Great Northern War (World of Lesnaya)



From the years of 1701 to 1707, Sweden's small, but well-trained and well-managed army successfully and efficiently repulsed simultaneous invasions of their and their allies' territory by Denmark-Norway, Russia, and Poland-Lithuania. Karl XII then spent around five years invading and subduing Poland, ultimately dethroning August the Strong and placing Stanislaw Leszczynksi---a Polish noble with a pro-Swedish sentiment---as the king of Poland. In 1708, Sweden crossed the River Vistula and thereby began his invasion of Russia. He sent to Riga for reinforcements, and waited south of Smolensk for them to arrive. The only point of divergence for this alternate history occurs at this point in the Great Northern War.

1708 -- Battle of Lesnaya. Swedish commander, Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt, leads an army of 13,000 through the area of Lesnaya (Lyasnaya), and makes his rendezvous with the larger Swedish army north of Baturyn less than 2 days later. Russian prince Alexandr Menshikov, who had been sent with a force of 18,000 to intercept Lewenhaupt, was unable to arrive on time, and the Battle of Lesnaya --- the first time a Swedish army had lost to a Russian army in an open battlefield in over 100 years --- did not happen.

1708 -- Rebellious Cossacks skirmish with Russian forces at Baturyn, then retreat. Peter the Great orders his troops to burn Baturyn to prevent Swedish troops from looting the area.

1708 -- Battle of Poltava. Swedish forces (numbering 39,000) attack the fortress of Poltava, which is being defended by a similar-sized Russian force. Peter the Great's army (another 20,000 men) comes to the aid of Poltava, but is driven back by a combined Swedish-Cossack force, and the fortress is forced to surrender. Winter weather strands Peter's troops at Baturyn (which he had just burned a month earlier) for two weeks. The lack of supplies and the cold weather have severe impacts of Russian morale, and on Peter's health. They would reach Smolensk later in the winter, but Peter's health would be compromised for the rest of his life.

1709 -- Battle of Smolensk. Peter the Great sues for peace, offering to return all of Sweden's Baltic territories with the exception of St Petersburg, but Karl XII of Sweden refuses, insisting that there will be time for negotiations after he has taken Moscow. With his Cossack and Polish allies, Karl leads an attack on Smolensk. Peter and his main army are run out of Smolensk, and they retreat to Moscow. Cossack troops remain behind to lay siege to the fortress at Smolensk, which surrenders in four months' time.

1709-1710 -- Siege of Moscow. The Swedish army follows Peter to Moscow, and, along with 6000 reinforcements from Riga, lays siege to the city. The siege lasts all winter, and hundreds of Russian soldiers and civilians die of starvation, disease and exposure. Peter offers to give up even St Petersburg in exchange for peace, but Karl once again refuses, having determined that he will extract new territories from Russia in retribution for the war. In the spring of 1710, Karl's troops lead an assault on Moscow, and the ailing Peter is severely wounded. Peter's son, Alexei, is captured by Karl's soldiers.

1710 --- Boris Sheremetyev, the field marshal of Russia's military, evacuates Peter from Moscow, and retreats in the direction of Novgorod. Peter dies of infection, gangrene and exposure, and Sheremetyev arrives in Novgorod claiming that Peter had named him his successor (a dubious claim, given that Menshikov, not Sheremetyev, was Peter's favorite). Both Peter and Boris mistakenly thought that Alexei, the true successor, had been killed in the fighting.

1710 -- In order to gain Sweden's endorsement as the successor to the throne of Russia, Alexei agrees to convert to Lutheranism. Another Russian nobleman, Dmitri Levkov, likewise converts, and becomes Alexei's confidant. Meanwhile, the rest of the Russia's generals and nobles meet in Novgorod to determine the proper course of action. They have all agreed to reject Alexei because of his conversion, but there is bitter disagreement over whether Sheremetyev or Menshikov should be crowned. Eventually, Sheremetyev wins out. Boris wants to surrender and end the war with Sweden, hoping that respite will give Russia the time to rebuild, but Menshikov, Repnin and others want to continue the war and return Russia to the glory Peter had given it.

1711 – Battle of Novgorod. Swedish forces arrive at Novgorod, and a poorly prepared Russian force is routed. Boris is captured and forced to surrender. However, his surrender is not acknowledged by the nobles as the official surrender of Russia, because his coronation had not been accepted.

1711-1714 – Internal conflicts in Russia. Russia’s nobility is divided into numerous factions. By 1712, nearly all have aligned with Sheremetyev, although Menshikov and Repnin have escaped into the frontier of northwestern Russia to incite revolts against the Swedish and Sheremetyevan forces. Alexei, whose conversion does not sit well with the Russian nobility, is quickly driven out of Moscow. He joins a rebellious faction of Tatars in creating the breakaway state of Kazan, southeast of Moscow, but the rebellion is subdued after a year of fighting. In the meantime, Levkov has rallied support of the Lutheran cause in the region of Novgorod and Tver, and Sheremetyev’s supporters are unwilling to venture too near Novgorod, because the Swedish army has set up a headquarters there.

1714 – Treaty of Novgorod. Finally, Sheremetyev’s power over Russia having been consolidated, Swedish and Russian leaders meet to discuss the terms of surrender. Sweden, along with Alexei and Levkov, manages to negotiate the official recognition of a breakaway state comprising northwest Russia, from Arkhangelsk, to Tver, to Pskov. The new state is christened “Tverland,” and serves as a haven for recent Lutheran converts among the Russian nobility (although the populace remains overwhelmingly Orthodox). Alexei is allowed to accede to the throne of Tverland, and Boris is retained as tsar of Russia (Muscovy). Alexei and Levkov manage to createand maintain a policy of religious freedom for Lutherans and Orthodox Christians within Tverland.