soldiers in columns and so attacks the Russian army. The latter is a six-kilometer line, five to six rows of soldiers within their camp. Columns of Swedes break through it like a crowbar. In the ranks of the regiments the cry «The Germans are traitors!» Is heard. Fearing beating by soldiers, foreign officers surrender. Preobrazhensky, Semenovsky and Lefortovo regiments, fenced off with carts, are resisting. Later they will be allowed to leave. Some units leave the battlefield with banners and weapons, but without the convoy and artillery, others without all of the above. The losses of the Swedes are 700 soldiers, the Russians – 9,000, as well as all, except for 5 cannons out of 184, artillery. Charles the Twelfth is a good general, but a weak strategist. Instead of an immediate attack on Moscow, he turns his gaze to Poland and Saxony. Meanwhile, the troops of Boris Sheremetyev, who was not young at that time, but experienced, began to learn the art of war in practice. One by one, they break up detachments from the fifteen thousandth Swedish garrison left in Ingermanland and Livonia (present-day Lithuania). The whole of Narva is in the hands of the Russians. At its mouth, on the territory of Fomin Island, two and a half by four kilometers, with a village of thirty households and forty inhabitants, on May 27, 1703, Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg.
Peter’s Polish friend, Augustus II, loses the Fraustadt battle to Karl, in which the auxiliary Russian corps also participates. 4500 Russian soldiers are killed (all 500 prisoners of war by the Swedes were executed), 700 allied Saxons. Karl has at his disposal «an immense number of prisoners» of the Germans. The losses of the Swedes – 450 people. August with a 12-thousandth army stands 25 kilometers from the battlefield and does not take part in the battle. In February 1706, a 20,000-strong Swedish army besieges a 40,000-strong Russian and Saxon army near Grodno. Peter instructs Commander Menshikov «not to accept in an open battlefield.» During the siege, retreat and crossing the Neman, the Russian army loses 17 thousand people. Because of the drift of ice, Karl’s troops miss her. The Polish king, who left Grodno in advance, concludes the Altranschnedt peace, breaks the alliance with Russia and abdicates the throne. The Great Lithuanian army is at the disposal of the Swedish protege in Poland, Stanislav Leszczynski. In June 1708, the Swedish monarch embarked on a long-planned large-scale campaign to the East. Its purpose, according to a group of historians, is the complete destruction of the statehood of Russia, its division into specific principalities, the rejection of Pskov, Novgorod, the annexation of Ukraine and other Western Russian territories. Another well-known version is that Karl plans to establish a buffer Pskov-Novgorod Republic in the north, return all the Swedish territories captured by Peter, and establish a direct protectorate over Eastern Ukraine.
By the beginning of the Russian campaign, Charles’s army reached 120 thousand people. Of these, 38 thousand are the invading army. The number of regular forces of Peter – 200 thousand, plus 100 thousand in the irregular troops of the Cossacks and Asian peoples. Defense spending reaches 80% of the budget. The country is being militarized. Grain is brought to the cities, which are declared fortresses. The Moscow Kremlin is once again becoming a full-fledged citadel. Bastions are attached to it. The ditches near the walls, dried up since the seventeenth century, are filled with water from the Neglinka River.
The trek of the Swedish king starts from the outskirts of Minsk. Both armies are swiftly eating away supplies from the local population. Menshikov orders to burn cities – Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev…
Nine months before the Battle of Poltava, in October 1708, a battle will take place near the village of Lesnaya (east of modern Belarus) with a 12.5 thousand Swedish-Finnish detachment accompanying 7 thousand convoy wagons with provisions, artillery and ammunition. The so-called «corvolant» – «flying detachment» of Peter the Great has the same number of soldiers and officers. But these are the guards, the noble cavalry thirsting for victories, the Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments. The majority of the Swedes are not fully motivated Finns, Karelians, residents of the territories of the modern Baltic. However, the battle is fierce. The detachment of General Levengaupt loses 4,000 killed, 800 prisoners, 1,500 deserters. Charles the Twelfth receives only 6,000 new soldiers – without artillery, ammunition and food. The Russian army loses 3,000 people.
Due to the lack of food, the Swedes turn south, to the Seversky Territory (North-Eastern Ukraine). Hetman Mazepa, who laid the symbols of hetman power under the feet of the Swedish king; banner, mace and military seal, now openly promises support to Charles the Twelfth. In the city of Baturin, he collects supplies of food, ammunition and three hundred so necessary for the Swedish army cannons. A very irritated Peter gives orders to Menshikov to set the city on fire. Alexander Danilovich is following the order. Defenders perish – 5—7 thousand Cossacks, 4—5 thousand inhabitants, and 4 thousand besiegers. In March 1709, the Cossacks of the Zaporozhye Sich went over to the side of the Swedes.
Charles’s army, already somewhat discouraged, circles around Little Russia, then, obeying the king’s whim, begins the siege of Poltava. They are opposed by 5 thousand military and, which is not confirmed, 2.5 thousand local residents. Three assaults, preceded by explosions of underground mines, fight back with great damage for the attackers. Above all, the lack of artillery and gunpowder affects. Charles’s army loses 6 thousand soldiers and officers, suffers hardships when Sheremetev arrives at Poltava with the main army, and a week later Peter the Great.
…During reconnaissance, on his birthday, Karl is wounded in the foot of his left leg. Perhaps this circumstance affects the clarity of his thinking during the battle. The plan of the Swedish monarch is to attack in the early morning, more precisely at night, when the advantage of the Russians in artillery comes to naught. At 2 o’clock in the morning, July 8, 1709, having lingered somewhat during the formation, the Swedish army moved to the battlefield.
Sheremetev’s idea is a novelty in military affairs of that time. The main point is to create a chain of six fortifications located at a distance of a shot between the forests. Two more redoubts are being built behind this line. The attackers would have to either storm them, or go to the main army, exposing the flanks to fire. An innovative, albeit dubious, idea, when applied with the irritation of a wounded king, is quite successful.
At about 3 a.m. the cavalry of Charles the Twelfth slipped between the redoubts almost without loss. She gets involved in a battle with the Russian cavalry, which exposes the enemy to the weapons and artillery fire of the fortifications. Trying to help the Swedish infantry get bogged down in the attack of the redoubts and come under fire from the camp. Peter gives the order to withdraw the cavalry. She, turning in the sight of the enemy, gallops three kilometers to break away from the pursuit. This maneuver creates the impression of the defeat of the Russians in the Swedes’ camp.
Charles the Twelfth (1682—1718), opponent of Peter the Great
Both sides take time out to regroup and continue the battle. At nine o’clock the Swedes attack again. This time, captured or blocked redoubts do not divide the armies. The forces of the opponents are. Russians – 25,400 infantry, 9—12,000 noble cavalry, with 72 guns, Swedes – 8,300 infantry, 9,000 cavalry, 4 cannons used for signaling. This is followed by a frontal three-hour battle. The career infantry of Charles the Twelfth sees a higher purpose in battle. Accustomed to adversity, Puritans march into battle, singing religious hymns. At one time, Protestant Swedes were the best fighters in Continental Europe. An important role in the battle is played by the Russian core, breaking the Swedish king’s stretcher. The rumor about the death of the commander discourages the army. The Swedes retreat to the wagon train, where 7,000 cavalrymen and several thousand Cossacks are in reserve, then to the crossing over the Dnieper. Ahead of the retreating Karl with only a few dozen retinues. He manages to escape to the Ottoman allies, now Ukrainian Bendery. Here the king, without getting out of bed, will appeal to the Swedish
