Rem Word - Bible of the Time. …from the Big Bang to the present day…

…Then that significant number of Russian good people decide that Peter the First (or the one who became him) is «the beast that came out of the abyss» Antichrist and Miroed. Confirmation of this judgment is the «All-Sure Councils» regularly convened on the island in the middle of the Yauza, where Orthodox rituals are parodied. The naming of church ranks and rituals are being altered using profanity. The «pontiff» chosen by the cathedral floats in a ladle in the middle of a vat of alcohol, while naked men and women of the highest boyar families drink wine and sing obscene songs.

Russia is a member of the Northern Union, created on the initiative of the rulers of Saxony and Poland. The general direction is the war with Sweden, the king of which, Charles the Twelfth, seems to other monarchs to be insufficiently experienced in military affairs. Peter’s aspirations are Karelia and Ingria (aka Ingermanlandia, the future Leningrad region). In addition, he is driven by personal resentment – a cold welcome in the then Swedish Riga during the Great Embassy.

In 1700, Russian troops, 35 thousand fighters, mostly recruits, with light and varied artillery, with insufficient supplies, besieged Narva. Once this city intended to include in its possessions the prince (or tsar) Ivan the Third. To reduce human losses, he built the Ivangorod fortress opposite him. Then the Russian monarch was successful. However, 80 years later, the Swedes recaptured Narva and, connecting the defenses of the two cities with a fortified bridge, created a powerful citadel.

Charles the Twelfth, having forced the allies of Russia to withdraw from the war, rushes to the aid of the besieged. Sheremetyev’s detachment enters into clashes with the advanced units. The prisoners, in accordance with the agreement with the king for this case, announce the size of the Swedish army at 50 thousand fighters. Believing this information, Peter leaves the army. Maybe he wants to quickly call other regiments to the place of battle, meet with an ally, the Polish king, or, in the end, he is simply afraid of perishing. A certain Dutch duke remains in command of the army.

The actual number of Karl’s troops is 8—9 thousand fighters. The king is building soldiers in columns and so attacks the Russian army. The latter is a six-kilometer line, five to six rows of soldiers within their camp. Columns of Swedes break through it like a crowbar. In the ranks of the regiments the cry «The Germans are traitors!» Is heard. Fearing beating by soldiers, foreign officers surrender. Preobrazhensky, Semenovsky and Lefortovo regiments, fenced off with carts, are resisting. Later they will be allowed to leave. Some units leave the battlefield with banners and weapons, but without the convoy and artillery, others without all of the above. The losses of the Swedes are 700 soldiers, the Russians – 9,000, as well as all, except for 5 cannons out of 184, artillery. Charles the Twelfth is a good general, but a weak strategist. Instead of an immediate attack on Moscow, he turns his gaze to Poland and Saxony. Meanwhile, the troops of Boris Sheremetyev, who was not young at that time, but experienced, began to learn the art of war in practice. One by one, they break up detachments from the fifteen thousandth Swedish garrison left in Ingermanland and Livonia (present-day Lithuania). The whole of Narva is in the hands of the Russians. At its mouth, on the territory of Fomin Island, two and a half by four kilometers, with a village of thirty households and forty inhabitants, on May 27, 1703, Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg.

Peter’s Polish friend, Augustus II, loses the Fraustadt battle to Karl, in which the auxiliary Russian corps also participates. 4500 Russian soldiers are killed (all 500 prisoners of war by the Swedes were executed), 700 allied Saxons. Karl has at his disposal «an immense number of prisoners» of the Germans. The losses of the Swedes – 450 people. August with a 12-thousandth army stands 25 kilometers from the battlefield and does not take part in the battle. In February 1706, a 20,000-strong Swedish army besieges a 40,000-strong Russian and Saxon army near Grodno. Peter instructs Commander Menshikov «not to accept in an open battlefield.» During the siege, retreat and crossing the Neman, the Russian army loses 17 thousand people. Because of the drift of ice, Karl’s troops miss her. The Polish king, who left Grodno in advance, concludes the Altranschnedt peace, breaks the alliance with Russia and abdicates the throne. The Great Lithuanian army is at the disposal of the Swedish protege in Poland, Stanislav Leszczynski. In June 1708, the Swedish monarch embarked on a long-planned large-scale campaign to the East. Its purpose, according to a group of historians, is the complete destruction of the statehood of Russia, its division into specific principalities, the rejection of Pskov, Novgorod, the annexation of Ukraine and other Western Russian territories. Another well-known version is that Karl plans to establish a buffer Pskov-Novgorod Republic in the north, return all the Swedish territories captured by Peter, and establish a direct protectorate over Eastern Ukraine.

By the beginning of the Russian campaign, Charles’s army reached 120 thousand people. Of these, 38 thousand are the invading army. The number of regular forces of Peter – 200 thousand, plus 100 thousand in the irregular troops of the Cossacks and Asian peoples. Defense spending reaches 80% of the budget. The country is being militarized. Grain is brought to the cities, which are declared fortresses. The Moscow Kremlin is once again becoming a full-fledged citadel. Bastions are attached to it. The ditches near the walls, dried up since the seventeenth century, are filled with water from the Neglinka River.

The trek of the Swedish king starts from the outskirts of Minsk. Both armies are swiftly eating away supplies from the local population. Menshikov orders to burn cities – Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev…

Nine months before the Battle of Poltava, in October 1708, a battle will take place near the village of Lesnaya (east of modern Belarus) with a 12.5 thousand Swedish-Finnish detachment accompanying 7 thousand convoy wagons with provisions, artillery and ammunition. The so-called «corvolant» – «flying detachment» of Peter the Great has the same number of soldiers and officers. But these are the guards, the noble cavalry thirsting for victories, the Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments. The majority of the Swedes are not fully motivated Finns, Karelians, residents of the territories of the modern Baltic. However, the battle is fierce. The detachment of General Levengaupt loses 4,000 killed, 800 prisoners, 1,500 deserters. Charles the Twelfth receives only 6,000 new soldiers – without artillery, ammunition and food. The Russian army loses 3,000 people.

Due to the lack of food, the Swedes turn south, to the Seversky Territory (North-Eastern Ukraine). Hetman Mazepa, who laid the symbols of hetman power under the feet of the Swedish king; banner, mace and military seal, now openly promises support to Charles the Twelfth. In the city of Baturin, he collects supplies of food, ammunition and three hundred so necessary for the Swedish army cannons. A very irritated Peter gives orders to Menshikov to set the city on fire. Alexander Danilovich is following the order. Defenders perish – 5—7 thousand Cossacks, 4—5 thousand inhabitants, and 4 thousand besiegers. In March 1709, the Cossacks of the Zaporozhye Sich went over to the side of the Swedes.

Charles’s army, already somewhat discouraged, circles around Little Russia, then, obeying the king’s whim, begins the siege of Poltava. They are opposed by 5 thousand military and, which is not confirmed, 2.5 thousand local residents. Three assaults, preceded by explosions of underground mines, fight back with great damage for the attackers. Above all, the lack of artillery and gunpowder affects. Charles’s army loses 6 thousand soldiers and officers, suffers hardships when Sheremetev arrives at Poltava with the main army, and a week later Peter the Great.