Celebrations held in Switzerland to mark the anniversary of Suvorov’s army’s march in the Alps
On September 24, 2010, wreaths were placed in a solemn ceremony to the Suvorov’s Army Memorial in the Shoellenen gorge near Swiss Andermatt. The memorial is erected to honour the memory of Russian soldiers who fell in action during a march through the Alps in 1799.
Russian Ambassador to Switzerland I. Bratchikov and Director for the Security Policy of the Swiss Federal Defense Department C. Catrina greeted numerous guests who assembled at the memorial.
The rector of the Orthodox church of the Holy Resurrection in Zurich, Archpriest Ioann Lapidus, said the Office for the Dead, for ‘the commanders and soldiers who gave their lives for the faith and Motherland’.
Present at the ceremony were Bishop Michael of Geneva and Western Europe, ambassadors of Ukraine and Belarus, representatives of the Moscow Cossack Society as well as cantonal and local officials.
On September 25, wreaths were placed at Unterengstringen to the memorial stone to Soldiers Fallen in Action devoted to the Rimsky-Korsakov corps soldiers who were killed in action near Zurich in September 1799. Archpriest Ioann Lapidus said the Office for the Dead. Participating in the event were Russian diplomats, representatives of the local community and the Moscow Cossack Society as well as sisters from the Benedictine Fahr Abbey.