565. The Great Northern War: Revenge of the Cossacks (Part 2)
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Who were Charles XII and Peter the Great, and what was the Great Northern War about?
Yeah, we think that now, but they didn't think that then. So if you remember, we are in the frozen grip of the Great Northern War, the great struggle, the titanic showdown between Peter the Great of Russia and Charles XII of Sweden for mastery of the north and the east of Europe. And... When Charles set off, if you remember, everybody was terribly optimistic and there was no thought of frostbite or missing toes and heels. Certainly no thought of stuffing a boot with straw to make up for the loss of your foot. They would be celebrating in the Kremlin. That was the plan. That's what they thought. So listeners will remember from the last episode that Peter had seized part of the Baltic coast and he'd founded his new city of St. Petersburg amid the bogs and marshes. But all the momentum seemed to lie with the ultimate Scandinavian. I mean, surely he'd be played by Alexander Skarsgård, wouldn't he? Of course he would, yeah. He would be hunting bears with a pitchfork.
He'd be sleeping outside, won't even wear a hat, if you remember from the last episode. He'd gone through Poland. He'd gone through Saxony. He had deposed fox-tossing champion Augustus the Strong as king of Poland. And now he's decided to go east. August 1707, he's ordered this thousand-mile march on Moscow to depose Peter the Great and redraw the map of Europe. However, as your reading from Gustav Peiper suggests, things don't go according to plan. So let's get into exactly what went wrong. As soon as the Swedes crossed the border from Silesia into Poland, they discovered that the Russians had been expecting them. So the Russians have moved into Poland themselves. Peter had sent in his Cossack and Kalmyk, their kind of Central Asian horsemen,
into Western Poland, and there there had been a preview of what would come in the rest of the campaign. So they had basically tried to turn the whole place into a desert. They'd burned the towns, they'd smashed the bridges, they'd poisoned the wells. And does this come as a surprise to Charles, or do you think he'd been expecting this? I think you've been expecting a bit of it, but the sheer scale of it, the ruthlessness of it is terrifying to the Swedes. Of course, the Swedes are a long way from Sweden. I mean, their supply lines are very stretched. And I think they are probably taken aback a bit by just the absolute single-mindedness of it. But of course, most people think that the Swedes are going to win.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Who were Charles XII and Peter the Great, and what was the Great Northern War about?
2:17–5:36
2
What challenges did Charles XII face during his invasion of Russia?
5:36–9:20
3
How did Peter the Great's scorched earth tactics affect the Swedish army?
9:20–13:00
4
What was the significance of the Battle of Lesnaya in the Great Northern War?
13:00–17:40
5
Why did Charles XII change his strategy and march toward Ukraine?
17:40–19:47
6
Who were the Ukrainian Cossacks and why was Ivan Mazepa's defection important?
19:47–20:28
7
What is the historical and cultural background of Ukraine during the Great Northern War?
20:28–23:01
8
Who was Ivan Mazepa and how did his background influence his role in the war?
23:01–1:06:31
Speakers
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