Bible of the Time. …from the Big Bang to the present day…

The death of Dmitry the First (1582—1606)

A crowd of adherents «cries out» Vasily Shuisky (the Suzdal branch of the Rurikovichs) king, and he becomes them. The Patriarch is replaced, from Ignatius to Hermogenes. An even less legitimate ruler will face severe trials from the very beginning. In October 1606, Moscow was besieged by the 100-thousandth army of the authorized representative of the next False Dmitry, galley rower, now the great voivode, Ivan Bolotnikov. A split is brewing in the camp of the rebels. Boyars and fugitive peasants are unable to form an alliance. Muscovites are ready to surrender. They only demand to show a figure only somewhat similar to a real tsarevich. But «voivode Dmitry» Ivan Bolotnikov does not have one at the moment. Mikhail Molchanov, one of the murders of Tsarevich Fyodor, a once confidant of False Dmitry the First, and, finally, an impostor, refuses to take part in the risky struggle personally. The storming of the capital, undertaken hastily in October, Bolotnikov fails. The army of the peasant leader, suffering defeat, retreats to Tula. Manages to recruit new forces, 40 thousand fighters, and carry out a second campaign against Moscow. A hundred kilometers southeast of the capital, near Kashira, in June 1607, a battle with the army of Tsar Basil the Fourth (Shuisky) takes place. The peasant rebels are well organized. They have effective artillery, they are one step away from victory. But, one of the commanders with a 4,000-strong detachment is cheating on Bolotnikov, striking the rear of the militia, sowing panic. The rebels scatter. However, many of the surviving militias are involved in the struggle of the parties, for or against the impostors of Dmitry II and III.

…The idea of Mikhail Molchanov with False Dmitry was correct for the army of Ivan Bolotnikov, but the search for a real person for this role dragged on. For some time, in Poland and Ukraine (the protectorate of Poland), the role of the prince was played by Molchanov himself. But, in Moscow they knew him too well. Only at the beginning of 1607, in Belarus, which was then part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (the name of the Polish-Lithuanian state, tracing from Latin res publica – «Republic»), there is a person suitable for figure, age. In a halo of mystery, first as a relative of the tsar, Andrei Nagoy, False Dmitry II appears before the people at the end of the spring of 1607.

This False Dmitry does not have time for either the first or the second campaign of Bolotnikov against Moscow. He is late in Tula, where, on October 10, Shuisky’s troops, changing the direction of the river, forced the remnants of the peasant army to surrender. But, now 27 thousand people gather under his name. Poles, Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks, archers, nobles and fighting slaves wish to try their luck. False Dmitry wins several battles. Moscow, surrounded by stone walls (along the present Boulevard Ring), cannot be taken. Having camped in Tushino, False Dmitry blocks the capital. He manages to intercept Marina Mnishek, and, after some persuasion, marry her. Also, the «deputy tsar» manages to win over Metropolitan Filaret to his side. This priest becomes an understudy of the Moscow Patriarch. Dual power sets in. Shuisky and False Dmitry II (more precisely, Polish bodyguards who control their master) rule the country in parallel. Vasily the Fourth achieves some success with the help of the governor Skopin-Shuisky and the participation of Protestant Sweden, dissatisfied with the strengthening of Catholic Poland. Polish mercenaries openly show disdain for the Russian «tsarik». In the end, having climbed into the cart under the matting, False Dmitry goes to Kaluga.The spirit of the Bolotnikov uprising is still strong in this city. Only here the impostor begins to play an independent role, as if he is gaining a second wind. Remaining without a royal name, the Tushino camp loses its significance as the second Russian capital and is burned down. The Polish army is dispersed.

False Dmitry besieges Moscow with a new militia. An idea is ripening among the boyars-«shape-shifters». What if we remove both Vasily Shuisky and the impostor from the political field, and then the whole world choose a new tsar? In Moscow, the nobles really overthrow Basil the Fourth, forcibly shear the tsar into a monk and wait for retaliation from those close to False Dmitry. But they are in no hurry to fulfill this promise. After all, their positions are being remarkably strengthened. In order to fill the vacuum of power, the Seven Boyars elected the king of the Polish prince Vladislav Vaza, the eldest son of Sigismund III. Russian society is sharply polarized. The humiliated and insulted poor people, Cossacks and (Ukrainian) Cossacks, flock to False Dmitry, driven to Kaluga. The entourage of Vladislav Vaza, more precisely, his representatives in Russia, are replenished by nobles.

Outside the hierarchy, too homogeneous masses of the people come under the power of instincts. The concept of justice, as such, ceases to exist. The wheel of terror spins towards all suspicious persons. Moreover, False Dmitry expects to call on the Crimean and Nogai (Astrakhan) Tatars who are already moving to Central Russia to march on Moscow, in order to immediately improve all their affairs. But, his plans are not destined to come true. In revenge for one of the victims of the terror, the impostor is killed by his own bodyguard.

Vasily the Fourth (Shuisky), 1552—1612, the last representative of the Rurikids on the throne. According to the testimony of contemporaries, in life he is not so good-looking. The tsar dies in Polish captivity at the same time as his brother Dmitry, also a prisoner and heir.

So, Vasily Shuisky is forcibly tonsured into a monk. Together with two brothers, he is kept in a castle near Warsaw. The former monarch has no children of his own. The three-year-old son of Maria Mnishek, Ivan, can claim the throne. Still, the prince is still too young. Tsar Vladislav is not popular among the people. In addition, he does not risk personally leaving Poland for Moscow and seems to be cooling off to the idea of becoming the ruler of Russia. The soil for the emergence of the third False Dmitry is still fertile.

And the impostor is declared, in January 1611, in Ivangorod besieged by the Swedes (150 kilometers west of the place where St. Petersburg will be). False Dmitry III manages to gather a militia in Pskov and even drive off the conquerors. However, having come to power, the impostor hesitates to advance to Moscow. He embarks on a dissolute life, commits violence and imperceptibly loses popularity. The conspirators removed the Cossacks loyal to him from Pskov, ostensibly to fight the Swedes who besieged the suburbs. False Dmitry senses something is wrong and tries to escape. They catch him, put him in a cage and take him to Moscow. The impostor is killed on the way or executed in the capital.

Moscow, meanwhile, is occupied by the Poles. After all, nominally the king is fifteen-year-old Vladislav Vaza. He is elected but not crowned. Patriarch Hermogenes (number one), initially loyal to the foreign ruler, realizing the plans of the gentry, frees the people from the oath. Hermogenes’ letters resonate primarily in Ryazan, where the people’s militia is already being formed. The Poles send Cossacks of Little Russia to destroy the Ryazan cities. One part of the registry perishes, the other takes the side of the people. Meanwhile, Nizhny Novgorod is also rising to the fight. In mid-March 1611, two militias unite near Moscow. There are a hundred thousand of them in total. The occupation forces number 5,000 Poles and 2,000 Germans. They carry out repressions in the city, set fire to houses in order to cope with the indignant people even before the start of the assault. Fire and steel kill seven thousand townspeople. Boyars and slaves dependent on them are in alliance with the Poles.

The militia does not dare to storm the white-stone walls. It creates its own Zemsky Sobor and a system of state power. However, between the two forces – the nobility, seeking to restore serfdom and the Cossacks, who want to keep their liberties, discord arises. The Poles use this. Their forged letters indicate that the Ryazan leader of the Lyapunov militia is determined to destroy the Cossacks. The Cossacks summon Lyapunov «to the circle», where they kill without trial or trial. As a result, most of the nobles leave the camp. Dying in the dungeon of the Chudov Monastery, Patriarch Hermogenes calls on the people to no longer obey the governors of the Moscow region D. Trubetskoy and I. Zarutsky. However, the archimandrite of the influential Trinity-Sergius Monastery, Dionysius, advocates rallying under their leadership. A large Cossack detachment remains at the siege of Moscow until the middle of the summer of 1612. When the units of the Second Militia approach, it leaves for Astrakhan and does not participate in further hostilities with the interventionists. Zarutsky has an important trump card – Marina Mnishek with the son of False Dmitry II. The ataman wishes to use it for his own purposes. At the walls of the capital, Trubetskoy’s forces remain, who were not directly involved in the murder of Lyapunov.

…The Second Militia is gathering in Nizhny Novgorod. It is based on the alliance of the representative of the nobility – Prince Pozharsky and the peasantry – the head Minin. A public treasury is created from voluntary donations. She generously pays for the help of experienced service people. In September 1612, after the deposition of False Dmitry III, it was possible to recapture the supply train for the besieged. Part of Moscow and Kitai-Gorod were freed from the gentry. What remains is the Kremlin, within whose walls Poles and Russian boyar families are already practicing cannibalism everywhere. By placing a regiment at its walls, Pozharsky protects the boyars and one of the two Polish detachments from lynching the surrendering prisoners. The second formation of the Polish-Lithuanian garrison falls into the possession of Trubetskoy’s Cossacks and completely perishes. The troops of Minin and Pozharsky enter the Kremlin on November 6, 1612. A solemn prayer service is held at the Execution Ground. The new Polish army, halfway to Moscow, stops at Volokolamsk.

Mikhail Fedorovich, 1596—1645, the first monarch from the Romanov dynasty. He dies, as a contemporary testifies, from melancholy, «that is, torpor» and «a lot of sitting.» The four children he earned in marriage with his unloved, or at least not chosen by him Evdokia Streshneva, continue the dynasty.

In January 1613, an all-estate meeting, the Zemsky Sobor, was convened. The goal is to elect a new king. Among the applicants are Pozharsky, Trubetskoy, the Swedish prince Karl Philip, Vladislav Vaza and Ivan, the son of Maria Mnishek. The fate of this child is sad. In 1615, he was transported from Astrakhan to the capital, where he was executed along with the ataman Zarutsky.

The election is won by the son of Patriarch Filaret, Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov. Patriarchs are not supposed to have children, but Fyodor Romanov and his wife Xenia did not always have a monastic rank. They had to go to a monastery under Boris Godunov, but by that time they already had a son, Mikhail. In 1611, Filaret became the «named» patriarch in the Tushino camp, in parallel with Hermogenes staying in Moscow. Then the Poles take him to Poland, but there he also finds ways to communicate with the Zemsky Sobor.

So, to Mikhail Fedorovich and his mother, who are hiding from the persecution of the Poles in the Ipatiev Monastery (Kostroma), the embassy of the Zemsky Cathedral arrives and reports important news. The young man becomes the first king of the Romanov dynasty.

Three years later, Polish troops, together with the Cossacks of the gentry Pyotr Konashevich (Sagaidachny), are trying to restore Vladislav Vaza to the rights of king, storm Moscow, but unsuccessfully. Nevertheless, according to the Treaty of Deulina, concluded in 1618, Russia is losing 26 cities. Among them are Smolensk, Chernigov and Putivl, together with the population, except for the clergy and nobility, who are allowed to move to the Russian lands.

Alexei Mikhailovich (1629—1676), tsar, father of Peter the Great. A monarch of a good-natured disposition, peacefully combining Russian and Western orders, keen on astrology and European music, the founder of the «new order» regiments – Reitars, soldiers, dragoons and hussars.

Vladislav Vaza still claims the Russian throne.

Mikhail the First is going to get married and, examining the line of brides, chooses Maria Khlopova. The girl does not like the queen mother. At her instigation, doctors conclude that «Maria Khlopova is fragile to the royal joy.» Other doctors come to a different conclusion, however, the last word is for the nun. Some time later, with the assistance of his father, who returned from Polish captivity, Mikhail almost marries Khlopova, but his mother’s influence outweighs. In the end, the tsar enters into an alliance with Evdokia Streshneva, the confidante of one of the boyars who came to the bride. The marriage is happy, except for the fact that, even with royal care, six out of ten children die before reaching adulthood (the usual statistics of that time).

In 1636 Michael declares war on Poland. Russian troops besiege Smolensk. The governors return to Moscow with 8 thousand soldiers, the initial number being 32 thousand. The state of affairs remains. The only plus is that the King of Poland, Vladislav, renounces his claims to the Russian throne.

In 1645, Mikhail’s son, Alexei Mikhailovich (Quietest), became tsar. During his reign, the reunification of Ukraine and Russia, the Copper and Salt riots and the church schism took place. The church council of 1666 supports the reform of the high priest Nikon, anathematizes the Old Believers and, regardless of all that, condemns the patriarch to imprisonment in a monastery. Open resistance to the new religious charter lasted until the capture of the Solovetsky monastery by the troops in 1676. In 1654, in connection with the annexation of Ukraine, a new Russian-Polish war began. The combined troops of Buturlin and Khmelnitsky are making progress. They are already fighting on the territory of ethnic Poland and Lithuania. The entry into the war of a strong player, Sweden, which snatched Warsaw and Krakow from the hands of Russia, forces the parties to the conflict to sign the Vilna truce. Nevertheless, there is an interesting prospect for the election of Alexei Mikhailovich to the Polish throne.

Ukraine then, both in colloquial speech and in all official documents, is called Little Russia, or the Hetmanate. The agreement between the Russian tsar and the Cossacks is drawn up in the «Belarusian language». Muscovite Rus at that time was called «White». Later, the toponym shifts to the West and denotes present-day Belarus.

Hetman Bohdan Khmelnitsky (1595—1657)

In 1658 the war continues, but without the deceased Bohdan Khmelnitsky.

The former secretary, Ivan Vyhovsky, who himself became the «hetman of the Grand Duchy of Russia», carries out mass repressions among the Cossacks and concludes a separate agreement with the Commonwealth. According to its clauses, the Hetmanate becomes a federal unit of Poland. In the same year, Vyhovsky cracked down on the Cossack foreman, who was trying to find out where the tsarist money allocated for the maintenance of the Zaporozhye army went.

In 1659, Vygovsky succeeded in attracting the Crimean Khan Mehmed Giray the Fourth with a 30,000-strong army as an allies. Together they defeat the Russian detachment of A. Trubetskoy, which is besieging Konotop. Loss of seven for seven thousand. In Ukraine, more and more uprisings break out against Vyhovsky. The next hetman is the 18-year-old son of Bohdan Khmelnitsky. Yuri is not the successor of his father’s work, speaking, in general, against the unification of the lands. The offspring of Khmelnytsky is a henchman of the Poles, Ottomans, and does not pursue an independent policy. Realizing that the hetmanship is not for him, he becomes a monk, gets to the Tatars, Turks, who in the end deprive him of his head.

In the fall of 1663, the Polish army, plus the Crimean Tatars and detachments of the Principality of Lithuania, led by King Jan Kazimierz, made the last major operation. With heavy fighting, it occupies a dozen cities. The initiative is waking up in the Russian commanders. Competently leading the troops, they perform deceptive maneuvers, block the enemy garrisons, and raid the rear. The Polish-Lithuanian army retreats, losing three quarters of its strength. In 1666, the right-bank hetman Petro Doroshenko, who declared himself a vassal of the Turkish sultan, revolted against Poland. Thirty thousand Crimean Tatars come to the aid of his fifteen thousand Cossacks. The turmoil lasts for five years. Poland is restoring the state of affairs, but it is completely exhausting its strength. In the end, on January 30, 1667, the Andrusov armistice was signed between Russia and Poland. Rzeczpospolita recognizes the annexation of the Left-Bank Ukraine, Smolensk, the Chernigov Voivodeship, a number of small towns, preserves the Right-Bank Ukraine and Belarus. Russia is not yet in a position to retain some of its large territorial acquisitions.

Hetman Petro Doroshenko (1627—1698)

…In the summer of 1672 Poland was attacked by the Ottoman Empire. By this time, the Turks and their vassal Doroshenko already owned the entire Right-Bank Little Russia. There is Islamization, the alteration of churches in the mosque, the recruitment of boys to janissaries, girls, again boys to harems, and the like. Fearing the invasion of the warriors of the Port on the Left Bank Ukraine, and not wanting to humiliate the Christian world, Russia enters the war with Turkey. Relations with Poland immediately warmed up. Cossacks and Cossacks (usually, Zaporozhye Cossacks are called through the vowel «O») are invited to attack the Crimean Tatar and Turkish possessions from the sea. Russia is trying to form a European coalition and even become its head. She does not succeed in this, but at least this attempt itself is evaluated favorably by the Western community. The fighting is covered in detail by the European press.

Poland is losing the war and officially gives the Right-Bank Ukraine to the Ottomans. Alexei Mikhailovich considers this a reason for extending the power of the crown to the whole of Little Russia, in the event of a victory over the mighty Port, of course. Events are not developing quite the way the Russians want them to. They are fighting the Turks and Crimean Tatars. Those intensify the repression against the population. The population falls away from the Ottomans and is immediately given over to the well-functioning Polish administration. A significant part of the inhabitants flees to the Russian Left-Bank Ukraine. The city of Chigirin occupies a special place in Ukraine at that time. It is the unofficial capital of the Hetmanate, a large Cossack camp and covers the strategic crossing of the Dnieper. The Russian-Ukrainian army captures the city, forces Doroshenko to swear allegiance to the Russian Tsar and withstands, intermittently, two Turkish sieges. The second of them (1678) shows the lack of experienced gunners, while the Ottoman guns shoot almost without a miss. Four Turkish guns are «super heavy». It takes 32 buffaloes to transport each. The ratio of forces in people is 1:10. The Turks are losing 30 thousand fighters from the 120-thousand army. The Russian-Ukrainian coalition is losing 15 thousand of the original 65 thousand. In the end, Romodanovsky’s troops, having formed in a huge square, retreat to the Dnieper and are evacuated to the Left-Bank Ukraine.

The war is reaching a dead end. Right-bank Ukraine, in any case, is arranged according to the Polish model. It is difficult to win back and keep it without an alliance with Poland. The Poles themselves, as a condition of the alliance, require huge sums to support their troops. In the end, according to the Bakhchisarai Peace Treaty (1680), the Port recognizes the entry of the Left-Bank Ukraine and Kiev into Russia. Right-bank Little Russia is now ruled by a Turkish vassal, the Moldovan ruler Gheorghe Duca. The Zaporizhzhya Sich becomes independent from Moscow. As before, Russia pays a semblance of tribute to the Crimean Khan.

In 1676, having declared the fifteen-year-old Fedor (mother – Maria Miloslavskaya) heir, the tsar died of a heart attack. Fyodor the Third reigns happily, but not for long, five years, leaving no heirs. It is not he, and not his brother Ivan the Fifth, who becomes the great emperor, but Peter the First, born in marriage with his second wife Natalia Naryshkina.

The Naryshkin clan declares that, dying, Tsar Fyodor personally handed over the scepter to Peter. The Miloslavskys angered the archers with rumors that the Naryshkins strangled Tsarevich Ivan. The military, despite the fact that they are introduced to the princes with their own eyes, kill several boyars. They do not dare to deal with Peter.

As a result, representatives of the Miloslavsky and Naryshkin families were married to the kingdom in 1682 at the same time. For the princes, they even arrange a throne with two seats. In fact, an active daughter from the first marriage of Alexei Tishaishy, the second regent of the royal brothers, Princess Sophia, rules.

In 1686 the tsarina signed the «Eternal Peace» with Poland. Kiev is assigned to the Russian kingdom (146 thousand rubles of compensation are paid), Zaporozhye, Smolensk, Chernigov. A number of devastated lands are included in the buffer territories. In addition, Russia joins the countries leading the war with the Ottoman Empire, the Holy League. In fulfillment of allied obligations, the First and Second Crimean campaigns are being undertaken. Both end the same way. Almost 100-thousand army, suffering deprivation of supplies and fresh water, returns back. In the first case (1687), the army gets to the Konka River, located 150 kilometers south of Dnepropetrovsk. In the second (1689) – it reaches Perekop. The idea of building fortresses to accumulate supplies is not being implemented. The troops of the more proactive Grigory Kosagov capture the strategically important Ochakov (Kara-Kermen, Black Fortress), located on the Black Sea coast near the mouth of the Dnieper. Only then, finally, the Russian kingdom ceases to pay tribute to the Crimean Khan.

Princess Sophia Alekseevna (1657—1704)

The first, the Nerchinsk agreement with China is concluded. In general, Sophia’s reign was not marked by special events. Russia is accumulating strength to withstand the era of Peter the Great. Peter turns 17 in May 1689, and at the insistence of his mother he marries Evdokia Lopukhina. Love lasts a year. The Tsar finds solace in the arms of the daughter of a goldsmith from the German Suburb, Anna Mons. Despite the beginning of adulthood, almost no one around Peter takes his orders seriously. Rumors of an impending assassination attempt reach the king. Together with his closest relatives and confidants, Peter takes refuge in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. From here he sends instructions to the regimental commanders to appear with a dozen people in person. Arriving archers are waiting for the sovereign’s mercy, vodka and feasts, but Peter himself leads the exemplary life of the Moscow Tsar. Sophia loses her supporters. She has to retire to the Novodevichy Convent, although she does not become a real nun until the suppression of the Strelets uprising. Ivan the Fifth meets Peter in the Assumption Cathedral and in fact gives up all power.

Peter likes to fight. In 1695 he carried out the First Azov campaign. More than 30,000 troops travel along the Don to the Azov (the top of the Sea of Azov), on transport ships and by land. Here it is revealed that it is impossible to take the city without warships. Only two fortresses overlapping the river are captured.

In the village of Preobrazhenskoye, on the banks of the Yauza, not far from Moscow, new transport and military ships are being built in a wild haste. They are disassembled and transported to Voronezh, to the Don, where they are assembled again. The number of troops reaches 70 thousand. In May 1696, Azov again fell into a siege. In July, after massive shelling, the garrison surrenders. According to the agreement, the Ottomans leave the city with their families and movable property. Voivode Shein becomes the first Russian generalissimo. Under the Constantinople Peace Treaty of 1700, Russia is officially exempted from paying tribute to the Crimean Khan. She receives Azov and a number of adjacent territories. But, the main goal – access to the Black Sea, even though through the Kerch Strait, is still not achieved.

Peter the Great (1672—1725)

In 1697, Peter the Great, who a year ago became the autocratic tsar, presented as a «sergeant of the Preobrazhensky regiment», set off on a journey across Europe. The goal of the «Great Embassy» (60 people) is to gain allies in the fight against Turkey, purchase weapons and hire craftsmen. There are many inconsistencies during this period of government. Meetings with the English king William III in Utrecht, the ruler of Austria Leopold the First, with Newton, Leibniz, Levenguk, Halley (the same astronomer), are still classified as «secret». Some historians believe that Peter the Great does not participate in the Embassy at all.

.. It is impossible to reach an agreement with Austria and Holland on an alliance against the Ottomans. Vienna refuses even to recognize the transfer of Kerch and the corresponding strait to Russia, if they were captured by it. The young tsar has personal friendship only with the king of the Commonwealth Augustus II. For the election of his candidacy at the Polish Sejm, Peter the Great at one time made certain efforts and resources. Among other things, colleagues of the same age manage to agree on a joint war against Sweden.

Herbariums, tools and 15,000 small arms are being purchased.

In the summer of 1698, having received news of the uprising of the archers, the tsar returned to Moscow. The rebellion had already been suppressed by that time. The instigators have been punished. The troops of Generalissimo Shein, practically with one artillery, defeated a three-thousandth detachment of archers. Princess Sophia, the main reason for the revolt, becomes a full-fledged nun and goes to the Novodevichy Convent. He is in charge of the reprisals, according to the definition of Prince B. Kurakin, «… by his appearance as a monster, by his temper an evil tyrant, a great unwilling person to do good to anyone, drunk all the days», the ruler of Russia in the absence of Peter, Prince Caesar Fyodor Romodanovsky. The Emperor, however, needs more sacrifices. For the first time, Muscovites see the Russian Tsar in the guise of a fierce executioner. He not only personally cuts off the heads of the archers, but makes the eminent boyars do the same. Some rebels are deprived of their lives in a progressive «overseas» way – wheeling. Two thousand people die on the scaffolds. Several hundred underage «sons of the regiment» receive a shameful stigma and are sent to an eternal settlement in Siberia. Sixteen rifle regiments that did not participate in the uprising are disbanded.

…Then that significant number of Russian good people decide that Peter the First (or the one who became him) is «the beast that came out of the abyss» Antichrist and Miroed. Confirmation of this judgment is the «All-Sure Councils» regularly convened on the island in the middle of the Yauza, where Orthodox rituals are parodied. The naming of church ranks and rituals are being altered using profanity. The «pontiff» chosen by the cathedral floats in a ladle in the middle of a vat of alcohol, while naked men and women of the highest boyar families drink wine and sing obscene songs.

Russia is a member of the Northern Union, created on the initiative of the rulers of Saxony and Poland. The general direction is the war with Sweden, the king of which, Charles the Twelfth, seems to other monarchs to be insufficiently experienced in military affairs. Peter’s aspirations are Karelia and Ingria (aka Ingermanlandia, the future Leningrad region). In addition, he is driven by personal resentment – a cold welcome in the then Swedish Riga during the Great Embassy.

In 1700, Russian troops, 35 thousand fighters, mostly recruits, with light and varied artillery, with insufficient supplies, besieged Narva. Once this city intended to include in its possessions the prince (or tsar) Ivan the Third. To reduce human losses, he built the Ivangorod fortress opposite him. Then the Russian monarch was successful. However, 80 years later, the Swedes recaptured Narva and, connecting the defenses of the two cities with a fortified bridge, created a powerful citadel.

Charles the Twelfth, having forced the allies of Russia to withdraw from the war, rushes to the aid of the besieged. Sheremetyev’s detachment enters into clashes with the advanced units. The prisoners, in accordance with the agreement with the king for this case, announce the size of the Swedish army at 50 thousand fighters. Believing this information, Peter leaves the army. Maybe he wants to quickly call other regiments to the place of battle, meet with an ally, the Polish king, or, in the end, he is simply afraid of perishing. A certain Dutch duke remains in command of the army.

The actual number of Karl’s troops is 8—9 thousand fighters. The king is building soldiers in columns and so attacks the Russian army. The latter is a six-kilometer line, five to six rows of soldiers within their camp. Columns of Swedes break through it like a crowbar. In the ranks of the regiments the cry «The Germans are traitors!» Is heard. Fearing beating by soldiers, foreign officers surrender. Preobrazhensky, Semenovsky and Lefortovo regiments, fenced off with carts, are resisting. Later they will be allowed to leave. Some units leave the battlefield with banners and weapons, but without the convoy and artillery, others without all of the above. The losses of the Swedes are 700 soldiers, the Russians – 9,000, as well as all, except for 5 cannons out of 184, artillery. Charles the Twelfth is a good general, but a weak strategist. Instead of an immediate attack on Moscow, he turns his gaze to Poland and Saxony. Meanwhile, the troops of Boris Sheremetyev, who was not young at that time, but experienced, began to learn the art of war in practice. One by one, they break up detachments from the fifteen thousandth Swedish garrison left in Ingermanland and Livonia (present-day Lithuania). The whole of Narva is in the hands of the Russians. At its mouth, on the territory of Fomin Island, two and a half by four kilometers, with a village of thirty households and forty inhabitants, on May 27, 1703, Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg.