The Battle of Narva is one of the most remarkable in the chronicle of the battles of Peter I. In fact, it was the first major battle of the young Russian state. And although it ended rather unsuccessfully for both Russia and Peter I, the significance of this battle is difficult to overestimate. It showed all the weaknesses of the Russian army and raised many unpleasant questions about weapons and logistics. The subsequent solution to these problems strengthened the army, making it one of the most victorious at that time. And this began with the battle of Narva. We will try to talk briefly about this event in our article.

Background

The beginning of the Russian-Swedish confrontation can be considered the conflict that flared up over the conclusion of the thirty-year Turkish peace. The process of concluding this agreement could have been disrupted due to strong Swedish resistance. Having learned about such opposition, the tsar ordered the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador Kniper-Krona from Moscow, and ordered his representative in Sweden to declare war on this kingdom. At the same time, Peter I agreed to end the matter peacefully on the condition that the Swedes cede the Narva fortress to him.

Charles XII found this treatment outrageous and took countermeasures. By his order, all property of the Russian embassy was confiscated, and all representatives were arrested. In addition, the King of Sweden ordered the property of Russian merchants to be seized, and they themselves to be used for hard work. Almost all of them died in captivity and poverty. Karl agreed to war.

Peter I found this situation unacceptable. However, he allowed all Swedes to leave Russia and did not seize their property. This is how the Northern War began. The Battle of Narva was one of the first episodes of this conflict.

The beginning of the confrontation

Trying to break through to the shores of the Baltic, Russian troops had been besieging Narva since August 1700. Six regiments of the Novgorod governor, Prince Trubetskoy, were sent to the Swedish fortress; in addition, to strengthen the positions of the Russian army, Count Golovin’s cavalry and the remaining regiments of his division were redeployed directly to Narva. The fortress was subjected to numerous bombings. which led to serious fires several times. The Russians were in no hurry to storm the well-defended walls, hoping for a quick surrender of Narva.

But soon they felt a shortage of gunpowder and shells, the supply of provisions had worsened, and there was a smell of treason. One of the captains, who had Swedish roots, broke his oath and went over to the enemy’s side. The Tsar, in order to avoid a repetition of such cases, dismissed all foreigners who held command posts and sent them into the depths of Russia, rewarding them with ranks. On November 18, Peter I personally went to Novgorod to oversee the delivery of military supplies and provisions. The continuation of the siege was entrusted to the Duke de Croix and Prince Ya. F. Dolgorukov.

Deployment of Russian troops

It should be noted that the Battle of Narva in 1700 was designed for active offensive actions - Russian troops occupied positions suitable only for active retreat, but not for defense. The advanced units of Peter's divisions were stretched along a thin line almost seven kilometers long. The artillery was also not in place - due to an acute shortage of shells, it was in no hurry to take up its positions at the bastions of Narva.

Swedish attack

Taking advantage of the absence of the king, hiding behind a blizzard and fog, they went on the offensive. Charles XII created two strike groups that managed to break through the Russian defenses in the center and on one of the flanks. The decisive offensive confused the Russians: many foreign officers of Peter’s troops, led by de Croix, went over to the enemy’s side.

The Battle of Narva showed all the weaknesses of the Russian army. Poor military training and betrayal of the command completed the defeat - the Russian troops fled.

Retreat from positions

The Russians were retreating... A large number of people and military equipment randomly flocked to the dilapidated bridge on the Narva River. Under the enormous weight, the bridge collapsed, drowning many people under its rubble. Seeing the general flight, the cavalry of the boyar Sheremetev, who occupied the rear guards of the Russian positions, succumbed to general panic and began to cross Narva by swimming.

The Battle of Narva was actually lost.

Counterattack

Only thanks to the steadfastness and courage of two separate regiments - Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky - the Swedish offensive was blocked. They stopped panicking and successfully repelled the onslaught of the royal troops. The surviving regiments were gradually joined by the remnants of the remaining Russian units. Several times Charles XII personally led the Swedes to attack, but each time he had to retreat. As night fell, hostilities subsided. Negotiations began.

Narva Agreement

The Battle of Narva ended in defeat for the Russians, but the core of the army survived. Despite the difficult situation of Peter's troops, Charles XII was not confident in the unconditional victory of the Swedes, so he accepted the terms of the peace treaty. The opponents entered into an agreement according to which Russian troops were allowed to retreat.

When floating to the other side of Narva, the Swedes captured several officers and took away all the weapons. The shameful peace that began lasted about four years. Only the next battle of Narva, in 1704, made it possible for the Russian army to even the score in this war. But that's a completely different story.

The results of the Narva embarrassment

The Battle of Narva showed the complete backwardness of the Russian army, its weak experience even in the face of a small enemy army. In the battle of 1700, only about 18 thousand people fought on the side of the Swedes against the thirty-five thousand strong Russian army. Lack of coordination, poor logistics, poor training and outdated weapons are the main reasons for the defeat in Narva. After analyzing the reasons, Peter I concentrated his efforts on combined arms training, and sent the best of his generals to study military affairs abroad. One of the priority tasks was to re-equip the army with the latest models of military equipment. Within a few years, the military reforms of Peter I led to the fact that the Russian army became one of the strongest in Europe.

§ 104. The Great Northern War. The first years of the war

In 1699, Peter began preparations for war with the Swedes. He entered into an alliance with Augustus II, the Saxon-Polish king and elector, and with the Danish king Christian. The allies convinced him that the time had come for action against Sweden, since the too young and frivolous King Charles XII had reigned on the Swedish throne. However, Peter did not dare to start a war with Charles until peace was concluded with the Turks. In August 1700, he received news that his ambassadors had achieved peace in Constantinople with the concession of Azov to Moscow - and immediately Moscow troops were moved to the Baltic Sea. The famous Swedish war began - for as much as 21 years.

In his desire to seize the shores of the Baltic Sea, Peter continued the policies of all the Moscow kings who preceded him. Ivan the Terrible endured a terrible struggle for the Baltic coast (§62). What was lost from the Russian lands on the seashore during Grozny was returned to Moscow by Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich (§63) and again lost by Vasily Shuisky (§70). Sovereigns of the 17th century they did not forget this loss, approved by the Stolbovo Treaty of 1617 (§77). Under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, A.L. Ordin-Nashchokin especially insisted on the idea of ​​​​the need to break through to the Baltic Sea, specifically to the Gulf of Riga, for direct maritime relations with central Europe. But at that time, the realization of this age-old dream of Moscow patriots was still impossible: Tsar Alexei was most of all connected with Little Russian affairs and the fight with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Turkey. Under Peter, relations in the south were established, and he naturally turned his impulse to the Baltic shores, obeying Moscow’s spontaneous desire to the West.

Peter sent his troops to the Gulf of Finland and besieged the Swedish fortress of Narva. But at this time it was discovered that the young and frivolous King Charles XII had enormous energy and military talent. As soon as the allies began war against him, he gathered his available troops, rushed to Copenhagen and forced the Danes to peace. He then headed towards the Russians towards Narva and attacked them as quickly and unexpectedly as he attacked the Danes. Peter had all his regular army (up to 40 thousand people) near Narva. It stood in a fortified camp on the left bank of the river. Narova. Charles burst into this camp from the west, crushed and drove the Russians to the river (November 19, 1700). Having only one bridge on Narova, the Russians escaped by swimming and died. Only Peter’s “amusing” regiments (Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky) stood at the bridge and crossed the river with honor after the rest of the army fled. Karl got all the artillery and the entire camp of the Moscow army. Pleased with the easy victory, Charles considered Peter's forces destroyed, did not pursue the Russians and did not invade Moscow. He went against his third enemy Augustus and thereby made a big mistake: Peter quickly recovered and restored his army; Karl himself, as Peter put it, was “stuck in Poland” for a long time, where Augustus hid from him.

Before the battle, Peter himself was near Narva and saw all the disorder of his army. It was poorly trained, poorly dressed and fed; it did not like those hired “German” generals to whom it was subordinate (Duke von Krui and others); there was not enough gunpowder and shells for the siege; the guns were bad. As Karl approached, Peter left for Novgorod in the belief that the Swedes would invade Russia and that Russian fortresses must be prepared for defense. The defeat of the army at Narva did not lead Peter to despair. On the contrary, just as after the first Azov failure, he showed enormous energy during the winter of 1700–1701. managed to gather a new army and cast up to 300 new cannons, for which, due to the lack of copper in the state, they even took church bells. Having seen his ally King Augustus (in Birzhi), Peter concluded a new agreement with him on how they could stick together against Charles.

In accordance with this agreement, in all subsequent years Peter waged war in two different areas. Firstly, he helped Augustus in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with money, bread and troops. The Russian army went to Poland and Lithuania more than once, and there were no defeats, but, however, without great successes. The important thing was that it was possible to detain Charles XII in Poland and not allow him until the final triumph over Augustus. In this theater of war, Peter’s favorite of his “amusing” ones, Alexander Danilovich Menshikov, was especially distinguished, to whom Peter entrusted all his troops here. Secondly, Peter, separately from his ally, undertook the conquest of the Finnish coast and the old Livonian lands in general (Estonia and Livonia), taking advantage of the fact that Charles’s main forces were diverted to Poland. In 1701 and the following years, the Russian cavalry under the command of “Field Marshal” Boris Petrovich Sheremetev “stayed” in these areas: Sheremetev ravaged the country, twice defeated the Swedish corps of General Schlippenbach (at Erestfer and Hummelshof) and took the old Russian cities of Yam and Koporye. Peter himself in the fall of 1702 appeared at the source of the river. Neva and took the Swedish fortress of Noteburg, which stood on the site of the old Novgorod Oreshek. Having resumed the fortifications of this fortress, Peter named it Shlisselburg, that is, the “key city” to the sea. In the spring of 1703, the Russians went down to the mouths of the Neva and took, at the confluence of the river. Okhta to the Neva, Swedish fortification Nyenschanz. Below this fortification on the Neva, in May 1703, Peter founded the Peter and Paul Fortress and, under its walls, founded a city that received the name “Peterburkha,” or St. Petersburg.

This was for Peter a fortified exit to the sea, which he immediately took advantage of. On Lake Ladoga (more precisely, on the Svir River), sea vessels were hastily built and in the same 1703 they were already launched. In the fall of this year, Peter had already begun work on Kotlin Island to build the sea fortress of Kronshlot (the predecessor of the current Kronstadt). This fortress became the harbor for the new Baltic Fleet. Finally, in 1704, the strong Swedish fortresses of Dorpat (Yuryev) and Narva were taken. Thus, Peter not only acquired for himself access to the sea in his “paradise” of St. Petersburg, but also protected this exit with a number of strongholds from the sea (Kronshlot) and from land (Narva, Yam, Koporye, Dorpat). By allowing Peter to achieve such success, Charles made an irreparable mistake, which he decided to make up for only when he dealt with his other enemy, Augustus.

Today - about the prerequisites, participants and other interested parties of the Northern War and how it began for Russia.

Bair Irincheev. So, dear viewers, good evening everyone. My name is Bair Irincheev, next to me is Boris Megorsky - a researcher of the Peter the Great era, reenactor, head of the club “Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment, 1709”, and the author of the wonderful book “Revenge of Peter the Great. The capture of Narva and Ivangorod by Russian troops in 1704,” which I have with me now.

Boris Megorsky. Hello.

Bair Irincheev. In fact, Boris and I, as it turned out (I remembered 20 years later), studied in the same gymnasium, so the concentration of the second gymnasium on Tupichka today is off the charts, as our classmates would say. And, in fact, I would like to talk about the era of Peter the Great, which, as it turned out, in our series of lectures on the history of Russia in Tupichka, has not yet been touched upon, and the era of Peter the Great is undoubtedly the most important at the beginning of the 18th century. We knew something about it, especially since we are in St. Petersburg, which was founded during the Northern War. Everyone has heard something about it, everyone remembers Poltava, everyone remembers the founding of St. Petersburg. But, probably, for the majority of our viewers, this is all that we generally remember about the Northern War.

Boris Megorsky. Yes.

Bair Irincheev. I would like to start from time immemorial, as usual. Why was Russia forced to start this war? This was revenge for defeats in previous wars and the return of territories that Russia lost under the Stolbovo Peace Treaty of 1617, when Russia lost almost the entire north-west, lost Korela, lost Oreshek, what else did the Swedes have to give?

Boris Megorsky. Koporye, Yam (Kingisepp).

Bair Irincheev. Do I remember correctly that the Swedes still laid claim to Pskov and Novgorod under that peace treaty?

Boris Megorsky. At a minimum, the Swedes occupied Novgorod, there was a Swedish occupation administration there, which is of interest to modern researchers. Yes, indeed, during the 17th century, the Kingdom of Sweden entered its heyday, which in historiography is called the “era of Swedish great power.” Sweden actively and successfully participated in the wars in Northern Europe, and claims against Sweden accumulated from its neighbors, primarily from Russia, which lost access to the sea and lost its ancient cities, already mentioned. Denmark, which is Sweden's neighbor, joined this club and regularly fought with it. And Poland has also joined this club of those who don’t like Sweden. Poland had a series of unsuccessful wars with Sweden during the 17th century, and by 1700 the circumstances were such that Russia (represented by Peter), the Kingdom of Denmark, and Poland (actually Saxony). A rather interesting conflict was that the Polish king was an elective position, the head of Saxony was chosen for this position, so Poland did not officially enter the Northern War in 1700, but the Polish king entered the war and participated in it with his Saxon troops.

Bair Irincheev. Polish troops, it turns out, did not participate?

Boris Megorsky. At first they did not participate, and Peter’s rather serious diplomatic efforts during the first four years of the war consisted of persuading the Polish Senate to enter the war as a participant in the hostilities.

Bair Irincheev. It turns out that the king of Poland was the king of Saxony, he combined two positions, do I understand correctly? As the king of Saxony, he declared war, but as the king of Poland, he did not?

Boris Megorsky. There was no king in Saxony; there was not a kingdom, but an electorate.

Bair Irincheev. Is Elector also an elected position?

Boris Megorsky. Yes. The war began in 1700, and it was started by the Danes and Saxons. They entered the war first, this was back in the winter of 1700. Russia at that time was not yet ready for war; it was completing peace negotiations with Turkey, because before starting a war, it was necessary to end the war that had been dragging on for quite a long time on the southern borders. At the same time, the Danes did not attack Sweden at all, as such, they attacked Holstein. This state, which was traditionally close to Sweden, was oriented towards Sweden, and Sweden guaranteed the security of this state. Therefore, as soon as the Danes attacked Holstein, the Swedes automatically entered the war. At the same time, again, the nuance in the diplomacy of that time was that Denmark did not declare war on Sweden, and when Charles XII rather boldly and unexpectedly landed in Denmark and forced the Danes to leave the war, he, in fact, forced Denmark to sign a peace treaty with Holstein, but not with Sweden, because they didn’t seem to be at war with Sweden.

Bair Irincheev. That is, there was no official war. Do I remember correctly that there was such a daring throw across the frozen straits, or did this happen in another war?

Boris Megorsky. It was during the summer, the throw was daring, and most importantly, it was supported by a fairly impressive fleet of Great Britain and the Netherlands, which provided transportation and security.

Bair Irincheev. That is, this is not just (as we are told in the school curriculum) some claims by Russia, which wants to regain its ancestral lands, there is a gigantic European mess brewing here.

Boris Megorsky. Naturally, all participants had their own interests, and those states that did not directly participate in the war (like the mentioned sea powers) had interests.

Bair Irincheev. How old were Charles XII and Peter the Great at the start of the war? Were they young enough?

Boris Megorsky. Yes. Peter was 28, and Karl was under 20.

Bair Irincheev. He was 25 in Poltava, no?

Boris Megorsky. The order is yes. This was a young king who had recently taken charge of his state, and therefore the allies in the Northern Alliance were counting on a quick victory, because they thought that they could easily defeat a young, inexperienced king with a rather poor kingdom.

Bair Irincheev. The Northern Alliance is, it turns out, Denmark, Poland, and Russia?

Boris Megorsky. Saxony and the Polish king. The Swedish king was young, and the allies hoped that they could quickly achieve their goal. In particular, this is why it happened that they did not enter the war at the same time. Naturally, until Russia made peace with Turkey, it had to refrain from conducting hostilities, and the Danes set out in the winter, and then - in the winter, the Saxons attacked Livonia and reached Riga

Bair Irincheev. Then, in general, the entire Baltic region was under Sweden.

Boris Megorsky. Yes. The Baltic provinces are Livonia, Estland - modern Latvia and Estonia.

Bair Irincheev. Finland, traditionally, and Ingria.

Boris Megorsky. Conditionally, the modern Leningrad region. These were all Swedish provinces. Ingria is what was torn away from the Russian state after the Time of Troubles, while Livonia and Estland were previously under the rule of the Livonian Order. Part of these territories was in Polish possession for some time, and therefore the king of Poland was interested in participating in this war.

Bair Irincheev. The Poles got it first, and then the Swedes took it away from them. What reasons were used to declare war? What are the complaints? For example, Denmark exposed Holstein that it was attacked.

Boris Megorsky. I won’t say anything about Denmark and Holstein, but Russia found a reason. Shortly before the start of the war, in 1697, Peter went with his entourage to the great embassy. A big tour of many European countries, up to and including Vienna. And on the way, already at the beginning of the journey we passed through Riga. Peter, as you know, participated in this trip incognito, although everyone more or less knew who this lanky Russian traveler was. While in Riga as part of the embassy, ​​Peter went to inspect the fortifications of the Riga fortress. Military fortifications are a military facility, and at all times all sentries are required to keep anyone from entering a non-military facility.

Bair Irincheev. Build, I'll shoot!

Boris Megorsky. This is exactly what happened with Peter. When he went to look at something that he was not supposed to look at, a guard stopped him, and Peter was forced to retreat, and then lodged a claim with the governor of Riga. It is clear that this was a more than understandable situation, but it was used as a pretext for war because a soldier of the Swedish king pointed his weapon at the Russian Tsar.

Bair Irincheev. 3 years have passed. Was the note of protest not immediately announced?

Boris Megorsky. She was not immediately announced. There was some kind of investigation right away, but it did not lead to anything, and - the main thing is that at that time there was no formed desire to fight with Sweden. Peter went to the great embassy with the goal of finding allies to continue the war with Turkey, and only from the results of his embassy it became clear that the Europeans no longer wanted to fight the Turks (and they had been doing this for the previous 15 years). Based on the results of the embassy, ​​it became clear that we should stop fighting with the Turks, but we could try with Sweden. Well, this is the reason for war.

Bair Irincheev. 1700, Russia puts forward an old claim and declares war on Sweden. At that time, as I understand it, we still had regiments of the new system - Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky, and there were also old-style rifle regiments, do I understand correctly?

Boris Megorsky. Yes and no. The army that Peter had at that time included the Streltsy regiments known to us today. By that time, the Streltsy regiments had managed to take part in the Streltsy revolt of 1698. Because of the news of this rebellion, Peter returned from his European tour. As a result of this riot and the search, the regiments were disbanded, the instigators were executed, but this did not mean that the king got rid of the archers as such. One way or another, the Moscow Streltsy were resettled from Moscow, but they continued to exist as the sovereign's servants and continued to enjoy the status of Moscow Streltsy, unlike any city Streltsy.

Bair Irincheev. Where were they resettled after the riot?

Boris Megorsky. Differently. Mainly on the southern borders, but, nevertheless, these were one of those experienced troops that it made sense for the king to rely on in terms of experience and discipline. On the other hand, it was clear that these were not completely loyal to the sovereign units, and the course of this rebellion showed that only 2 regiments, recently called “amusing” ones, turned out to be loyal, and the most professional infantry at that time - selected soldier regiments, which were model of the new infantry formation for Peter. At the end of 1699, when Peter realized that he was preparing for war with Sweden, he began to create an army almost from scratch. He began to create it, largely using European methods, in particular, it was quite unusual for the Russians to engage in recruitment - they took volunteers who were ready to go on the sovereign's salary. Others were taken “according to the device”, i.e. to recruits. Dragoon regiments, i.e. The cavalry (there were 2 of them at the beginning of the war) consisted of nobles, since equestrian service was always held in high esteem. Well, there were many military units of the old services left - these were Moscow archers, these were city archery regiments in garrisons in different cities, these were cavalry units, mainly noble feudal cavalry with different statuses. These could be the most well-born nobles of the hundred service, spearmen, and so-called hussars. Or less well-born and less wealthy nobles who were written to the reiters. There was a fairly large volume of various troops with different levels of training - mostly quite low, as subsequent actions showed, because all these units were gathered for a short time, and the same nobles from their territorial corporations with some periodicity were sent on guard duty in the south , and outside of this time they did not engage in any joint training, joint training, or military service. It is clear that their qualifications as warriors were low, and the same thing happened with other units - reiters, or other categories of service people. Plus, since the 1660s we have not fought with the Swedes, and we have only fought with the Turks and Tatars. In its rather specific theater of military operations, using quite specific tactics, in specific conditions - this is the steppe, and long distances, this is the enemy’s lack of any proper regular infantry, these are huge masses of cavalry. Russia has not had experience fighting a modern European army for 40 years. This was a noticeable problem.

Bair Irincheev. It turns out that the army is in the process of transformation, because the “amusing” regiments had Western instructors, or they were not properly engaged in military training, and in 1700 they were not combat ready in the full sense of the word?

Boris Megorsky. Here it must be said that European military specialists were recruited to serve in the Moscow state throughout the 17th century, starting with Mikhail Fedorovich, when the first regiments of the foreign system appeared. By the beginning of the Northern War, almost all colonels of infantry regiments were foreigners. The junior officers in these newly created infantry regiments were predominantly Russian nobles without any experience. Foreigners were of two categories: foreigners of old departures and foreigners of new departures. Old departures are those people who either themselves came to serve in Russia under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, or their parents came to Russia from Europe, and they were already born in Russia and “Russified”. These were people whose military qualifications were, on average, higher than those of the Moscow nobles. But, nevertheless, those foreigners who spent too much time in Russia, they did not have knowledge of the current state of European military science, their knowledge was somewhat outdated. Therefore, Peter actively attracted foreigners both before the war and after the start of the war, and these specialists (their quality and combat experience varied). However, I think without them it would not have been possible to achieve what he achieved.

Bair Irincheev. It's clear. Well, we know that there are new regiments, there are a lot of foreigners there, but what did they do to lure them in? High salary? And how were they selected? A foreigner comes and says that I conquered half of Europe, but it turns out that he doesn’t know how to do anything, he just threw dust in his eyes to get the royal salary.

Boris Megorsky. Foreign policy department and military order (in 1700 he was in charge of visiting foreigners). A noticeable number of visiting officers (their candidacies) were rejected because they did not really meet the requirements. Nevertheless, many were accepted into the service, it was a very good salary for those times, it was an opportunity to move up with a promotion in rank. This attracted the European military, especially in conditions when there were no European wars at that time. The wars that raged in Europe in the 1690s had ended, and a new war, the War of the Spanish Succession, had not yet begun, so there were quite a lot of military specialists in this market. People came from Saxony, from Brandenburg (future Prussia), from Holland, Italy, France. It was an international corps of military specialists.

Bair Irincheev. What common language of communication did they all have?

Boris Megorsky. I think German, but it all depended. Advantage was given to foreigners who were familiar with at least some Slavic language, we will mention this later. This was a problem, because many of these officers could not interact with their Russian subordinates.

Bair Irincheev. Fine. Here we have the Russian army, the army of Peter I in the process of formation, and Charles XII’s is battle-hardened, or let’s go back a little to the 17th century, where in the Thirty Years’ War the Swedes were victorious on the battlefields. The strictest discipline, a trained army, Protestantism burning with fanaticism (we came to save our Protestant brothers from the Catholics). Everything was good with their discipline, everything was good with training, they were mobile, light guns, light armor, a small mobile striking force. Such an elite army is small, which simply endures everyone.

Boris Megorsky. Many years have passed since then. And when we hear that the Swedish army was the most powerful army in Europe at that time, this is a very big assumption, because, in fact, the Swedes last fought with the Danes in the 1670s. And after that the Kingdom of Sweden did not participate in wars.

Bair Irincheev. Swedish Golden Age.

Boris Megorsky. Yes, when, one way or another, the territories were acquired, and the troops did not gain combat experience during this time. But since Sweden was closer to Europe, and was in a general European context, many Swedish officers went to serve in European armies - in France, in the Empire, in the Netherlands the same, so many Swedish officers had relevant experience of modern European warfare. If we talk about the lower ranks, then these were regiments either recruited according to more or less European tradition. Or it was Swedish know-how - the indelta system, when territories or rural communities sent soldiers from themselves.

Bair Irincheev. This is when each soldier is given a plot.

Boris Megorsky. It was an army that, in fact, also had no combat experience, it just had more educated, on average, officers. Well, discipline was inherent in the lower ranks, plus these regiments were formed on a territorial basis, which gave them additional cohesion, and this gave the Swedes a great advantage when they faced opponents.

Bair Irincheev. So, 1700 - the war began, and our first battle was the same Narva.

Boris Megorsky. Yes. In August 1700, Peter received news that peace with the Turks had been signed in Constantinople.

Bair Irincheev. And then he remembered Riga, how he was cruelly offended there, and declared war.

Boris Megorsky. Yes. The troops moved to Ingemarland, and Narva was the first point of attack. At this point the Saxons maneuvered around Riga, not very successfully. They captured 2 fortresses there: Cabronshanets and Dunamünde - these are fortifications in the vicinity of Riga. But they could not take Riga itself. Peter advanced to Narva, and along the way our old fortresses, Koporye, surrendered without a fight (there was a garrison there - several dozen people who, as our sources say, “were sent to the Russian army to take over the fortress”). They came out of the fortress and said “come in.”

Bair Irincheev. How quickly was Peter I able to deploy his army? She was standing ready for him, right?

Boris Megorsky. The moment war was declared, the troops were already ready and moved as far as logistics allowed. We moved through Novgorod to Narva. The timing was probably not the best, since it was the end of summer - the beginning of autumn, and autumn is a muddy season, a period of cold weather. Troops who are deprived of shelter are forced to spend the night in tents on the ground; it is clear that they exist much better in such conditions in the summer than in the fall.

Bair Irincheev. Were there no stoves then?

Boris Megorsky. No, at best there are tents, or some kind of dugouts if these are stationary positions. The Russian army gathered around Narva; the garrison was small in this city, but the fortress itself was powerful. It was the most powerful fortress in the region; it was strengthened with new bastions just before the start of the war. The famous Swedish fortifier engineer Dahlberg did a lot to strengthen the borders of Sweden, and, in particular, according to his project, Narva was rebuilt with new bastions that met modern requirements of fortification science, so the fortress was powerful. Peter did not have his own engineers who could support the actions of the troops from an engineering point of view. These engineers were sent by an ally - King Augustus. Such an engineer was General Ludwig Nikolai Allart, who left a detailed diary of the Narva operation in 1700, and subsequently became a general in Russian service and brought quite a lot of benefit to Russia.

Bair Irincheev. Nearby is also Ivangorod, which was Swedish at that time. What did the Swedes call it? That's what they called it - Ivangorod?

Boris Megorsky. They didn't rename it. Ivangorod by that time had ceased to be some kind of independent fortification; it was, in fact, a bridgehead fortification on the other bank of the Narova River. Today, St. Petersburg residents and everyone who visits our area can see 2 beautiful castles that stand opposite each other. This is the round tower of the Ivangorod fortress, and on the other side is the white tower of the Estonian fortress. These are all medieval buildings. At that time, such medieval fortification did not represent any value for those armies, but a modern bastion fortress was built around Narva Castle, and it represented the main value as a point of defense. Ivangorod remained a 15th century fortress, and it, in fact, covered Narova from the other side. However, both fortresses were occupied by Swedish garrisons, and it was this complex of two fortresses that the Russians besieged in the fall of 1700. I must say that a lot went wrong, many flaws became obvious. We assembled a large artillery fleet of siege guns of various calibers, and when they were brought and began to be installed on batteries to break through walls with them, some cast cannons from the late 16th century, of different calibers, old carriages began to crumble right away, then it turned out that there was not so much ammunition , and the same Allart has a record that they held a military council, decided that it was time to start punching holes in the walls, but they calculated how much gunpowder and cannonballs - for 20 hours of shooting, we will not achieve anything during this time, and We would only make the enemy laugh, so we sent for additional ammunition.

Bair Irincheev. There weren't even standard calibers, as I understand it.

Boris Megorsky. Yes, this still had to be brought to a common denominator in the following years, all this was done, but...

Bair Irincheev. It was a test of the pen, one might say.

Boris Megorsky. This is not to say that everything was completely bad in the artillery systems. Regimental artillery was standardized at a high level. Two-pounder guns were made for rifle regiments for quite a few years in the 17th century, but siege artillery - the heaviest guns designed to break through fortress walls, they were quite different, but, looking ahead, they all went to the Swedes.

Bair Irincheev. Yes. Those who were in Stockholm probably remember that the Swedes have a wonderful hall of trophy banners, and there the subject of special pride is the Russian banners that they got as a result of this military operation. It turns out that the Battle of Narva, 1700. Ours besieged the fortress, realized that there was nothing special to take it with, the weather was deteriorating, and then Charles XII appeared with his army, and ours were defeated. We can talk about this in more detail somehow, because there are a lot of rumors, a lot of all sorts of legends on the Internet, that the foreigners betrayed them, and that a snowstorm began, and the Swedes absolutely suddenly appeared in front of our positions, which caused panic; that because of the blizzard it was not possible to properly light the wicks, that the gunpowder was blown away by the wind, a complete fiasco, and, as a result, it was not our fault, as always, but the circumstances and foreigners. As a result, everything ended badly. Peter I was not there, and then Peter wrote that this was undoubtedly a Swedish victory, but it was a victory over an army that was still completely inexperienced and would still show itself.

Boris Megorsky. If we talk about what they write on the Internet... On the Internet 300 years ago they wrote all the same things, all these memes that you cited.

Bair Irincheev. I would like to know that you, as a researcher... It is clear that folk history, in popular rumor, all this is so distorted that the original event cannot even be recognized, or attention is focused on details that were not decisive in this or that historical event.

Boris Megorsky. Yes, absolutely true, but this is the point of historical research, since we have a rather limited range of sources that we can use, and we can find out how the participants directly assessed this event, or those who heard something about it how this event affected the military theory of the time. We can talk about these things with more or less confidence. So, the siege went on.

Bair Irincheev. Have ours ever fired at the fortress?

Boris Megorsky. Ours fired at the fortress, began to punch holes in the walls of Ivangorod, ours began to take positions directly at the Ivangorod palisade, preparing a bridgehead for the assault. 2 rifle regiments were sent there, which suffered greatly from the Swedish attacks. The Swedes, despite the fact that it was a small garrison, conducted a very active defense and staged daring forays. 2 rifle regiments suffered very badly, one colonel was killed, the other was captured.

Bair Irincheev. Wow.

Boris Megorsky. Yes. The Swedes defended themselves very actively, the archers on the Ivangorod coast did not show their best side.

Bair Irincheev. And the reason? Is there any explanation for this?

Boris Megorsky. There are not many detailed descriptions of what happened there other than what General Allart tells us, but it is obvious that this was not a properly organized guard duty, that is, they were entrenched in this position; Maybe they didn’t post a guard, one way or another, the Swedish attack came as a surprise to them.

Bair Irincheev. Which led to fatal consequences.

Boris Megorsky. But, nevertheless, the main army was on the other bank - on Ivangorod.

Bair Irincheev. Streltsy speak in Ivangorod, and ours speak in Narva, this is more of a fortress, right? Ours are on the west bank.

Boris Megorsky. The bulk of the entire army was on the Narva coast. The regiments, as I understand it, were rotated. There is a general camp of the Russian army, which surrounded Narva on the Narva bank, with both wings resting in such an arc on the Narova River. Bridges were installed, and the regiments on the Ivangorod bank were rotated, and rifle regiments were sent there in turn. Some kind of siege trenches were built in order to have approaches to the fortress, siege batteries were installed, which with varying degrees of success fired at the city, but the army was in circumference and countervailing lines. These are field fortifications, ramparts with ditches, which are designed (countervallation lines) to prevent the garrison from attacking if it decides to leave the fortress and attack the besiegers. And the circumvallation line is the line with which the besieging army fenced itself off from the so-called field. If some army comes to the aid of the city, we will fence ourselves off from it with this rampart and ditch, which are called the circumvallation line.

Bair Irincheev. That is, this was already a modern technique of warfare at that time?

Boris Megorsky. At that time it was well-established, but the course of events showed that it was outliving its usefulness. Charles XII, meanwhile, while the siege was going on, landed in Pärnu and moved towards Narva

Bair Irincheev. What about the Saxons?

Boris Megorsky. The Saxons at that time were somewhere in the Riga area and, firstly, could not help, and secondly, they were not very active, and Charles XII decided that he would first deal with the Russians. At that moment, when they learned that Charles had landed and was moving towards Narva, the noble cavalry was sent to meet him, but they were unable to hold back the advance of the Swedes, although they won one local victory. In general, this cavalry of boyar B.P. Sheremetev rolled back to Narva - to the main army, and it became clear that the Swedish army was approaching. Peter I decided that he would rather appoint a foreign military leader, the Duke of Croix, as commander-in-chief, and leave the army himself. This happened the day before the Battle of Narva took place. At that time, Peter’s military leaders were generals - natural Russians (Buturlin, Dolgoruky, Trubetskoy), or one of the foreign excursions - Adam Adamovich Wende - a man who was born in Russia, but was a person who was interested in military affairs, he traveled around Europe, even participated in one of the campaigns of Eugene of Savoy (Austrian army against the Turks). These were people close to the king; they had practically no real combat experience either. At best, they had experience of the same Azov campaigns against the Turks, but, as we said, these are completely different opponents, and the experience that in the war with the Turks...

Bair Irincheev. He was useless, in fact. So, this is the first clash of our army with a European-style army, it turns out. Only now, in a new century - in a new war.

Boris Megorsky. Absolutely right. Peter left, leaving Eugene de Croix and the generals, who were not very ready to recognize him as their commander-in-chief.

Bair Irincheev. Since there was an immediate conflict, why didn’t he appoint someone Russian?

Boris Megorsky. Maybe. But, nevertheless, he immediately took the situation into his own hands, drove around the positions, wrote an order on what needed to be done, how to place regiments along the ramparts of this circumvallation line, and ordered cavalry patrols to be placed in the field.

Bair Irincheev. So as not to be caught off guard.

Boris Megorsky. But in fact this was not done.

Bair Irincheev. Well, it’s already clear.

Boris Megorsky. Whether this was deliberate sabotage by the Russian generals or not, we will no longer know, but the fact remains: when the Swedes attacked, they were watched from the ramparts. And on November 19, 1700 (according to the Gregorian calendar), the Swedish army had already approached the Russian positions, but for the first half of the day it maneuvered. As it turned out later, they were preparing for an attack, collecting fascines - bundles of brushwood, so that they could fill the ditch with them, and it would be easier to attack. The Russian army stood in its positions, that is, all the regiments that were there - infantry, dragoons, and streltsy (except for those on the Ivangorod coast) stood along this circumvallation line, and it became clear that this was such an extended defensive position, that there are not enough troops for it. In fact, the troops were stretched out in a thin line that could easily be broken through anywhere; there were no troops for reserves. In addition, there were no forward patrols to understand at what point the Swedes would begin the attack. That is, a situation has arisen where the defending side has completely given the initiative into the hands of the enemy. Around two o'clock in the afternoon it began to snow heavily, and it really began to snow in the Russians' faces. He stopped walking at the moment when the Swedes found themselves 20-30 steps in front of the Russian parapets. This, naturally, was a surprise, and the Swedes went on the attack. They were quite efficient (those soldiers who were in front and carried these fascines, they threw them into the ditch, climbed onto the parapet, on this parapet the Russians had slingshots (long logs pierced with stakes crosswise). Conventionally, this is a prototype of wire barriers. They Naturally, they had to somehow interfere with the Swedes. But the Swedes climbed onto the rampart, scattered these slingshots; with the shots of their muskets and fuses, and with the blows of their pikes, they drove away the Russian soldiers who were standing behind this parapet, cleared the passage (apparently, they simply tore down part of the rampart). quickly, or simply threw fascines so that cavalrymen could enter the resulting embankment, and two strike groups of Swedish troops in 2 places broke through the Russian defense.

Bair Irincheev. Was at least one shot fired from our side? Or was everyone shocked, that everyone simply fell into some kind of stupor, including officers, generals, and the commander-in-chief?

Boris Megorsky. Obviously, there were some shots, but at the same time, the order of the Duke de Croix said that they should open fire only 20-30 steps away, but only from this distance the Swedes were visible because of this blizzard. Therefore, there were some shots, but obviously they could not stop the Swedes, and the Swedes at that time also did not have much combat experience, but at least they defeated the Danes during this year. And the Russian infantry soldiers were people who spent less than a year in the army at all, whether it was a volunteer who came of his own free will, or a person who was taken from the monastery service and given a new colored cloth caftan, a hat, a sash, a new flint fusée , taught some kind of charter that was in force at that time. All this was clearly not enough to meet the enemy in this situation. The officers largely lacked combat experience and any qualifications. And therefore, the breakthrough led to the fact that the front crumbled and the troops fled.

Bair Irincheev. Here is a conflict between foreigners and Russians, like there were cries of “we were betrayed”, and some kind of chaos began.

Boris Megorsky. Chaos has begun. Here it must be said, returning to the topic of a breakthrough, the military leadership of Charles XII was manifested here in particular in the fact that yes, it was possible to break through such an extended line and thin, extended defense. But Karl allocated 2 columns that broke through this line in 2 places, which guaranteed that the line would not grow back together, and the Russians would not be able to patch up this front.

Bair Irincheev. Well, in fact, one reserve is not enough to parry 2 columns and 2 attacks.

Boris Megorsky. Yes. Therefore, the entire Russian position was torn, essentially, in half. The division of the mentioned General Adam Weide remained on the Russian left flank, and there at some point our regiments gained a foothold and stopped the Swedish advance. How they established themselves: they had their own camp there - with dugouts, with tents, they threw slingshots at it all and shot back, as the chronicler says, “shooting with a great scream.” One way or another, the Swedes could not break through further, they simply broke through the line and blocked the generalship of Adam Weide on the Russian left flank. On the Russian right flank, closest to the river, stood the guard regiments - Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky. Initially, they did not come under attack, because the Swedes hit the “newly recruited” regiments of soldiers, who fled. These guardsmen’s combat experience was also limited only to “amusing” maneuvers near Moscow, or the Azov campaigns, and plus the suppression of the Streltsy rebellion. Again, they did not have much experience in fighting a regular foreign army. However, when the battle reached the positions of the guards, there they, one way or another, were unable to stop the advance of the Swedes. Now domestic sources do not describe in great detail what happened there. The Swedish trophy collection contains a lot of banners that the Swedes captured from the Russian army near Narva, and, in particular, there are guards banners, which suggests that the guards lost some of their banners in battle, and the banner is an honorary trophy .

Bair Irincheev. Was each company entitled to a banner back then?

Boris Megorsky. Each company was entitled to a banner, i.e. there were quite a lot of banners.

Bair Irincheev. And then we also had a triad, i.e. 3 companies - a battalion, 3 battalions - a regiment, and 3 regiments - a division. Was there such a system or not?

Boris Megorsky. No. The infantry regiments, which were near Narva at that time, consisted of 12 companies, which were divided into 2 or 3 battalions. The Semenovsky regiment consisted of 3 battalions of 4 companies each, and the Preobrazhensky regiment of 4 battalions of 4 companies each, i.e. There were many banners, and some of them were lost in battle. Nevertheless, they resisted, there was some kind of convoy, leaning on it, they organized a defense, and, turning their backs to the river, they held a bridgehead on which there was a bridge to the eastern bank of the Narova River, and the defeated, disorganized army reached out to the bridges to to be saved. At this moment there was a call to beat the Germans, “the Germans betrayed us,” and the beating of innocent foreign specialists, even not very military ones, really began. The Duke de Croix had 2 cooks killed and the cook stabbed. In a state of such panic, what happened happened. And as a result, the Duke and all the generals, colonels who were around him, they decided that rather than suffer death from their own soldiers in vain, they would rather surrender to the Swedes.

Bair Irincheev. There is such a classic picture where they all bow to Charles XII.

Boris Megorsky. In fact, it was not Charles XII there, but Colonel Stenbach. Charles XII could not be found for a long time in the darkness of the battle, because the battle lasted far into the dark, and Charles (probably this was his first battle, where he got a taste for combat) actively led his units into the attack. In some place, he and his horse got stuck in a swamp, they pulled him out of there, while his boot remained in the mud, and he continued to lead the battle in one boot. They say that in that section of the battle where the Preobrazhentsy and Semyonovtsy were entrenched, where the Swedes could not do anything, he said “what men are like.” But, in fact, of these men only junior officers remained in the ranks, because, for example, the colonel of the Preobrazhensky regiment surrendered together with de Croix. Therefore, it was believed that it was the junior officers of the guards regiments...

Bair Irincheev. Mostly Russians, right?

Boris Megorsky. Both Russians and foreigners, they showed their best side. After the battle stabilized on both flanks (and the Swedes had a very small army). The Russian army was quite small, especially occupying those positions. But the Swedish army was a maximum of 10 thousand, and the Russian - from 35 to 40. And even before the start of the battle, when the Swedish units had just arrived, the Russian command, seeing this mass of troops, apparently believed that this was the Swedish vanguard, and when the main Swedish troops arrived parts, then there will be a battle.

Bair Irincheev. They probably didn’t expect there to be an attack, because the Swedes weren’t all gathered yet.

Boris Megorsky. The Swedish army was small. After a forced march across Estonia, the Swedish soldiers were just as hungry, cold, wet, and hungry, just like the Russian soldiers who were in their positions at the same time. There were few Swedes; in the darkness they were saved by Russian disorganization, that the army was torn into several parts, there was no unified control of the battle. The Swedes were very lucky that there was no decisive general who would take command and form the defense. By the end of the battle, the Swedes had very few soldiers left in their ranks, the Finns - excuse me if I’m talking about the Finns, but you can’t erase a word from the song.

Bair Irincheev. The Finns were mainly in the cavalry.

Boris Megorsky. No no no. This is about the Thirty Years' War. At that time, there were quite a lot of Finnish infantry cavalry units in the Swedish army. The Finns, as we know, were good warriors, they fought actively, and after that they actively participated in drinking alcoholic beverages that were found in the Russian camp.

Bair Irincheev. That is, as always, the Finns....well, understandable.

Boris Megorsky. It’s just that the same General Allart decided to specifically single out the Finns, although why shouldn’t the Swedes do the same? But the fact is that by the end of this battle in complete darkness, not only was the Russian army in complete disarray, but the Swedes did not know where their king was, the soldiers scattered throughout the Russian camp. Plus, at some point, the Narva garrison came out and took part in the defeat of the Russian troops. In addition, the townspeople also came out to profit from the Russian camp. In fact, both sides turned out to be interested in stopping the battle and starting to agree on something. At the same time, the Russian right flank, where the army was actively defending itself, and the generals who were there were able to negotiate some more honorable conditions, General Weide, who was isolated on the opposite flank, he did not know what was happening there, and the Swedes persuaded him to surrender on much less honorable terms. On the right flank, the troops and guards, being the most military capable, crossed the bridge more or less in order, retaining their weapons and those banners that they did not lose during the battle. When General Weide's regiments passed by, they began to be disarmed. They demanded that they lay down their banners and lay down their weapons. And the generals, Russian generals who participated in these negotiations - they were all detained. Generals and a noticeable number of colonels, despite the fact that all the agreements were one way or another in words, the Russians later proved, they were given the royal word of honor that they would be released. “But you took your goat away and didn’t give it to us, so we’re detaining you.” Well, in general, by right of the strong, the Swedes deprived the Russian army of almost the entire top command, but at the same time most of the personnel came out of this situation. The total losses of the Russian army were not very large; about 6,000 people were killed and wounded. For an army of 35,000, these were not catastrophic losses, but the loss of control had an impact.

Bair Irincheev. Plus, as you already said, they abandoned all the artillery.

Boris Megorsky. Yes, the Swedes got all the artillery, including the cannons that stood on these ramparts and the heavy siege cannons that were facing the fortress. And later, Kral XII arrived, after the Battle of Narva, to the pits and there he found mortars that were just being transported to the siege. They also went to the Swedes. All the generals, all the artillery and a huge number of banners (about 140) - all this went to the Swedes. After which the Swedes celebrated the victory and Karl spent the winter in Estonia, and then returned to Vihland to defeat the Saxons in the Dvina region in 1701.

Bair Irincheev. That is, the classic, yes, is that the allies do not coordinate their actions and the enemy of the allies strikes in parts, that is, in turns. This is a sad story. That is, the Battle of Narva ended with Charles XII after that saying that the Russians are not an army at all, but some kind of rabble, and began to pay much less attention to his eastern front, went somewhere there on his own business, to fight in other places.

Boris Megorsky. We don’t know exactly what kind of Russians he considered, but the fact remains a fact. Yes, the Russian army did not show its best side. This was a great loss for the entire Russian state as a whole. Our diplomats from Europe reported that they began to be laughed at at the courts of European sovereigns. The Swedes spread their history of events. And the same General Allart, who documented everything in detail, how many troops there were, how they were located. He was taken prisoner, and at Karl’s request, they provided all their materials about how the Russian defense was organized and how many troops there were. When Charles XII got acquainted with them, he said: “No, these are some incorrect data, there were much more Russians. Please provide this information." Swedish news sheets reported that there were 80,000, 100,000 Russians, although there were 35,000.

Bair Irincheev. Information war.

Boris Megorsky. Yes, the information war was launched by such news, and the Swedes minted a medal about Peter running away, dropping his hat. And in other Swedish news they printed that Peter left with 6 boyars on a golden chariot, and then killed the messengers who brought him news of the defeat.

Bair Irincheev. Well, that is, the image of modern CNNs. It's good that there was no Facebook.

Boris Megorsky. It is clear that the army was fairly demoralized, and there was dissatisfaction with foreign commanders. A very respected source by me, a little-known chronicler of 1700, describes in detail, it was clearly created by a nobleman of the noble cavalry under the command of the boyar Sheremetyev, who in such an old, ponderous, archaic language, with a huge number of references to the Holy Scriptures, describes what was happening in the army, and how everything was wrong, how they came to fight, and the German officers forbade them to rob the surrounding villages, or that they could not keep the fast...

Bair Irincheev. Wow, that's why they lost.

Boris Megorsky. Yes. In the infantry regiments there were no berdysh, but the berdysh is our glorious weapon, which can be used to defeat the Swedes, they have thick elk jackets, so you can use it with a berdysh, but not with a baguette. In general, such dissatisfaction with military reforms among the military was also obvious then.

Bair Irincheev. This is just the beginning of the war, which lasted 21 years, then we had the capture of Noteburg, and the capture of Nyenskans, and the founding of St. Petersburg. Finally, we move on to the book. They returned, and returned in such a way that everyone shuddered.

Boris Megorsky. Yes, absolutely right, there are 4 years, a little less, in 1704 the Russians returned to the walls of Narva. During this time, many events happened, and Charles XII, as we know, returned to the west and more or less successfully defeated the Saxons and Poles. In Poland and Lithuania, on whose territory the Swedes were mainly maneuvering, a rather fierce civil war took place between aristocratic noble groups, some of which were conventionally pro-Swedish and others conventionally pro-Saxon and pro-Russian. Domestic diplomacy, with greater or lesser success, tried to somehow come to an agreement with the aristocracies of Lithuania and Poland in order to officially drag them into the war on their side. In 1701, Charles defeated the Saxons near Riga. In the Saxon army there was a significant corps of Russian regiments that did not have time to take part in the battle - they retreated back to Russia - but also some units that remained blocked on the banks of the Dvina River, some of the redoubts simply surrendered, and one redoubt was defended by several companies from Russian regiments, was blocked. The Swedes attacked him with superior forces. On the Russian side, there is no information about this in the sources at all, we only know about this from Swedish sources, which say that Charles XII, when the battle had already lasted all night, at dawn he arrived and found several surviving Russians, whom the Swedes had not yet managed to kill, and ordered them to be left alive. This is a small episode, completely removed from the main...

Bair Irincheev. About which we don’t know anything at all, that we also helped the Saxons. They sent us engineers, and we sent them infantry.

Boris Megorsky. Yes, absolutely right, after that the Dunamünde fortress at the mouth of the Dvina River, a western suburb of Riga today, there remained a Saxon garrison with several Russian companies. There they sat under siege for another half a year, and by December, when a significant part of this Russian-Saxon garrison died from disease, cold, and bombing, they were released under an agreement. A recording has been preserved of one of the Russian officers, who was released along with the Saxons, sent to Saxony, and then he returned to Russia in different ways, and as a result reached Kyiv. A long way. In 1702, Charles once again defeated the Saxon army at Kliszow, in Poland. Meanwhile, on our eastern front, events were unfolding that were important for us, and less important for Charles XII. Do you remember very well the film “Young Russia”, which describes in detail the history of the attack of the Swedish squadron on Arkhangelsk. These events developed in the summer and spring of 1701. A fantastic story full of drama, when, thanks to some intelligence information, it became known that the Swedes were preparing a squadron to attack Arkhangelsk. Let me remind you that at that time Arkhangelsk was the only seaport in Russia, apart from Astrakhan, but this did not really help for trade with Western Europe. Arkhangelsk is the only seaport through which foreign weapons, textiles, books, tools, luxury goods - a lot - were brought. Naturally, if the Swedes managed to occupy Arkhangelsk, this would completely stop the exchange of goods between Russia and Europe. Arkhangelsk had no fortifications, and they urgently began to build a fortress, which was later called the Novodvinsk Fortress. That is, the fortress had not yet been built, several bastions had been built to some level, and Swedish ships appeared. But everything ended well, our team won. The Swedes attacked in the direction of Ladoga. There was an interesting battle there: in January 1701, a detachment of archers was blocked by the Swedes in a small wooden estate on the Lava River. For several days he repelled attacks from superior enemy forces. As a result, the Swedes, despite the fact that they took this point, did not go further to Ladoga and Novgorod. In 1701, on our part, except for those units that fought together with the Saxons near Riga, there were no active military operations.

Bair Irincheev. Everyone put themselves in order, it turns out.

Boris Megorsky. One way or another, yes. Boyar Sheremetyev, who, in general, did not show his best side in the campaign of 1700, but, nevertheless, he remained almost the only one in the tsar’s entourage, well-born enough, who could be entrusted with command. He led the troops that operated based in Pskov, and he began to wage war in the direction of Livonia and Estland. First battle - December 1701, the first battle he won against the Swedes. It was won thanks to the significant numerical advantage of the Russian troops, but, nevertheless, it was the first victory that could somehow compensate for the effect of the defeats.

Bair Irincheev. Ours, as now, did not particularly promote this?

Boris Megorsky. Naturally, they promoted it. Immediately, boyar Boris Petrovich was awarded the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, and he became a field marshal.

Bair Irincheev. It’s okay here, but what about in the West? The Swedes took action after the Battle of Narva.

Boris Megorsky. Naturally, all these successes were somehow conveyed to the ambassadors, who broadcast the Russian version of events. Further - more, I think we can talk about information policy.

Bair Irincheev. Well, this is generally separate, I think we will record a separate program about the morals, life, customs of that time. Especially the customs of warfare, that it was possible to come to an agreement with the enemy, different conditions of surrender could be negotiated for oneself.

Boris Megorsky. But, if we return to the further course of the war, then in 1702 they took Oreshek (the Swedes called it Shlisselburg), but it was a rather long and bloody assault, a rather difficult operation. Who doesn’t know, the Oreshek fortress stands on an island in the place where the river flows from Lake Ladoga. Neva.

Bair Irincheev. Strongest current.

Boris Megorsky. And very wide. Artillery could only support this attack to a limited extent. It was a very difficult operation, the guards regiments were at the forefront of the attack. That is, these were not some court units that were being taken care of. These were shock units; Preobrazhentsy lost the most people of all the regiments. This was the first significant victory in which the king took a direct part. Naturally, he did not lead the troops in the attack, he observed and was present during the operation. Shortly before this, in Livonia, boyar Sheremetyev also took the small fortress of Marienburg. The most famous trophy in this fortress was the Livonian maiden Martha, who eventually became the Russian Empress Catherine I. In the next campaign in 1703, Nyenschanz at the mouth of the Neva was taken.

Bair Irincheev. There Golitsyn, who stood under the walls, pushed the boats away?

Boris Megorsky. No, this just applies to Noteburg. At the same time, in the spring of 1703, the ancient Russian fortresses of Koporye and Yam were taken.

Bair Irincheev. That is, they beat it back a second time, it turns out.

Boris Megorsky. Yes, when the Russian army rolled back from Narva in 1700, it was natural that all these fortresses were evacuated. The next time the Swedes did not give up these fortresses without a fight, although the garrisons there were still quite weak, but they honestly withstood some kind of siege. At the same time, a rather fierce “small war” was waged, a war that was waged to devastate enemy territories. It was carried out by both sides, but the Russians, objectively, had more opportunities for this, more cavalry units, Cossacks, noble cavalry, Tatars, Kalmyks, Bashkirs, who expertly ravaged enemy territories.

Bair Irincheev. This was the custom of that time, such a tactic, it had to be done.

Boris Megorsky. Yes, this had to be done, because any army of that era lived off the territory it occupied. These were villages, rural settlements that provided shelter for officers, food for the cavalry, provisions for the infantry, and if the village is burned and there is nothing in it, then you cannot place your positions here yet. Therefore, one of Peter's first decrees after the Narva defeat was to act by ravaging enemy territories far from our borders, and preserving our border territories so that they could serve as a base for our operations.

Bair Irincheev. Actually, that’s why the Finns call war “isoviha”, iso - big, viha - hatred, anger. The people were pious, and the constant devastation, when they were burned 10 times, they perceived as the wrath of God, we did something wrong, God was angry and sent Cossacks, Kalmyks, and all the others to attack us.

Boris Megorsky. At the same time, all this was superimposed on the consequences of the Little Ice Age at the end of the 17th century, when there was a whole series of crop failures, when even without any war the population was dying of hunger. The local population - be it Baltic or Russian - on the territory of Ingemarland was not to be envied. The Russian army carried out such actions quite successfully; by 1704, when the Russians approached Narva, the Swedes had very limited opportunities to maneuver their troops in this area.

Bair Irincheev. It's time for us to finish the first part of our story. That is, we talked in great detail about Narva, part 1. And, accordingly, we will continue directly about the siege, capture, surrender of the Swedes and, in fact, what happened after all this. Because, indeed, the history is very interesting, little-known among us, forgotten, because, as with any other war, or with any other event in the memory of the people, according to the results of studying the school curriculum, we only remember the founding of St. Petersburg and Poltava. That's all. And there was so much more.

Boris Megorsky. There were 21 years of war there.

Bair Irincheev. Which went on, as I understand it, with varying intensity, but, nevertheless, there were clashes all the time. Everyone somehow forgets that ours entered Finland, also took all the fortresses, the Hamburg naval battle. Why couldn’t they agree on peace for so long, if the Poltava victory, in general, after it everything was clear that Sweden would not be able to recover from such a blow, having suffered such global losses. Why couldn’t they, for example, immediately persuade the Swedes to peace, why did this last until 1721? This is all very interesting, and I hope that you, Boris, will find the strength to make a whole series of programs about the Great Northern War. We have already discussed that we need to talk about ammunition, equipment and weapons. And maybe, just for a short hour and a half, go through all the main campaigns of that war, talk about the morals and customs, the attitude of the officers. This is the attitude of Charles XII towards the Russian commander-in-chief de Croix after he surrendered. He’s not even Russian at all, he’s actually some kind of foreigner.

Boris Megorsky. Moreover, he was not even an officer in the Russian service. This was actually a general sent by the Saxon Augustus. His fate was sad, because he was taken prisoner and held captive first in Narva, then transported to Revel, this is modern Tallinn, where he experienced extreme need, there was not enough money, he lived in debt, to such an extent in debt that when he died in 1702, he had so many creditors that they forbade his body to be buried until all he owed was returned to them. As a result, the coffin with his body stood unburied in the Tallinn Cathedral until the beginning of the 20th century.

Bair Irincheev. Yes, well, things in general. Now they would probably just sell him for his organs.

Boris Megorsky. I do not know. But, nevertheless, the fate of the others who did not die in the battle turned out differently.

Bair Irincheev. I heard that after the Battle of Poltava, one of our generals, on the contrary, captured a Swede, who captured him near Narva, and there, while drunk, began pestering him: “Why did you beat me up like that in captivity?”

Boris Megorsky. I haven’t heard this, so I can’t comment on it. I can say that those Russian generals who were captured by the Swedes in 1700, they spent there some 10 years, some 11, and some 18. One of the Russian generals who commanded the artillery, held the rank of Feldzeichmeister General, was, in fact, a Georgian prince, and Alexander Archilovich Imeretinsky was a Russian general from the Bagrationi family - he lived in Sweden for 11 years and died in captivity without returning to his homeland. Others, sooner or later, were exchanged. Especially after the Battle of Poltava, when we had a lot of Swedish generals who could be exchanged, and then, sooner or later, all these early associates of Peter were returned to their homeland.

Bair Irincheev. Where, of course, everyone was brutally repressed at once.

Boris Megorsky. No, why. They were given more or less corresponding positions, and some managed to fight.

Bair Irincheev. I think we'll talk about all this later. First, let's talk about Narva 1704, now we have Narva 1700.

Boris Megorsky. Colorful books. Here is an officer in a red caftan.

Bair Irincheev. Yes, the book is very good, wonderful illustrations. Well, now, I think we’ll finish for today, because there was such an introduction to the era and in general the beginning of the Northern War, which, indeed, became the most important event in the first half of the 18th century, and this is the formation of the Russian Empire, they finally took revenge on their sworn enemy - Sweden. But they did not calm down, because after that they fought with Sweden three more times.

Boris Megorsky. Yes, naturally, Sweden did not immediately come to terms with the loss of its status as a great power.

Bair Irincheev. I think we will talk about all this for a long time, because we fought with Sweden starting from, in general, even earlier - Klim Zhukov told us in detail. We will try to talk about the 18th century and, in fact, about all the wars that took place after the Northern War. That's all for today. Boris, thank you very much. The 2nd gymnasium rules.

Boris Megorsky. Thank you.

Bair Irincheev. And we will continue next time. Thank you. All the best.

Boris Megorsky. Goodbye.

The Battle of Narva or “Narva Confusion” is one of the first battles of the Great Northern War between the Russian army of Peter I and the Swedish army of Charles XII, which took place on November 19 (30), 1700 near the city of Narva and ended in a heavy defeat for the Russian troops.

A memorial event dedicated to the tragic events of the Northern War was held on the island of Kamperholm in the vicinity of Ivangorod. Here, at the end of November 1700, exactly 313 years ago, the battle between the Russian troops of Peter I and the Swedish army of King Charles XII took place. The Russian army outnumbered the Swedes several times, but was less professional. Russian troops suffered huge losses, but this defeat gave a powerful impetus to the birth of the Russian army. In memory of the event of 1700, a cross was erected on Kamperholm. A similar cross was installed on the opposite bank of the Narova.

PRECEDING EVENTS

Immediately after receiving the news of the conclusion of the Treaty of Constantinople with the Ottoman Empire, Peter I declared war on Sweden and Russian troops moved towards Narva. The advance detachment led by Peter arrived at the fortress on October 3.

By October 29, the Russians had completed the concentration of troops and preparatory siege work and began shelling the fortress. However, it was not effective due to miscalculations in preparation for the siege (in particular, poor quality of guns and gunpowder) - it was not possible to break through the walls of the fortress.

The Russians had a large numerical superiority. According to various sources, near Narva, Peter I had from 29 to 37 thousand people and up to 284 artillery pieces. The garrison of the fortress under the command of Colonel Horn consisted of 1,300 foot soldiers and 200 horse soldiers.

Having received news of the landing of Charles XII's troops in Pärnu, Peter I sent a cavalry detachment of 5 thousand people under the command of Sheremetev for reconnaissance. Historians estimate the number of Charles's troops at 12 thousand people (according to other sources - 9 thousand).

On November 29, Peter I departed from the camp of the Russian troops, leaving command to Field Marshal de Croix (in Russian sources - von Croix). On the same day, Sheremetyev, not daring to engage in battle with the Swedes, returned to the camp.

However, even at the end of the first quarter of the 18th century, Peter I, editing the “History of the Northern War,” explained the disastrous outcome of the massacre with almost the same motivations. He did not fail to justify himself to political spiteful critics. Revealing the essence of his unexpected disappearance from the theater of military operations, the emperor reports: “On the 18th, the sovereign left the army for Novgorod in order to encourage the remaining regiments to come to Narva as soon as possible, and especially to have a meeting with the Polish king.”

PROGRESS OF THE BATTLE

On November 30, 1700, Charles XII immediately launched his troops into the attack. Thanks to heavy snowfall (visibility no more than 20 steps), the Swedes managed to approach Russian positions undetected and take the fortifications along with artillery. The commander-in-chief and a number of other foreign officers surrendered to the Swedes. Panic began in the Russian camp. Sheremetev's cavalry retreated across the Narova River, losing about 1,000 people during the crossing. Then the infantry units began a panicked retreat. At the same time, the Preobrazhensky, Semenovsky and Lefortovo regiments under the command of General Weide skillfully defended themselves. The battle stopped with the onset of darkness.

In the morning, a group of Russian generals offered Karl the terms of surrender: the Swedes would release Russian troops to the other side of the Narova River with weapons and banners, but without artillery. Karl agreed, but after transporting the guards regiments and Golovin's division, he violated the terms of surrender and captured the remaining troops. The Swedes captured 79 officers, including 10 generals, 10 colonels, 6 lieutenant colonels, 7 majors, 14 captains, 7 lieutenants, 4 warrant officers, 4 sergeants, 9 firecrackers and a bombardier, etc.

RESULTS

The Russian army suffered a heavy defeat: a significant amount of artillery was lost, heavy casualties were suffered, and the command staff suffered greatly. In Europe, the Russian army was no longer perceived as a serious force for several years, and Charles XII received the fame of a great commander.

The most difficult thing was the realization that the Russian army, primarily the command staff, was not yet ready to compete with modern European troops.

After the Narva Confusion, Peter I focused on training national command personnel (officer corps).

Gained experience in combat operations.

The Narva Confusion is the name given to one of the first battles between the Russians and the Swedes during the war of 1700-1721. The event ended in complete failure of the Russian army. The Narva Confusion, the date of which is November 1700, is of great importance in history. It was after this defeat that the Russian autocrat began to reorganize the army and formed it according to European standards. Let us take a closer look at what the Narva Confusion under Peter 1 was.

Interests of the country

At that time, Russia had three main tasks in the field of foreign policy:

• access to the Baltic;
• access to the Black Sea;
• reunification of lands.

Peter began his international activities with the struggle for access to the Black Sea. The Baltic was attractive from the point of view of trade routes with Europe. European countries could help Peter in implementing plans for the technical development of Russia.

In his desire to possess the shores of the Baltic, Peter continued the policy of his predecessor kings. Ivan the Terrible fought for the Baltic coast, he lost part of his lands. Fyodor Ivanovich returned these territories to Russia, but they were again lost under Vasily Shuisky. All subsequent kings could not forget about the loss. However, Tsar Alexei was busy with relations with Poland and Turkey. Under Peter, relations on the southern side were established, and Peter decided to take up the Baltic issue.

Both Peter and Augustus, king of Poland, had territorial claims to Sweden. Peter wanted to return the lands conquered by Sweden in the 17th century. The Russian kingdom made claims to Ingria (Ingria) - a territory that in our time corresponds to the Leningrad region. The Narva fortress, as the center of Ingria, became the main target of Russian attack.

Preparatory stage

Peter began preparing for war with Sweden in 1699. He entered into an alliance with the Polish and Danish kings. Augustus and Christian convinced Peter that the time had come to storm Sweden, since the inexperienced ruler Charles XII had sat on the throne.

But Peter was in no hurry to fight. He sought first to establish peace with Turkey. In August 1700, Russian ambassadors achieved peace in the Ottoman Empire, after which Peter immediately began active action. Years of the Northern War - 1700-1721.

Initial period

Peter's allies had already entered the war with Sweden. For Russia, the war began in August 1700. As soon as Peter was notified of the conclusion of peace with the Turks, he immediately moved his troops to Narva.

From all sides Peter heard that Narva had a weak fortification and that it would not be difficult to take it. There was no news of Charles XII. The supplies of the Russian army were depleted, the soldiers were tired of the campaign, and the guns fell into disrepair. 35-40 thousand Russians gathered near Narva and opened fire. Narva burned several times, and the Russians expected that the fortress was about to surrender. But that did not happen.

Peter learned that Karl was in Pernau and was moving towards Narva. Peter needed to go to Novgorod to send food to the soldiers and personally negotiate with King Augustus about the prospects. Sheremetyev informed Peter about Karl's proximity. Peter appointed the Duke of Croix de Croix to lead the army, and he himself left.

The Duke of Croix de Croix killed the Austrian troops in the Turkish war and was dismissed from the army. Acquaintances in Viennese circles provided him with a good reputation, and Peter agreed to take the Duke as a commander. The Duke's actions near Narva were also not the best.

Crucial moment

As soon as Karl arrived, he immediately attacked the Russian troops. The Duke de Croys extended his positions over seven miles. The soldiers waited for the enemy for a long time. German uniforms did not keep them warm. A cold wind blew through the tired soldiers scattered throughout the area. Meanwhile, Charles organized his troops into a wedge and decisively led them on the offensive.

The Russian soldiers were scared; they thought that the German officers had betrayed them. The Russians shouted: “The Germans have changed!” After this exclamation, Russian soldiers began to beat their own officers. Then they began to run away.

While the soldiers were crossing Narva, a huge number of them drowned. Karl was pleased with this circumstance. Previously, he was afraid of an attack from the rear, but now all fears have disappeared. The Swedes began to drive away the fleeing infantrymen. The cries about the betrayal of the Germans grew louder, and as a result, the Duke of Croys refused to fight and surrendered to the Swedes. With more courage, de Kruy could have won the battle, because there were not so many Swedes. But the Duke was afraid of losing and did not want to make excuses to Peter.

Loyal Warriors

The Swedes managed to break into the central formations. The Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments remained on the right flank and continued to fire as best they could. They placed carts around them and armed themselves with cannons and rifles. The officers managed to calm the panic among the soldiers. Weide’s detachment also stood firmly on the left flank. However, the two flanks were not connected to each other.

Charles himself took part in the battle and changed three horses during this time. One of them drowned in the swamp, the second was killed under it, Karl moved to the third. The battle ended after dark.

At night, the Swedes entered the Russian camp, found supplies of wine and began to feast until they lost consciousness. The Russians could have used this favorable moment and won, but there was no one to control them. The generals did not have information about where the Preobrazhensky and Semyonovtsy were, or in what condition they were.

Karl was worried that the Russians would realize that the Swedish army was small and would be able to carry out the siege of Narva. However, this did not happen.

Russian retreat

Fearing that the battle would resume at dawn and the Russian army would lose even more, the Russian generals began a dialogue with Charles about retreating. Karl happily accepted the idea of ​​the Russians retreating and allowed them to do so. But during the event, Karl violated the agreement, began to take the generals prisoner and take away weapons from the soldiers.

The Swedish ruler explained the violation of the treaty by saying that the Russians took the treasury. As a result, Karl took away the Russian army, artillery, and guns. The victory stupefied the young, ambitious king, who began to consider himself a hero.

In Europe they started talking about the fact that Russians do not know how to fight, calling the Russian army “barbarians.” The Narva embarrassment hit Russia’s authority hard, primarily in a moral sense. All countries of the world no longer considered Russia a great power.

Meaning of defeat

Analyzing the Narva Confusion, it is worth considering what events preceded this large-scale defeat.

On the eve of the war, Peter began to gather an army. He began its formation by disbanding the detachments of mutinous archers, and with them all the Moscow regiments. In return, the ruler decided to create 29 other regiments - the same as he had seen abroad.

To do this, they began to recruit everyone into the army, promising a high salary. Vagrants and the poor rushed to fight. Peter ordered the boyars to disband the servants. Numerous lackeys were left out of work and also joined the army. Peter dressed everyone up in German clothes. And he formed the command from his friends recruited abroad.

The Narva embarrassment revealed a number of shortcomings of the Russian army. Among them:

• lack of preparedness;
• lack of coordination of actions;
• insufficient supply.

The victory of the Swedish army was a serious event, but the war did not end after it. Peter began to form an army following the European example. He began to recruit new regiments and ordered the construction of factories that could meet the needs of the army. Schools were established to train officers. The Battle of Narva became a powerful impetus for major changes.

Army restructuring

The backbone of the newly formed army was the Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments. Peter established the duty of recruiting: each class had to nominate a certain number of recruits.

As a result, by 1708 the army of 40 thousand turned into 113 thousand. The warriors were well armed.

New factories were built to supply the army. The first of these were metallurgical enterprises in the Urals. There they made cannons, cannonballs, smelted cast iron and iron. Factories were established that produced powder mixtures, weapons, and textiles for military needs.

Officers were trained in special schools. Non-commissioned officers received education in 50 newly opened institutions. Nobles were sent to study abroad. Once they returned, Peter had no need to hire foreigners.

The head of state issued regulations with instructions, summing up the results of many years of military operations: the Northern War, the Narva Confusion.

The autocrat paid great attention to the formation of naval forces. The fleet was built in the south, north and Baltic. In total, approximately 900 ships were built during Peter's reign.

Results of the transformations

All changes were carried out during the Northern War. The battles did not stop during this period. During this time, Russia became a great naval power.

All efforts were not in vain. In 1702, Russian troops defeated the Swedes near Dorpat. Then Noteburg was defeated. By 1703, the Neva was completely under Russian control. Peter laid the first stone of the Peter and Paul Fortress, from which the history of the city of St. Petersburg began. Since that time, Russia has established itself in the Baltic. In 1704, they finally managed to take Narva. And in 1709, the legendary Battle of Poltava took place, during which the Russians managed to defeat the Swedes.

Thus, the initial failure of the Russian army at the Battle of Narva led to transformations that provided the country with major victories. The events of those years showed the whole world the transformation of the backward Muscovite kingdom into a great power and turned Russia into a formidable force.