"Can repeat": what Putin and Medinsky forget about when Peter I and the Northern War mention
The Soviet War (1700-1721) became epochal for Russia and marked its rise, but for Ukraine it became the beginning of the end of statehood and the harbinger of the century of captivity. History is really repeated, but not all wars are alike. At the end of the seventeenth century, Sweden was one of Europe's most powerful states. It had an advanced army that proven itself in the Thirty Years' War (in 1618-1648, most of the countries of Europe participated during 1618-1648).
The Swedish King Gustav II Adolf moved from the knightly-feudal army to the professional-with the involvement in the ordinary composition of the mobilized population. This made it possible to significantly increase the number of troops. Democratic (according to the standards of the seventeenth century) Sweden secured basic rights to its soldiers. In particular, the orders of officers could be challenged (of course, after a postfactum after their immediate execution).
The kingdom actually formed the "army of the future", which contributed to its dominance in northern Europe. The seventeenth century is the peak of Swedish power. At that time, not only the Swedes but also other peoples of the Baltic coast have obeyed the Swedish King, namely the Swedish king, namely the Baltic Sea became the Swedish "Inner Lake". Other states, close to the Baltic Sea, whose power during this period began to grow with this state of affairs.
Here we meet with the first difference from the present. The Northern War is the result of a conspiracy of weak but ambitious states against regional hegemon. In 1697, Sweden, after his father's death, was headed by fifteen -year -old Carl XII - and the neighbors decided to take advantage of the potential weakness of the Baltic Empire.
Denmark, Prussia, and the Commonwealth (the last two states were headed by a joint monarch August II strong) and the Moscow kingdom, which had already fully seized the Cossack state, united against Sweden. However, the teenager on the throne struck everyone, personally leading the army and even defeating two of the most powerful enemies.
At first, he suddenly emerged near Copenhagen, which caught suddenly King Friedrich IV, and then no less dynamically (as at the end of the seventeenth century) moved under the walls of Narva, where he defeated the newly assembled army of the Moscow kingdom, which was surrounded by the Swedish. However, the young king of "drunk" from such vicious victories and further made several fatal mistakes for himself and his state.
Yes, Carl XII decided to focus on the Commonwealth instead of completing Moscow. He put his puppet Stanislav Lischinsky on the Polish throne, who failed to use the potential of this state to assist Sweden. The Ukrainian Hetman Mazepa also did not help the king, who also could not attract enough Cossacks to significantly strengthen the Swedish army. The punitive action of the Moscow troops, which cut out the entire population of the Hetman's capital - Baturin, played a role here.
The bodies of the murdered peaceful inhabitants were launched downstream of the Seimas River and then gums to demonstrate to other cities that awaits them if they oppose the Moscow king. As of 1708, Tsar Petro mobilized all possible resources of his country in order to gather as many army as possible and to equip them qualitatively. And here the king really succeeds. The soldiers were dressed in modern European form.
Foreigners (mostly immigrants from numerous German states) were involved in their management. Musquets were taken into service and sufficient attention was given to artillery. For the production of guns in the proper number, the king did not even indulge in the melting of church bells in a state that swayes his religiosity. In order to provide the army, King Peter introduced numerous new taxes and intensified the recruiting recruitment.
In the process of preparation for the war in 1698, a beard tax was introduced. However, in addition to the economic (to raise money for the maintenance and equipment of the army), he also had a social function - to teach Muscovites to Western European aesthetics, where the beards ceased to wear. Subsequently, the king introduced a special position for people who had to invent more and more taxes. This is how taxes on the bath or even the color of the eyes (1704) appeared.
All these measures helped to equip the army of the time. On the decisive battle near Poltava, Peter I brought an eight -thousand -thousand armed and equipped with a considerable amount of artillery. In this situation, Karl and Mazepa and the Cossacks, who took their side in this war, were unable to help. Earlier, the Zaporozhye army was famous for their military tricks and often won much more numerous troops.
However, with a linear confrontation in open terrain with firing artillery, the military shortage lost any meaning. The number of troops came to the fore. In such circumstances, Charles XII, which did not have 40,000 own soldiers, had to rely only on his military attitude, but at the last moment she was left. The king was injured in the first hours of battle. The demoralized and tired Swedish army could not resist the better armed and predominant in the number of Moscow army.
Therefore, the king with Mazepa and the Cossacks retreated across the Dnieper on the land of the Ottoman Empire. Several thousand Swedes got to Moscow captivity. Repression began: the angry king Peter ordered to spat a Chortomlytska Sich with the Cossack cemetery. The following year, Charles XII, together with Philip Orlyk, managed to construct an anti -Moscow coalition.
The Northern War was interrupted by the Prut's campaign - an episode in the south, which could change the entire further course of the history of Ukraine, Russia, Sweden and Europe as a whole. However, he did not change. Focus wrote about all the nuances of this story. In the absence of Charles, Prussia and the Promovan Commonwealth Party intensified their actions. August II recovered on the throne and, together with Prussia, began to knock the Swedes out of the Baltic coast.
In 1713, the Swedish army was defeated in Goldstein (modern northern Germany), and in 1714 the newly built Russian fleet (it was spent the entire Russian annual budget) defeated the Swedish fleet in the battle near Hanko (modern coast of Finland). Now the Moscow army was threatened with Stockholm. The United Kingdom, which also had some appetites for Sweden in Germany, joined the anti -Swedish coalition.
Charles XII returned to his homeland in 1715, desperately trying to revive his own army, in parallel, delaying the time. In 1718 he tried to repeat the trick of almost twenty years ago - to defeat his enemies alone, starting with Denmark. However, this time his ideas were solved and he himself died, storming the fortress of Frederickshald (modern Norway, which was then in the union with Denmark) in the fall of 1718.
The sister of Charles XII Eleanor with her husband, who became King Friedrich I, came to the throne. Sweden managed to get out of this lost war on quite good conditions, as Moscow agreed to give back already occupied Finland and pay ransom for annexed Vyborg, Estland, Kurland and Ingermanland. Having received such a desired access to the Baltic Sea, Peter I was clearing. Prussia took the rest of the Baltic coast. On the contrary, Denmark returned Sweden to her pre -war possession for ransom.
Sweden has been recovered by the long time. The following decades have been torn apart by internal crises. However, after recovering, she found herself in peaceful cooperation. The next two centuries, the kingdom became a model of neutrality and peaceful and harmonious development, until before the threat from the East, NATO joined in 2023. The defeat near Poltava became the actual end of the existence of an independent Cossack state.
Peter the First left Hetman Ivan Skoropadsky only representative functions, transferring the full power to his officials. And after his death, he did not allow to choose a new hetman. Instead, he took the whole cultural and intellectual elite to his new capital. It was the Ukrainian Feofan Prokopovich, whom Hetman Ivan Mazepa made the rector of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, became the closest adviser to the king on ideological issues.
It is believed that this Feofan Prokopovich became the author of the idea of the revival of Russia in the person of the Moscow kingdom. The king promoted his faithful advisor to the highest church positions.
However, his appointment with the Metropolitan was impressed with the impressive resistance of the local clergy, which did not accept Little Ros and the former Uniate (in his youth Prokopovich almost made a career in the Vatican, as well as rumors that in fact the Kiev cleric was secretly accepted by Protestantism).
In such circumstances, Feofan Prokopovich quite creatively solved his career problems, urging the king to abolish the patriarchate, forming instead a state body - a sacred synod, which became such a "Ministry of Church. " Having headed the Synod (formally not immediately), Prokopovich thanked Peter, making him an emperor (only the head of the church, who, the arbitrariness of Peter the first, and Tav Theophanes Prokopovich, has the right The manner sounded Rus).
Europe, amazed by the fall of Sweden, remained silent on this contradictory, from the point of view of traditions. The empire fell, and a new empire came into its place. The right of strong in international relations has never lost its relevance. The Northern War became decisive in Russia's history, because it was the result that created the conditions for the birth of the empire that Russians are still afraid to lose.
It was in her Hrynegs that the Russian nation was born, which we know now - is ready to sacrifice our own well -being and even life for the sake of "imperial grandeur". She is ready to tolerate any abuse and economic failures of her king, but will never forgive him with a military defeat, and will perceive any weakening and democratic reforms as a sign of weakness.
Interesting moment - before the Battle of Poltava on the background of increased tax pressure and strengthening of the recruitment set on the Don broke out the uprising of the Cossack chieftain Kindrat Bulavin. It began when the royal emissaries began to return the serfs and other common people who fled from the arbitrariness of the king and landlords in the land of the Don Cossacks. The uprising began Don Cossacks, and supported by Moscow conquered peoples - Tatars, Nogai, Mordvina and others.
But the inhabitants of the Moscow hinterland did not support the rebellion, which eventually contributed to its collapse. The secret of Russia's success in this war and in the subsequent military campaigns in the next one and a half centuries is to change military tactics, which just came at this time. The XVIII century is a time of linear battles, where one group of troops becomes in the open terrain and tries to fire another.
In such circumstances, the army's factor becomes decisive, and here Russia with its recruiting set was not equal in the world. Tsar Peter introduced a lifelong service in the army, which was replaced by a service for twenty -five years at the end of the century. With the transition of the war to the more technological sphere, the fall of Russian military dominance was also made, which was enshrined in defeat in the Crimean War (mid -nineteenth century).
Finally, the empire was buried by the First World War with its machine guns and technology struggle. The analogies of modern events with the Northern War are substantially "attracted by the ears". Modern Russian Federation is the only antipode of the Moscow kingdom of Peter I. The only thing that unites these two states is the harsh cruelty to enemies. Tsar Peter I was young, ambitious, prone to reforms by the Zavahnian ruler. There was no civilization confrontation in the Northern War.
It was a typical war of modernity. War for access to resources, in this case - geographical (access to the Baltic coast). In this war, different European states formed coalitions against each other. To the Eastern Ottoman Empire (if this state, with its numerous possessions in Europe, can be called a representative of the classic "east") just turned through Sweden.
The king of Peter really managed to mobilize all his country's resources for the sake of this war and in many moments he was frankly fortunate. So, if he could repeat his success for the second time on the same algorithm, the question was open. Therefore, if Russia wants to repeat the experience of such a long war, it will be difficult to prevent it. It should be borne in mind that the real war has been going on for over eleven years.