Karl Twelfth, promptly forcing the allies of Russia to withdraw from the war, from the landing side in Reval (Riga) rushing to the aid of the besieged. Spermetyev’s detachment clashes with the advanced units, and the prisoners, according to preliminary agreement with the king in this case, declare the strength of the entire Swedish army of 50 thousand people. Perhaps believing this information, Peter leaves the army – either in order to call more quickly to the place of the future battle other regiments, whether to meet his ally, the Polish king, or, after all, out of cowardice. To command the Russian army remains the Dutch duke, a certain de Croix.
The actual strength of the army of Charles is 8—9 thousand people. On the flanks, the king builds soldiers with solid columns, and so attacks the Russian army. The latter is exhibited by the duke with a six-meter thin line, five or six rows, within the camp. The columns of the Swedes pierce it like a crowbar. In the ranks of the regiments the cry «Germans are traitors!» Is heard. Fearing beating by soldiers, foreign officers surrender. Preobrazhensky, Semenovsky and Lefortovsky regiments, fenced off with wagons, have stubborn resistance. Later they will be allowed to leave – one part with banners and weapons, but without transport and artillery, others – without all of the above. Losses of the Swedes – 700 people, Russian – 9 000, as well as all, except for 5 cannons from the 184’s, artillery. Carl the Twelfth is a good general, but a weak strategist and politician; Instead of consolidating victory, an immediate offensive against Moscow, he turns his eyes to Poland and Saxony. In the meantime, the troops of Boris Sheremetyev, elderly for those times (50 years), but very experienced, begin to learn martial art in practice, breaking up separate detachments from the 15,000-strong Swedish garrison left in Ingermanland and Livonia (present-day Lithuania). Gradually, all the Narva is in the hands of the Russians and, at its mouth, in the territory of Fomin Island, two and a half by four kilometers, with a village of thirty households and forty residents, on May 27 (according to the new style) 1703 Peter the First founded St. Petersburg.
Polish friend of Peter, Augustus the Second loses Karl the Twelfth Fraustadt battle, in which the auxiliary Russian corps participates. In battle, Russian soldiers die 4,500 (all 500 prisoners of war were executed by Swedes), allied Saxons 700, plus «an immense number of prisoners,» and 450 Swedes. August with a 12-thousand army at this time stands idly 25 kilometers from the battlefield, and does not take part in the battle. In February 1706, the 20,000-strong Swedish army besieged the 40,000-strong army of Russians and Saxons under the (Great Belarusian, now Belarusian) Grodno. Peter gives commander Menshikov an order «not to take in a clear battlefield.» During the siege, retreat and crossing the Neman, the Russian army loses 17 thousand people, but because of the ice break, the troops of Karl miss it. In advance, the Polish king who left Grodno concludes the Altranstaedt peace, breaks the alliance with Russia, renounces the throne. The entire Great-Lithuanian army is at the disposal of the Swedish protege in Poland, Stanislaw Leszczynski. In June 1708, the Swedish monarch began to implement a long-planned large-scale campaign to the East. Its goal, according to the opinion of one group of historians, is the total annihilation of Russia’s state independence, its division into specific princedoms, the separation of Pskov, Novgorod, etc., the annexation of Ukraine and other West-Russian territories. Another version – Karl Twelfth plans to establish a buffer Pskov-Novgorod republic in the north, to return all territories seized by Peter, and to establish a direct Swedish protectorate over Eastern Ukraine.
By the beginning of the Russian campaign, the army of Karl reached 120 thousand people, of which 38 thousand – the army of the invasion. The number of regular forces of Peter is 200 thousand people and, in addition, 100 thousand in irregular troops of Cossacks, and Asian nationalities. Defense spending amounts to 78% of the budget, the entire country is militarized, grain is taken to the cities, they are declared fortresses. The Moscow Kremlin once again becomes a full-fledged stronghold, bastions are built on it, the ditches, dried from the seventeenth century, are filled with water from the Neglinka River.
The campaign of the Swedish king begins from the vicinity of Minsk. Both armies quickly eat up supplies of the local population. Menshikov decides to burn before the invaders of the city – Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev, etc.
In the nine months before the Battle of Poltava, on October 9, 1708, a new battle will take place at the village of Lesnaya (east of modern Belarus), with a 12.5-thousand Swedish-Finnish detachment accompanying a huge, more than 7,000 wagons with equipment, artillery and ammunition. The so-called «Corvolant» – the «flying squad» of Peter the Great has about the same number of soldiers and officers, but this is the guard; hungry nobleman cavalry, Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments, other eminent Russian divisions. The Swedes in the majority here are not fully motivated recruits: Finns, Karelians, residents of the territories of the modern Baltic states. Nevertheless, the battle is very fierce. Losses of the parties: the detachment of General Lewenhaupt – 4,000 killed, 800 prisoners, 1,500 – deserted. To Carl the Twelfth replenishment of just over 6,000 fighters comes – practically without artillery, ammunition and food. Russian troops irretrievably lose 3000 people.
In view of the lack of food, the Swedes are turning to the south, to the Seversky region (North-Eastern Ukraine). Hetman Mazepa (who had put down the symbols of the hetman’s authority under the feet of the Swedish king, the banner, the mace and the army seal) now openly promises the support of the Cossacks to Charles the Twelfth. In the city of Baturin, he collects huge supplies of food, ammunition and three hundred so necessary Swedish army guns. Very irritated Peter gives the order to Menshikov to betray the city to the fire, so that on November 2, 1708, it is unquestionably carried out. At the same time, defenders are dying – 5—7 thousand Cossacks (serdiuk), 4—5 thousand inhabitants, and 4 thousand besiegers. In March 1709, the Cossacks of the Zaporozhye Sich pass to the side of the Swedes. Actually, the Sich, from the word of the notch, the fence, fortified settlements constantly change their location; depending on the situation. In total, for the history of the existence of this tradition, colorful military towns, there are ten. Chortomlytska Sich, in question, is located on the right bank of the present Kakhovka water reservoir, in the Dnipropetrovsk region. On May 14 of the same year, the tsarist detachment seized her with an attack and destroyed it.
The army of Karl, already somewhat discouraged, for a while circling around Little Russia, then, obeying the caprice of his king, begins to besiege Poltava. They are confronted by 5 thousand military men and (not confirmed) 2,5 thousand local residents. Three assaults, preceded by explosions of underground mines, fight off; in addition, the lack of the Swedes in artillery and gunpowder affects. The army of Karl loses 6 thousand soldiers and officers, suffers deprivation, when, on June 6, Sheremetev arrives at Poltava with the main army, and a week later Peter the Great himself.
When reconnaissance, on his birthday, Karl gets injured in the foot of his left foot; Perhaps this also affects the clarity of thinking during the future battle. His plan is to attack early in the morning, more precisely, even at night, when the advantage of the Russians in artillery almost vanishes. At 2 o’clock in the morning, somewhat delayed during the construction, the Swedish army advances to the battlefield.
The idea of Sheremetev, the leading commander of the Russian army, is a novelty of military affairs of that time – the creation between the two forests of a chain of six gunfire fortifications from each other. Two more transverse redoubts are being constructed behind this line. Attackers would have to either, with heavy losses, storm them, or go forward, to the main army of the enemy, substituting flanks under the fire. An innovative, though somewhat dubious, idea, with the irritation and self-confidence of the Swedish monarch, is quite manageable.
About 3 o’clock in the morning the cavalry of Charles the Twelfth slips between the redoubts almost without loss and gets into a fight with the Russian cavalry, which expose the enemy to the
