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Admin moved page Why did Charles XII of Sweden fail to conquer Russia in 1708? to Why did Charles XII of Sweden fail to conquer Russia in 1708
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[[File: Karl_(Charles)_XII_of_Sweden.png|300px|thumbnail|left|Charles the XII of Sweden]]
====Background====
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 Europe's powerhouses 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 of the Thirty Years War.
By the 1660s, the Kingdom of Sweden directly controlled Finland's modern states 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.
A council of regents had controlled the young monarch at first, but at the incredibly young age of fifteen, he became the kingdom's sole ruler. The sight of a mere boy on the Throne of Sweden alerted the neighbors 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 Denmark's kingdoms, 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 the 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, <i>History of Scandinavia: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland</i> (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>
====Charles XII invasion of Russia, 1708-1709====
According to Voltaire, he wanted to annihilate Peter the Great. The Swedish monarch was quoted as saying ‘"I have resolved never to start an unjust war but never to end a legitimate one except by defeating my enemies."<ref> Voltaire, p. 37</ref> In 1708, he ordered a general invasion of Russia, and he decided to ally himself with the rebellious Cossacks who had revolted against Peter in Ukraine. Ivan Mazepa, Hetman of the Ukrainian Cossacks, managed to secure a vast area independent of the Russians.
At the last minute, Charles assembled a large army but was obliged to leave some of his troops with the Polish King, who was his puppet. In total, the Swedish army was composed of 50,000 men, mostly Swedes and Finns. Many units were needed to defend Sweden and its extensive Empire. Charles marched his army into Livonia (now Belorussia). The Russians and the Swedes clashed in a great Battle of Holowczyn. Charles was confronted by a huge Russian army that was numerically superior to his own. The Swedish king secured a great victory with only minimal losses. The Russians decided that it was best not to meet the Swedes on in the battle and adopted guerrilla and hit and run tactics.
At this point, Charles was urged to march on St Petersburg, but the young monarch wanted to seize Moscow and put a puppet on the throne. He ordered the troops he had left with the Polish king to join him, no sooner than they had left that his Polish ally faced a general revolt. The reinforcements were attacked by Peter’s army and suffered many casualties and lost many precious cannons. Charles was now reliant on the support of the massive Cossack rebellion led by Mazepa in Ukraine.<ref> Derry, p. 116</ref> the Hetman had told the Swedes of the Cossacks that he could provide them with 40,000 men.
Charles XII was one of the most talented military leaders of the Early Modern era. Voltaire did not doubt that the entire invasion of Russia was a mistake. 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 geography and climate to great effect. They adopted a cautious approach, knowing that the elements would help them 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, which played a crucial factor in the Swedish invasion's defeat. In hindsight, Charles XII did not really hope of for victory over the Russian Tsar, and the invasion was doomed from the start. <youtube>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTbbTMb5HVA</youtube>
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