Battle of Poltava

On 8 July 1709 (27 June in the Julian calendar then used in Russia), the army of Tsar Peter the Great crushed the invading Swedish army of Charles XII outside the fortress of Poltava, in what is now central Ukraine. It was the largest and most decisive battle of the Great Northern War. The defeat, followed by the surrender of almost all surviving Swedish troops three days later, ended Sweden's era as the leading power of the Baltic and announced Russia's arrival as a great power.

In the first years of the war Charles XII had beaten the coalition formed against him, winning at Narva in 1700 and eventually forcing Augustus II of Saxony and Poland out of the conflict. Only Russia fought on. Charles refused Peter's offer to return most of the Baltic lands Russia had taken, other than Ingria, where St Petersburg was rising. In August 1707 a Swedish army of nearly 44,000 men left Saxony and headed east towards Moscow.

The Russians retreated before it, burning supplies as they went. Delayed by poor roads and weather, Charles turned south into Ukraine in 1708, counting on the Cossack hetman Ivan Mazepa, who had broken with Peter. The plan unravelled: a Swedish relief column lost its supply train at Lesnaya, and Russian troops under Alexander Menshikov reached Mazepa's capital, Baturyn, first, massacring its people and destroying its stores.

The winter of 1708–1709 was the harshest Europe had known in centuries. By spring Charles had perhaps 20,000 men and 34 guns, about half his original force. In May 1709 he laid siege to Poltava, a fortified depot on the Vorskla river. Peter came to relieve it with an army of roughly 75,000 to 80,000 and built a fortified camp north of the town, screened by a line of earthwork redoubts. On 20 June (Swedish calendar) a stray bullet struck Charles in the foot, and he could no longer stand; command in battle passed to Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Rehnskiöld.

The Swedes planned a pre-dawn attack to rush past the redoubts and strike the Russian camp, but their cavalry lost its way in the dark and the Russians raised the alarm. Some columns broke through the redoubts; others, under General Carl Gustaf Roos, became pinned down attacking them, were cut off and surrendered. Around mid-morning, a thin Swedish line of about 4,000 infantry advanced against some 22,000 Russian foot soldiers supported by artillery. The Swedish right briefly drove the first Russian line back, but the left fell behind, a gap opened, and Russian infantry and cavalry poured through and enveloped the attackers. By noon the Swedish army had disintegrated. Swedish losses are estimated at roughly 9,700 to 12,200 killed, wounded or captured, against roughly 4,600 to 6,000 Russian casualties.

Charles, whose litter had been smashed, left the field on horseback and retreated south with the remnants. At Perevolochna on the Dnieper, on 11 July, General Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt surrendered most of the army, while Charles and Mazepa escaped with about 1,500 men into the Ottoman Empire, settling at Bendery. He remained on Ottoman soil until 1714 and did not reach Sweden itself until December 1715. Many Swedish prisoners were sent to Siberia.

Poltava revived the anti-Swedish coalition, as Denmark and Saxony re-entered the war, and Russia went on to conquer Sweden's Baltic provinces. When peace came in 1721, Russia had replaced Sweden as the dominant power in northern Europe. The battle holds a central place in the national histories of Sweden, Russia and Ukraine.

Our 1700 map shows the Tsardom of Russia and Sweden's Baltic empire before the war, and our 1715 map shows the situation shortly after Poltava.