During the winter of 1708-1709, the Russian and Swedish armies avoided a general engagement. The Russian command tried to wear down the enemy with a "small war" - destroying individual detachments, preventing the Swedes from seizing cities where food and military supplies were. Charles XII tried to turn the tide in his favor on the political and diplomatic front, to involve the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate in the war with Russia.
In the spring of 1709, the 35 thousand Swedish army resumed its movement - Karl wanted to repeat the attack on Moscow, but through Kharkov and Belgorod. To create a support base for the development of the offensive, the Swedish command decided to capture the fortress of Poltava.
Heroic Defense of Poltava
By the end of April, the Swedish king began to draw up his forces to Poltava. There was a garrison of 4 thousand soldiers (2 battalions of the Ustyug, 2 battalions of Tverskoy, 1 battalion of the Perm regiments, 1 battalion of Colonel von Fichtenheim regiment, 1 battalion of the Apraksin regiment) and 2, 5 thousand armed local residents and Cossacks under the command of the commander of the Tver infantry regiment of Colonel Alexei Stepanovich Kelin.
Poltava lies on the right, high and steep bank of the Vorskla River. The river flows into Vorskla nearby. Kolomak, a wide and low-lying valley is formed, covered with rugged swamps. As a result, communication between Poltava and the left bank of the Vorskla was very difficult. The fortress fence of Poltava was located in the form of an irregular polygon, in addition, there was an earthen rampart, reinforced by a palisade, and in front of the rampart there was a moat. A suburb was located in front of the northern wall of the fortress, its eastern and western parts were bordered by ravines. In the east they came close, in the west - 200 meters, there were small ravines inside Poltava, dividing it into two unequal parts. The southeastern side, due to the height of the rampart, was more accessible for an assault. But the enemy, having seized the rampart, went to the bottom of a ravine with steep slopes. The approaches to Poltava from the east also did not present any convenience for an assault or an engineering attack - the ravine came close to the fortress rampart. On the northern side, the besiegers were greatly hampered by the suburb: siege work had to start from a relatively distant distance from the fortress wall. The most advantageous was to storm from the western side: the ravine covered the besiegers, but even here the garrison had the opportunity to take advantage of the ravine inside the fortress and create a new strong internal defensive line. Poltava was of great importance - it was a junction of routes, a trade center and a fortified point that could be used as a base for further war.
Even before the start of the siege, at the direction of Peter, the Poltava fortress was put in order, stocks of food and ammunition were created. The artillery park of the fortress consisted of 28 cannons.
By the end of April, the main forces of the Swedish army were concentrated near Poltava. They settled partly in a fortified camp, and partly in the surrounding settlements. To cover the main forces from a possible attack from the Russian army, Ross's detachment of 2 infantry and 2 dragoon regiments was stationed in Budishchi. The siege work was entrusted to Quartermaster General Gillencrock. He believed that Poltava should not be besieged, since the army has few guns and there is a shortage of ammunition. But Karl insisted on the siege of Poltava.
The Swedes staged two assaults on April 28 and 29, trying to take Poltava on the move, but they repulsed their onslaught. After that, they began siege work, moving in three parallels to the western front of the fortifications. On the night of April 30 and May 3, the Russian garrison made sorties, seized the tool, destroying the erected structures, but the Swedes continued engineering work. By May 4, the Swedes approached the moat and the Russian garrison began to build an internal fence behind the ravine, which covered most of the city from the southwest. Gillenkrok believed that the task was completed and it was possible to storm it, but Karl decided to continue engineering work - to pass the ditch, lay mines under the shaft. Siege work continued until May 14, while artillery batteries were installed. The Russian garrison carried out work to strengthen the rampart, create fortifications inside the fortress and made sorties.
The Russian army received news of the siege of Poltava when it was moving from Bogodukhov to the Vorskla River. At the military council, it was decided to divert the attention of the Swedes from the fortress by attacking Opishnya and Budishche. But this attack did not force the Swedish command to lift the siege of Poltava. The Swedes only concentrated their forces at Poltava even more and moved their cavalry to the village of Zhuki. On May 9, Alexander Menshikov received a letter from Peter, where it was proposed to provide assistance to the Poltava garrison by attacking Opishnya or by placing an army in the immediate vicinity of the fortress on the left bank of the Vorskla, in order to provide support at the first opportunity with reinforcements and supplies. Considering the fact that the first method of action indicated by the Russian tsar had already been tried and did not bring success, Menshikov decided to implement the second proposal. On May 14, Russian troops stationed themselves opposite Poltava, on the left bank of the Vorskla River, near the village. Steep Coast. All the efforts of the favorite of the tsar were aimed at providing immediate assistance to the besieged Poltava garrison. So, on May 15, Menshikov managed to transfer to Poltava a detachment of Golovin's numbering about 1,000 people and "a fair amount of ammunition." During the second half of May 1709, Russian forces gradually pulled together to the besieged Poltava, deploying between the villages of Krutoy Bereg and Iskrovka. Gradually, fortifications were erected on the banks of the river, work was carried out to establish communication with the fortress - passages of fascines were made through the swampy branches of the Vorskla. The Swedes, worried about such an activity of the Russian army, began to erect their continuous defensive line against our fortifications. On May 27, Field Marshal Sheremetev joined the forces of Menshikov and took command over all the troops. By the beginning of June, Sheremetev began to be inclined to think that it was necessary to provide more effective assistance to the besieged Poltava. He planned to transfer part of the forces across the Vorskla, to the rear of the Swedes. He set out his thoughts on this issue in a letter to the emperor, but Peter postponed the decision to attack until he arrived in the army and studied the situation on the spot. On June 4, the Russian tsar arrived at Poltava and took the further conduct of operations into his own hands.
The fall of the Zaporizhzhya Sich. It should be noted that the Zaporozhye Sich was destroyed in the same month. At the end of March 1709, ataman Konstantin Gordienko went over to Karl's side. He led the attacks of the Zaporozhye Cossacks on the garrisons of the tsarist troops, which were located within the Zaporozhye Sich. The Cossacks acted both independently and together with the Swedish troops. But in most of the skirmishes the Cossacks were defeated. Peter I, after negotiations and attempts to settle the matter peacefully, ordered Prince Menshikov to move from Kiev to the Zaporozhye Sich three regiments under the command of Colonel Pyotr Yakovlev and destroy the "nest of rebels". In early May, Perevolochna was taken and burned; on May 11, Russian regiments approached the Sich. Yakovlev tried to settle the matter peacefully, the Cossacks went to negotiations, but it soon became clear that this was a military trick - the Koshevoy Sorochinsky went to the Crimea for the army of the Crimean Tatars. On May 14, soldiers on boats - it was impossible to take the fortress from land, they went on an assault, but were repulsed. At this time, a detachment of dragoons approached with Colonel Ignat Galagan. The Sich was taken, most of the defenders were killed in battle, some of the prisoners were executed.
Further actions of the Swedes. By mid-May, the Swedes brought their trenches to the palisade of the fortress. The enemy tried to blow up the fortifications. The Swedes made two attempts to undermine the shaft and blow it up, but they failed. Colonel Kelin noticed the preparations of the Swedes, when the enemies laid a mine under the ramparts, the defenders carefully made a counter-dig to the powder charge and took out the barrels. Then the besiegers prepared a second tunnel and at the same time prepared 3 thousand assault detachment. On May 23, the Swedish command expected to attack the fortress simultaneously with the demolition of the rampart. The garrison was ready to attack the enemy, when the Swedes approached within the range of the shot, a friendly volley was heard, which upset the enemy's ranks, there was no surprise attack. In May, the Swedes tried several times to attack the fortress, but all their assaults were repulsed.
The bombardment of the fortress did not give results for a long time - there were few cannons and ammunition to support strong fire. Only on June 1, when Karl, angry at the failures, ordered an increase in artillery shelling, the Swedish artillerymen managed to cause a fire in the fortress. The Swedes went on another attack, taking advantage of the fact that the defenders extinguished the fire. The attack was sudden, with few defenders left on the ramparts. Easily breaking the resistance of the guard, the Swedes hoisted the royal banner on the rampart, but at that time soldiers and militias arrived from the city to the place of the battle. With a bayonet blow, the Swedes were overturned and thrown off the rampart.
Then the Swedish command offered Kelin to surrender the fortress, promising honorable terms of surrender, and otherwise threatening to exterminate the garrison and civilians without mercy. The courageous colonel refused and organized two strong sorties on June 2 and 3, during which 4 Swedish guns were captured.
At this time, the foreign policy position of Russia improved - the demonstration of the forces of the Russian fleet at the mouth of the Don had a great psychological impact on Istanbul. The Turks confirmed the peace agreement with Russia, the Porta forbade the Kuban and Crimean Tatars to disturb the Russian borders. Arriving at Poltava, Peter informed the garrison of the situation, Kelen, in a reply letter (delivered to the nucleus without charge), said that the garrison maintains a high morale, but ammunition and food are running out. Peter decides to give a "general battle" to the Swedes. He wanted to prevent the departure of the Swedish army for the Dnieper, Hetman Skoropadsky occupied the crossings on the Psel and Grun rivers in order to block the path of the Swedes to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. On June 12, the tsar convened a general military council to discuss a plan of action for the Russian army. It was decided to pull the enemy away from Poltava (on June 7 and 10 Kelen sent new alarming messages) and force the Swedes to lift the siege. For this, the Swedish army decided to attack from several directions. They were going to strike on the morning of June 14th. But they had to abandon this idea, since Menshikov's column could not make a crossing at the designated place across the swampy valley of the Vorskla River. On June 15, a new military council was assembled, which decided to repeat the attempt, but it also failed. On June 16, it was finally decided that without a decisive battle the Swedes could not be recaptured from Poltava.
By the evening of June 16, the Russian army captured two crossings across the Vorskla - north and south of Poltava. This operation was carried out by units of Allart and Renne (near the village of Petrovka). The Swedish king moved against the forces of Rennes a detachment of Field Marshal Karl Renschild, and he himself went to Allart. During the reconnaissance, Karl was seriously wounded in the leg. Renschild conducted reconnaissance of the Russian fortifications at Petrovka, but did not attack them, waiting for reinforcements. Having received a message about the wound of the monarch, he led his forces to the village of Zhuki. In the evening, Karl ordered to build fortifications in front of the village of Petrovka.
Peter decided to ferry the army at Petrovka and began to concentrate troops at Chernyakhovo. He also ordered the units of Hetman Skoropadsky to join the army and awaited the arrival of the Kalmyk cavalry. Allart was ordered to join Rennes in order to strengthen the bridgehead. On June 20, the Russian army, along the crossings established between Petrovka and Semyonovka, began to cross Vorskla. Russian troops stopped at Semyonovka, 8 km from Poltava, and began to build a fortified camp. The bridges were defended with separate fortifications. On June 24, a detachment of Skoropadsky arrived, on the 25th, Russian forces moved to the village of Yakovtsy (5 km from Poltava) and began to build a new fortified camp. After scouting the area, Peter decided to build 10 redoubts: close the gap between the forests with six redoubts, which were located at a distance of a rifle shot from each other, and build four more fortifications perpendicular to the line of the first redoubts. By the evening of June 26, the construction of eight redoubts was completed (6 longitudinal and 2 perpendicular, the rest did not have time to finish).
The last assault on Poltava. On June 21 - 22, the Swedish army carried out the last and most powerful assault on Poltava. Karl wanted to destroy the Russian fortress before engaging in battle with the Russian army, leaving it in the rear was foolish. The fierceness of the battle is eloquently indicated by the Swedish losses - 2, 5 thousand people in two days of the assault. The Swedish king demanded that his troops capture the fortress by all means, regardless of the losses. The Swedes rushed to the ramparts of Poltava to the beat of drums and with the banners unfurled. The garrison of the fortress stood to death, all the inhabitants of Poltava entered the battle, the elderly, women and children fought alongside the soldiers and militias. The ammunition ran out, they fought with clubs, pitchforks, scythes, and showered the Swedes with a hail of stones. And, despite the fierce onslaught of the Swedish infantry, the garrison held out.
The results of the defense of Poltava
- During the heroic defense of Poltava, which lasted two months - from April 28 (May 9) to June 27 (July 8), the garrison of the fortress pinned down the enemy army, gave the Russian army an opportunity to concentrate forces for a decisive battle.
- The Poltava garrison repulsed up to 20 assaults. The enemy under the walls of the fortress lost about 6 thousand people. The Swedish army began to feel a shortage of food and ammunition.
- The defense of Poltava caused serious damage to the morale of the Swedish army. She could not take a secondary fortress, which was far from the first-class fortifications of Western Europe and the Baltic states.
Monument to Colonel Kelin and the valiant defenders of Poltava. The monument was opened on June 27, 1909 - to the day of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava, in the presence of Emperor Nicholas II. The author of the monument project is the head of the commission for organizing the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava, Major General, Baron A. A. Bilderling (1846-1912). The sculptures of the monument based on drawings by A. Bilderling were made by the famous animal sculptor A. Aubert (1843-1917).
