BORIS SHEREMETEV
Following the Great Northern War, Russia succeeded Sweden as the dominant power in northern Europe, but allied nations may only have exchanged one leading influence for another “ST PETERSBURG BECAME FAMOUS AS PETER THE GREAT’S ‘WINDOW TO THE WEST’, A SYM
THE BOYAR WHO HAD A MIXED MILITARY RECORD AGAINST THE SWEDES
A descendent of one of Russia’s oldest noble families, Sheremetev had been a young page to Tsar Alexis I before he led armies in the Crimean Khanate. Initially more of a diplomat, he had participated in peace negotiations with Poland and Austria alongside early campaigns with Peter the Great during the 1690s. During the Great Northern War, Sheremetev was a capable but cautious commander who led Russian forces against the Swedes in the Baltic provinces. Apart from Peter himself, he served as commander-in-chief of the Russian Army with Prince Menshikov as his second-in-command.
His 1702 victory at Hummelshof earned him the title of field marshal while he subsequently took the Swedish fortresses and cities of Nöteborg, Nyenskans, Dorpat and Narva. Swedish forces then defeated him at Gemäuerthof and Holowczyn but he had his revenge when he acted as the senior Russian commander below Peter at the Battle of Poltava.
THE VICTOR OF FRAUSTADT AND ARCHITECT OF SWEDEN’S EARLY SUCCESSES
Born in Swedish Pomerania to a family of German descent, Rehnskiöld joined the Swedish Army aged 22 and first gained military experience during the Scanian War (167679). Before the Great Northern War, he was promoted to general and commanded the Swedish cavalry before he became Charles XII’S chief military advisor.
In the early years of the war, Rehnskiöld drafted plans for several of Sweden’s great successes including the landing at Humlebaek, the crossing of the Düna and the battles of Narva and Kliszów. He personally won one of the great Swedish victories of the war at Fraustadt in 1706 where his cavalry skills secured success despite being greatly outnumbered. For this triumph, Rehnskiöld was promoted to field marshal and given the title of count.
When Charles XII was wounded shortly before the Battle of Poltava, Rehnskiöld replaced him in command but the Swedes were heavily defeated.
Rehnskiöld was captured by the
Russians and remained in captivity in Moscow before he was released in a prisoner exchange in 1718. He briefly reunited with Charles XII at the Siege of Fredriksten before the king was killed.
THE HEROIC BUT TRAGIC VICTOR OF HELSINGBORG AND GADESBUCH
The son of a Swedish field marshal, Stenbock began his military career in the Dutch Army before joining the Swedish Army as a major and fighting in the Nine Years’ War. After participating in the Battle of Flaurus he was promoted to colonel. At the start of the Great Northern War he was wounded at the Battle of Narva but was promoted to major general and served during the Swedish invasion of Poland (1701-06).
Stenbock was again promoted to collect military funds and as Governor-general of Scania he repelled a Danish army at the Battle of Helsingborg in 1710. He went on to defeat a Danish-saxon force at the Battle of Gadesbuch in 1712, which led to his promotion to field marshal. However, his reputation was blemished when he burned the German port of Altona before he was captured by the Danes at the Siege of Tönnig in 1714. After a failed escape from Copenhagen, Stenbock was imprisoned the Kastellet fortress and eventually died after years of ill-treatment. He is now considered a Swedish national hero.
CARL GUSTAV REHNSKIÖLD
MAGNUS STENBOCK
AUGUSTUS II
THE OVERAMBITIOUS MONARCH WHO ENCOURAGED THE WAR BUT LOST HIS THRONE
The son of Elector John George IV of Saxony, Augustus succeeded his father in 1694. He was then elected as king of the Polish-lithuanian Commonwealth in 1697 out of 18 candidates after converting to Roman Catholicism from Lutheranism. His ambitions to conquer Swedish
Livonia (which had previously been a Polish province) led to Augustus forming the triple alliance with Russia and Denmark-norway, which began the Great Northern War.
The conflict greatly damaged the Polish economy while Augustus was continually defeated by the Swedes. He personally lost the Battle of Kliszów while his forces were beaten at Riga and Pułtusk. Warsaw was captured and civil war broke out. After the Swedes won the Battle of Fraustadt, Augustus was forced to abdicate the Polish throne in
1706 and was replaced by a Swedish puppet, Stanisław Leszczynski. When Peter the Great won the Battle of
Poltava, Augustus was able to regain his throne but Russia annexed Livonia in 1720. By the time of his death in 1733, Poland had lost its status as a great European power.
In 1703, Tsar Peter the Great of Russia founded the city of St Petersburg on the site of a captured fortress in the province of Ingermanland. His army had taken the territory from Sweden, and his vision to vanquish Russia’s northern rival finally appeared possible. Still, the Great Northern War was to last more than two decades, from 1700-1721.
Coalition warfare ebbed and flowed as the nations and principalities of northern Europe sought to throw off the yoke of Swedish military, political and economic dominance that had existed for a half century since the days of the famed Gustavus Adolphus. When 15-yearold Charles XII ascended to the throne of the Swedish empire, the rulers of Russia, Denmark and Poland-saxony believed their cause was ripe. However, the balance of power did not shift precipitously until the great Russian victory at Poltava in July 1709. Even then, Charles XII persisted until his death in battle at Fredriksheld nine years later. Finally, the last great obstacle to a ‘Russian’ peace was removed.
When the Great Northern War ended, there was no doubt as to the preeminence of Russia in northern and eastern Europe. St Petersburg became famous as Peter the Great’s ‘Window to the West’, a symbol of a burgeoning empire that would remain dominant, for better or worse, for the next 300 years – and remains so today.
The coalition victory in the Great Northern War relegated Sweden to secondary status, and four separate treaties signed between 1719 and 1721 stripped the fallen empire of much of its territory and influence. During
the protracted conflict, Russia had seized all Swedish lands along the east coast of the Baltic Sea, including Estonia, Lovinia, Finland and Ingermanland. The Treaty of Nystad formalised these conquests, while Russia retained southern Finland and relinquished the rest of that territory to Sweden along with a payment of two million silver coins. The agreement marked the end of imperial Sweden, which then entered a period of parliamentary rule known as the ‘Age of Liberty’. Conversely, Russia rose to prominence with Peter the Great leading a vast and vibrant new empire.
In essence, Russia’s former allies found themselves subservient to a new colossus, exchanging Swedish hegemony for Russian. Access to the port cities of the Baltic facilitated growing trade and the extension of Russian culture in northern Europe.
While initiating progressive reforms and programs within Russia during the ‘Age of Enlightenment’, Peter the Great abolished many of the feudal and Medieval practices of a previously ‘backward’ Tsardom, replacing old convention with ‘Westernised’ governmental and educational institutions. As these reforms were initiated within, Peter continually invested in the improvement of St Petersburg, a monument to his vision of expanding power and prestige and the Western perspective of the
Russian empire in Europe. The city was renowned for its beauty, and the construction of the Peterhof palace, which became known as the Russian Versailles, reflected the emerging stature of the empire.
As the northern and eastern frontiers of the Russian empire stabilised, Peter utilised the catalyst of military victory to expand Russian influence further beyond the empire’s borders. With the Russian army gaining proficiency, Peter was instrumental in the growth and strengthening of the Russian navy following the Great Northern War and the hard-won access to the Baltic. In 1722-1723, he turned to the south, confident in the military that had once been considered inferior – and even something of a joke among those of other major powers. His expedition into Persia greatly expanded Russian territory in the regions of the Caucasus and the Caspian
Sea. His later alliance with Persia countered the rival Ottoman Empire in the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
Although his 42-year reign ended with his early death at age 52 in 1725, Peter the Great had laid the foundation of Russian influence for the next three centuries. Traditional European powers, including Great Britain and France, were compelled to acknowledge Russian economic and political prowess, wary of their extension further westward. Peter the Great’s victory in the Great Northern War, though only accomplished after years of bitter fighting, elevated Russia from a feudal bit player on the world stage to the foremost power in eastern and northern Europe and a worthy competitor for empire
across the globe.
Despite Sweden’s ultimate defeat in the Great Northern War, its decisive victory at Narva was a key early battle that ensured the conflict would be prolonged and bloody. The war had begun on 22 February 1700 when a coalition of Russia, Denmarknorway and Saxony-poland-lithuania launched an unprovoked attack against Sweden. Their aim was to weaken the Swedish Empire, particularly in the region of what is now the Baltic States. The Swedes had not fought a conflict since the Scanian War of 1675-79 where they had suffered a serious defeat and loss of territory in Pomerania. Their current king was Charles XII who had ascended the throne in 1697 but was still only 17 years old in February 1700.
The coalition expected an easy victory against the Swedish teenage monarch but the inexperienced Charles was already a confident commander. He successfully invaded Zealand and knocked Denmark-norway out of the war by the terms of the Treaty of Travendal in August 1700. He then turned his forces east to deal with the substantial threat from the Russians in Swedish territory that now forms part of Estonia.
The fortress city of Narva – with its garrison of 1,800 men – was one such place that was under threat from Russian encroachment. It had been besieged since September 1700 by approximately 35,000-38,000 soldiers from
Tsar Peter the Great’s armies while Saxon-polish troops under Augustus II had planned to camp outside Riga in Swedish Livonia. The more immediate threat came from the Russians who began bombarding Narva on 31 October.
Charles decided to advance on the city with only 8,000-10,000 men. Peter the Great left
Narva and left the command of his army to the German field marshal, Charles Eugène de Croÿ. The Russians outnumbered the Swedes by three to one and were able to entrench themselves in the contravallations (field fortifications) around Narva. Nevertheless, the contravallations were too long for the Russians to properly defend, which was an unexpected weakness that
Charles chose to exploit on 30 November 1700.
A bold attack
Against this battle line, the Swedes used the cover a sudden blizzard to concentrate their attack on two points by advancing in columns of infantry and horsemen. This was too quick for the Russians to deploy their artillery and Charles’s men managed to break through the two points. De Croÿ was caught out by speed of the Swedish army and believed their small size was only the advance guard of a larger force. This miscalculation had an impact throughout the Russian besiegers with the 5,000-strong cavalry fleeing their left flank at the first Swedish charge. The Russian infantry subsequently abandoned the right flank and their lines were split in three. The Swedes were then able to fight each split separately.
To make matters worse for the Russians, their contravallations were screened by the Swedish cavalry. Their defences became a barrier that prevented many from escaping the battlefield, although large numbers fled only to be drowned in the River Dvina. Around 6,000-8,000 Russians were killed and 20,000 captured, including De Croÿ. Such were the numbers of prisoners that Charles only kept the officers and allowed the private soldiers safe passages home. The Swedes, however, suffered fatalities of just around 600 and over 1,000 wounded.
Narva was the first substantial battle of the war and an impressive victory for Charles. He had inflicted a catastrophic defeat on the numerically superior Russians but the Swedish army was in such poor condition that he could not consider a follow-up campaign into Russia. He instead turned south into Poland-lithuania to inflict dramatic defeats on Augustus II.
Peter the Great was able to rebuild and improve the quality of his army during the winter of 1700-01 and recover for the following campaign season. Charles may have won the Battle of Narva but the renewal of Russian forces would prolong the war for decades and ultimately lead to his downfall.
“SUCH WERE THE NUMBERS OF PRISONERS THAT CHARLES ONLY KEPT THE OFFICERS AND ALLOWED THE PRIVATE SOLDIERS SAFE PASSAGES HOME”