Battle of Poltava - Prelude

Prelude

Charles XII led early Swedish victories at Copenhagen and at the Battle of Narva in 1700 when he knocked both Denmark-Norway and Russia temporarily out of the war. However, he was unable to bring the war to a conclusion, and it would take six years before he had dealt with the remaining combatant Augustus II of Saxony-Poland.

During this time Peter I of Russia rebuilt his army into modern form, basing it primarily on infantry trained to use linear tactics and modern firearms properly. He then achieved a stunning propaganda victory when he established the city of Saint Petersburg on Swedish territory, in Ingria.

Trying to end the war, Charles ordered a final attack on the Russian heartland with a possible assault on Moscow from his campaign base in Poland. The Swedish army of almost 44,000 men left Saxony on 22 August 1707 and marched slowly eastwards. When they reached the Vistula River they waited for it to freeze and didn't cross until 30 December, then continued through a hostile Masuria and took Grodno on 28 January 1708 after the Russians had left without a fight. At that time, the Russians had been dealing with a large rebellion of Don Cossacks, known as Bulavin Rebellion. The mutiny was contained in part by the forces of the Cossack Hetmanate led by Hetman Ivan Mazepa. The Swedes continued to the area around Smorgon and Minsk where the army went into winter quarters. Left in western Poland were 8,000 dragoons under major-general von Krassow.

The Swedish army, which had suffered badly from different epidemic diseases during the winter, left its quarters in early June 1708 and marched towards Smolensk. During the spring General Lewenhaupt in Courland had been ordered to gather supplies and march with his army of about 12,000 men to join Charles' army, although he didn't leave Mitau until late June and couldn't join Charles' forces until 11 October.

At one point they were only 130 kilometres apart, but Charles gave up because he needed supplies, and turned south into Ukraine in search of grain and better weather. According to the Russian history the Ukrainian forces, under the command of Cossack hetman Ivan Mazepa, had been in discussions with Charles for some time, and at this point he, Mazepa, officially allied himself to the Swedes in order to gain independence from Russia. However there is no direct evidence or documentary proof of any preliminary negotiations between Mazepa and Charles. Mazepa, however, had sent most of his Cossacks to Belarus and Right-bank Ukraine to contain Polish forces, and Charles's decision to turn to Ukraine, according to Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, was unexpected for Mazepa. His plans were that Charles's forces would move forward to Moscow and then he could create his own uprising in Ukraine.

As Charles forces were moving towards Ukraine, Peter sent his Moscow reserves to intercept them at Starodub and asked Mazepa to supply some reinforcements. Lewenhaupt followed south and was attacked while crossing a river near a small village that gave name to the Battle of Lesnaya. His forces met the Russian attack, but they were amazed to find that the new Russian army gave them a serious fight. Lewenhaupt, seeing that he was about to lose, decided to rejoin Charles with all speed, so he abandoned the cannon, the cattle and most of the food, driving the soldiers to mutiny. Stealing all of the alcohol, the soldiers became drunk, and Lewenhaupt was forced to leave about 1,000 men drunk in the woods. By the time they finally reached Charles and the main force in the winter, only 6,000 men without supplies remained. Mazepa was hesitant and gathered the Starshina Council to decide the further course of actions. The council approved the negotiations with Charles. He left his last Cossack reserves in Baturin and moved to the Desna River for negotiations with Charles. When Peter heard of that move he sent Aleksandr Menshikov to Baturin and mercilessly razed the city. A series of repressions spread throughout the Cossack Hetmanate along with claims that Mazepa had deserted to the Swedes in order to subjugate Ukraine to Poland, provide Unia, and root Orthodoxy out of Ukraine. Tsar decrees were sent to starshina inviting them to Glukhov. In Glukhov Mazepa was figuratively dismissed as Hetman and replaced with the Starodub Colonel Ivan Skoropadsky.

In the spring Charles resumed his advance, but his army had been reduced by about one-third due to starvation, frostbite and other effects of the weather. The wet weather had also seriously depleted the army's supplies of gunpowder; the cannon were also essentially out of action, due to a lack of usable ammunition. Charles's first action was to lay siege to the fort of Poltava on the Vorskla River in Ukraine. Peter had already organized a huge force to protect it, and he quickly arrived. On 27 June, Charles received information that large Kalmyk forces were going to join Peter and cut off all supplies to the Swedish Army. The Zaporozhian Host that was in opposition to Mazepa decided after some hesitation to side with Mazepa and Charles. Moscow forces with the help of the Cossack starshina Galagan, who disclosed Mazepa's intentions, conducted a pre-emptive strike and destroyed the Sich, thus denying any possible reinforcements to Swedish troops.