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

by Peter Englund

Book Overview

'This victory', exulted Peter the Great, 'has laid the final stone in the foundations of St Petersburg ' The Battle of Poltava, 1709, marks the birth of the Tsar's vast Russian Empire. In 1700,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1860648479
• ISBN13: 9781860648472
• Release Date: November 2002
• Publisher: I. B. Tauris & Company
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Highly Readable Account of an Obscure but Important Battle

Firstly it must be said that this narrative is told from a distinctly Swedish perspective. The Russian forces are largely faceless and there nowhere near the same degree of detail about the Russian forces of Peter the Great as there is those of Charles the XII. Englund starts with detailed analysis of force organisation. How did such a small country with a combined population of a little over a Million become the major power in Northern Europe? Some clues are found in the revolutionary way of raising the Swedish Army and the skilful leadership of Charles XII. The Swedes were also not the lovable pastey-faced ideoluges of peace and understanding as we know them today; they were ruthless in their suppression of enemy popultions and their rapacious behaviour in cowing almost all of central Europe. Moreover they highly motivated by territorial incentives. Peter the Great's Russia was unfortunate enough to be the nearest and most logical enemy to attack with Sweden traditionally controlling almost all of the modern-day Baltic states as an advanced glacis to both protect and launch offensives against Russia. Englund dwells very little on the political motives for war and plunges right in with the march of the Armies from Livonia and modern-day Poland into the heart of Russia. We follow this army as Russia eventually draws is deeper and deeper into Sweden trading land for time and letting the elements of Russia eat away at the invader. In the hot summer sun the Battle of Poltava is really the only military option that Charles had and although it may have been successful one is always amazed at the plan to battle through a line of heavily armed forts, reform on the other side and then wheel to attack the main Russian force, also heavily entrenched. But Englund gives us a breath of adventure and dash in the movements of the Swedes and we hope that they will somehow pull if off... The fighting is as desperate and intense as in any war, but as with the Germans over 300 yrs later, there is a particularly frightening shadow of being isolated and cut off by the Russians with no hope of reuniting with your main force.... all the time being deep in the Russian hinterland. We follow the army as it turns and tries its getaway. Compressed within the ends of the Dnieper it eventually gives way, but our redoubtable Charles XII escapes. Englund leaves us there, there is nothing more about the remarkable adventure of Charles from that point, or his further attempts to dominate Europe, all crushed eventually. Poltava ended a 100 year dominance of the Swedes as the greatest land army in Europe, unbeatable until Poltava, but never really challenging the heartland of Russia.

Excellent!

One word: excellent. Wish more books of that level of quality were written and published.

Definite account of unknown, but imortant, event

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 book Culloden

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.

Excellent documentary on the "Stalingrad" of 1709

Englund's make me feel I'm reading the news from an "embedded" war correspondent reporting from three centuries ago! After reading (the Swedish edition of) "Poltava" five years ago, I have read all of his six other books. I haven't read any other historians that resembles Englund's unique style. The closest must be either Barbara W Tuchmans "Distant mirror", Antony Beevor or perhaps even LeRoy Ladruie's "Montaillou". Why was almost the entire Swedish(+Finnish) army slaughtered or captured in Ukraine on a hot summer day in 1709? Englund has been able to reconstruct the the story of the most disastrous battle in the Swedish history minute by minute. Based on reading of a wealth of primary sources, this documentary novel provides the ultimate introduction to the enigma of how it was possible for poor and sparsely populated country like Sweden to play a guest role as a greater European military power ("Prussia of the north") c1600-1814. Englund doesn't write strictly traditional style military history: He explains Charles XII's campaign by both economic, political, cultural in addition to the traditional strategic causes. This broad approach to military history has later been developed further in Englund's trilogy about Sweden's 17th century wars. (Unfortunately not yet translated to English. In this trilogy Englund writes Braudel-style "l'histoire totale", discussing all aspect of daily life and mentalities of 17th century Europe to put the warfare in it's complete context.) Englund de-emphasizes any positive significance of military leadership in 1800th century battles. Englund distances himself from any attempts to point out a "scapegoat" for the disastrous decision to go to battle at Poltava. This has been a dominant perspective in the previous 250 years of attempts of explaining the campaign leading to the defeat at Poltava. Englund never portray the soldiers or officers in a heroic manner. His story is as dismal as Remarque's "All quiet on the Western front". Nationalist sentiments, or any admiration for the "warrior king" Charles XII, will probably not survive reading this book... About the author: Peter Englund rates among the foremost historians in Scandinavia. He holds a PhD degree in history. He wrote his doctoral thesis on the mentality of the Swedish aristocracy in the 17th century. As a recognition of his writing, he has recently been elected as the 10th member to the prestigious Swedish academy. Poltava was an instant success. It ha sold 250 000 copies since it's publication in 1988, and it has since been translated into seven languages.