Chapter 6.1: The Beginning

The war was supposed to begin with the coordinated attack of the Danish and Polish forces in different directions, but the plans failed right away. The Polish surprise attack on Riga in December of 1699 failed and August of Poland had to begin a siege. At the same time Denmark attacked the Swedes in Northern Germany. As, despite his youth, Karl XII was a brilliant strategist, he managed to take his forces to Northern Denmark and force the Danish to sign a peace, kicking them out of the war.

Russia, which was at war with the Turks at the time, joined the war in August of 1700 after the conclusion of the aforementioned war. He started to siege the city of Narva. Whilst Russian troops were bombing the city, the Swedish army was heading towards Estonia in a fast pace. Even though the Swedes were outnumbered 3:1, they managed to break through the Russian lines with a surprise attack through the mist and made them retreat across the river of Narva.



A painting depicting the Battle of Narva by Alexander von Kotzebue. (19th century).



“The victory of the Swedes under Narva” by Gustaf Cederström, 1910.



The Swedish Lion (Rootsi Lõvi) monument in Narva, dedicated to the Swedish victory in the battle. The original was opened in 1936, but was destroyed during WW2. The monument was rebuilt in 2000.

The success of Swedish forces continued. Karl XII pushed the Polish forces out of Livonia and attacked Poland and Northern Germany. In 1706 the king of Poland abdicated and signed a peace treaty. The incursion into Poland left the provinces of Estonia and Livonia without a defence. The Russian forces won the Swedish forces left behind in the battles of Erastvere (1701) and Hummuli (1702). This gave the opportunity for the Russians to ravage the land in order to weaken Sweden. Hundreds of churches and manors, as well as thousands of villages were wiped out, the people, men, women and children alike, were either killed or deported to Russia. In 1704, the Russian forces managed to capture Narva and Tartu. Most of Estonia was now under the control of Russian forces, which continued with indiscriminate destruction.

About this, in 1703 Peter the Great gave the order to destroy everything in the province of Estonia and Livonia to leave the returning Swedish troops without any food or a place to stay. To that, the leader of the Russian forces replied: “My Emperor, there is nothing to destroy! All places are empty. Men, women and children have been taken prisoner in their thousands, everyone who we were not able to take with us was cut into pieces. All of Livonia and a part of Estonia is so empty that the places only exist on a map.”

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