Battle of Poltava
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Battle of Poltava | |||||||
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Part of the Swedish invasion of Russia during the Great Northern War | |||||||
The Battle of Poltava by Louis Caravaque | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Swedish Empire Cossack Hetmanate |
Tsardom of Russia Kalmyk Khanate Cossack Hetmanate | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Charles XII Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld (POW) Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt Hugo Johan Hamilton (POW) Wolmar Anton von Schlippenbach (POW) Ivan Mazepa |
Peter I Boris Sheremetev Alexander Menshikov Jacob Bruce Ivan Skoropadsky[1] | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Swedish combined army: Participated in battle: Total: 16,500 Besieging Poltava: 1,100 infantry 200 cavalry |
Russian combined army: Total: 75,000[2] Participated in battle: Total: 42,000 Garrison of Poltava: 4,200 infantry 2,000 Cossacks 28 cannons | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Swedish accounts: 6,900 killed and wounded, 2,800 captured.[6][7][8] Russian accounts: 9,234 killed, 2,864–2,977 captured.[9][10][11] |
Official accounts: 1,345 killed, 3,290 wounded.[7][10] | ||||||
The Battle of Poltava
During the course of six years in the initial stages of the war,
After the extremely harsh
The Battle of Poltava, as well as the subsequent capitulation, ended in a decisive victory for Peter I and became the greatest military catastrophe in Swedish history.[15][16][17] It marked a turning point in the continuation of the war in favour of the anti-Swedish coalition, which as a result of the battle was revived and with renewed vigor attacked the weakened Swedish Empire on several fronts. The battle thus marked the end of Sweden's time as the dominant power in Northern Europe, a position which after the war was taken over by the Russian Empire. The battle is therefore of crucial importance in the history of Sweden as well as Russia and Ukraine.
Background
Charles XII had led Swedish forces to early victories in
Charles ordered a
Poor weather and road conditions kept the Swedish troops in winter quarters until June 1708. In July the Swedes defeated Marshal
Rather than winter in Livonia or wait for Lewenhaupt, Charles decided to move southwards into Ukraine and join Mazepa, who had decided to rebel against Peter.
By the spring of 1709, Charles' force had shrunk to half of its original size. After the
Between the Russian and Swedish forces the Yakovetski and Budyschenski woods formed a corridor, which the Russians defended by building six forts across the gap.
Battle
Swedish attack
Because of his wound, Charles turned over operational command to Field Marshal
Lewenhaupt's ten battalions on the right bypassed the first four redoubts entirely, advancing to the back line and, with the aid of cavalry, took some redoubts while bypassing others.[21]: 96, 105, 108 Two of Roos' rear battalions joined them, indicating that issued orders lacked clarity as to whether to avoid the redoubts or attack them in series.[21]: 94 The cavalry on the left wing, commanded by Major General Hamilton and an infantry regiment, advanced by passing the redoubts on the left and charged the Russian cavalry, forcing them to retreat.[21]: 105 It was 5:00 a.m. when the left and right wings of the Swedish army made it past the back line of redoubts, sending the Russian cavalry in retreat.[21]: 106, 108 However, Rehnskiöld ordered his cavalry to stop their pursuit and Lewenhaupt, already advancing towards the fort, to withdraw to the west.[21]: 108–09 There they awaited Roos' battalions for two hours, while the Russian cavalry and Ivan Skoropadsky's Cossacks waited to the north, with 13 Russian battalions deployed north of their camp and ten to the south, anticipating a Swedish advance.[21]: 125
Surrender of Roos and Russian advance
General Roos and six battalions (one-third of the Swedish infantry) became isolated while attempting to take the third Russian redoubt.[21]: 110 After suffering severe casualties from several assault attempts, Roos led the remaining 1,500 of his original 2,600 men into the Yakovetski woods to the east at 6:00 a.m.[21]: 114 The Russians reoccupied the first two redoubts[21]: 115 and launched a two-pronged attack by ten regiments around 7:00 a.m., forcing Roos to retreat towards Poltava and take refuge in an abandoned fort by 9:00 a.m. when he could not make it to the Swedish siege works.[21]: 118–19, 127, 132 Roos was forced to surrender his command[20]: 290 at 9:30 a.m.[21]: 134
The Swedes continued to wait for Roos' troops to return, unaware of their surrender.
Final stage and turning point
At 09:45, Rehnskiöld ordered Lewenhaupt and the Swedish line to move forward, advancing towards the Russian line, which started firing its cannons at 500 meters.[21]: 147, 151 When the Swedes were 50 meters from the Russian line, the Russians opened fire with their muskets from all four ranks.[21]: 155 Advancing to within 30 meters of the Russian line, the Swedes fired a volley of their own and charged with their muskets and pikemen, and the Russian first line retreated towards their second line.[21]: 156 The Swedes seemed to be on the verge of a breakthrough and needed the cavalry under Creutz to break the Russian lines.[21]: 157 Unfortunately for the Swedes, Creutz's and the other cavalry units were unable to reform completely in time.[20]: 292 With the Russian line longer than the Swedish line, the Swedish infantry on the left flank lagged behind the right and finally threw down their weapons and fled.[21]: 159 As the Swedish right flank was still advancing, a gap began to open in the Swedish line which the Russians filled and the battle turned into a Cannae variation.[21]: 165 Barely able to gather his cavalry squadrons, Creutz tried to advance on the right flank, but the Russian battalions were able to form into hollow squares,[21]: 158 while Menshikov's cavalry outflanked the Swedes and attacked them from the rear.[21]: 160 At this point the Swedish assault had disintegrated and no longer had organized bodies of troops to oppose the Russian infantry or cavalry. Small groups of soldiers managed to break through and escape to the south through the Budyschenski woods, while many of the rest were overwhelmed, ridden down or captured.[21]: 174
Realizing they were the last Swedes on the battlefield, Charles ordered a retreat to the woods, gathering what remaining forces he could for protection, including the remnants of Creutz's detachment.[21]: 175, 180 The Russians halted at the edge of the woods and their artillery fire stopped; only the Cossacks and Kalmycks roamed the plains south of the woods.[21]: 189, 192 Emerging from the woods at around noon, Charles—on horseback after his litter was destroyed, and protected by a square of a couple of thousand men—headed to Pushkaryovka and his baggage train 5 km to the south, reaching it after 1:00 p.m., by which time the battle was over.[21]: 194
Charles gathered the remainder of his troops and baggage train and retreated to the south later that same day—at about 7:00 p.m., abandoning the siege of Poltava.[21]: 197, 210 Lewenhaupt led the surviving Swedes and some of the Cossack forces to the Dnieper River, but was doggedly pursued by the Russian regular cavalry and 3,000 Kalmyk auxiliaries and forced to surrender three days later at Perevolochna on 1 July.[22]
Aftermath
High-ranking Swedes captured during the battle included Field Marshal Rehnskiöld, Major Generals Schlippenbach, Stackelberg, Hamilton and Prince Maximilian Emanuel, as well as Piper.[21]: 199, 203 Peter the Great held a celebratory banquet in two large tents erected on the battlefield.[21]: 202 Voltaire assumed Peter's reason for this, in raising a toast to the Swedish generals as war masters, was to send a message to his own generals about disloyalty.[23]: 108 Two mass graves contained the Russian dead, 500 meters southwest of their camp.[21]: 205 Previously defeating Peter, Charles had gone so far as to pay the Russian troops. Peter instead took many Swedes, with great pride, and sent them to Siberia.[23]: 107
Charles and Mazepa escaped with about 1,500 men to
Notes
- ^ Also 27 June 1709 in Julian calendar and 28 June 1709 in Swedish calendar.
- ^ About 2,000 sick and injured soldiers were standing in the Pushkarivka camp.
- Zaporizhian Cossacksis unknown but are usually given to 3,000 up to 7,000. They were stationed in the Pushkarivka camp and did not participate in the battle.
- ^ Russian sources quote the captive Field Marshal Rehnskiöld stating that his combined army before the battle consisted of up to 30,000 men.
- ^ Swedish: Slaget vid Poltava; Russian: Полта́вская би́тва; Ukrainian: Полта́вська би́тва
- ^ 28 June according to the then-used Swedish calendar; 27 June in the Julian calendar; 8 July in the Gregorian (modern) calendar.
References
- ^ Mackiw, Theodore (2008). "Poltava, Battle of". Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies.
- ^ ISBN 978-91-85789-75-7.
- ^ a b (in Russian) О составе русской и шведской армий в Полтавском сражении Archived 2019-10-06 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Ericson, p. 297.
- ^ (in Russian) Istorīia Petra Velikago, by Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoi, 1843, p. 38.
- ^ Englund (1988), p. 215.
- ^ ISBN 978-951-50-1823-6.
- ^ Derek Wilson (9 March 2009). "Poltava: the Battle that Changed the World". History Today. 59 (3). London: 23–29.
- ^ (in Russian) Битва под Полтавой Archived 2005-02-25 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b "Poltava, Battle of". Retrieved 12 December 2016.
- ^ (in Russian) Istorīia Petra Velikago, p. 355.
- ^ Gordon, A. The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia: To which is Prefixed a Short General History of the Country from the Rise of that Monarchy: and an Account of the Author's Life, Volume 1. Aberdeen. 1755. pp. 301–02.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-85109-667-1
- ^ Massie.
- ^ Field, J. F. (1 July 2022). "Battle of Poltava". Encyclopædia Britannica.
- ^ Wright, E. (2015). "Poltava, Battle of". A Dictionary of World History (2 ed.). Oxford Reference. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
- ISBN 9781118887912.
- ISBN 978-951-50-1823-6.
- ISBN 978-951-50-1823-6.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-582-06429-4
- ^ ISBN 978-1-78076-476-4
- ^ Massie.
- ^ a b Voltaire, The History of Charles XII, King of Sweden (1908)
- ^ Friedrich Ernst von Fabrice, The Genuine Letters of Baron Fabricius Envoy from His Serene Highness the Duke Administrator of Holstein to Charles XII of Sweden (1761)
Sources
- Adlerfelt, G. (1740). The Military History of Charles XII, King of Sweden, Written by the Express Order of His Majesty.
- Brown, Peter B. "Gazing Anew at Poltava: Perspectives from the Military Revolution Controversy, Comparative History, and Decision-Making Doctrines." Harvard Ukrainian Studies 31.1/4 (2009): 107–133. online
- Englund, Peter (1988). Poltava: berättelsen om en armés undergång. Atlantis. ISBN 91-7486-834-9.
- Englund, Peter (2003). The Battle that Shook Europe: Poltava and the Birth of the Russian Empire. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 1-86064-847-9.
- Ericson, Lars (2004). Svenska slagfält (in Swedish). Wahlström & Widstrand. ISBN 91-46-21087-3.
- Frost, Robert I. "' Everyone understood what it meant': The Impact of the Battle of Poltava on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth." Harvard Ukrainian Studies 31.1/4 (2009): 159–176 online.
- Gerner, Kristian. "The Battle of Poltava as a Realm of Memory and a Bone of Contention." Harvard Ukrainian Studies 31.1/4 (2009): 679–693 online.
- Hrushevskyi, Mykhailo. Illjustrirovannaja istorija Ukrainy s priloženijami i dopolnenijami.
- Kamenskii, Alexander. "The Battle of Poltava in Russian Historical Memory." Harvard Ukrainian Studies 31.1/4 (2009): 195–204 online.
- Konstam, Angus (1994). Poltava 1709: Russia Comes of Age. Osprey. ISBN 1-85532-416-4.
- LeDonne, John. "Poltava and the geopolitics of Western Eurasia." Harvard Ukrainian Studies 31.1/4 (2009): 177–191 online.
- Massie, Robert K. (1980). Peter the Great: his Life and World. Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0-345-29806-5.. popular history
- Plokhy, Serhii, ed. Poltava 1709: The Battle and the Myth (Harvard University Press, 2012). [ISBN missing]
- Velychenko, Stephen. The Battle of Poltava and the Decline of Cossack-Ukraine in light of Russian and English methods of rule in their Borderlands (1707–1914). online
- Voltaire (2013). Voltaire's History of Charles the XII King of Sweden. ISBN 978-1-230-36298-4.
- Von Fabrice, Friedrich. The Genuine Letters of Baron Fabricius Envoy from his Serene Highness the Duke Administrator of Holstein to Charles Xii. of Sweden. ISBN 978-5871371343.
External links
- Sequel to Poltava: Diplomacy to contain Russia 1709–1714 by Bertil Haggman
- Battle of Poltava on the Encyclopedia of Ukraine
- Russian Order at Battle
- Swedish Order at Battle
- Voltaire's History of Charles XII King of Sweden by Voltaire