April 28 in Russian history

1799: Russian army, led by the count Alexander Suvorov of Rymnik, liberates Milan. In 1798, Russia joined the anti-Napoleon coalition (Great Britain, Austria, Turkey, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies). A joint Russian-Austrian army was formed to liberate the Northern Italy, occupied by the French troops. First, it was planned that the army will be led by archduke Joseph, but Austria asked Russian emperor Paul II to send Alexander Suvorov. Suvorov, who never lost a single battle in his life, was sent in retirement in February 1797 and lived in a village under the police surveillance. In February 1799 Paul II summonned him and appointed the commander of the joint army. In April, Suvorov arrived to Italy and on April 27 in the first battle, known as the battle of Cassano d'Adda, defeated the French army. On the next day, the army entered Milan. A little bit later, he won two more battles in Trebia and Novi. After the Northern Italy, Suvorov planned to attack France through Grenoble, Lyon and Paris, but the allies, Great Britain and Austria, trying to avoid the increase of the Russian influence in the Mediterranean, ordered Suvorov to leave the Austrian army in Italy and to lead the Russian troops to Switzerland to join the 40,000-men army of general Alexander Rimsky-Korsakov and to attack France from Switzerland. Suvorov led his men through the Alps, incessantly maneuvering, and finally reached Switzerland. Unfortunately, general Korsakov, betrayed by Austrians, lost a battle at Zurich and had to retreat to Vorarlberg. In October 1799, Russia broke the alliance with Austria and Suvorov was ordered to return to Russia. After this campaign, he earned the titles of Prince of Italy, Count of the Holy Empire, prince of Sardinia, Generalissimo of Russia's Ground and Naval forces, Field Marshal of the Austrian and Sardinian Armies. In May, 1800, Suvorov died.

1813: Another great Russian Field Marshal, Mikhail Kutuzov, died on April 28, 1813, in Bunzlau (now Bolesławiec, in modern Poland). Less than 8 months passed after his victory in Borodino, probably the greatest feat of his life.

1968: Comedy The Diamond Arm (Brilliantovaya Ruka) is released. The movie became one of the favourite comedies in USSR and Russia, but I wouldn't call it "the best Soviet comedy ever made", as Wikipedia suggests. Anyway, a lot of people still love it, watch it and quote it. The plot is like this. A group of smugglers plans to bring diamonds to the USSR and sends one of them to a foreign country. His foreign partners confuse an ordinary Soviet tourist, Semyon Gorbunkov, for him and put diamonds into the bandage on his broken arm. The largest part of the movie is how the smugglers try to get the diamonds back and Gorbunkov, assisted by policemen, avoids their traps and finally helps to arrest them. The best thing in the movie is a lot of catchphrases, still widely recognized by most of us here. When your friend forgets something, just say reproachfully: "Semyon Semyonych!", and he will slap his head and say: "A-ah!". :) Oh, and of course, the actors. They are brilliant. Andrei Mironov, Anatoli Papanov, Yuri Nikulin -- a real constellation.