Victory Day of the Russian army over the Swedes in the Battle of Poltava
July 10 celebrates the Victory Day of the Russian army commanded by Peter the First over the Swedes in the Battle of Poltava. The Battle of Poltava itself - the decisive battle of the Northern War - took place on June 27 (July 8) on the 1709 of the year. The significance of the battle was immense. The Swedish army under the command of King Charles XII suffered a complete defeat, was destroyed and captured. The Swedish king himself barely managed to escape. The military power of the Swedish Empire on land was undermined. Russia moved to a strategic offensive and occupied the Baltic States. Thanks to this victory, Russia's international prestige has greatly increased. Saxony and Denmark again came out against Sweden in alliance with Russia.
prehistory
Historical an attempt by the Russian state to regain the original Russian lands on the shores of the Gulf of Finland and in the Neva estuary (Novgorod pyatins) and thereby gain access to the Baltic Sea, necessary for Russia for military-strategic and economic reasons, resulted in a long and bloody Northern War with the Swedish Empire, which considered the Baltic to be its "lake".
The beginning of the war was a failure for Russia and its allies. The young Swedish king Charles XII brought Denmark out of the war with lightning speed - the only power of the Northern Union (the anti-Swedish coalition consisting of the Russian state, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Saxony and Denmark) that had a fleet. Then the Swedes defeated the Russian army near Narva. However, the Swedish king made a strategic mistake. He did not complete the defeat of Russia, forcing it to peace, but was carried away by the war with the Polish king and the Saxon Elector Augustus II, chasing him across the territory of the Commonwealth.
This allowed Peter to "work on the bugs." The tsar strengthened the cadre of the army by saturating it with national cadres (previously the rate was on foreign military specialists). They strengthened the army at a rapid pace, built a fleet, and developed industry. While the Swedes fought in Poland, the Russian army began to crowd out the enemy in the Baltic states and captured the mouth of the Neva River. In 1703, the fortified city of St. Petersburg was founded. In the same year they created the Baltic Fleet and laid the foundation for the Russian fleet in the Baltic - Kronstadt. In 1704, Russian troops captured Derpt (Yuryev) and Narva.
As a result, when Karl again turned the army against Russia, he met another army. An army that had won victories more than once and was ready to compete with the forces of a powerful adversary (the Swedish army before Poltava was considered one of the best, if not the best, in Europe). Russia entrenched in the Baltic and was ready for new battles.
Portrait of Peter I. Artist Paul Delaroche
Charles XII
Russian campaign of Charles XII
The Swedish king planted his protege Stanislav Leschinsky in Poland. In 1706, the Swedes invaded Saxony, and the Polish king and the Saxon elector Augustus II concluded a peace agreement with Sweden, emerging from the war. After that, Russia was left without allies.
In the spring and summer of 1707, Karl XII prepared his army, located in Saxony, for the Russian campaign. The Swedish king managed to make up for the losses and significantly strengthened his troops. At the same time, Karl cherished a plan for a large-scale invasion of Russia with the participation of the troops of the Ottoman Empire, the Crimean Khanate, the puppet regime of Stanislav Leschinsky and the Cossacks traitor Mazepa. He planned to take Russia into giant “ticks” and forever discard Moscow from the Baltic Sea. However, this plan failed. The Turks did not want to fight, and the betrayal of Mazepa did not lead to a large-scale deposition of the Cossacks. A bunch of senior traitors could not turn the people against Moscow.
The Swedish army began the march in September 1707. In November, the Swedes forced the Vistula, Menshikov retreated from Warsaw to the Narew River. Then the Swedish army made a difficult transition on the actual off-road through the Mazury bogs and in February 1708 reached the city of Grodno, the Russian troops withdrew to Minsk. Exhausted by heavy marches on the road, the Swedish army was forced to stop at the "winter apartments".
In June 1708, the Swedish army continued its march along the Smolensk-Moscow line. In late June, the Swedes crossed the Berezina south of Borisov. Simultaneously, the corps of Levengaupta with a huge wagon train went south from Riga. In July, the Swedish army defeated the Russian troops under Golovchin. The Russian army retreated beyond the Dnieper, Karl XII occupied Mogilev and captured the ferry across the Dnieper. Tsar Peter I reacted harshly to the defeat: Generals von der Goltz, Repnin and Chambers were put on trial; the soldiers wounded in the back were accused of running away and executed.
The further advance of the Swedish troops slowed down dramatically. Tsar Peter applied the old tactics of the Scythians - the scorched earth tactics. Swedish troops had to move through the devastated terrain, experiencing an acute shortage of food and fodder. 11-13 September 1708 was in the small Smolensk village Starishi held a military council of the Swedish king with his generals. The question of the future movement of the army was resolved: to Smolensk and Moscow or to the south, to Little Russia. The movement of the Swedish army in the devastated area threatened with hunger. Winter was approaching, the Swedish army needed rest and food. And without heavy artillery, which General Lewenhaupt was supposed to lead, it was difficult to take Smolensk. As a result, they decided to go south, especially, Hetman Mazepa promised winter apartments, food and assistance to 50-thousand. Little Russian troops.
The defeat of the Levengaupt corps 28 of September (9 of October) of 1708 in the battle of the village of Lesnoy finally buried the plans of the march on Moscow during the campaign of the 1708 of the year. It was an important victory, knowingly Tsar Peter Alekseevich called her “the mother of the Poltava battle”. The Swedish command lost hope of strong reinforcements - about 9 thousand Swedes were killed, wounded and captured. By King Karl, General Lewenhaupt was able to bring only about 6 thousands of demoralized soldiers. The Russians seized an artillery park, a huge wagon train with a three-month supply of food and ammunition. The Swedes moved south.
And in the south everything was not as good as in the words of the traitor Mazepa. Of the many thousands of Cossacks, Mazepa managed to bring only a few thousand people, and even these Cossacks did not want to fight and fled at the first opportunity. Menshikov beat Karl XII's avant-garde, took Baturin and burned the reserves there. Swedes got only ashes. Karl had to move further south, embittering the population with food withdrawals. In November, the Swedes entered Romny, where they stopped for the winter.
In winter, the situation has not improved. Swedish troops are located in the area of Gadyach, Romain, Priluk, Lukhovits and Lubin. Russian troops stationed east of this area, closing the approaches to Belgorod and Kursk. The bases of our troops were Sumy, Lebedin and Akhtyrka. The dispersion of the Swedish army was due to the inability to locate more than 30-thousand in one or two cities. the army and the need for constant requisition of food and fodder from the local population. Swedes lost people in constant small skirmishes. Swedish troops were “bored” not only by the “parties” sent by the Russian generals, but also by peasants and citizens, dissatisfied with the activities of the interventionists. For example, in mid-November, three cavalry and one infantry regiments of the enemy approached the small town of Bold in the hope of winter apartments. Menshikov, learning of this, brought the dragoon regiments to help the townspeople. The Russian dragoons, along with the commoners, defeated the Swedes: around 900, a man was killed and captured. The whole wagon train has become a trophy of Russian troops. When the Swedish king Charles with the main forces arrived at the Bold, his population, having decided that the resistance was hopeless, left the town. Karl XII, on the advice of Mazepa, burned the rebellious city. In December, the Swedes captured the weakly fortified city of Tern, massacred more than a thousand residents and burned the settlement. Large losses - about 3 thousand people, the Swedes suffered during the storming of the fortress Veprik.
Both armies suffered losses not only during clashes and storms, but also from an unusually harsh winter. In 1708, severe frost swept across Europe and caused enormous damage to gardens and crops. As a rule, mild winter in Little Russia is unusually cold. Many soldiers froze or frostbit face, hands and feet. In this case, the Swedes suffered more serious losses. The ammunition of the Swedish soldiers, which had become heavily worn out after leaving Saxony, did not save them from the cold. Contemporaries from the Swedish camp left a lot of evidence about this disaster. The representative of S. Leshchinsky at the headquarters of Charles XII Poniatowski wrote: “Before coming to Gadyach, the Swedes lost three thousand soldiers who were frozen dead; besides, all ministers with carts and many horses. "
The Swedish army was cut off from the industrial base, and began to experience a lack of cannonballs, lead and gunpowder. It was impossible to replenish the artillery park. Russian troops systematically crowded the enemy, threatening to cut off the Swedes from the Dnieper. Karl could not impose on Peter the general battle in which he hoped to crush the Russians, nor open the way for an offensive against Moscow. As a result, the Russian Tsar Peter considered the Swedish army so frazzled and exhausted that he allowed the possibility of a general battle, from which he had previously evaded.
Further, the strategic situation for the Swedes continued to deteriorate. Poltava could not take, despite the long siege and heavy losses. In May, the Lithuanian hetman Jan Sapega (supporter of Stanislav Leschinsky) was defeated by 1709, which dispelled hopes of Charles XII for help from the Commonwealth. Menshikov was able to transfer reinforcements to Poltava, the Swedish army was in actual surroundings. Carl’s only hope was a decisive battle. He believed in the invincibility of his army and victory over the "Russian barbarians", despite their superiority in the number of people and guns.
The situation before the battle
After reviewing the situation, Peter decided that the time had come for a general battle. 13 (24) June, our troops planned to break the blockade of Poltava. On the eve of the king sent the commandant of the fortress Kelin order that the defenders of the fortress at the same time the attack, which inflicted the main forces of the Russian army, made a sortie. However, the plan of attack broke the weather: heavy rain raised the water level in Vorskla so much that the operation was canceled.
But the bad weather operation was compensated by a successful attack in the Old Senjars. The Russian colonel Yurlov, who was in captivity, was able to secretly notify the command that in Stariy Senzharas, where Russian prisoners were kept, “the enemy is not fully populated”. 14 (25) June sent a dragoon to Lieutenant General Genskina there. The Russian dragoons stormed the city and liberated 1300 prisoners, destroying 700 enemy soldiers and officers. Among the Russian trophies was the Swedish treasury - 200 thousand thalers. The relatively insignificant losses of the Russian troops - 230 killed and wounded, were an indicator of the decline in combat skills and the spirit of the Swedish troops.
16 (27) June 1709, the Russian Military Council confirmed the need for a general battle. On the same day, the Swedish monarch was wounded in the leg. According to the version presented in the “History of the Holy War”, Karl and his retinue checked posts and accidentally ran into a group of Cossacks. The king personally killed one of the Cossacks, but during the fight a bullet hit him in the leg. According to contemporaries of the battle, when the king heard that several enemies had crossed the river, he, taking with him several Drabants (bodyguards), attacked and overturned them. During his return he was wounded by a shotgun. This event showed the courage of the Swedish king and his irresponsibility. Karl XII led his army to distant lands from his native Sweden and found himself on the verge of disaster in Little Russia, which, it would seem, should have thought about how to carry his legs and save the soldiers, and not risk his life in small skirmishes. You cannot deny Karl’s personal courage, he was a brave man, but he lacked wisdom.
Meanwhile, the moment of the decisive battle was approaching. Even before Charles was injured, 15 (26) of June, part of the Russian army forced Vorskla, which previously divided the two armies. When Renschild reported this to the king, he conveyed that the field marshal could act on his own. Since the time of the Battle of Forestry, Karl has been overwhelmed with bouts of indifference, it was such a moment. In fact, the Swedes almost did not offer resistance to the Russian forces that were being forwarded, although the water line was convenient for a counterattack and defense. 19-20 of June (30 of June - 1 of July) on the opposite bank of the river, Tsar Peter Alekseevich crossed with the main forces.
The Swedish king Charles XII, who always adhered to offensive tactics, showed no interest in the engineering preparation of the future battlefield. Karl believed that the Russian army would be passive, and would mostly be defensive, which would allow him to break through the defenses of the enemy and defeat him. The main concern of Karl was to secure the rear, that is, to deprive the possibility of the garrison of Poltava to make a sortie at the moment when the Swedish army would be engrossed in a battle with the army of Peter. For this, Karl needed to take a fortress before the start of the general battle. June 21 (July 2) the Swedish command organized the next storming of Poltava. The Swedes again prepared undermining, laid the barrels of gunpowder, but, as before, there was no explosion - the besieged safely removed the explosives. On the night of June 22 (July 3), the Swedes went to the assault, which almost ended in victory: "... in many places the enemy rose on the shaft, but the commandant showed indescribable courage, because he himself was present and repulsed in all the right places." At the critical moment, the residents of the city also helped: “The residents of Poltava were all on the shaft; the wives, although they were not in the fire on the shaft, only brought stones and so on. ” The assault failed this time too. The Swedes suffered heavy losses and did not receive security guarantees for the rear.
Meanwhile, Russian troops built a fortified camp at the crossing point - the village of Petrovka, located 8 versts north of Poltava. After examining the terrain, the Russian tsar ordered the army to be moved closer to the enemy’s disposition. Peter decided that the open area at Petrovka gives the enemy a great advantage, since the Swedish army had previously been distinguished for its high maneuverability and ability to rebuild during the battle. Based on the experience of the battles of Forest, it was obvious that the Swedes lose this advantage in conditions when it is necessary to fight in conditions of rugged wooded areas, limiting the maneuver.
This terrain was in the area of the village Yakovtsy. Here, five kilometers from the enemy, the Russian 25 June (6 July) began to build a new fortified camp. It was reinforced by the six redoubts built in front of the camp, which blocked the path of the Swedes to the main forces of the Russian army. Redoubts were located one from another at a distance of a gun shot. After examining the fortifications, Tsar Peter 26 of June (July 7) ordered to build four additional redoubts located perpendicular to the first six. The device of additional redoubts was an innovation in the engineering equipment of the battlefield. Without overcoming redoubts, it was extremely dangerous to enter into battle with opponents, it was necessary to take them. At the same time, the Swedes, storming the redoubts, each of which was a garrison from a company of soldiers, had to suffer serious losses from rifle artillery fire. In addition, the offensive through the redoubts disrupted the combat order of the attackers, worsening their position in the clash with the main forces of the Russian army.
The forces of the parties
At the disposal of Peter in the fortified camp in front of Poltava there were 42 thousand regular and 5 thousand irregular troops (according to other data about 60 thousand people). In addition, 40 thousand more people were in reserve on the Psyol River. The artillery park consisted of 102 guns.
In the Swedish army, if we proceed from the calculation of casualties and prisoners of casualties under Poltava and Peremovochnaya, as well as those who fled with King Charles, there were a total of about 48 thousand people. Moreover, the number of the most combat-ready forces that participated in the Battle of Poltava was much smaller. About 48 thousand Kozak Mazepins and about 3 thousand Cossacks led by K. Gordienko, who went over to the side of Mazepa and Karl in March 8 of the year, and about 1709 Swedes, who continued to block the Poltava fortress. In addition, the Swedish king, apparently not confident of victory and trying to cover dangerous directions, set up several detachments along the Vorskla River until it fell into the Dnieper at Perevolochny, retaining the possibility of retreat. Also from the participants of the battle is to deduct persons not involved in the combat service: only under Peregrovochnaya prisoners took 1300 "servants". As a result, Karl could put about 3400-25 thousand people and 28 guns. Not all forces participated in the battle from both sides.
To be continued ...
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