be a vision for his bloody regime. Because his father, the Tsar, did not teach him how to rule, Nicholas II had almost no idea how to rule, and he also had the trait of being easily persuaded and weak in decision-making. But in time, more than 100 million Russians will see that he is just as autocratic as his father, and as cruel as those who criticize the government.
Nicholas II was at a time when the gap between the nobility and the poor was huge, and poverty was widespread among the people. He challenged, and would eventually embarrass him in the eyes of Europe, the emerging powerful nation of Japan, after defeating Russia in its war against Japan in 1905. That same year also saw the first wave of revolution against his leadership. , which later also subsided with his establishment of the State Duma or the parliament. But he still remained autocratic and controlled parliament in his hand. His leadership was also troubled by the hemophilia of his youngest son Tsesarevich Alexei, who through a mysterious physician Grigori Rasputin cured him and became part of the Court in the palace. This in turn further dragged down his reputation, due to the scandals involving it.
Adding to the test of his leadership as Tsar was Russia's entry into World War I against his cousin Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. Unprepared, lacking modern military equipment and collapsing the country’s economy in the face of massive war, and Russia’s successive defeats in battle, even though it was personally led by Nicholas II. Tsarina Alexandra and Rasputin further weakened the administration of the empire because of its flawed decisions. Although Rasputin was assassinated by the nobility in December 1916, it did not prevent the Russian people's view of the empire from diluting. Actions against the Tsar spread, with even the armies already participating in the call for the removal of Tsar Nicholas II. Eventually, God's mandate assigned to Nicholas II to be ruler of Russia was revoked by the people in March 1917, signaling the end of more than three centuries of the Russian Empire. The provisional government took over Russia until it was overthrown by the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin in November 1917.
The last Romanov family to rule Russia lived in the custody of new rulers, as the Civil War raged between the supporters of the Tsar and the Bolsheviks, and the Russian nobles fled their country. The Romanov family was not accepted in Britain despite the consent of cousin King George V because of the bad opinion of the British on the family. Later, at the hands of the Bolsheviks, the then 50-year-old Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, their five children Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexei and their four servants were murdered, under of the mansion in Yekaterinburg, Russia on July 17, 1918.
Nicholas II and his family were ordained as saints and passion bearers of the Russian Orthodox church.
SAINT JOHN PAUL II WAS BORN
May 18, 1920
Today is the 101st birthday of the first Polish man to become head of the Catholic Church and saint Pope John Paul II. He was born on this day in 1920 as Karol Józef Wojtyła, in the town of Wadowice, Poland, and the youngest of three children of Karl Wojtyla and Emilia Kaczorowska.
Young Karol witnessed death at an early age, when his mother died when he was only eight years old.
After attending a school in Wadowice, where he became an athlete and made many Jewish friends, he and his father moved to the city of Krakow in 1938. There Karl Josef studied philology at the Jagiellonian University, and there he became proficient in more than 15 languages and developed into acting. The Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, so Karl Josef was required to enter military service. In 1941, when his father and another brother passed away, he was completely orphaned. This gave him a reason to enter the priesthood.
While at the seminary in Krakow, he witnessed the Nazi torture of Jews, including the clergy, that even he had to hide in the Archbishop's house during the guerrilla uprising there, until Krakow was liberated in January. 1945. He finished seminary in 1946, when he was also ordained a priest. He also entered a doctorate in Rome, Italy before again earning his Second doctorate degree at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow.
The then young priest Karol Josef admired his Mass in a communist country that renounced any religion, so he was promoted to the rank of auxiliary bishop of Krakow and in 1963 he was appointed Archbishop of Krakow. He was later promoted to Cardinal in Krakow, and he was one of the staunch critics of communist ideology in Poland, and of the propagation of life care.
When Pope John Paul I passed away early in October 1978 a papal conclave was held to elect a new head of the Catholic Church. Later, Cardinal Wojtyla was elected as the new Pope, the first non-Italian Pope and first Slavic to sit as Pope, and chose the name of his predecessor as his name.
Pope John Paul II is known for his efforts to unite the Catholic Church with other religions, and has visited many parts of the world, including the Philippines. Aside from the spiritual campaign, Pope John Paul II also joined the peaceful political campaign against dictatorship and communism.
For the first time he also led the Catholic church's apology for the wrongs it had committed against Jews, Muslims and Galileo Galilei. Pope John Paul II also joined the campaign for human rights, and condemned violent violations of such rights, especially the use of force. However, he was also criticized for his standpoints on issues of abortion, sexuality, and related issues and on the centralization of clerical leadership.
After a gradual decline in his health, Pope John Paul II passed away at the age of 85 on April 2, 2005, due to his heart disease. A beatification ceremony was held on the first day of May, 2011 presided over by Pope Benedict XVI and ordained as a saint by Pope Francis on April 27, 2014.
References:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-John-Paul-II/Actions-as-cardinal
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Suvorov#:~:text=Suvorov%20led%20the%20strategic%20withdrawal,of%20illness%20in%20Saint%20Petersburg
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