Changes

Today we associate Sweden with liberal values and a peaceful society. It has not been involved in a war since the Napoleonic era. However, in the Early Modern Period the Kingdom of Sweden was one of the powerhouses of Europe and the greatest power in Northern Europe.<ref> Peterson, Gary Dean. <i>Warrior kings of Sweden: the rise of an empire in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries </i> (London, McFarland, 2007), p. 2</ref> Under the House of Vassa the kingdom had expanded greatly. It had emerged as one of the real winners from the Thirty Years War. By the 1660s the Kingdom of Sweden directly controlled the modern states of Finland and the Baltic States. It also had extensive possessions in Northern Germany, Poland and Russia.<ref> Peterson, p. 215</ref> Its fleet also dominated the Baltic. Charles XI of Sweden had managed to defend the extensive Empire and had greatly expanded its influence. This able king died while still a relatively young man. His son became king of Sweden at the age of fifteen. The young monarch belonged to the Royal German House of Palatinate. Charles was the only surviving son of Charles XI and his German wife Ulrika Eleonora the Elder.

The young monarch at first had been controlled by a council of regents but at the incredibly young age of fifteen he became the sole ruler of the kingdom. The sight of a mere boy on the Throne of Sweden alerted the neighbours of the Swedes. They all had grievances with the Swedes and resented what they saw as their domination in the Baltic Sea. In 1700, a triple alliance of the kingdoms of Denmark, Poland and Russia launched a three-pronged attack on the Swedes. The Poles and Danes attacked the Swedes in Northern Germany and the Russians attacked them in the Baltics and thus began the Great Northern War. It seemed that the young Swedish monarch would lose his empire but the young man was to prove himself to be a military genius. Charles launched a surprise attack on Copenhagen and knocked the Danes out of the war. Charles then secured major victory over a much larger Russian army in 1700 at the Battle of Narva, when Peter the Great narrowly escaped with his life. Later Charles campaigned in Poland and imposed his choice of king on the country. The Swedes secured devastating victory by Swedish forces under the general Rehnskiöld over the Russians and their Saxon allies at the Battle of Fraustadt in 1706.<ref>Thomas Derry, History of Scandinavia: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland (2000) p 154</ref> By that year all the enemies of Charles XII had been vanquished and only Peter the Great remained at war. The Russian Tsar sued for peace but Charles rejected the overtures and decided to invade Russia. By this time, he was popularly known as ‘The Alexander of the West’, a comparison with Alexander the Great.<ref> Voltaire. <i>The History of Charles XII </i> (London, Upton House, 1911), p. 34</ref>

However, the Russian army was quick to react and they launched a surprise attack on the Cossacks at their capital Batruin in the Ukraine. They did so before the Cossacks could rendezvous with the Swedish army.<ref> Hatton, R.M. <i>Charles XII of Sweden </i> (London, MacFarland,1968), p. 113</ref> The invasion force of Charles was now in the vast Steppes of the Ukraine with little support and an overextended supply line. Winter was approaching and in the cold many, soldiers succumbed to frostbite. The Swedes decided to retreat to their winter camp in Western Ukraine in November 1708. In the following summer of 1709 in a skirmish with some Russians, Charles was wounded and fell into a coma. The leadership of the army passed to Rehnskiöld. The Swedes came across the army of Peter the Great at the fort of Poltava in June 1709. Despite being inferior in numbers they besieged Poltava. Rehnskiöld launched several assaults on the fortifications but all ended in failure, one assault ended in disaster and the entire army retreated in chaos. The Swedish king was by now able to once again lead his men but it was too late. The bulk of the Swedish army retreated to Perevolochna, where they were soon encircled and forced to surrender. Charles XII managed to escape with a small number of followers into Ottoman territory and he later returned to Sweden. The invasion of Russian was a disaster and it spelled the end of the Swedish Empire and marked the advent of Russia onto the European stage as a major power.

After the Russians defeat at Holowczyn, they dramatically changed tactics. Peter the Great and his generals adopted a cautious strategy. They decided to avoid a set battle with Charles whose army though inferior was much superior in terms of experience and training. Instead they adopted delaying tactics knowing that the Swedes would suffer in the Steppes during the winter.<ref> S . Sebag-Montefiore. <i>The Romanovs </i> (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London, 2015), p. 114</ref> They also concentrated on attacks on Charles XII supply line and reinforcements. This effectively weakened the invading army. Perhaps the most brilliant piece of strategy in the war was the Russians unexpected attack on the Cossacks. This was to leave Charles isolated during the Steppes at the onset of winter. Tsar Peter the Great and his inner circle, developed a strategy that avoided direct confrontation.<ref> Derry, p. 213</ref> Their patience was rewarded and the hungry and cold Swedish army was forced to gamble on a battle at Poltava to quickly win the war. This was a disaster and it sealed the fate not only of the Swedish invasion but also the Swedish Empire. The strategy of Peter was to a large extent like that adopted by Tsar Paul I against Napoleon and by Stalin during Hitler’s invasion.

Charles XII was one of the most talented military leaders of the Early Modern era. Voltaire had no doubt that the entire invasion of Russia was a mistake and in a critical biography he blamed Charles for the collapse of the Swedish Empire.<ref> Voltaire, p. 99</ref> The Swedish king’s entire strategy of invading Russia was arguably unrealistic. He made a cardinal error by marching on Moscow and he should have attacked and conquered St Petersburg instead. Then he placed too much trust in the Cossacks and his trust in them was misplaced, indeed they possibly distracted him from a direct assault on Moscow, which may have given him some chance of success. Then there was the strategy of the Russians. They used the geography and climate to great effect. They adopted a cautious approach, with the knowledge that the elements would help them to defeat the Swedes. Imperial Russian forces were also a modern fighting force and they fought courageously in defense of ‘Holy Russia’. Then there were the vast spaces and inclement weather of the Russian Steppe and these played a crucial factor in the defeat of the Swedish invasion. Charles XII in hindsight did not really have a hope of victory over the Russian Tsar and the invasion was doomed from the start.