Spring 1709. News from the battlefield at Poltava

The action takes place on the outskirts of Poltava, a short distance from the city’s historical center and the right bank of the Vorskla River. Robert Petre, an ensign in the army of King Charles XII, refers to this area as a “palisade.” The time of the action is the middle of May 1709. The protagonist and narrator is a fenrik (lowest-ranking officer in the Swedish army, the equivalent of ensign), a 27-year-old mercenary who spent seven years of his life in military service to the king. The young Petre dreamed of becoming a lawyer. Yet the reason we have this priceless historical document is not only because this soldier of King Charles XII had a propensity for study in general and self-reflection in particular. All soldiers in the Swedish army of the time were literate. The Swedes also know how to preserve their historical heritage, which is why Sweden published 12 volumes of diaries and records written by eyewitnesses of those events. What is most important is that such rank-and-file soldiers as Petre committed their observations to paper. These diaries were recently published in Sweden in the old Swedish language, which is very complex and understandable only to specialists. Today we have a unique opportunity to read the translation of excerpts from the diary of one of the Carolingians, soldiers of the three Swedish kings — Charles X, Charles XI, and Charles XII. We owe this opportunity to our regular contributors — the Poltava-based journalist Vitaliy Tsebriy and Colonel Oleh Bezverkhniy, who lectures at the Poltava Institute of Communications. The two authors have a passion for history and consider it their second calling. Bezverkhniy has visited Sweden on many occasions and worked in the Swedish archives and those in other EU countries, producing studies that have been published in numerous historical and political publications in both Sweden and Ukraine. Some of his articles are co-authored with Tsebriy, who is both a newspaper journalist and ethnographer. The works of these two Poltava writers are dedicated to the Battle of Poltava, which overturned the histories of three European countries. Their perspective on those events may add significant correctives to traditional attitudes and established views of Ukrainian historians, and even more so, Russian scholars.

It is spring in the year 1709. The siege of the Poltava fortress by the Swedish army is drawing to a close, and the high point of the years-long war for domination of Eastern Europe is approaching. Fenrik Robert Petre (from the Greek petros — “stone”) is recording his post-battle notes in a diary that he began in 1702.

“May 17. In the morning we noticed that the enemy was working (cutting down timber) on the opposite side of the Vorskla. We concluded that they wanted to build a passage across the swamp to the city. I was inside the captured palisade when the Swedes started to dig tunnels under the recently built earthen walls of the fortress. It was a very dangerous place close to the fortress. The city’s residents showered us with stones, dead cats, logs, and rotten vegetables. They even hit the King once or twice when he was next to me.

May 19. At the break of dawn the Kalmyks attacked us after crossing the Vorskla. They captured 300 horses belonging to officers and the Imperial Guards. As soon as the horses went out to graze, they were captured, and we failed to recover even a single one. In the meantime, General Sparre ordered me to guard the Russian brigadier Golovin, who was taken prisoner the other day. I ordered the warrant officer to vacate his post and station guards both outside the building and in the rooms inside. The officer was in the building with Golovin. The guard changed every hour. I was relieved by Lieutenant Valkenvilge. On his watch Golovin offered money to a Swedish soldier, promising to make him an officer in return for organizing his escape. The soldier refused, however, and reported this to the lieutenant, who informed the colonel. After this the King ordered the guard officer to live with the brigadier in his barrack. Golovin was permitted to have his meals together with the colonel, but in the presence of guards. Meanwhile, the soldier was rewarded for his dedicated service with 30 ducats.

May 21. In the evening I was assigned to duty in a different location. I was ordered to keep the fuse cord burning around the clock. It was in a very dangerous location. I followed those who were digging the tunnels and guarded them. Close to 10:00 p.m. the King arrived on the site and inquired about the time when I went on duty. Then he asked me why we were stationed here; earlier we had been standing to the right of our present position. I replied that I did not know. Answering the same question, a soldier from a different regiment said that he knew the reason: ‘The soldiers in the other units are not trusted as much as we are! Therefore, we must be in the places that are the most dangerous.’ The King asked me again, and I repeated the soldier’s words. The King smiled. (Apparently Charles XII had a sense of humor, but another noteworthy fact is that the Swedish military commander always appeared in the hottest spots around the besieged fortress. This no longer seemed to be merely bravery, but rather some inexplicable desperation. Other written sources also indicate that although King Charles XII was in a belligerent mood, he was filled with foreboding.)

Then the King inquired about my military rank. I replied that I had been a fenrik for more than seven years. Then he asked me whether I had fought as part of the Swedish corps under Levenhaupt’s command during the war in Kurland. I also answered in the affirmative. Then two colonels arrived, and the King went with them to the workers who were digging the tunnel. It was nearly midnight. The King returned to the camp at 2:00 a.m.

May 22. The enemy started firing guns, targeting my position.

Some 30 grenades as well as logs and stones were thrown at us. The enemy was so close that we started throwing stones at each other. Grenades did not kill anybody, but I lost five soldiers to Russian snipers. They were shot in the forehead and killed. The Zaporozhian Cossacks also sustained losses. Seven of their men were killed. All seven were snipers. (In those days rifles had a range of 100 meters, but reloading this weapon took three times longer than a musket, even though it took at least 90 seconds to load a musket. Meanwhile, since the Northern War snipers could kill an enemy from more than 100 meters).

THE SWEDISH KING AT PLAY

At 10:00 a.m. the King arrived at our position and saw blood and brains on the ground. The corpses had already been carted away. He ordered us to leave the position and not defend it during the day, as we would hear the moment the enemy decided to make a sortie. I obeyed. At 2:00 a.m. the King returned and handed Colonel Hillenkrok a life-sized doll with a wooden face. The doll was dressed up, complete with a hat and a rifle. The King told us to raise this doll up for the enemy to see and fire at. Each time I raised the doll from the trench, the Russians shot at it two or three times. I kept doing this for an hour and a half, after which the King asked me whether I was tired. I said not at all. Then the King raised the doll himself several times. Twenty cannon balls and thirty bullets hit the target. The doll’s head was riddled with bullet holes. The King, Levenhaupt, and Stakkelberry entertained themselves by raising the doll for quite a long time. (Historians believe that they did this for reasons other than entertainment. King Charles XII was testing the combat capability and skills of the fortress defenders. As for the cannon balls, their caliber was only 40 millimeters, but they could hit the target from a distance of 200 meters.) Then they were assaulted with rotten vegetables and dead cats and dogs. The King was hit with a dead cat. Then they threw eight or nine hand grenades at us. The King ordered me to try and throw two or three grenades over the wall. This was hard to do as we were in a narrow trench and much lower than the Russians. The first grenade went over the entire palisade but did not clear the fortification wall. But the second and third grenades reached the positions of the fortress defenders.”

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Commentary. We must emphasize the fact that these records are especially valuable because they were made by an impartial chronicler, who was not prone to making subjective conclusions: he was neither a general nor a royal historian. Meanwhile, prominent politicians and commanders could exaggerate and distort facts. Contemporary Ukrainian and Polish historians used Russian historical sources in their research while consulting Swedish sources very rarely. This resulted in entirely paradoxical evaluations of the events and behavior of their participants. For example, one Ukrainian historian claimed that Charles XII was in fact a woman. He based this conclusion on the sole fact that this Swedish monarch had no children. Without commenting on this stupidity, we should note that interpretations of the events of the 1709 battle of Poltava are colored by other biases. The Russians’ view of the causes and objective circumstances of the Swedes’ defeat at the battle of Poltava also significantly differs from the views of European historians. Therefore, the publication of the invaluable eyewitness accounts of this fenrik of the Swedish army (the Russians cannot boast of anything of the kind) somewhat reconciles Western European and Slavic positions.

We must note that after the June 25 battle at Poltava Fenrik Petre was taken prisoner and deported to remote areas in Russia’s north. Freed from captivity after 12 years, Petre returned to his homeland, where he died four years later without leaving any children or estate. These diaries were finally published in Sweden in 1998 by the distinguished scholar, historian, and academician of the Swedish Academy of Sciences Peter Englund, who is a good friend of mine and the author of the Swedish historical bestseller Poltava. The History of an Army’s Destruction. He and another scholar and historian, Mr. Einar Lit, helped us with the translation of the diaries.”

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“May 24. Close to 4:00 p.m. the captain of the miners Kronstedt reported that the enemy was digging counter-tunnels, and only three meters of ground separated them from the Swedes’ tunnels. He asked Colonel Kronnman, who was the duty officer in the trench, for permission to detonate gunpowder in a tunnel under the main wall of the fortress. But the King was not there, and Colonel Kronnman did not dare give permission to detonate a mine in the underground tunnel. Then Captain Kronstedt requested permission from Renschield and Levenhaupt, but they too refused to allow this before the King’s return. As a result, at 6:00 p.m. the enemy dug through to the Swedes’ tunnel and took away all the gunpowder. All that digging was in vain. As usual, I was relieved by Fenrik Titgren.

May 25. I was off duty all day and had nothing to report except for the fact that the enemy made a sortie into our trench and killed Sergeant Jacob Leyon of the Helsinyorsk Regiment, who was there with 12 other soldiers. The sergeant was in an underground tunnel. Stabbed with a bayonet, he died gripping his bayonet so as not to give it up to the enemy. Two Russians also died in the underground tunnel. When the King approached the trench before the dead soldiers were taken away, he saw the sergeant with the protruding bayonet and said that he was a brave man. Had he survived, the King said, he would have promoted him. During the siege of the fortress there was not a single day without casualties. In Helminforsk Company and Ovansyo Company (Dalekarlian Regiment) we lost five of the best soldiers.

May 30. I was ordered to keep the fuse cord burning all the time for lighting hand grenades. We always had a fire from the start of my duty, i.e., since we were stationed here. Passing nearby, the King said this was not necessary, since fuse cords were in short supply and had to be saved. He ordered me to put out the fire and stop tending it. The King then asked me about the battles in Kurland and elsewhere. He was especially interested in the events that took place near Lisna. I told him honestly everything that I knew. Our discussion continued until 11:30 a.m., after which he left for lunch at his headquarters. At noon we moved closer to the workers. When I tried to set up a new secure post for the sentinels, the Russians started throwing grenades (12 in all), but we escaped harm. At 3:00 p.m. the King returned and asked if something had happened. I said no, except that the Russians had thrown 12 grenades at me, but, thank God, no harm was done. The King said: ‘A hand grenade or bomb will never do any harm unless it hits the body directly.’ I replied that this is not quite true as I saw soldiers’ arms, legs, and heads ripped off by exploding grenades. A bomb has a similar effect. My right shoulder can still feel it from 1705, when I was wounded by a bomb fragment during the siege of Mitau. Adjutant-General Schulz agreed with me.

The King said that in any case grenades and bombs are unnecessary things. The discussion ended at this point. Lieutenant-General Muller arrived after this and spoke with the King in private. After that they left the trench together. I was relieved from duty as usual.

May 31. At 9:00 a.m. I was on my hill, where my second position was located. There I saw the King, Levenhaupt, Stakkelberry, Colonel Sigrut, Taube, and Bukwald. At 9:30 a.m. the Russians started firing from 72 cannons from the other side of the swamp, where most of the enemy’s army was stationed in a camp. Colonel Sigrut counted the cannons and so did I. They fired three shots each, 216 shots in all. They seemed to be firing salvos, and we discussed this. Some thought that maybe the tsar had arrived. Others thought that maybe it was Tsar Peter’s birthday or some church holiday of the Russians. The King inquired Brigadier Mullenfelz about the purpose of these salvos, but he had no idea, as it had been a long time since he had served in the army of Peter I. The King then asked Neubaur, who recently joined us after serving in the army of Peter I’s son Aleksey. He joined us because he did not like the Russians’ lifestyle. The King asked him if this could be some holiday. He could not answer.

June 5. In the evening, after I was told the password of the day, I was ordered to guard the horses of my regiment. Soon I saw the King, who was kneeling in prayer under a large tree (it was his morning prayer). He was praying so passionately and sincerely that when I saw him, tears welled up in my eyes. Then I returned to the stations to check that all my men were in place. I allowed them to mount up and divided all the horses into three groups to send them to graze. Major Swinhufwud ordered me not to stray from camp and find fresh grass as close to the camp as possible. We found such grassland seven or eight kilometers from the camp. We found water on the other side of the camp, two or three kilometers away. When we reached the pasture, I ordered everybody to pray and to guard the horses as they grazed.

June 8. At noon I was taken beyond the workers’ line after Captain Eckman and Lieutenant Perman from the engineering division were wounded. At 6:00 p.m., before my shift, a heavy rainfall started, the likes of which even the veterans could not recall. Water in the trenches rose above knee level. The water carried away dead horses down the Vorskla. Nearly dry creeks turned into large rivers that were four meters deep. When I returned to the camp in a valley surrounded with hills, I saw that the tents were flooded. My bag would have drifted away if it had been empty. We dug small channels to drain the water. That night was very noisy because of the frogs that made sleeping difficult. The tent was buzzing with flies that had hidden there from the rain. During the siege we had no opportunity to rest and sleep at night. Even off duty, we were constantly at the ready. During the day, when we felt safe, we could not sleep because of the scorching heat. I must say that the very cold winter, which did us a great deal of damage, was followed by an extremely hot summer, which was a catastrophe for the army. We pitched camp on open land without sources of fresh water, available only in the villages and cities. Aside from these villages and cities there was no shade to hide from the sun.

June 9. I spent the evening in the trenches. My brother-in-law (sister’s husband) Peter Alchstrem came to me as I was on my way to the trench. I had no time to speak to him or offer him some wine and food. He said that he is a quartermaster in the Imperial Guards Regiment. I had to leave because the King was nearby and saw me. I could not have my brother-in-law accompanying me to the trenches, because the King did not approve of this.

June 17. Close to 3:00 a.m. my regiment received orders to move down to the marshland near the fortress to stop the enemy, who had built a bridge across the Vorskla to the right of our redoubts. At around 8:00 a.m. we learned that some 1,200-1,500 Russians had already crossed the Vorskla. They captured a small island and had to cross the last arm of the river to complete their crossing. There was not enough space for a battalion, so we waited in the forest. However, the enemy started firing at us from the island. The King gave a command and 16 to 20 men stood behind a roadside fence and started firing back at the enemy. In that instant the King was wounded in his left leg by a bullet from a musket. This happened at 8:30 a.m. on his birthday. The King managed to hide his wound and headed for my company to order the 24 soldiers in my company to provide cover fire for the arriving Zaporozhian Cossacks, who had to occupy their position and open fire at the enemy. The Zaporozhian Cossacks approached the forest and started shooting from their wonderful muskets. Colonel Sigrut ordered me to inform my soldiers that the Cossacks were our allies. Commanding the Cossacks was the son of Hetman Mazepa’s sister — Voinarovsky. The King asked me where I was going, and I told him about the order I had received. He allowed us to proceed, and I headed toward the Cossacks. I noticed from the King’s face that he was wounded... Our reinforcement with several cannons pushed the enemy back. An hour later the King arrived at his headquarters. Colonel Sigrut recalled his battalion from Nyzhni Mlyny to the fortress to aid Drak. Because the Zaporozhian Cossacks, whom I was covering, dealt a heavy blow to the enemy, the Russians retreated from the island, leaving behind a hundred or more dead. Only two of our men had been wounded.

June 22. We received word that the enemy wants to fight us in the open field. We waited for the enemy from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 or 4:00 p.m. Then it became clear that the enemy did not intend to leave their camp near the village of Petrivka, despite their advantage. The Russians outnumbered us. Our regiment was weakened by heavy losses that had begun in the winter (marches, hunger, winter cold, battles, clashes, the storming of Vepryk). At 3:45 p.m. the entire army moved to the other end of the city. The entire infantry took up positions near the monastery, where the lifeguards were stationed during the siege. The Imperial Guards also returned to the monastery. Our regiment took up positions near a large cherry orchard and vineyard. The cavalry was to our left. Only the dragoons of Colonel Schreitenfelz were near us...”

The Swedish soldier’s diary ends abruptly at this point. We can only imagine the brave fenrik’s plight during the 12 years of his captivity. There were no relatives to inherit what he left behind. However, his diaries were not lost. They were stored to this day in the archives of a Swedish university.