Memories of a Veronese Tavern Owner about the Austro-Russian Campaign of 1799

In 1997, Italian researchers published the diary of the Veronese innkeeper V. Alberti, which he kept from 1796 to 1834. Having witnessed the Italian campaign of 1799, he preserved its details in his diary entries. Not being close to the political or economic elites of the city, Alberti looked at the unfolding events from a domestic point of view: he estimated the number of soldiers of different armies constantly arriving and leaving, calculated the losses they caused during military operations, robberies and immodest visits to his tavern without money. The Russian troops in the general mass of soldiers hardly attract his special attention; in a few short phrases he describes their appearance and mentions their diet during Lent. The text contains practically no myths characteristic of the image of Russian soldiers or Cossacks in the subsequent periods of the Napoleonic Wars. He does not discuss politics and military affairs, but considers the Jacobin regime with all its supporters, both French and Italian, to be evil and the culprits of the current devastation. He blames them for both indecent and offensive behavior towards other townspeople: arrogance, cruelty, manipulation of power, and attacks on the church. With the beginning of the Austro-Russian campaign against the French, the townspeople take the law into their own hands against some of the local Jacobins: they beat them, insult them, and sometimes demand execution. Alberti sees this, in particular, as a manifestation of God's judgment, which was especially harsh on the clergy who, for one reason or another, supported the republicans. Like any townspeople, Alberti actively followed the developing military actions; in his diary, he wrote down the rumors and expectations circulating in the city. According to him, the townspeople supported the allies, waited for news, closely followed, for example, the long siege of Mantua. Their victories became reasons for city celebrations. For the Russian historiography of the Italian campaign of 1799, sources of this kind are rare, and therefore are of unique value.