The Great Northern War: Battle of Poltava

Tsardom of Russia: Battle of Poltava 

Poltava (1709) 

Background:  By 1700, Russia was major empire in the European scene and began trying to show her power by gaining more land and winning military victories. in 1700 Russia declared war upon Sweden to gain control over the Baltic Sea and show her power. By 1707 however, Russia suffered many defeats to the Swedish Empire (Battle of Narva) causing them to lose many soldiers and land. The Swedish king Charles XII than received a message from Peter the Great asking for peace and that he would give up all Baltic possessions except St. Petersburg. Charles received this message as a sign of weakness and declined the plea and decided to send his army on what he hoped the final offensive to finish Russia. Charles set out with his 44,000 men of the Swedish Continental Army from his base in Poland to begin the campaign of destruction. Peter noticing the aggressive move adopted the scorch earth policy and began to destroy everything that could be useful to the Swedes. The strategy was very effective against the Swedes, and by 1709 the Swedish Continental Army shrunk down to half of its original force. 

Purpose of the Battle: The purpose of the battle of Poltava was to stop the Swedish Advances and defeat them and claim true power over the Baltic. This was the final chance for Russia to stop Sweden from getting deeper into Russia and to relieve the Siege of Poltava. 

The Battle: As the Swedes pushed through Russia no Allies beside a few cossacks joined their cause. Trying to force a major fight against the Russians to end the war pushed on with his weakened force to Poltava. The Swedes besieged Poltava who had 7,000 soldiers to defend the city and held out till Peter and his modernized and large Russian force arrived. When Peter arrived to the city outskirts he made fortifications preparing for a probable Swedish attack. Charles after being informed of Peter's army arriving, he was informed that 40,000 Kalmyks were marching to reinforce Peter to turn the tide. Charles wounded at the time gave command to his Field Marshal Carl Gustav Rehnskiold to attack the Russians. Around 5 am on July 8th, the Swedes attacked the fortified and modern Russian troops. During the battle the Swedes were pushed back to a forest where Charles took charge and rallied his men to charge the Russians and retake the field. The charge failed epically, with the Swedes suffering massive casualties and began to break causing Russia to win the battle and ended Swedish aggression on Russian territory and giving the Russian the ability to have a counter-offensive.  

 Image of Swedish calvary being destroyed by Russian cannons



Peter reveling in the soon to be victory


Aftermath: After the battle, the Swedish soldiers surrendered to the Russian troops, while the King of Sweden and some of his soldiers went into exile. The Battle of Poltava was a major turning point in the Great Northern War because from after this battle the Russians began going on a counter offensive to finish the Great Northern War. By 1721, the war ended with major Russian gains in the Baltic and other parts of Europe while Sweden lost most of there territory and never again would be as strong as they were before the Northern War started.

Commanders: Field Marshal Carl Gustav Rehnskiold- Sweden
                          Peter the Great- Russia

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24gQKRF9aJ0   A video on the battle


http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/battleswars16011800/p/poltava.htm

http://www.theartofbattle.com/battle-of-poltava-1709.htm