Two houses, both alike in dignity, in fair nor-northern Europe...
Wait a minute...
[Extra History Intro Theme]
With Poland-Lithuania out of the fight
Charles XII sets his eyes on another foe:
The Russian giant, Peter the Great.
While Charles had run roughshod over Poland
Peter had taken advantage of the moment
to once again assail the Baltic provinces.
He was stopped short of his ultimate goal
but Peter's efforts there were not without gain.
His armies carved a path all the way to the Swedish fortress of Nyenskans
which he tore down to build an even greater fortress
The Peter & Paul Fortress
which would serve as the cornerstone for his most ambitious project of all:
St. Petersburg.
He would erect a new city here
one grander and more modern than anything Russia had ever seen.
This would be his gateway to the West
his port that tied Russia into the economic life of Europe.
It would be his new capital, on which he would spare no expense
in treasure or lives.
This was to be the culmination of his legacy
the embodiment of all his ideas on westernizing Russia
on becoming a naval power, on embracing European art and science and culture.
But for that to be the case, Russia would have to succeed in holding onto these gains
something that Charles XII could not abide.
Throughout 1704 and 1705
Swedish forces tried to take Peter's great fortress
but time and again, they were repelled.
Soon, costs started to mount, and men who that ill afford to be lost died for little gain.
So Charles revamped his strategy and blockaded St. Petersburg.
While the blockade dragged on, he began marshalling his main force for a march to the east.
It was at this point that Russia sent him a peace offer:
in return for an armistice, Russia would give up all of their gains
except for St. Petersburg and the forts connecting it to Russian territory.
But Charles was having none of it.
He knew how important St. Petersburg was.
Why, with his invincible army, SHOULD he give it up?
So Charles marched east, braving horrible weather and dangerous crossings
to move with his traditional lightning speed.
As he pressed forward, Peter fell back and back
each defensive line Peter's commanders had planned to entrench
was taken before their men could even unpack their spades.
But even this march could not make up for the time
Charles had lost trying to make Poland support his puppet king.
In the years that had followed his initial victories over the Russians and the Polish-Lithuanian forces
Russia had not only seized and fortified what would become St. Petersburg
but reinforced it, and kept reinforcing it.
Yet, the Swedish army was strong
their king was able, their officers daring and intelligent.
Top members of the military thought that it would be a tough fight
but that they could take St. Petersburg.
They drew up plans and submitted them to the king
who swore them to utmost secrecy about the plans they had concocted.
And so, the officers marched, thinking their objective to be St. Petersburg
but soon, they found themselves near Minsk.
Wait a minute, that wasn't on the way to St. Petersburg!
Charles had marched them in a different direction
and there was only one place they could be going from there.
He was marching them to Moscow.
Charles's officers had told him that they were not ready
that striking so deep into Russia was simply too great of a gamble.
It was something the army simply wasn't prepared for.
BUT, how many times before had Charles been told that something was too great a gamble?
How often had he heard that something was impossible
only to then achieve it himself?
He had made up his mind.
They would not waste their time retaking lost territories.
He would unseat Peter himself.
The first two rivers they crossed with little opposition
being slowed only by the fact that the retreating Russian forces
burnt every bridge along the way.
Tartar horsemen also harassed them continually, but this seemed a minor nuisance.
They were making good time through bad country, but then, at the Vabich River
they found a large enemy force barring their passage.
The position held by the Russians was daunting:
the Swedes would have to traverse marshy ground to get to them
and beyond that was a forest, which might hide yet more troops.
But Charles saw a way.
The enemy line had a gap in it along a swampy area that the Russians clearly thought was impassable.
Charles personally led his army across 1,500 yards of killing ground to reach this swampy area.
At one point, his men were shoulder deep in water.
The enemy line was split.
The Russians tried to use numbers to heal the breach
but heroic actions from the Swedish cavalry prevented any joining of Russian arms.
Soon, the line began to collapse.
The crossing was theirs. Once again, the Swedes had triumphed against impossible odds.
But keen observers in the army would have noted that though the Swedes emerged victorious
these Russian troops were made of sterner stuff than they had been eight years back.
Tactics and firm soldiering had been hammered into them since their retreat at Narva.
They would not be turning and running like that anymore.
This victory left Charles's army exhausted.
It would take a month of rest before he could really move them again.
And during this month, Peter was not idle.
Peter stripped the land bare.
He laid waste to any stretch of ground that the Swedes would have to cross
and even though it was his own country
and the suffering caused to his own people was immense
Peter made no half-measure of it.
Every grain of wheat was carted off
every pasture where a horse might graze was turned to ash.
There would be nothing but wasteland for the Swedes to traverse.
Thus began a time of suffering for the Swedish forces.
When they resumed their march, food was scarce.
And with scarce food, came disease.
This victorious army began to march as defeated men
with hollow eyes and weary steps.
Charles continued to rally them, but he had no real answer to this predicament.
He had been counting on living off the countryside as they marched.
Their supply lines were stretched beyond their limit.
Many asked him to turn home, but he believed in Swedish arms.
He believed that if he could just force Peter into one decisive battle
they might yet win this war.
But Peter demurred. He would not give Charles the battle he wanted.
And so, the Swedish marched across fields of ash
seeing always in the distance villages alight
candles in remembrance to Peter's uncompromising policy of starvation.
In frustration, Charles turned to his officers and asked their advice.
They recommended that the army fall back to the Dnierper,
and meet up with a relief force laden with supplies.
But this would be tantamount to giving up the campaign, so Charles asked for other options.
Reluctantly, it was suggested that the Ukraine had not been as thoroughly plundered.
It might be possible to gather supplies there and enlist the aid of friendly Cossacks.
But such a move would cut the army off from any real ability
to communicate with Swedish territory, or get resupplied from the empire.
Still, Charles saw it as a possible path to victory where retreat offered none.
His officers pleaded with him to at least wait for the relief force and their provisions,
but Charles, fearing that further delays would only give Peter more time
turned the army toward Ukraine immediately.
They would now retrace their steps until they could turn south
walking back across the same blasted waste from which they had just come.
But as summer gave way to autumn, and autumn to winter
a chill set in. Then, a deep cold. Then, a freezing, bone-gnawing frost
And not just any frost. This was what is known today as The Great Frost
the coldest winter Europe has experienced in 500 years.
Rivers froze from the Thames all the way down to the lagoons of Venice.
And this frost served Peter well.
By the time the winter of 1708 and 1709 came to an end
Charles had only 20,000 remaining men able to fight
less than half the number he'd begun this campaign with.
HALF of his undefeated army, lost.
But, there's still hope yet!
Join us next time to find out what happens to his reinforcements
to the Cossacks Charles hopes yet to enlist,
and most of all, to the great army of Charles himself
as he and Peter finally square off at the battle of Poltava.
[Outro Theme Plays]