Battle of Poltava

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Battle of Poltava

The Battle of Poltava by Denis Martens the Younger, painted 1726

Date	June 28, 1709
Location	Poltava, eastern Ukraine
Result	Decisive Russian victory

Combatants

Swedish Empire

Russian Empire

Commanders

Carl Gustaf Rehnskiöld ^#

Peter the Great

Strength

17,000 troops attacking, 8,000 besieging Poltava, 3,000 Kalmyks arrived at the end of battle]

42,000–45,000 troops,
72 cannons

Casualties

6,900 killed or wounded,
2,800 prisoners

1,345 killed
3,200 wounded

Great Northern War
Narva – Daugava – Kliszów – Gemauerthof – Fraustadt – Holowczyn – Lesnaya – Poltava – Helsingborg – Gadebusch – Storkyro – Gangut – Stralsund – Dynekilen – Ösel – Stäket – Grengam

The Battle of Poltava (or Pultowa) was a battle between the armies of Peter I of Russia and Charles XII of Sweden on 28 June (new style 8 July) 1709, the most famous of the battles of the Great Northern War. The decisive victory of the Russians is said to have started the end of Sweden's role as a Great Power and took their place as the leading nation of northern Europe. This also meant the dawn of Imperial Russia.

1 Prelude
2 Battle
3 Aftermath
4 Bibliography
5 External links

[edit] Prelude

Early Swedish victories at Copenhagen and at the Battle of Narva in 1700 knocked both Denmark and Russia temporarily out of the war. However, Charles was unable to bring the war to a conclusion, and it would be eight years before he dealt with the remaining combatant Charles Augustus of Saxony-Poland. During this time Peter rebuilt his army into modern form, basing it primarily on infantry trained to properly use linear tactics and modern firearms. He then achieved a stunning propaganda victory in when he established the city of Saint Petersburg on Swedish territory, not Livonia. To end the war, Charles ordered a final attack on the Russian heartland with an assault on Moscow from his campaign base in Poland.

Charles marched along the main route between Poland and Moscow and waited as long as he could for General Lewenhaupt to arrive. At one point they were only 130 kilometres apart,but Charles gave up because that he needed supplies, and turned south into the Ukraine in search of grain and better weather. The Ukrainian forces, under the command of the Cossack hetman Mazepa, had been in discussions with Charles for some time, and at this point officially allied himself to the Swedes in order to gain independence from Russia.

Lewenhaupt followed south and was attacked while crossing a river near a small village that gave name to the Battle of Lesnaya. His forces met the Russian attack, but they were amazed to find that the new Russian army gave them a serious fight. Lewenhaupt seeing that he was about to loose decided to rejoin Charles with all speed, so he abandoned the cannon, the cattle and most of the food, driving the soldiers to mutiny. Stealing all of the alcohol, the soldiers became drunk, and Lewenhaupt was forced to leave about 1,000 men drunk in the woods. By the time they finally reached Charles and the main force in the winter, no supplies and only 6,000 men remained.

Battle of Poltava: a fragment of the great mosaic by Mikhail Lomonosov.

In the spring Charles resumed his advance, but his army had been reduced by about one-third due to starvation, frostbite and other effects of the weather. The wet weather had also seriously depleted the army's supplies of gunpowder; the cannon were also essentially out of action, due to a lack of usable ammunition. Charles's first action was to lay siege to the fort of Poltava on the Vorskla River in the Ukraine. Peter had already organized a huge force to protect it, and he quickly arrived. 27 June Charles received information, that big Kalmyk forces were going to join Peter and to cut all supplies of Swedish Army.

[edit] Battle

When the battle opened, Charles had about 20,000 men, while Peter commanded about 45,000. To make matters worse for the Swedish, Charles was wounded during the siege on June 17 when he was hit in the foot during an inspection of the Swedish outposts on the banks of the Vorskla where he took part in a small engagement, and had to turn over command to Field Marshal Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld and General Adam Lewenhaupt. This was made all the more unfortunate by the divergent personalities of the two generals. Unfortunately when the high command decided to plan the battle they forgot to tell the subordinated commanders.

The battle began before dawn at 3:45 a.m. on June 28, with the Swedes advancing boldly against the Russian fortified lines. At first, the battle started off in a traditional fashion, with the better trained Swedes pressing in on the Russians' redoubts, overrunning a few Russian defensive redoubts. The Swedish seemed to possess an advantage, but this was quickly nullified. By dawn, the weather was already very hot and humid with the rising sun obscured by smoke from cannon and musket fire. The Swedish infantry, commanded by General Lewenhaupt, attempted to attack the Russians. But the Swedish advance soon faltered, partly because that the infantry got the order to withdraw and reorganise. To make matters worse, one Swedish detachment, commanded by General Roos that hadn't been told about the overall plan, became isolated in the Russian defensive redoubts when a column of about 4,000 Russian reinforcements re-occupied the fortified positions, trapping Roos and his 2,600-man force. With over 1,000 casualties and ammunition running low, Roos was forced to surrender his command.

The Swedes waited for Roos to arrive and as time went by the Russians decided to take action and their infantry moved out of the camp. Around 9 am the Swedish line started to move forward. 4000 infantry against 20000. They marched on and the Russians saluted them with their guns creating a firestorm of shells. When the swedes were 100 meters from the Russians the Russians aimed and fired their rifles, but the swedes marched on. 30 meters from the Russian line the swedes fired one volley and charged. They were on the verge of a breakthrough and needed the cavalry, unfortunately it was disorganised. The Russian line was longer than the Swedish line and the Russian right soon flanked the Swedish infantry. Several regiments were surrounded in a classic Cannaestyle battle. The cavalry tried to buy the infantry time to get away and several units attacked the Russians head on despite them forming into squares. Seeing the defeat of his army from a stretcher in the rear, Charles ordered the army to retreat at 11:00 a.m. By noon, the battle was over as Russian cavalry had mopped up the stragglers on the battlefield and returned to their own lines. Charles then gathered the remainder of his troops and baggage train, and retreated to the south later that same day, abandoning the siege of Poltava. Rehnskiöld had been captured, and Lewenhaupt led the surviving Swedish forces to the Dnieper River, but was doggedly pursued by the Russian regular cavalry and 3000 Kalmyks and forced to surrender three days later at Perevolochna, on July 1.

[edit] Aftermath

Charles XII and Mazepa at the Dnieper River after Poltava by unknown artist.

Several thousand prisoners were taken, many of whom were put to work building the new city of St. Petersburg. Charles managed to escape with about 1,500 men to Bendery, Moldavia, then controlled by the Ottoman Empire, and spent five years in exile there before he was able to return to Sweden.

[edit] Bibliography

G. Adlerfelt, The Military History of Charles XII, King of Sweden, Written by the Express Order of His Majesty. London, 3 vols, 1740.
Peter Englund, The Battle That Shook Europe: Poltava and the Birth of the Russian Empire. London, 1992, 288 pages ISBN 1860648479
Angus Konstam, Poltava 1709, Russia Comes of Age. Osprey Campaign #34. Osprey Publishing, 1994, 96 pages. ISBN 1855324164
Robert K. Massie, Peter The Great: His Life and Times Ballantine Books; 1981. 932 Pages, ISBN-10: 0345298063 : ISBN-13: 978-0345298065