Blockade of Grodno

Blockade of Grodno

Part of: Great Northern War

Map of the city of Grodno and the fortress (1655)

date	January 15, 1706 - March 31, 1706
place	Grodno , today's Belarus
output	Swedish victory

Parties to the conflict
Sweden	Russia
Commander
Charles XII.	George of Ogilvy
Troop strength
20,000 men	25,000 men, 103 artillery pieces
losses
100 men	8,000 dead during the blockade 9,000 dead during the withdrawal 17,000 dead in total

The blockade of Grodno in the Great Northern War began in the course of the Grodno campaign (1705/1706) on January 15, 1706 and ended in March 1706 with the outbreak of the Russian army . Under the leadership of Field Marshal Georg Benedikt von Ogilvy , the remaining 10,000 or so men managed to break through the siege ring and march off in the direction of Kiev .

In advance

Campaign of Charles XII. Late 1705 to late 1706

In the last months of 1705, Charles XII. his troops in Poland and marched towards the Baltic States. After the King of Sweden occupied Poland and forced August II to flee and installed an anti-king, he turned again to his greatest enemy, Russia. The aim of this campaign was to force the still renegade areas to swear allegiance to the new king and to help the oppressed Swedish forces there.

The advance of the army took place over the Vistula and the Bug to Lithuania . In the autumn, Swedish reinforcements from Finland had brought Lewenhaupt's army, which had gathered in Riga , to a strength of 10,000 men. The Russian forces in Courland (see Siege of Mitau ) feared that they would be gripped by the troops of Levenhaupt in Riga and the approaching Karl. After the fortifications in Mitau and Bauske were blown up, they initially withdrew from Courland to Grodno , so that Lewenhaupt was able to occupy Courland again. After the Russians had withdrawn, the Lithuanians began to move more and more over to the new King of Poland, loyal to Sweden, which considerably reduced the burdens of the war for them. A reconciliation of the warring Lithuanian noble families of the Sapiehas and the Wienowickis also succeeded. Since Count Ogiński achieved no success anywhere with his continued struggle on the side of August II, the Swedish party in Lithuania finally won the upper hand.

In the area around Grodno the Russian field marshal Ogilvy had gathered his army of 20,000 men to attack the Swedish king. On January 15, the Swedish main army on the way to reach the Grodno Niemen . The river was frozen, which allowed a quick transition. At the head of his guard, Charles XII stormed. over the ice and forced the several times superior Russian crew of the river bank to retreat. Now the way to Grodno was clear. There was August the Strong with a few thousand Saxons and Poles and the main Russian armed forces under Ogilvy.

Charles XII. offered a battle in the open field, but this did not happen because Tsar Peter I had ordered his generals to avoid any battle against the Swedish king. A siege of the city was not possible due to the harsh winter. It was not possible for the Swedes to open trenches , and the Russians had burned down all the suburbs . The city ​​wall had also been repaired and reinforced in recent years . The fortress artillery was heavily stocked and a large garrison of Russian troops was housed in the city .

These reasons prompted Charles XII. to put his troops in winter quarters around Grodno and only to block the city . This allowed his troops to rest and the city was cut off from any supply of fuel and supplies.

The blockade

Grodno around 1709

On January 15th, Grodno was completely surrounded . As a result, the Russian garrison was cut off from all supply routes. In Minsk the tsar had gathered another 12,000 men, these were under the command of the Russian general Menschikoff. This army corps was supposed to unite with the field marshal's troops. Due to the blockade of the city and the numerical superiority of the Swedes, this did not happen. Even the regiments of General Rönne could no longer help the troops in Grodno. The dragoons were intercepted ten miles from the fortress by Swedish horsemen and put to flight.

With the departure of the Saxons and Poles on January 18, the situation of the Russian garrison worsened. In addition to his own troops, August II took four regiments of dragoons from the tsarist army with him. He broke through the blockade ring and withdrew to the west. The Elector of Saxony wanted, together with General Schulenburg's army corps , to attack the Swedish occupation troops under General Rehnskiöld who remained in Poland . In the battle of Fraustadt , the Saxon general's troops were defeated.

With the withdrawal of the four cavalry regiments, the Russian garrison was without cavalry units, which meant that the supplies could not be secured. In addition, it was no longer possible for the Russians to go on reconnaissance patrols to find weak spots in the siege ring.

In February and March, Charles XII. with his troops quietly around Grodno and maintained the blockade. During this time he sent several patrol corps to the surrounding country to steal supplies for his troops and to force the recognition of Stanislaus I, who was loyal to Sweden, as the Polish king. During these forays hundreds of smaller castles and farms were burned down on behalf of the King of Sweden. This won the lower nobility and citizenship for the Stanislaus party. The previously relentless exploitation of the country by the Russian occupiers also brought the Swedes many supporters.

The poor supply situation not only bothered the Russians in the fortress, the Swedes also had supply problems, so that from March onwards there was only bread at the table of the Swedish king.

During this time hundreds of soldiers died in the city of Grodno every day. The Russian general tried to hide the losses by burying the bodies in the cellar. But the onset of the thaw revealed the heavy losses due to the strong smell of decay. As a result, the general had the dead thrown into the river.

The arrival of the victory news from the Swedes in Fraustadt finally took away the garrison's will to defend the fortress. Ogilvy had eighty of his fortress guns, powder and bullets dumped in the Niemen. He also sent 4,000 sick people to Tykocin . Its crew had thus shrunk from 20,000 to less than 10,000 men. With the rest of the soldiers he tried to retreat to Russia.

The withdrawal

On March 31, the Russians moved east to meet the Swedish occupiers. They broke through the siege ring and withdrew by detours to Tykocin and on to Brest . Then it went on along the bow south to Volhynia . The goal of the march back was Kiev . Charles XII. could have cut off the Russians in Brzese when his troops reached the Niemen, but the ice floes on the river had destroyed the only bridge. This fortunate circumstance gave the Russian troops a decisive advantage. On April 4th, the Swedish king finally set out from his winter quarters to pursue the Russians. In Lithuania he left Colonel Creutz with a small crew and withdrew to the south himself.

The consequences

The blockade of Grodno cost the lives of over 17,000 Russian soldiers. The Swedes did not gain any strategic benefit from taking the city. In addition, the encirclement and subsequent breakout of the Russians was a tactical defeat for the Swedes. Despite months of efforts, they had not succeeded in weakening Russia on a lasting basis.

After the Swedish troops had stayed in Volhynia for a month, they set off for Greater Poland to plan the conquest of Saxony. In the summer of 1706 the Principality of Sweden was occupied and the Elector, in the Peace of Altranstädt, was forced to renounce the Polish crown. Furthermore, he was asked to dissolve the alliance with Russia. Strengthened by this success in the West, the King of Sweden returned to Poland in the autumn of 1706 and was now planning his Russian campaign.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pelz, p. 187
2. ↑ Peter Ullgren, Det stora nordiska kriget 1700-1721, Stockholm 2008, Prisma, ISBN 978-91-518-5107-5 , p. 142
3. ↑ Bacmeister, p. 153
4. ↑ ^{a b} Fyrell, p. 126

literature

• Hartwich-Ludwig-Christian Bacmeister: Contributions to the history of Peter the Great , Volume 1, Riga 1774
• Knut Lundblad, Georg Friedrich Jenssen-Tusch: History of Karl the Twelfth, King of Sweden , Volume 2, Hamburg 1835
• Eduard Pelz: History of Peter the Great , Leipzig 1848