Battle of the Forest with the Swedes

The famous battle of Lesnoy occurred on September 28 (October 9, according to a new style) in 1708. Its name was given in honor of the nearest village in the modern Mogilev region of Belarus. On the battlefield, faced the corps under the leadership of Peter I and the Swedish army of Adam Levenhaupt. The victory was won by the Russians, which enabled them to develop the success of the campaign during the Northern War.

Prerequisites

In 1708 Swedish King Charles XII planned to begin an invasion of the territory of Russia. At the same time, his goal was provincial land in the heart of the country. With such a blow, Karl hoped to take away the strategic initiative from the enemy. Before that, Russian troops had defeated the Baltic States for several years, but there was still no general battle between the main forces.

The king wanted to unite all his troops right on the way to Russia. To this end, he ordered Adam Levenhaupt to leave Swedish Kurland and arrive at the monarch's rate in Ukraine, where Karl was after abandoning the plan for the siege of Smolensk. A detachment of the general included about 15 thousand people, to be considered a serious force. Karl wanted to collect all his parts in Ukraine, feed the horses with fresh fodder and get tangible support from the Cossacks, whose ataman Mazepa crossed over to the Swedes, provoking the wrath of Peter I.

The strategy of the Russian Tsar

The battle of Lesnoy was due to the fact that Peter decided to cut off Levenhaupt from his king. Uniting, they could easily defeat the Russian army. But each of these two detachments was vulnerable enough to hope for success. Peter himself led the army, marching towards the general. Against Charles, he sent Field Marshal Boris Sheremetev.

At first Peter moved in the wrong direction, because he was deceived by his own guide. Learning about the present location of Levenhaupt, he sent cavalry against him, which was faster and more mobile than infantry. The vanguard of this detachment met with the Swedes on September 25. Only after this Peter found out about the real size of the enemy's army. He assumed that he was confronted with no more than 8 thousand people. The real figures were twice that.

Because of this, the Battle of Lesnaya could turn into a complete failure. However, Peter did not lose his temper. He ordered the destruction of the ferries on the nearest Sozh River to cut off the enemy's path to retreat. After this, the Tsar's troops prepared for the decisive attack.

Preparing for battle

On September 28, the Swedish corps was preparing to cross a small river called Lesanyka. Intelligence reported that the Russians are very close, which could not but cause alarm at Levenhaupt. He ordered the troops to take positions on the heights and hold them until the entire convoy was transported across the river.

The battle of the Forest with the Swedes was approaching. At this time the Russian army moved along forest paths and roads, hoping to take the enemy by surprise. However, the commanders faced a serious problem. In order to organize an attack on the Swedes, it was necessary to build, as the army emerged from the forest in a disconnected and defenseless state. Peter decided to divert the attention of the enemy and sent him to meet the Nevsky Dragoon Regiment of several hundred brave souls. These soldiers were supposed to occupy the Swedes until the main forces were built next to the forest.

The first collision

The battle was bloody. Of the 600 people, exactly half died. The battle began at Lesnaya. The Swedes, encouraged by their success, decided to go into a counteroffensive, but were repulsed by the Golitsyn guards, who arrived in time. The front line of the enemy faltered, and he retreated to the initial position, which he occupied, when the transfer of the convoy to the other side of the river had just begun.

The Battle of Lesnaya, whose date is memorable for Russian history, has moved to a new stage. While the attack of the guards continued, the main parts of Peter successfully built next to the forest. In the center stood Semenovsky, Preobrazhensky and Ingermanlandsky regiments under the leadership of Mikhail Golitsyn. The right flank consisted of cavalry, headed by Lieutenant-General Frederick of Hesse-Darmstadt. On the left, the artilleryman, Jacob Bruce, was in command. The general leadership was in the hands of Peter. At the time of the beginning of the main battle (hour of the day) the Russian army numbered 10 thousand people. The Swedes were several hundred fewer, which meant that there was parity among the opponents.

The second half of the battle

The battle lasted almost 6 hours, until late at night. At the same time, in the middle of the battle, its intensity decreased somewhat. Tired soldiers rested and waited for help. Reinforcements arrived at Peter at 5 pm. It was General Baur, who brought with him a 4,000-strong dragoon corps.

In the evening, the battle at the village of Lesnoy resumed with renewed vigor. The Swedes were thrown back to their baggage. In the meantime, a small cavalry detachment crossed the river and cut Levenhauptu the last way to a successful retreat. However, the enemy's vanguard responded with bold attacks and was able to repulse the last bridge.

Artillery battle and the flight of the Swedes

It was late at night that Peter ordered the artillery to be sent forward, which opened an intense fire on the enemy. At this time tired infantry and cavalry returned to their positions to rest. The squeezed Swedes also responded by firing guns. Their situation has become critical. Levenhaupt could not retreat along with the entire large train, which markedly slowed the movement of the troops.

Because of this, the Battle of Forest 1708 was interrupted at night. The Swedes withdrew from positions, leaving most of their wagonload in the village, so that the enemy could not overtake them. To deceive the Russians in the camp, bonfires were built, which created the illusion of the presence of parts of Levenhaupt in the old place. Meanwhile, the organized retreat of the Swedes began to take the form of flight. Many soldiers simply deserted, not wanting to be captured or get a deadly bullet.

Errors of the parties

One of the reasons for the defeat of General Levengaupt's army was the unsettledness of his regiments. In comparison with the Russian detachments, there was not a single guardsman in them. In addition, most of the troops consisted of mercenaries - Finns and representatives of other nationalities, who, in fact, did not really want to perish in the name of the interests of a foreign power.

The battle of Lesnaya, whose significance was to correct past mistakes, showed the Russian command's miscalculations. For example, in this battle, little artillery was used. Later this error was corrected, and near Poltava, Russian guns fired at the enemy even fiercely. In what year the Battle of Lesnoy took place, now every inhabitant of Russia knew, because it was she who made an important contribution to the final defeat of the Swedes in the long-term war.

Value

Only a small part of the hitherto numerous corps of General Lewenhaupt still reached the headquarters of his king. The Battle of Lesnoy, the date of which became a mourning in the history of Sweden, left Karl without reinforcements and ammunition in a lost convoy.

Exactly after 9 months, Peter defeated his opponent near Poltava, which was a turning point in the course of the Northern War. This curious coincidence gave the witty king a joke. He called the Battle of the Forest Victory Motherland near Poltava. From that moment the Northern War was conducted in a completely different way. The Battle of Lesnaya and the subsequent successes of the Russian army weakened the Swedes definitively, and a few years later they handed over the city outside the city in the Baltics without any previous resistance (this region was Peter's main goal).