#frederick iv

When Peter and his older brother Ivan V simultaneously succeeded their elder brother Feodor III, Russia was a massive, yet land-locked nation that had turned inward from the rest of Europe decades earlier. After Peter’s sickly brother Ivan died in 1696, Russia became the sole Tsar of Russia and immediately set out to modernize his backwards nation by adopting European social, political, economic, and cultural standards. Peter subjected himself to the same new standards and during his great tour of Europe, the Grand Embassy of Peter the Great, in 1696-97, Peter immersed himself in the latest continental advances in medicine, math, science, shipbuilding, and theories of political governance. Largely traveling incognito, albeit with a large and rowdy retinue of nobles and advisors along with servants, Peter witnessed the dissection of corpses, worked with his hands in a Dutch East India Company shipyard, and absorbed European customs. Returning to Moscow in 1697, Peter determined that Russia could only attain greatness as a nation by expanding westward and seeking greater access and exposure to the rest of Europe, primarily by gaining warm-water ports on the Baltic Coast.

The problem was that the Baltic Coast was controlled by Sweden, then one of the preeminent military powers of Europe, with a well-trained army and navy that allowed them to project power throughout the Baltic and into the European continent. Ruling over this Baltic empire was the young Charles XII, new to power. Peter, who was 15 years Charles’s senior and been on the Russian throne since Charles was an infant, regarded the new Swedish monarch as a weakling to be bullied through a military alliance. Peter secretly concluded such an alliance with Frederick IV of the combined kingdom of Denmark-Norway and Augustus II, or the Strong, who was king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Elector of Saxony, and also had claims on the Swedish throne.

Peter’s plan was for the Russians to invade the upper Baltic territory controlled by Sweden while Augustus invaded more southern states, meanwhile Frederick would threaten the Swedish homeland by assembling an invasion force in the Danish capital of Copenhagen. Charles recognized what was happening and quickly assembled the army. In a lightning campaign, Charles crossed the Baltic straits between southern Sweden and Denmark, routed Frederick’s army and then marched on the Copenhagen. Frederick sought a truce and Charles dictated the Peace of Travendal, forcing Frederick to withdraw from the alliance. With one foe defeated, Charles next turned to Swedish-controlled Estonia. A large Russian army--said by some historical sources to number 80,000, but more like closer to 35,000-40,000--had invaded Estonia and laid siege to the fortress city of Narva. The garrison of Narva was small, but well-supplied and was able to resist the siege. Peter and his senior commanders realized that their Russian army, while it had begun to experience the European-style reforms which Peter instituted, was still not as well-trained or equipped as the Swedes, entrenched their besieging army behind wood and stone fortifications along the entire length of the siege lines. This was to protect their rear from a surprise attack by a relief force since Peter did not think that the Russians had the skill or discipline yet to disengage from the siege and about-face to confront a new enemy.

Charles arrived in Estonia with his victorious army, which was then reinforced with Swedish and Finnish regiments. Charles marched in the direction of Narva to lift the siege. Just days before Charles arrived, Peter left his army to return to Moscow to deal with urgent domestic matters; uprisings in the Russian hinterland by local nobles or officials who disapproved of Peter’s modernization policies were endemic throughout his reign. After having detached some regiments to guard his supply line, Charles arrived outside Narva with 8,000 men. Another 2,500 were in the garrison of Narva. The Swedes were confronted with the large Russian army in seemingly impregnable entrenchments before them. The Russians also had just under 200 cannons; it was a formidable position and Charles halted his army to see if any weaknesses in the Russian line could be found. As the Swedes and Russians faced one another, a blizzard blew across the land, discouraging any maneuvers. At any rate, the Russians were content to stay within their position, confident that it would hold both the garrison of Narva in, and keep Charles and his army out.

Then, late in the day of November 30 (or November 19 under the Old Style calendar then used by the Russians), the winds changed direction and snow started to blow directly in the face of the Russian soldiers, blinding them. Charles recognized an opportunity and immediately, with his entire army, charged the left of the Russian line. The ill-disciplined Russian troops panicked and their officers were unsure of how to respond to an attack that they could barely see developing due to their snow flurries pelting them in the face. Swedish regiments crashed into the Russian position, broke through the entrenchments and, at the point of bayonets, drove the Russians back. Officers fled their units and Russian conscripts hastily fell back to the north where they ran headlong into their comrades holding the northern part of the line. This area of the Russian army had not witnessed the Swedish attack because of the snow and was only marginally aware of what has happening when swathes of their fellow soldiers ran through their position in a panic. This spread and Peter’s commanders could not arrest the situation. Russians began abandoning their position wholesale as Charles and his Swedes pushed north, cutting down retreating enemies as they reached them. The Russians between retreating across the Narva River, but the bridge crossing the river collapsed, causing many to drown and leaving the vast majority of the Russian army and all of its artillery and other supplies trapped on the river bank, with Charles closing in. Penned in and facing annihilation, the remaining Russians surrendered to a force less than half their size.

The army which Charles destroyed at Narva was the only major Russian field army then in existence. Charles had only a handful of small units in Moscow and spread among other garrisons further east, none of which could reach Moscow in time to defend the capital if the Swedes marched in that direction. Curiously, however, Charles chose not to. Ever the tactician, he considered the Russia threat ended, and instead marched south to confront the army of Augustus II, which was in winter quarters in Livonia.