In 1708
after victories in Poland and
Germany the army of Charles XII
again made its way towards the
borders of Russia hoping to defeat
the Russian army in a decisive
battle and capture Moscow.
On 1
April 1709 the Swedish army sieged
the town of Poltava, which was a
small Russian fortress town in
Ukraine. During the past three
months Charles XII’s trrops had
attacked Poltava several times.
The army had weakened and rations
were scarce. In June the Russians
set up their own military lines
around Poltava, so the Swedes were
strategically surrounded. Charles
XII decided to start the main
attack in the morning of 27 June
1709. |
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King Charles had been wounded a
few days earlier, but he bravely
participated and led his troops in
the battle on his stretchers.
In the
beginning the Swedes were
successful, but the Russian
artillery made the Swedes to draw
back. It wasn’t until 8 o’clock
in the morning when Peter I took
all of his troops to battle and
started an attack - this led to
Russian victory. Over 9 000 Swedes
were left dead on the field and
over 3 000 were taken as prisoners
(Eric Sederholm being one). The
defeated Swedish army headed to
the direction of Dnepr. Charles
XII hid with his small army in the
territory of an old enemy of
Russia - i.e. Turkey.
The
victory at Poltava affected
crucially the events in the Great
Northern War. The warfare spread
all over the Baltic. |
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