Battle of Molyatichi

Battle of Molyatichi

Part of: Great Northern War

date	September 10, 1708
place	Moljatitschi , in what is now Belarus
output	Russian victory

Parties to the conflict
Sweden	Russia
Commander
Carl Gustav Roos	Mikhail Golitsyn
Troop strength
4,800 men	13,000 men
losses
300 dead, 700 wounded	375 dead, 1,191 wounded

The battle of Moljatichi took place on August 30th ^July. / 31. August ^swed. / 10 September 1708 ^greg. during the Russian campaign of the Swedish King Karl XII. took place in the Great Northern War . In the vicinity of the Belarusian village Moljatitschi, not far from today's border with Russia , six Russian infantry battalions under the command of Prince Mikhail Golitsyn met the vanguard of the Swedish army , which was commanded by Major General Carl Gustaf Roos . In older Swedish files the place of slaughter is called Malatitze. In Russian military history, this battle is also called the Battle of Dobroje .

Battle of Molyatichi

Location of the battlefield

The main army of the Swedes commanded by Karl set out on June 1, 1708 from Minsk for Moscow . However, the advance was slow due to the bad weather. The Russian army avoided a decisive battle; in their retreat they used the scorched earth tactic , which increasingly worsened the Swedish supply situation. After the victorious battle of Golovchin , Karl stopped his advance in Mogilev to wait for the following Livonian army under General Lewenhaupt and to receive urgently needed reinforcements and supplies. At the beginning of August he continued the advance, although Lewenhaupt had not yet reached it. First he turned south, then turned north and advanced on Smolensk . Tsar Peter the Great recognized that the Swedish entourage had spread far apart and on September 10th gave Golitsyn the order to attack the Swedish vanguard, which was marching well in front of the main body of the army, in the morning mist. The Russians were able to approach the Swedish vanguard unnoticed and surprise them with heavy fire.

The Roos troops suffered heavy losses and withdrew. The swampy landscape prevented the Russians from pursuing them. Also, the Russian cavalry under Menshikov could not cut off the Swedes' route of retreat. Only the arrival of the main Swedish forces saved Roos and his troops from total destruction. The Russians were able to withdraw in an orderly manner, as the attack by the main Swedish army did not go according to their plans.

The Battle of Moljatitschi, like the following Battle of Lesnaya, was an important step in persuading the Swedes to break off the advance into central Russia. It had a great psychological impact on morale on both sides. Both Peter the Great and the Swedish chroniclers noted the increased combat capability of the Russian troops.

literature

• Molatycze . In: Theodor Westrin (Ed.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 18 : Mekaniker – Mycale . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1913, Sp. 820 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
• Военная энциклопедия / Под ред. В. Ф. Новицкого и др .. - СПб .: т-во И. В. Сытина, 1911-1915. - Т. 9.
• Николай Шефов: Битвы России. Военно-историческая библиотека. М., 2002.