The Battle That Shook Europe: Poltava and the Birth of the Russian Empire

by Peter Englund

Release Date: 29 November, 2002

Edition: Paperback

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Definite account of unknown, but imortant, event

Exhausted, General Lewenhaupt spread his cloak on the grass to lie on. He had not been resting for long when he felt something moving under his head. Raising to see what it could be, he saw that he had caught a stoat under his hat. Understanding that the stoat was in a similar trap as his own men, he released it, hoping that they would also be able to escape their fate.
So begins Peter Englund's gripping account of the battle of Poltava, which forever ended the dream of a Swedish homogeny in the north of Europe.
This book was originally published in 1988. Its success took everyone by surprise, including the author, then a freshly baked historian at Uppsala University, Sweden. It has retained its bestseller status in Sweden ever since. Now, this excellent book about an important, but comparatively unknown event in world history, has been reissued in the U.S.
Peter Englund follows in the footsteps of Edward Gibbon, who taught that good history should also be good literature. The direct inspiration for this book was John Prebble's 1963 classic "Culloden."
The seeds of the disaster at Poltava had been sown eighty years before when Sweden burst onto the scene of world politics with its entry into the thirty-years war. Using small fast moving formations and aggressive tactics, the Swedes soon became undisputed masters of the battlefield. When the war ended, in 1648, Europe had a new major power.
The beginning of the end came in 1700, when a coalition formed by Denmark, Saxony-Poland, and Russia attacked simultaneously. However, the Swedes were able to strike back at their foes one by one. After forcing the Danes out of the coalition the young Swedish king attacked and defeated the Russians in present day Estonia. Mistakenly believing that the Russians were out of the war, he then turned to deal with his Polish-Saxon enemies. This campaign dragged out and it was not until 1707 that the Poles grudgingly accepted a peace treaty. By then the Swedish resources were over-stretched and its army exhausted. In contrast, the Russians had recovered from their disastrous defeat seven years earlier, and had adopted the Swedish military organization.
It is now that the final act of the drama begins and the narrative commences. Peter Englund uses eyewitness accounts from the officers and men of the Swedish army as his primary sources for the book. As in "Culloden" the emphasis is on the individuals who participated in the battle. The narrative is clear and sober. The author has a sense of detail mostly lacking in modern historical writing.
For example, in the command tent the atmosphere is tense. The king is feverish from a bullet wound to the foot. The generals, unsure of what course of action to take, cannot agree on anything. Tempers flare. They quarrel. Their confusion soon spreads to the entire army.
Later, we are with General Lewenhaupt. He has surprised the Russians
in their camp. He is now waiting for the remainder of the Swedish army to arrive, but they are nowhere to be seen. Without reinforcements he does not dare mount an attack and the Russians have time to organize their defense.
Here we follow the drummer boy Anders Persson: he sees how a roundshot hits the second lieutenant Sven Kling of the Skaraborg regiment in the groin and cuts him in two.
In our inner eyes, we see a line of men marching towards the enemy. Suddenly we hear the roar of guns, seconds after we hear the thuds of countless bodies falling and the clutter of dropped weapons. We see the bodies lying in the strict formation they were marching.
When the Swedish command realized how hopeless the situation was, they ordered a retreat. The Swedish army escaped intact, but its spirit was irrevocably broken. Three days later, 20,000 men and women surrendered and went into captivity. Less than a tenth would ever see their homes again.

This book has a lesson for our own time: Whatever their faults, the military leaders of the time were no cowards. They rode together with their men towards the waiting enemy lines. In their eyes a dead or wounded soldier was a human being with a face, not a statistic or a number. The commanders were no technicians, starting and ending a war with the push of a button.
They knew far too well that war meant blood, sweat, noise and suffering.

The author was in 2002 elected to chair number seven of the Royal Swedish Academy. He is currently writing a three-part history of Sweden as a major power in the seventeenth century.

I couldn't put it down!

This book was an incredible read! It was especially interesting to read about the Battle of Poltava from the Swedish perspective. Most authors view the battle from the Russian perspective.

Englund certainly takes a defeatist attitude with the novel, much like Charles XII in his military campaigns. It made the reader feel the emotions of the characters in the battle.

I do feel that Englund's nostalgia for the Swedes got in the way sometimes. He seemed to overinflate the Swedes only to tear them down ceremoniously when the Russians turn the tide of the battle. No doubt the Swedes were very brave and able, but I think the book was a little overly-subjective.

All in all, I absolutely loved the book! It was not like reading a dusty old history book. It was more like reading a war novel as Englund weaves in the thoughts and actions of the troops and leaders.