As we remember from the previous article ("The Poltava catastrophe of the army of Charles XII"), after the defeat at Poltava, the Swedish troops retreated to their wagon train, which was guarded by 7 regiments near the village of Pushkarevka, located southwest of Poltava.
The Swedes, who were with Charles XII at the time, report that at first the king did not look dejected, arguing that this "embarrassment" does not matter much. He even wrote a letter to his sister, Ulrika Eleanor (who would later replace him on the royal throne), which in between times said:
“Everything is going well here. Only … as a result of one special incident, the army had the misfortune of incurring losses, which, I hope, will be repaired in a short time."
Charles XII's mood changed after the news that Field Marshal Rönschild, head of the field office Pieper and "Little Prince Maximilian" had been taken prisoner. Upon learning of this, the king exclaimed:
"How? Captured by the Russians? Then it is better to die among the Turks. Forward!"
Nothing was learned about the real state of affairs in Sweden at the end of August 1709, when a new letter from Karl, written in Ochakov, arrived:
"It turned out thanks to a strange and unfortunate accident that the Swedish troops suffered losses in a field battle on the 28th of last month … however, we are now busy looking for funds so that the enemy would not gain any advantage from this and would not even receive the slightest benefit."
And only from foreign sources did the Swedes understand that their formidable army, which went with Charles XII on the Russian campaign, no longer exists.
But back to that great day of Poltava Victoria.
The retreat of the Swedish army from Poltava
Intoxicated by his victory, Peter seemed to have decided to play with the Swedes as a giveaway: having fun feasting with the captured "teachers", he forgot to give the order to pursue the enemy army.
Thus, he repeated his mistake in the battle at Lesnaya, when, without organizing the pursuit of the retreating Swedes in time, he allowed Levengaupt to bring part of his corps to the king. But now General Levengaupt was destined to powerlessly destroy the entire remaining army.
R. Bour and M. Golitsyn at the head of the dragoon detachments were sent in pursuit of the Swedes only late in the evening. The next day, A. Menshikov was also detached to pursue the Swedes, who was entrusted with the general management of the operation.
The one who would take Karl prisoner was promised the rank of general and 100 thousand rubles.
And only on June 30, Peter I himself, at the head of the Ingermanland and Astrakhan regiments and accompanied by a company of the life squadron, also moved after the Swedes.
But on the first day, practically uncontrolled and unsecured by anyone, the Swedish army quickly retreated south along the coast of the Vorskla.
Karl, suffering from leg pain and fever, was among the remnants of the Upland Cavalry Regiment. General Levengaupt withdrew from all affairs and did not even try to somehow manage the retreat of this still quite large army. As a result, "no one obeyed anyone, everyone was afraid only for himself and tried to get ahead."
On the way, the retreating Swedes were joined by the regiment of Major General Meyerfeld, squadrons of Lieutenant Colonels Funk and Silverjelm, who did not participate in the Battle of Poltava.
To slow down the movement of Russian troops, Meyerfeld was sent to Peter I, who offered to start negotiations for peace.
The general said that the captive Russian head of the field office of Karl XII Pieper was endowed with such powers. But Peter already understood that the Swedish king was almost in his hands and it was possible to detain Menshikov's dragoons for only 2 hours.
To get to the lands subject to the Ottoman Empire or the Crimean Khanate, the Swedes had to cross the Dnieper or Vorskla.
Let us recall that the Crimean khans owned the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region, and the famous island of Khortitsa, for example, was located at the border of the khan's lands. But the Crimean peninsula itself belonged to the Tatars only partially: the territory of Gothia (with the center in Kef - Feodosia) and the former colonies of Genoa (Kerch with its surroundings) were part of the Ottoman Empire (Kefinsky Eyalet)
The path to the possession of the Ottoman Port (through the Dnieper) was shorter, but this river was wider and deeper than the Vorskla.
Quartermaster General Axel Gillenkrok (Yullenkruk), sent for reconnaissance, found a relatively shallow place and 8 ferries on Vorskla near Kishenki. But some Cossack told him that near the destroyed city of Perevolochna on the Dnieper there was an even more convenient place for crossing, where you could cross the river in carts, and Gillenkrok went to look for this ford, ordering to take the ferries with him. On the way, this "Ivan Susanin" was lost, and at Perevolochnaya it turned out that the river in this place is very wide and deep, and the carpenters who arrived with him found only 70 logs on the bank. Gillenkrok sent a messenger with instructions to stop the army at Kishenok, but he was too late. Pursued by Menshikov's dragoons, the Swedes were already approaching the Dnieper. Here, seeing that there was little chance of an organized crossing, the soldiers, in a panic, began to try to cross to the other side on their own. Some paid 100 thalers for a seat on ferries, or built rafts and boats, others rushed by swimming, holding on to the manes of horses, and many of them drowned. At the same time, Mazepa moved to the other side with his young wife, as well as the Cossack Colonel Voinarovsky. Part of the hetman's property drowned, which later gave rise to rumors about Mazepa's treasure, which many were looking for in those places.
Here, on the banks of the Dnieper, General Levengaupt caught an ermine that had climbed into his hat. He considered this animal a symbol of the Swedish army, which also "lured itself into a trap," and from that time on completely lost heart.
Karl XII, who arrived at Perevolochnaya, was inclined to give one more battle, but the generals and officers who were with him persuaded him to cross to the other side. General Kreutz said that if the Russians came up with one cavalry (as it happened), the Swedes could fight back without Karl. If the entire Russian army comes, the presence of the king will not help the soldiers either.
It was agreed that Karl would wait for his army in Ochakovo. Further, it was planned to move to Poland in the hope of linking up there with the Swedish corps of General Crassau and the Polish troops of Stanislav Leszczynski. Thus, the size of the army could be increased to 40 thousand people. In addition, an order was sent to Stockholm to conduct an urgent recruitment of new recruits.
1,500 Cossacks and 1,300 Swedes crossed with the king, among whom were generals Sparre, Lagercrona, Meyerfeld, Gillenkrok, the commander of the Drabants Hord, secretary of the royal chancellery Joachim Duben.
General Levengaupt, who remained in command, ordered the wagons to be burned, the supplies and the treasury to the soldiers were distributed, but the Swedes did not have time to leave from Perevolochnaya. On June 30, 1709, three hours after the crossing of Charles XII, they saw in front of them the cavalry detachments of Alexander Menshikov, among whom were the soldiers of the Semyonovsky regiment mounted on horses. There were about 9 thousand of them in total.
The surrender of the Swedes at Perevolnaya
Arriving at Perevolochnaya, the Semyonovites dismounted and stood in square, the cavalry settled on the flanks.
There were much more Swedes (Swedish historians, who, in this case, perhaps, can be trusted, counted 18,367 people), and we often hear that Levengaupt was the main culprit of their surrender. However, in fairness, it should be said that panic broke out among the Swedes. General Meyerfeld's dragoons refused to mount their horses. “They just looked at me like I was crazy,” Lewenhaupt later complained.
Some of the soldiers threw themselves into the water in despair, others went to surrender in small groups. Most of the army, in the words of Levengaupt, "was stupefied" and "no more than half of the lower ranks and officers remained with their banners."
And yet there were units ready to obey Levengaupt's orders. Ramsverd's Noble Regiment and Wennerstedt's Regiment lined up for battle, and the dragoons of the Albedil regiment, according to eyewitnesses, calmly awaited the order, lying by saddled horses and reading prayer books.
According to the most conservative estimates, Levengaupt could muster forces equal to 6-7 regiments (this is about half of the army that was with him), and either drive off Menshikov's detachment (which, of course, would inspire the fallen in spirit soldiers of other units), or break through with the remaining combat capability connections to Kishenki.
The Swedish general Kreutz, who climbed the hillock to clarify the situation, argued that the Russian cavalry was extremely tired from the long march: some horses literally collapsed from their feet from fatigue. A powerful blow from fresh cavalry detachments of the Swedes could be fatal for the Russian dragoons, but the morally broken Levengaupt did not dare to give such an order. Instead, he gathered the commanders of the regiments and asked them to answer what they think about the relatively mild terms of surrender proposed by Menshikov, and can they vouch for the reliability of their soldiers? Those, in turn, declaring their personal loyalty to King Charles, began to blame everything on the soldiers, saying that they would either put down their guns, at one sight of the enemy, or would not be able to defend themselves due to lack of ammunition, and only a few assured the commander that their subordinates ready to fight.
Dissatisfied with their answers, Levengaupt now asked the same questions directly to the soldiers, who were perplexed and divided. Many took this as a sign of the hopelessness of the situation in which they found themselves - after all, the charter of the Swedish army forbade not only surrendering, but even retreating: the officers “had the power to deal with such rebels, since one must either fight and die at the hands of enemies of the state, or fall from the retaliation of the commander. Previously, generals and colonels were not interested in their opinion and never asked about anything.
Albedil's life dragoons (those who read prayer books in the mood for battle) declared that they would "do everything in their power", but most of the soldiers were sullenly silent, and this further increased Levengaupt's anxiety and uncertainty. He again gathered the officers, who now agreed that "it is better to surrender on any honorable terms than to continue to experience happiness with weapons."
According to the drawn up agreement of surrender, the Russians were transferred weapons, horses and the entire baggage train. As trophies, Menshikov received 21 cannons, 2 howitzers, 8 mortars, 142 banners and 700 thousand thalers (part of this money belonged to Mazepa).
Private property was left to the rank and file of the Swedish army and the possibility of exchange for Russian prisoners of war, or ransom, was promised. The officers, in addition, were promised maintenance at the expense of the royal treasury. But they took away their jewelry, gold and silver dishes, gold and silver brocade, sable fur coats and skins ("acquired by back-breaking labor" during the campaign across Ukraine and Poland).
Cossacks who joined the Swedes were considered traitors, and the treaty did not apply to them.
Thus, 49 of the best Swedish regiments ceased to exist in the four days that elapsed from the Battle of Poltava to the surrender at Perevolochnaya.
Charles XII wrote to his sister that
"Levengaupt acted contrary to orders and military duty, in the most shameful way, and caused an irreparable loss … Always before he showed himself from the most excellent side, but this time, apparently, he did not control his mind."
And Levengaupt, who did not believe in the possibility of resistance, then justified himself by the fact that he was more afraid of the king's anger "the omniscient Lord, who sternly asks for intentional murder."
Having concluded a surrender agreement, Menshikov, following the example of Peter I, arranged a feast for the generals and senior officers of the Swedish army. During this dinner, they had the pleasure of contemplating the sad picture of the disarming of their once formidable army. The infantrymen laid down their arms in front of the formation of the Semenovsky regiment: they saluted with muskets and lowered them onto the sand, after which they took off their swords and cartridge bags. Squadrons of cavalrymen, one after another, passed in front of the formation of R. Bour's dragoons and threw timpani, standards, swords and carbines on the ground in front of them. According to eyewitnesses, half of the soldiers threw down their weapons with a feeling of obvious relief, others with indignation, some of them were crying.
Flight of Charles XII and Mazepa
On July 1, 1709 (the day after the surrender of the Swedish army), Tsar Peter I himself arrived at Perevolochna. He ordered Major General G. Volkonsky at the head of 2 thousand "good-horse dragoons" to continue pursuing Charles XII, and Field Marshal-Lieutenant G. von der An order was sent to Golts in Volhynia to block the king's path to Poland.
On July 8, Volkonsky caught up with a mixed detachment of Swedes and Cossacks (2,800 people) near the Bug and killed most of it, 260 people were taken prisoner and only about 600 (including Karl and Mazepa) managed to cross to the other side.
Charles XII will soon find himself in Bendery, where, at first, he will be warmly received by the Ottomans, but very soon the Sultan will bitterly regret his decision to grant asylum to the inadequate Swedish king. His long stay in Turkey was described in the article "Vikings" against the Janissaries. The incredible adventures of Charles XII in the Ottoman Empire.
Mazepa will die in Bender on September 21 (October 2) 1709. By order of Peter I, a 10-pound “Order of Judas” was made for him in Russia, and in Ukraine on March 26, 2009, by order of the third president of this country, V. Yushchenko, the “Cross of Ivan Mazepa” was established. Among the "laureates" of this dubious (from the point of view of every normal person) award was Mikhail Denisenko, excommunicated from the Church in 1992, better known as Filaret. This is his cunning Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople deftly carried out with the presentation of the bonded tomos:
“We do not accept this tomos, because we did not know the contents of the tomos that we were given. If we knew the content, then on December 15, we would not have voted for autocephaly,”Filaret said on June 11, 2019.
Since in Soviet times Filaret gratefully accepted the Order of Friendship of Peoples (1979) and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1988) from the government, giving him the traitor's cross looks quite logical and reasonable.
Ivan Skoropadsky became the new hetman of the Left-Bank Ukraine.
At his request, Peter I issued a manifesto on March 11, 1710, in which it was forbidden to offend the people of Little Russia, reproaching him for Mazepa's betrayal.
Swedish prisoners at Perevolochnaya
How many soldiers and officers of the army of Charles XII were captured at Perevolochnaya?
E. Tarle wrote:
"When the Swedes were subsequently caught gradually and fled through the forests and fields … the total number of prisoners gave a figure of about 18 thousand people."
Swedish historian Peter Englund cites the following figures:
There are 983 officers.
Non-commissioned officers and soldiers - 12,575 (including 9151 cavalrymen).
Non-combatants - 4809 people, including 40 pastors, 231 musicians, 945 craftsmen of various specialties, 34 courtiers of Charles XII and 25 royal lackeys, as well as grooms, horsemen, scribes, furiers and others.
Women (wives of soldiers and officers) and children - 1657.
Thus, the number of prisoners reaches 20 thousand people (together with those who surrendered at Poltava - about 23 thousand).
Three generals were also captured near Perevolochnaya: Levengaupt, Kruse and Kreutz. Later, they were joined by Quartermaster General Axel Gillenkrok, whom Charles XII sent with a small detachment to the Polish border. In Chernivtsi, he was captured by a Russian detachment and taken to Moscow.
Recall that at Poltava, Field Marshal Rönschild, Generals Schlippenbach, Roos, Hamilton, Stackelberg and the head of the royal field office Karl Pieper were also taken prisoner.
In total, during the years of the Northern War, about 250 thousand people of various nationalities were captured in Russian, among whom were "non-combatants" - service personnel (blacksmiths, carpenters, horsemen, washerwomen, and others), and residents of some border towns, resettled inland of Russia. The name of the most famous washerwoman, which the Russians got as a trophy, is familiar to everyone. This is Marta Skavronskaya, who was lucky in Marienburg to attract the attention of Count B. Sheremetev (but there is information that another hero of Poltava, R. Bour, became her first patron). This woman gradually rose to the “title” of the Russian empress, surpassing even the darling of fate, Alexander Menshikov, in her fantastic career.
The fate of the Swedish prisoners in Russia and the end of the Northern War will be discussed in the following articles.
