Military Actions at Narva in 1700 According to the Memoirs of Swedish Warriors

Abstract

The beginning of the Great Northern War was extremely unfortunate for the Russian State. The siege of Narva by the Russian troops and the defeat they suffered from Karl XII in the Battle of Narva (1700) were the hardest failures of Peter I during the Great Northern War and, at the same time, they gave an impetus to the acceleration of institutional development and reforms. This explains the attention of Russian historians to the circumstances of the “Narva catastrophe.” The memories, diaries and letters of Swedish soldiers, published at the turn of the 20th century, allow us to take a fresh look at the battle and the events that preceded it, given that there is practically no such evidence from the Russian side. In this regard, the purpose of the article is to fill in the gaps in the historiography of the initial period of the Great Northern War, to clarify some details concerning the state and actions of the Russian army on the eve and at the time of the Battle of Narva, as well as its position immediately after the battle. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the fact that most of these materials have not yet been put into circulation in Russian historical science.