Battle on the Neva

Battle on the Neva

Part of: Great Northern War

date	September 9, 1708
place	Neva , today's Russia
output	Swedish victory

Parties to the conflict
Sweden	Russia
Commander
Georg Lybecker	Fyodor Matveyevich Apraxin
Troop strength
2000 men	approx. 1500-8000 men
losses
86 dead 291 wounded (Swedish information)	900 dead (Swedish information)

The battle on the Neva took place on September 9, 1708 between a Russian army unit and a Swedish invasion force under Georg Lybecker during the Great Northern War on the Neva in Ingermanland . It ended with a successful Swedish crossing of the Neva and defense against the approaching Russians.

prehistory

Course of the campaign in Ingermanland 1708

The Swedish army had been on the defensive in the Baltic States and Ingermanland for several years. Superior Russian armed forces had initially conquered the New Zealand, including the Nevad Delta, and taken part of Swedish Livonia . Often there was a completely unbalanced balance of power between the Russians and Swedes in the military encounters of 3: 1 in favor of the Russians and beyond. The reason for this was the concentration of Swedish resources on the Polish theater of war where Charles XII. operated with the main Swedish army. In 1708 he undertook an invasion of the Russian heartland to defeat the last remaining enemy of the war, Peter I. Charles XII. carefully prepared his campaign against the tsarist empire. In Riga it was corps Lewenhaupt concentrated with 16,000 men. The Lybecker corps was ready to attack Petersburg in southern Finland , and Apraxin was to defend this region . According to an instruction from the Swedish king, Lybecker began his advance against Ingermanland in August 1708 in order to undertake a direct attack on Saint Petersburg. But the troops available to him were too weak for this. The Finnish army of Lybecker counted at the beginning of the campaign:

• 2942 rider
• 688 Dragoons
• 9436 infantrymen
• 216 artillerymen ,

together there were 13,300 men. The Russian forces in Ingermanland counted:

• 2800 men garrison in St. Petersburg
• 800 men garrison in the Schluesselburg fortress
• 4800 men on the island of Kotlin in Kronstadt
• 800 men in the fortress Jamburg
• 1200 men in Narva
• a 6,300-strong corps under the command of Apraxin, which stood near St. Petersburg in July.

Together, the Russian forces in the region had 16,700 men.

Lybecker was convinced that enough supplies were available south of the Neva to supply his troops. From the Russian side, however, all supplies had been brought into the fortresses in order to hinder Lybecker's advance across the Neva. Lybecker should continue to be supported by the Swedish fleet , which should threaten St. Petersburg from the sea. The Swedish fleet could not get past Kronstadt, so could not support him directly in the actions in the Petersburg area. After Lybecker's army reached the Neva, they prepared the passage. Apraxin had occupied the opposite southern bank of the Neva with about 8,000 men and had additional positions built. Russian boats patrolled along the Neva in order to discover and report a Swedish translation early on.

course

Lybecker confused the Russian command where it was only possible to keep the exact Swedish transition secret from the Russian Army High Command for as long as possible. The surprise succeeded, because the Russian high command assumed that the Swedes would cross the river Mia and had concentrated all troops there. On September 9, Swedish forces started building a pontoon bridge near the Teusina . Two Russian brigantines spotted the Swedes and began firing at the Swedish positions. The Swedes succeeded in putting the Russian boats out of action and forcing them to retreat.

Then they crossed a total of 1500 Swedes. They immediately built entrenchments. According to Russian sources, 400 Russian dragoons and an infantry battalion with three cannons tried to remove this bridgehead afterwards . In Swedish sources it is said to have been between 4 and 8,000 Russian soldiers. After a three-hour battle and a massive bayonet attack by the Swedes, the Russian troops had to withdraw because no further reinforcements arrived and the Swedes in turn landed more and more Swedish troops. The Swedes suffered 86 dead and 291 wounded in the battle. On the Russian side, 900 men are said to have been killed.

consequences

The battle had no strategic effect on the further course of the campaign. Due to the lack of heavy artillery and the lack of naval support, Lybecker's army did not succeed in attacking St. Petersburg directly, so that the actual objective of the campaign had already failed at this point. As the Swedes' supplies were soon used up, Lybecker finally felt compelled to return his corps to Finland via the Gulf of Finland . When some of the Swedish troops had already embarked, Apraxin attacked Lybecker's rear guard at Koporje on October 12, 1708 and destroyed them. Over 900 Swedes fell and 150 were captured. A direct threat to Petersburg was thus averted.

literature

• Dorrell, Nicholas: The Dawn of the Tsarist Empire: Poltava & the Russian Campaigns of 1708–1709, Partizan Press, 2009
• Johann Friedrich Hartknoch: Contributions to the History of Peter the Great, Volume One, 1774

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dorrell, Nicholas. The Dawn of the Tsarist Empire: Poltava & the Russian Campaigns of 1708-1709, Partizan Press (2009). P. 121; Ett kort dock tydeligit utdrag utur then öfwer konung Carl den Tolftes lefwerne och konglida dater, Jöran Andersson Nordberg (1745). P. 585f