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Poltava 1709: Russia comes of age (Campaign)

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Poltava 1709

Few Americans have benefited from a formal education that included studies of the Great Northern War and the campaigns of Charles XII of Sweden. We seem to have to remind ourselves that, at one time, Sweden was a power to be reckoned with in European affairs. This interesting and well written book gives a quick review of the events leading up to the battle of Poltava, which marked the end of Sweden's dominance in northern Europe - and the start of Russian influence in the history of Europe.

The author discusses the events leading up to the ill-fated attempt to again `put Russia in her place'. He gives a very good description of the armies involved, as well as the contrasting tactics employed by each. branch. His description of the lives and careers of the two protagonists, Charles XII and Tsar Peter, add to the overall quality of the book. The maps are clear and enlightening, as is usually the case in other books of this series.

I strongly recommend this book to others who are interested in the subject. I feel that it reads as easily as a good novel and that it tends to inspire one to seek out further books on the subject.

This is a great book to learn all of the basic facts regarding the Battle of Poltava, and the results of the state of Europe afterward.

I say it's great for the basic facts, because it packs in what exactly happened leading to the battle to the end result including strategies and tactics, but it doesn't bring you in the mind of the soldier. To restate, you will read about all of the objective facts of the battle, and the maps help the reader visualize how the battle took place.

To learn about the Battle of Poltava on a more personal level, I recommend reading "The Battle That Shook Europe: Poltava and the Birth of the Russian Empire," by Peter Englund. You'll see the war from the Swedish perspective there.

Like nearly all books in this Osprey series this book starts out with an short description of the geopolitical position of its parties, in this case Sweden, at the height of its imperial power, and Russia, an up and coming state. Then the book provides a short, but very good nevertheless, discussion of the two kings, Charles the 12th and Peter the Great, along with a discussion of their main generals. Then the two armies are elaborated on in terms of numbers, officers, weapons, troops and their training, morale and most importantly, tactical and strategic battle doctrines. The author concludes that Russia's greatest strength (and what enabled it to win) were the reforms that Peter the Great enacted after the previous defeat of Russia by Sweden (mainly tactical battle doctrine and tactics and troop training and discipline). Sweden's greatest strength was the professional quality of its army (probably the best in Europe at the time) but there were two factors that were greatly against it. One was Swedish battle doctrine which emphasized a series of short volleys followed by charging at the enemy. This tactic served the Swedes well against armies that were not very well trained and disciplined (like Russia's before Poltava) and Polish forces but against a better disciplined army and trained army and one with tactics specially designed against this strategy (like Russia's after the the initial Swedish victories before Poltava) they were to prove lacking, to say the least. More importantly however, in the author's view, was Charles the 12's underestimation of the Russians (a problem that Napoleon and Hitler also had). He had easily defeated them previously and thought this campaign would be the same. Unfortunately Tsar Peter's reforms would make this a fatal mistake.

The book then goes into the history of the campaign and how it eventually led to the Swedish army's being strategically hemmed in at Poltava and having to fight a battle that was probably lost even before it started. The extremely bad winter, Russian scorched earth policies and attritional battles leading to this battle are all discussed albeit succinctly. The book provides very good tactical maps of the battle fields and illustrations of the weapons and troops (mostly contemporary) that give the reader a very good feel of both the battle and how (visually) the battles of the time were fought. The one weakness of the book is that it lacks strategic maps showing the Swedes' movements through Russia, where major attritional battles were fought and how they eventually found their way to Poltava, distant from both their goal of Moscow and from any fall back area like Poland. Such a map would have given the reader an excellent idea of the distances travelled and why the Swedish army was so worn down by the time of the battle of Poltava.

In conclusion the author provides another short, but very good, discussion of the consequences of Charles the 12's defeat. Basically that the loss of his army enabled his Russian and non-Russian opponents (i.e., predominately Danish, Poles and Prussians), within only a few years, to strip Sweden of its super power status.

All and all a very good survey of this little known but important battle that eventually led to the the reduction of Sweden's super power status and, conversely, the rise of Russia as leading European power that can be completed in only about an hour or so of time.