With the Battle of Poltava, Russia stroke a
crippling blow to Sweden and its King. But the war was not over, it dragged on
for another decade, and even threatened to erase what Peter had built. Explore how
Peter led his country for the following decade of the Great Northern War.Aftermath of the Battle of Poltava
With the Swedish army in
ruins and its King in hiding in Moldavia, Russia and its allies advanced
against Sweden. With Charles XII trapped away from home, Swedish forces
throughout his conquest lands found themselves leaderless. Peter and his allies
took the opportunity to retake the lands they lose and take what they can from
the Swedes.
A month after the defeat
of Charles XII in Poltava, King Augustus II marched backed to Krakow with a new
Saxon army. He retook his Polish crown and reentered the conflict to expel
Swedish forces from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. At the same, other
allies also mobilized against Sweden.
The Danes also reentered
the war at the same time as King Augustus. King Frederick IV invaded Scania in
Sweden itself. After which, he joined forces with the Norwegians to advance
further inland.
Peter on the other hand
took as much cities and lands as he could. By late 1709, they began to invade
Finland and advanced to Swedish Livonia and Ingria. In April 1710, Russians
took Viborg. In July 1710, they captured the vital Swedish held city of Riga.
All of what Charles XII had gained from the past decade had been taken back by
Peter and his allies.
Turkish Interlude
The Turkish Ottoman
Empire, however, threatened Russia as the war turned into her favor. The
Ottoman Empire had hosted King Charles XII to a settlement in Bender, in the
Turkish controlled Moldavia. Charles urged the Ottoman Sultan Ahmed III to
declare war against Russia. The Ottoman’s had an interest to favor Charles
XII’s demand. Previously, Peter had taken the Turkish held fort of Azov that
laid in the mouth of the Don River. Following the fall of Azov, Russia made the
Sea of Azov into its own lake, and cemented it by establishing the city of
Taganrog. The Turks wanted to retake the Sea of Azov.
On October 29, 1710, the
Ottoman Empire declared war against Russia. The Sultan ordered the arrest of
the Russian ambassador Peter Tolstoi and raised a 200,000 man strong army to
attack southern Russia. In 1711, Peter commanded an army of 25,000 to 40,000
army to face the Ottoman threat. But in a decisive battle in July, 1711, Peter
the Great suffered a humiliating defeat since the Battle of Narva a decade ago.
Peter had no choice but
to negotiate with the Turks. But luckily for Peter, the terms of the Peace of
Pruth did not came severely. The only severe terms from the treaty was it
forced Russia to abandon Azov and its newly founded city of Taganrog. The
agreement ended the Turkish interlude to the Great Northern War to the dismay
of Charles XII. The Treaty of Adrianople in 1713 cemented the Peace of Pruth by
re-affirming its terms.
Charles XII tried his
best to keep the Ottomans fighting the Russia so that Sweden could take chance
to launch a counter-offense against the allied countries of Russia. But his
urging became so frantic that it irritated and annoyed Turkish officials. In
addition, the Swedish contingent in Bender had become notorious to the Turks.
In annoyance over the
attitude of the Swedes, the Turks arrested Charles XII in 1713 and kept him
until 1714. Only then that Charles XII manage to escape from captivity and
began his journey back to Sweden and to lead his country directly again.
The Turkish interference
in the war led to Russia's loss of its gains in the Black Sea during the last
decade of the 17th century. Nevertheless, the Russians still
had some benefit when in the end, the Turks decided to arrest Charles XII and
delayed his return to his country and threaten Russia again.
Continuing Victories and Beginning of the End
The war dragged on for
another decade after Peter’s defeat in the Pruth River. Sweden refused to negotiate
for peace. Moreover, King Charles XII managed to leave the Ottoman Empire and
return to his homeland in 1714 to lead his troops. By 1714, Russia had
continued to gain more territories. By May of the same year, Russia controlled
most of Finland.
In July 27, 1714, the Russians struck a resounding naval
victory against the most powerful navy in the Baltic, the Swedish Navy, in the
Battle of Gangut or Hango as called by some. In the battle, Peter the Great’s
new Russian Navy under Admiral Feodor Apraxin captured several Swedish
warships. Since then, Russian warships harassed Swedish coastlines. The Danes
and her Norwegian allies continued to distract Charles XII in the west.
Meanwhile, in 1715, Peter gained more allies when Prussia and Great Britain
joined the anti-Swedish alliance. In effect, Europe battered Sweden.
The beginning of the end
of the Great Northern War came in the 1718. In November 30, 1718, during the
siege of Frederikshald, the great Swedish warrior King Charles XII had been
gunned down. Following his fall, her sister Ulrika and her husband Frederick I
began to negotiate with other countries to end the long conflict that engulfed
the Baltic region. In 1719, Sweden concluded peace with Prussia in the Peace of
Stockholm. Another treaty followed in 1720, when Sweden and Denmark signed the
Peace of Frederiksborg. Poland ceased to participate in the war by 1719.
Russia, however, scored another naval victory in the Battle of Grengham before
finally negotiating with the Swedes resulting to the Treaty of Nystad.
The Treaty of Nystad
cemented Russia position as the dominant force in the Baltic region and as the
great power in European politics. Under the Treaty, Russia gained control of
the lands from Riga to Viborg. It meant that Russia controlled the half of the
Gulf of Finland and gained access to the Baltic Sea. It controlled Estonia,
Livonia, Ingria, and Karelia. In consideration to the Swedes, Peter agreed to
return Finland to Sweden. Russia gained substantially from the treaty.
Aftermath of the Great Northern War
The Great Northern War
brought greatly affected Peter the Great’s reign and Russia. In a larger
perspective, Russia emerged as the superpower in the Baltic and a great power
in the European stage. Peter got what he wanted – access to the Baltic Sea. The
testament to Peter’s access to the Baltic became visible with his foundation of
the new capital city St. Petersburg. Peter’s prestige grew tremendously in the
international stage. In 1721, after the war, Peter declared Russia an Empire
and he and his successors became Emperors and Empresses.
The Romanovs married off
to several high ranking nobles. Such as Princess Anna Ivanovna Romanovna (the
future Empress Anna I) who married the Duke of Courland in 1710. Catherine
Ivanovna Romanovna married the Duke of Mecklenburg in 1716. And Prince Alexei
Petrovich Romanov married Charlotte of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel.
Russia also emerged with
a strong and mighty military. It had large army in terms of servicemen and in
effect, one of the largest armies in Europe. But the Russian army did not just
grew in numbers but also in weaponry. Peter established numerous arms factories
to produce modern weapons. He realized his dream of a Russian Navy, with its
several warships dominating the Baltic Sea.
But from the view of the
majority of Russians – the peasants and the serfs – the Great Northern War
brought the worst conditions that they ever imagined. Men from each household
had been dragged to serve in the army for 25 years. These men faced battle and
threat of hunger, fatigue, and exposure to the elements. Not to mention, harsh
treatment and abuses that they might face from their officials. If some did not
end up in the military, they ended up working in mines, factories, and
shipyards. Conditions there paralleled that of soldiers. Besides losing a
family member, heavy taxes to finance the war added insult to injury for many
Russians. Many also loss their homes and their livelihoods much to the credit
of the scorched-earth policy of Peter in 1708 and 1709 to weaken the Swedish
advance.
For better or for worst,
the Great Northern War defined Peter the Great’s rule. It showed the resilience
of its people and that of its ruler. It showed Peter the Great’s energy to
mobilize a country to its full potential and make it from a backwater to a
great power. It showed also the greatness of the Russia people to survive the
two decade conflict. Indeed, the outcome that Russia emerged as a great power
showed the greatness of Peter and his people.
Explore also:
Bibliography:
“Great Northern War.” In Wars
of the Age of Louis XIV: 1650 – 1750. Edited by Cathal Nolan. Westport,
Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2008.
Boterbloem, Kess. A
History of Russia and Its Empire: From Mikhail Romanov to Vladimir Putin.
Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2014.
Bucher, Greta. Daily
Life in Imperial Russia. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2008.
Buskovitch, Paul. A
Concise History of Russia. New York, New York: Cambridge University Press,
2012.
Gilbert, Adrian. Encyclopedia
of Warfare: From Earliest Time to the Present Day. London: Fitzroy
Dearborn, 2000.
Kort, Michael. A
Brief History of Russia. New York, New York: Facts On File, 2008.
Moss, Walter. A
History of Russia Volume I: To 1917. London: Anthem Press, 2005.
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