In the XVI - XVII centuries, as a result of a number of military conflicts, Sweden captured the vast territories that were previously part of Russia and the Russian kingdom. The Swedes established control over the Baltic states, the coast of the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga, and Russia remained virtually without access to the sea. The only Russian sea port - Arkhangelsk - was not accessible for year-round shipping.

North War

At the end of the XVII century, Sweden was one of the most powerful European countries. In addition to Russian lands, the Swedes conquered part of the territory of Poland with Germany and Finland. In 1697, the king of Sweden was the 15-year-old Charles XII. The leaders of neighboring states decided that due to the youth and inexperience of the new monarch, they had a chance to regain their lost lands, and Russia, the Commonwealth, Saxony and Denmark formed the Northern Union.

In 1700, Denmark and Saxony sent troops against Sweden. Russia declared war on the Swedes, citing insults to Peter I by Swedish officials during the 1697 Great Embassy. But the hostilities at first unfolded for the allies unsuccessfully. The Saxons could not take Riga, the Swedish landing forced Denmark to refuse to participate in the battles, and the Russian army was defeated near Narva.

  • © A. E. Kotzebue “The Battle of Narva”

In 1702, Charles XII captured Warsaw and two years later declared the new king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Stanislav Leshchinsky. In 1706, Saxony entered into a separate peace treaty with Sweden, leaving Peter I alone with the Swedish monarch.

However, the Russian army was not at all the same that the Swedes defeated near Narva. While Charles XII focused on the western front, Peter I carried out military reforms - created regular units, built fortresses and developed artillery. This made it possible to repel the attack of the Swedish fleet on Arkhangelsk and displace its troops from Ingermanland. As a result, Russia began to control the entire course of the Neva and part of the Baltic states.

In 1708, Charles XII deployed the main forces of his army to the east and in February went to Grodno, and later began to move in the direction of Smolensk. The fighting came with varying success, but gradually Peter was able to seize the strategic initiative. Near the village of Lesnoy, Russian troops defeated the Swedish corps, which went to join the main army of Karl.

The local population quickly left the areas into which the Swedes entered, leaving the invaders no food and fodder. Charles XII had nowhere to replenish food supplies and personnel of his troops. The hopes of the Swedish monarch were connected with the hetman of the Zaporizhzhya Army Mazepa, who betrayed Peter I and entered into secret correspondence with Karl, promising him the support of the Cossacks and provisions. The traitor executed the representatives of the Cossack foreman, who tried to open the king's eyes to treason, and fled to Karl.

But contrary to the expectations of the Swedish king and Mazepa, Little Russian cities refused to obey the invaders. Cossacks, petty bourgeois and peasants either retreated or refused to open the gates to the invaders. As a result, a number of cities in Little Russia, Karl and Mazepa, were simply razed to the ground.

In the spring of 1709, the Swedes besieged Poltava, in which reserves of the Russian army were stored, but could not take the city. On July 8, in a decisive battle, the army that came to the aid of the besieged city under the command of Peter I defeated Charles XII, capturing and partially destroying the core of the regular Swedish army. The king, along with Mazepa, fled to the territory controlled by the Turks.

After the victory near Poltava, Peter concluded new allied treaties with Saxony and Denmark. In 1710, the Russian army recaptured the entire Baltic territory from the Swedes. At the same time, Peter tried to get Charles XII expelled from Turkey. The authorities of the Ottoman Empire first gave the king a corresponding promise, but then they refused their words and in November 1710 declared war on Russia.

In 1711, Peter moved to the Wallachian-controlled Turks, hoping to raise an anti-Ottoman uprising on the Danube. However, his army, exhausted by a difficult transition, was surrounded by Turks, and only thanks to the combination of the desperate courage of the soldiers and the efforts of diplomats, Peter managed to return to Russia, losing the Ottomans to Priazovye.

In 1713, Russian troops inflicted several defeats on the Swedes in northeastern Germany. In parallel, Peter's army entered Finland, which belonged to the Swedes, occupying Helsingfors (modern Helsinki) and Abo (modern Turku).

Gangut battle

The Swedish fleet operating in the Baltic remained a serious problem for Russia. Although he weakened during the war, he was still superior in class to Russian. Russia could oppose Swedish battleships and frigates mainly sailing-rowing vessels, primarily galleys.

“Peter I intended to end the Northern War in 1714, having won at sea a victory comparable to Poltava. To this end, he concluded an agreement with Denmark, which promised to send his fleet to help him, in order to defeat the enemy at sea and land in Sweden. However, Denmark failed him, and did not provide his fleet, ”said Pavel Krotov, doctor of historical sciences, professor of St. Petersburg State University, in an interview with RT.

  • Galley of Peter's time in the eternal parking lot in Voronezh
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  • © Mikhail Kukhtarev

According to the historian, making sure that it is not worth counting on the help of the Danes, Peter I decided to act on the sea himself.

In the summer of 1714, the Russian fleet, consisting of almost a hundred sailing and rowing vessels, concentrated near the Gangut Peninsula (modern Hanko). Along with naval crews, the ships had a 15,000th infantry landing force, which was planned to strengthen the Russian corps operating in Finland. Formally, the fleet was commanded by Admiral Fyodor Apraksin, but Peter I himself was on the ships of the squadron under the pseudonym Peter the Mikhailov Peter I.

The Swedish fleet blocked the way to the Russian fleet: 15 battleships, three frigates, two bombing ships and 9 galleys under the command of Admiral Gustav Wattrang.

The Russian command began to prepare in one of the narrowest places of the Gangut Peninsula a wooden floor for dragging part of the galleys by land. The Swedes, who noticed a threat of encirclement, divided their squad: one part of their ships remained in place, and the other advanced to the northern coast of the peninsula.

The division of the Swedes was in the hands of the Russian sailors. There was no need to drag galleys overland. Using the calm, immobilizing the Swedish sailing ships, consisting of galleys, the vanguard of the Russian fleet moved around the enemy squadron on oars out of the reach of its guns. On August 7, 1714, a naval battle began.

  • © Alexey Bogolyubov “The Battle of Gangut”

“Peter I divided the galleys into 3 groups, setting each of them with special tasks. The allocation of 11 galleys to the middle squad, which were supposed to attack the flagship and most powerful ship of the Swedish Elephant positions, made it possible to create an advantage in forces in this direction. In the units of the left and right wing, Peter I concentrated infantry units disproportionately large in comparison with the center of battle formation, which was to ensure an effective and quick capture of the Swedish galleys by grappling, starting from the extreme ones and gradually moving towards the middle of the battle formation of the Swedes, ”writes Pavel Krotov in his book "The Gangut Battle of 1714."

According to the historian, such tactics allowed Russian sailors to create an advantage in attacking each specific ship of the enemy, and the Swedes did not give the opportunity to effectively use artillery, since they risked getting on their own.

Western historiography claims that the Swedes repulsed two attacks of the Russian fleet, and only during the third attack the ships of Peter I were able to break through to the enemy’s positions. However, Pavel Krotov indicates that in the documents you can find evidence of only one attack. And several attacks, in his opinion, were invented by the Swedes to present the actions of their fleet in a more favorable light.

Peter's plan worked, and the boarding, in which the monarch participated in person, was a success. 10 Swedish ships, including the flagship, were captured, the rest retreated.

Battle results

"The Gangut battle was inferior in scale to the battles that took place between the fleets of the leading naval powers of that era, such as Great Britain, France or Spain, but this was the first naval victory of the Russian fleet, which played an important role in the further development of the events of the Northern War," said Conversation with RT Chairman of the Moscow Fleet History Club Konstantin Strelbitsky.

According to Pavel Krotov, following the results of the Gangut battle, Russia received several important advantages at once.

“Firstly, the Russian fleet freed its way to the coast of Sweden, secondly, the Swedes lost almost a thousand people killed and captured, and this was a lot by the standards of the time, and thirdly, the victory played an ideological significance, strengthening the morale of Russian sailors and forcing the European media to talk about their successes, ”said the expert.

On the occasion of the victory in the Battle of Gangut in St. Petersburg, festivities were organized. Russian troops passed under a triumphal arch, which depicted an eagle sitting on its back near an elephant (a hint of the Russian coat of arms and the name of the Swedish flagship "Elephant"). Also, the arch was decorated with the inscription: "The Russian eagle does not catch flies."

Charles XII returned to Sweden in 1714 and personally led troops during the campaigns in Germany and Norway, but he was only able to achieve situational successes. In December 1718, he was killed during the siege of the Fredriksten fortress, becoming the last European monarch to die on the battlefield.

In the last months of Karl’s life and at the beginning of the reign of the new Queen Ulrika Eleanor between Russia and Sweden, fruitless negotiations were held during the so-called Åland Congress.

To change the position of Sweden, Peter I, taking advantage of freedom of action on the Baltic Sea, ordered in 1719 - 1720 to carry out a series of landings on the Swedish coast. The king demanded not to touch the civilian population and churches, but to destroy the fortifications and industrial enterprises.

  • © Peter Schenka Jr. “Signing the Peace Treaty in Nishtadt”

In the spring of 1721, peace negotiations began between Russia and Sweden, ending with the signing of the Nistadt Treaty. According to its provisions, Livonia, Estonia, Ingermanland and part of Karelia departed to Russia.

“The battle of Gangut was not just a demonstration of the capabilities of Russian sailors. It significantly influenced the entire outcome of the Northern War and was a big step towards the establishment of the Russian Empire, ”concluded Pavel Krotov.