566. The Great Northern War: Slaughter on the Steppes (Part 3)

0:10T 'was after dread, Pultova's day, when fortune left the royal Swede. Around a slaughtered army lay no more to combat and bleed. the power and glory of the war, faithless as their vain votaries' men, had passed to the triumphant Tsar, and Moscow's walls were safe again. Until a day more dark and drear, and a more memorable year, should give to slaughter and to shame a mightier host and haughtier name, a greater wreck, a deeper fall, a shock to one, a thunderbolt to all. the beginning there of Lord Byron's poem Mazepa, which he wrote in 1819. And obviously, Dominic, he was writing there in the shadow of Napoleon's invasion of Russia and the failure of his attempt to capture Moscow.

1:04But Byron, although he was famously obsessed by Napoleon, is still very much aware that the Great Northern War, this great titanic clash between Charles XII of Sweden and Peter the Great of Russia, that that conflict was more than fit to stand comparison with the storm and drang of the Napoleonic Wars. And it's kind of tribute, isn't it, to just how deeply the events the summer of 1709, a century on, continue to reverberate through Europe. Yeah, absolutely, Tom. And it's interesting, isn't it, that in the English-speaking world, I think by and large, the Great Northern War has now been forgotten or slightly overlooked.

1:49I think it's been eclipsed, hasn't it, by the War of Spanish Succession and then the Napoleonic Wars and then, of course, the World Wars of the 20th century. But at the time when Byron was writing, these characters, Peter the Great, Charles XII, and the character who gives his name to that poem, so that's Ivan Mazepa, the Hetman of the Cossacks who we talked about last time. These are great romantic heroes, aren't they? They are individuals standing astride the course of history and shaping it to their will. I mean, that's how people like Byron thought about it. Yeah, and they are heroes with a deep shade of darkness.

2:26Well, we've already had the tremendous business of Charles XII's foot, which we were entertaining our assistant producers with just now because they missed yesterday's recording. I know. So a boot full of blood and splintered bone squashing. There's loads of blood and splintered bones to come in today's episode and indeed the final episode of this series. And behind all this is a really major political and diplomatic shift. It's because what we're talking about today is one of the most decisive battles in European history. It's the death knell of one empire, by the Swedish Empire, the birth of another, the Russian, and it redraws the map of Eastern and Northern Europe for centuries to come.

3:06Well, right the way into the present. I mean, the consequences of the Battle of Platova are with us right now. They are indeed, absolutely. So, Tom, shall we remind ourselves where we've got to for those people who are not members of the Restless History Club and are not continuing directly from Episode 4? Go for it. So the Great Northern War has been raging since 1700. People remember that the Swedish Empire are facing this coalition of Denmark, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and Russia. Charles XII had invaded Russia in the summer of 1707, planning to reach Moscow and dictate terms to end the war there.

3:41But everything went wrong. People remember that his supply column under Count Leuvenhaupt was routed. There was a lot of poor behaviour from the Swedes. They got drunk, didn't they? In discipline, I think it's fair to say. And so Charles decided to change his plan and to go on a massive diversion south away from Sweden yeah away from Sweden and away from Moscow into Ukraine where he would team up with the Cossack leader Ivan Mazepa they had that terrible winter 3 ,000 men froze to death and now Charles has been cornered outside the town of Poltava some 200 miles east of Kiev and he is outnumbered at least two to one he has had this terrible foot injury and nearly died but He's come back from the dead.

4:25And on Sunday, the 27th of June, he summoned his generals and said, come on, let's do this. Let's just go for it. Death or glory. A final showdown to decide this war once and for all. And Dominic, that was always what he was going to do. Because if in doubt, he attacks. Exactly. He's very much. Of the Custer and Alexander the Great and Nelson school of thought. He absolutely is. And these are tremendous friends of the rest of history. It's fair to say, although Custer does sometimes let himself down, doesn't he? So, darkness falls on the Sunday evening and let us sketch the scene. The Swedes are camped west of this fortress of Poltava.

5:00There's about 30 ,000 Swedes. And that's about half the force that Charles had set off with. Yeah, and he's been hoping for all these reinforcements from the Crimean Tatars and the Poles and whatnot, who, remember, didn't turn up at the end of the last episode. But his assumption is that one Swede is worth 10 Russians. And that's pretty much everybody's assumption because the Swedes are the finest fighters in Europe. the downside of course is they're frozen they're sodden they've got no feet they've got no gunpowder and no food but even so they still kind of fancy their chances because they're so good now behind the fortress on the other side is the river Vorskla which runs north to south so you've got to imagine that on the right hand side of the picture further north on the same side of the river the western side as the Swedes are 80 ,000 Russians under the Peter the Great, his top general Boris Sheremitov and his great drinking pal Alexander Menshikov, who we talked about before.

5:54Now, if the Swedes do want to attack them, they're going to be charging north towards the Russians and they will have to get past six defensive earthworks, which are known as redoubts. I do love it when you talk military dispositions. Oh, love it. Well, that's nice. So there's more redoubts to come. Each of these redoubts are about 100 feet tall and the Russians have built them on the road from Poltava. So they're kind of like makeshift forts, I suppose. If the Swedes can get past these redoubts, they will reach Peter's camp. And Peter's camp has been fortified with these big earthen ramparts and trenches and loads and loads of cannons.

6:28So it's effectively a fort. So the Swedes, they have it all to do. And Peter, I think, is very confident that he will win. For the first time in this entire story, the Russians have the upper hand. because really, if even a draw is a win for him because he has massive manpower, massive resources, he's on home turf, all he has to do is to avoid defeat. And he has issued that proclamation that you read very resoundingly at the very beginning of this series. Remember the address to the troops? You're doing this for your kin, for Russia. Yeah, the one that Putin's so fond of. The one that Vladimir Putin is so fond of, exactly.

7:05Now, what's Charles thinking? Charles, he knows that his men are exhausted. if they haven't eaten for about six months, all of this. However, he is still confident that their superpower, which is their discipline, their training, their extraordinary fighting spirit will be enough. And partly because of that, he says to Ivan Mazepa, look, you stay out of this. We don't need the Cossacks because they'll just get in the way and they're undisciplined and they'll be riding around shouting and stuff and firing randomly into the air. We don't want that. We don't need your men, which is an extraordinary thing to say.

7:36Yeah, considering he's only, I mean, there's 6 ,000 men and he's only got 30 ,000 and he's facing, what, 80 ,000 or something? Exactly, 80 ,000. So Charles himself is not going to fight, obviously because he's only got one workable foot and he's just on a stretcher. He's going to be with the infantry, but he's going to be carried the whole time and he's surrounded by 24 bodyguards. So he's not even really able, he can't even really sit up, so he can't actually see the battlefield. So he's just looking up at the sky? He's just looking up at the sky and everything is being described to him. And I guess that this is a real problem, because he is an incredibly competent general.

8:12And as we have seen from previous episodes, his two deputies aren't. Well, do you know what? I think you're being too harsh there, Tom, because actually his deputies, I mean, we can talk about them. So the field commander is going to go to Field Marshal Carl Gustav Reinskjeld, who we talked about last time, who has, if you remember, he's full of shrapnel. He was wounded randomly and he's full of shrapnel. He is actually reputed to be one of the best cavalry commanders in Europe. He's very brave. He has that sort of Swedish stoicism. The downside with him is that he's exhausted and not very well because he's full of shrapnel, and he's very bad-tempered, as you might expect.

8:49Well, you would be, wouldn't you? Every time you sit down, you feel a bit of shrapnel digging into your bum. Now, the other guy is Count Löwenhaupt, the man who made a terrible mess of bringing in the supply train. Now, he also is regarded as a very, very competent commander. He's Sweden's best infantry general. The problem is that Rainskjord and Lervenhaupt absolutely despise one another. They won't even really speak to each other. And normally it's fine because Charles is in control, but Charles is lying down staring at the sky. I mean, I'm sure they're competent, but they're not geniuses. And what you need in a situation like this is a kind of Alexander the Great level of charisma and military genius.

9:27I think that's fair. I can't disagree with that at all. Which Charles XII so far had provided. Exactly. So as dusk falls, they make ready to strike the next morning. And their plan is this, just before dawn, they will move out very quickly. They will leave their artillery behind because it will slow them down and because their gunpowder is waterlogged. they'll just rush past these redoubt ignoring the fire from the defenders and then they'll form up on the plain beyond the Swedish cavalry will clear out Alexander Menshikov's dragoons and then the Swedish infantry will pin Peter's troops back inside this sort of encampment and either they will lure Peter's troops out to be destroyed which is, you know, I mean quite a big ask I think it's fair to say or they will blockade them in this fort until they starve and the Swedes think well this is a great plan this is obviously going to work so at about 11 o 'clock night falls we're in summer remember so it gets dark very late the swedes break camp they move to their assembly points charles has got dressed in his full uniform with a sword even though he's lying down on this on the stretcher he's carried to the front where rains guild and lovenhout and co are waiting the watchword is exchanged it's with god's help in swedish because as we said last time that that's a really important element of this.

10:43These Swedish Lutherans think they're doing God's work and that God is smiling on them. While they're waiting for everyone to arrive, Rainsgild and Lervenhaupt have this gigantic row before they've even started. Rainsgild shouts at Lervenhaupt and he's overheard by officers saying, where the hell are you? He says, can't you see that everything is in confusion? I don't need your help. I expected better of you, but I can see that I was wrong. Which obviously isn't. No, I mean, that's not good for morale, is it? If Theo said that to us before we went on stage at the Royal Albert Hall, Tom, that would not be ideal preparation.

11:14I mean, he does say it. He does talk like that to us. I'd have a breakdown. I'd cower. I'd whimper. The Swedes don't whimper. So while the Swedes are not whimpering, they hear this hammering sound out in the darkness. And Reeds Gould sends scouts to investigate. And they come back. They've made a shocking discovery. In the night, the Russians have been building yet more earthworks, these redoubts, right in the path of where the Swedes plan to advance. And the Swedes will have to go round them. And that means they would have to break into kind of two wings passing on either side of them. And just as the scouts are kind of digesting this, they are spotted by the Russians in the darkness.

11:53And they hear there are pistol shots in the night. They hear the ominous sound of a drum beating far away in the night. So they get back to the Swedish lines and they tell this to Rainsfield. And he says, look, we're clearly going to lose the element of surprise here. We have to ride now before it gets light or we'll never have this chance again. And Charles XII says, you know, go for it. Brilliant. So they amend their plan. Basically, they're going to divide into three divisions, the army. On the left-hand side is Field Marshal Rains Guild with the cavalry and a third of the infantry. They're going to go past the redoubts on the left-hand side, rush past them, and then form up on the grasslands beyond.

12:32Then on the right-hand side, so imagine the other side, is Leuwenhaupt with six infantry battalions. So they'll go on the other side of these redoubts, closest to Peter's camp, and then they'll rendezvous with Rainsgjold. And that leaves a sort of middle division of six infantry battalions under a guy called Major General Roos. And they say to him, right, you deal with these forts, these kind of earthworks in the middle. Distract them while we're passing on either side. Now, to explain all this, they've probably took longer to explain it than I did and explained it in perhaps a more detailed and coherent way.

13:12They've lost a lot of time. So it's now about four o 'clock in the morning and the sun is beginning to rise and they can hear the first sounds of cannons firing from the Russian redoubts. The Swedes finally begin to advance and it really is an amazing scene. It's like a scene from a Ridley Scott movie or something. The sun is rising over the grasslands of Ukraine. there's these orderly blocks of Swedish musketeers they're marching over the steps in their blue uniforms there's the cavalry in their kind of blue and yellow coats cantering and trotting on ahead soon they get to the first earthworks and just as planned the Swedish army kind of divides and they sort of go around them like the sea kind of parting around them while in the middle Major General Rus' battalions get stuck in against the redoubt and actually get a bit bogged down straight away So the Russians fight back very fiercely, and Rus' battalions end up getting dragged into a long kind of firefight.

14:06So they get left behind. They sort of dig in in this fight against the forts, which means that the other two wings are pressed on and left a third of the Swedish infantry behind from the very beginning, together with the Cossacks. Right, with the Cossacks, so miles away. So now it's about five o 'clock, and the sun is fully up. As planned, most of the Swedish troops, not this group under Rus, but most of the Swedish troops are now moving on to the grasslands behind the Russian redoubts. And at first, Rainscould and his men are absolutely delighted. They think everything is going to plan. Charles is brought up on a stretcher.

14:42People are redressing the wound on his foot because it's still bleeding all the time. And some of the officers actually say, Your Majesty, congratulations. Everything is going according to plan. This is going to be a great day. And then Rainscould looks around and he says, well, where's the right wing of the army under Löwenhaupt? They should have joined us by now. And actually what has happened is that Löwenhaupt has swung off more than a mile to the right, partly to keep away from the Russian fire from the little forts, but also because he cannot wait to get stuck into Peter's camp. And he doesn't even care that he has become detached from the main body of the army.

15:16He says to his officers, I'm actually sick of Field Marshal Rainscould talking to me like I'm a lackey or a servant or something. You see, I mean, you say that he's a good commander. He seems terrible. He's always wandering off and getting lost. The truth is we've probably missed out because remember we skipped over a lot of the Great Northern War. There were an awful lot of Swedish victories against the Poles and the Saxons or whatever. Okay, well, he's not covering himself with glory here. Have you ever commanded a Swedish infantry division in battle, Tom? No, I haven't. But I think that if I had, and I had a reputation as being the best infantry commander in Europe, I hope that I do a bit better.

15:50I don't think you'd behave quite as courageously as Livenhavn does because Rainscord sends him a messenger very quickly and says, what are you doing? Come back. Come and reform with us. And the messenger arrives just as Livenhavn is ordering his men to storm the southern rampart of Peter's camp. And to give you a sense of the odds here, that's 2 ,500 men charging 30 ,000 Russians. Okay, I mean, that's courageous, but courage doesn't necessarily equate to military competence. No, no, that's true. But it's an extraordinary sign of the Swede's self-belief, which often really matters and is such a huge factor in battle.

16:26I mean, the test is whether it's going to work out well. So let's see. Exactly. Anyway, Lervenhap gets the message, break off the attack. And we'll never know because he does break off that particular attack. So he says, fine, all right. He disengages. He orders his men to rejoin the main force. That's two miles to the west. So it's now six o 'clock. At six o 'clock, around about now, Peter's guns open up from the Russian camp, hammering the Swedish army. The Swedes, of course, can't fire back. They've left their artillery behind because of speed and because of waterlogging issues. They're kind of sitting ducks.

16:59And at one point, a cannonball actually bounces off Charles' stretcher, but it doesn't kill him. So God is really smiling on him now. The Swedes take a long time to sort themselves out. About an hour, Rainscold sends messengers back to Rus at the redoubt saying, come on hurry up what are you doing leave those alone actually what has happened is that russ has got completely sort of bogged down and he's lost half of his men to russian fire by the time he does decide to withdraw he's completely lost track of where he is and what's going on the smoke everywhere so you cannot see even really see where you are he tells his men to withdraw into a nearby wood so that's very battle of the little bighorn isn't it exactly the same kind of scenario at that point, Menshikov's dragoons come thundering in with their sabres drawn, and it's an absolute bloodbath.

17:49About 2 ,000 of Rus' men are cut down or captured. So that means really about a third of the Swedish infantry have been annihilated from that point onwards. A very little cost to the Russians. A very little cost to the Russians. The Russians have not lost many men at this point, and of course the Russians can afford to lose loads, because they have loads. So Rainsfield up on the grasslands, he's waiting and waiting, and that third division never turns up. And at about nine o 'clock, he says, I'm going to have to make a decision. Now, we could attack the Russian camp as planned, but he's like you, Tom.

18:19He's a little bit more cautious. He says, the Russian guns are causing absolute carnage. I'm thousands of men short of what I should have. Actually, do you know what? I think the odds are too great. Let's fall back a bit. Let's rejoin the troops that we've left with the baggage and whatnot, and then we'll see where things stand. And let's not risk everything in a sort of reckless throw the dice. And he gives the order to retreat. He says, all right, prepare to march out and march backwards. And it's at that point that Peter the Great, who has just been sitting there in his camp, that he strikes and that he rolls the dice.

18:53It is the single most important military decision of Peter's life. And the timing is absolutely perfect. I always think it must be like the scene in The Return of the King. when the doors of Minas Morgul crash open and the witch king appears and the great army of Mordor marches out for the attack on Minas Tirith. This is what happens. So basically, suddenly, the entrances of Peter's camp crash open. The bridges crash down over the defensive trenches and then tens of thousands of Russian troops are pouring out of the camp and lining up for battle. They've got their swords, they've got their muskets and their very modern bayonets.

19:34They're ready. And so previously they'd been a massive shambles, but are they now? Absolutely. Everybody had always said, oh, the Russians are useless. Now they've got these nice green uniforms. They're very well drilled. They're very well organized. This is the kind of Russian army, the like of which the Swedes have not seen before. And Peter is there. He's so conspicuous. He's on an Arabian horse that was given him by the Ottoman Sultan. He's wearing a green guard's uniform. He's got his black tricorn hat. He's got his big boots. He's so tall, he looks unbelievably impressive. And Field Marshal Rainsfield says to the Swedes, stop the retreat, we have no choice now.

20:12We have to turn, wheel about, and prepare for battle. So it's now 10 o 'clock. This is the crucial hour. The Swedes are unbelievably outnumbered. So the numbers that are facing each other at this moment is about 5 ,000 infantry of the Swedes with no artillery at all, against 24 ,000 Russian infantry with 70 cannons. And the Swedes, you know, they know that they're really up against it and the only way they can win is A, if God is on their side and B, they're just their spirit and their training and their courage and all of that. Or if Frodo drops the ring into the crack of doom, it's the only way.

20:49Exactly. And there's a wonderful scene which you would have, you know, a sort of Ridley Scott-style director would love this. Rainsfield rides up to Count Lervenhap, the man who, you know, with whom he's had this massive long-running feud. And he holds out his hand to him and he says, Count Løvenhaupt, you must go and attack the enemy. Bear yourself with honour in his majesty's service. And Løvenhaupt takes his hand and he says, in God's name then, and may his grace be with us. So they've made up. It's an amazing scene. Very touching. And he gives the signal and the Swedish drums start beating and they begin to advance this kind of thin blue line against this vast green crescent.

21:29The Russian guns are firing faster and faster. They're ripping holes in the Swedish line, but the Swedes just keep coming. They're not firing. They're just advancing, you know, onwards and onwards. The Russian musketeers start firing, so there's a kind of hailstorm of musket balls. But still the Swedes keep coming. They don't fire a single shot. They want a kind of close action. Very Nelson at Trafalgar, actually. And they're closer and closer, just marching steadily. And then finally the Swedes are on them. and as always when the Swedes attack it is this kind of storm of muskets and bayonets and slashing swords they are not the best soldiers in Europe for nothing they smash into the Russian line they start to push it back on the right hand side they are pushing the green coats backwards you know for a moment it feels like the Swedes are going to do it and actually amid all this Peter is supposedly three times brought close to death.

22:26So once a Swedish musket ball knocks off his hat, another Swedish musket ball hits his saddle, and a third Swedish musket ball, I can sense what you're going to say about this, Tom, is deflected by a cross around his neck that once belonged to the Emperor Constantine the Great. That definitely happened. Yeah, of course that happened. That's not a story from Russian propaganda at all. Of course, had Peter fallen, the result of this might have been very different and the map of europe might look different today but he doesn't fall god is with him not with the swedes and what happens next is a very familiar story from other battles that we've done in this podcast as the swedes press forward the gaps between their left and right become wider and wider peter throws in more reserves the swedes become engulfed and sort of encircled on especially on the right their momentum slows and as they slow and as the Russians kind of swarm around them, their morale begins to waver and then to break and then the first Swedes begin to run and then it proves infectious.

23:31It's like their momentum has carried them so far but no further. Kind of like the adrenaline suddenly dropping. Exactly right. So much of, when you read accounts of battles, so much of it is about self-belief and their self-belief has sustained them to an extraordinary level, not just in recent hours, But all through that terrible winter But now they've reached Everybody has a breaking point Lüvenhaupt said afterwards I begged, threatened, cursed and hit out But all was in vain It was as if they neither saw nor heard me And remember these are the most disciplined troops In Europe if not the world And Charles XII in his litter is kind of crying out In a feeble voice isn't he Swedes, Swedes And he can't rally them either No he can't And actually it's like the waves breaking over the top of them You know, this sort of wave upon wave of kind of green coats.

24:21A tsunami. A tsunami, exactly. And in just half an hour, this Swedish infantry that had advanced with such courage has been almost completely destroyed. And the cavalry has been decimated by Russian cannon fire. Reinskild was captured. Charles is almost captured. His stretcher bearers are shot down. Another officer, remember Charles has got this terrible foot. Another officer drags him onto a horse. but in the chaos the bandages come off his foot the wound reopens and blood starts pouring out of his foot this first horse that he's put on is shot from under him they have to drag him up and put him onto another horse there's blood everywhere somehow they get away with him and they meet up with Lovenhout who's also managed to get away and they gallop south with what is left of their army so in just a few hours the swedes have lost 10 000 men killed wounded or captured the russians have lost just 1 500 killed and they've had about 3 000 wounded so a stunning victory for peter's army peter has the captured swedish officers brought to his tent and field marshal rainskeld is exhausted kind of presumably covered in soot and blood and sweat and whatever is brought into his tent and Peter says why did you invade such a vast country with so few men you know how could you dare to do that how could you have the recklessness and Rainscould says my king ordered it it was my duty to obey and Peter loves this answer he asks he calls for wine and he says a toast gentleman to my teachers in the art of war and Rainscould says to him well who is that your majesty and peter says you gentlemen very gallant very impressive and rainscord says then well have the pupils returned thanks to their teachers it's all very kind of you know well played well played now meanwhile what of charles charles that later that afternoon regroups with the cossacks i mean they really should have taken the cossacks i think the remains of the swedish army and his baggage stream they all need to get away because obviously they're going to be destroyed the only route ironically is even further south even further away from sweden so they say well let's do it they're riding through the sort of afternoon in the evening they're exhausted they're obviously utterly crushed they are frightened i don't think charles is frightened probably not no everybody else is frightened well it's ridiculously hot so they're all dripping with sweat i mean god they can't win they see that they're either freezing or they're just absolutely boiling charles is delirious his wound is like is in a terrible state he's slipping in and out of kind of sleep he keeps saying where's rains guild and everyone says he's been captured your majesty and he just doesn't seem to register that after two days they reach the river dnieper and they don't have many boats they don't have enough boats to get across and the russians are chasing them and basically they're not going to get the whole there's about 14 000 of them they're not all going to get across who's going to go and charles says well obviously i won't go i'll stay here and his officers fall to their knees and beg him you have to go you cannot be captured if you are captured sweden is defeated now to the war our only chance is if you can get away and maybe you can raise support among the Tatars or the Ottomans?

27:42That's our only chance. And very reluctantly, Charles agrees, and he is transported across the River Dnieper with the wounded and the Cossacks and what remains of his drabant elite bodyguard that we talked about last time. He gets across the river and they turn west across the grasslands, heading towards the River Bug. That's a great name for a river, isn't it? It is, the River Bug. And that, it's an important river because that is the frontier with the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire. He's entered the Ottoman Empire now. He's entering the Ottoman Empire. And the men on the other side watched him go, watch and watch, until finally he disappears from sight.

28:20And what will become of him? We will find out, Tom, after the break.

28:30Hello, welcome back to The Rest is History. Peter has triumphed at Potalwa, one of history's most decisive battles. and Dominic, one of the measures of how decisive it is, is that Peter's conquests in the north and more specifically on the Baltic are now secure. And that means that St. Petersburg is secure. And so he actually writes letters to his wife, doesn't he, and his family and his friends. And he says that his victory at Pultava is the final stone in the foundation of St. Petersburg. Yeah, that's absolutely right. But it's arguably much more than that. It's the final stone in the foundation of Russia as a great power.

29:12Well, let's just do a counterfactual because counterfactuals kind of serve to emphasize the consequences of what does actually happen. Let's suppose he had lost Pultava. How different would history have been? I think it could have been very different. A lot of people listening to this might say, well, Russia was always fated to become a great power anyway. But remember, in the 17th century, Russia had been a basket case for a long time. It could easily have been one again. So if Charles had won, there would have been nothing to stop him advancing on Moscow. Imagine he'd taken Peter prisoner. He would have ridden into Moscow.