For Tsar Peter the Great, the Northern War against Sweden began with a disastrous defeat at Narva in the year 1700. King Charles XII then thought the Russians were finished and decided to take on Polish king Augustus the Strong.
This decision was his huge mistake. Within a few years, Peter the Great had captured Swedish Ingermanland and founded St. Petersburg there in 1703. By doing so, he showed the enemy that Russia would not go anywhere from the shores of the Baltic.
The Swedes quickly realized what a threat St. Petersburg posed to their rule on the shores of the Gulf of Finland. In 1704, their troops attacked the city from land and sea, but Chief Commandant Robert (Roman) Bruce, who commanded the defense, repelled the onslaught.
In 1705, the enemy launched a more serious assault. The troops of General Georg Maydel occupied Kamenny Island, beyond which it was a stone’s throw to the Peter and Paul Fortress – the historical core of the city. However, they were unable to advance any further.
Three years later, St. Petersburg was unsuccessfully attacked by the 12,000-strong army of General Georg Liebeker. On September 9, Russian troops of Fyodor Apraksin defeated the enemy on the outskirts of the city in a battle near the Neva.
Soon after the defeat of Charles XII near Poltava on July 8, 1709, Russia began to conquer the Baltic region and Finland. The Swedes were no longer interested in capturing St. Petersburg, where Peter the Great had moved the capital of his state in 1712.
The city still figured in Swedish military plans during the wars of 1741-1743 and 1788-1790. In the end, however, the enemy could not even approach it – the well-defended capital of the Russian Empire was no longer within their grasp.
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