Battle of Systerbäck

Battle of Systerbäck

Part of: Great Northern War

date	July 2nd jul. / July 13th 1703 greg.
place	Systerbäck , 35 km northwest of Saint Petersburg in Russia
output	Russian victory

Parties to the conflict
Sweden	Russia
Commander
Abraham Kronhjort	Boris Sheremetew Alexander Menshikov
Troop strength
4,000 men	25,000 men in action: 7,000–8,000 men (four regiments of cavalry and eight regiments of infantry)
losses
204 dead 187 wounded (Swedish information)	150 dead and wounded

The Battle of Systerbäck (or Battle of Systerbäk , also Battle of the Sestra ), on the Sestra River , was a battle in the Great Northern War . It took place on July 2nd ^. / July 13th 1703 ^greg. held and ended with a victory for Russian troops under the command of Boris Petrovich Sheremetev .

In advance

Russian forays into the Swedish heartland from 1700 to 1704

After Russia recovered from the defeat at Narva at the end of November 1700, Russia's area of ​​influence in the Baltic region grew from 1702 onwards. With the conquest of Shlisselburg , also called Nöteborg , control of the Neva and its inflow to the Baltic Sea became the main task of the Russian army. In the vicinity of the Schliesselburg and in Olonetz , specialists built a fleet with which the Swedish supremacy in the easternmost part of the Baltic Sea was to be ended. In 1703, near the Nyenschanz, the Russians began building Saint Petersburg , the new capital of the tsarist empire. After the conquest of Nyenschanz, the Russian field marshal Sheremetev conquered the city of Koporje . Major General Werden conquered Jamy Castle, which was strengthened into a fortress and henceforth was named Jamburg . These Russian victories meant that the whole of Ingermanland could be occupied by Russia by mid-1703 . From then on it was necessary to secure these conquests from Swedish attacks.

Swedish troops could threaten at any time from Vyborg from Petersburg. To protect the new capital, Russian forces marched north to the Finnish border. The main body of the army was preceded by four dragoon regiments as a vanguard . At the head was the regiment of Colonel Carl Ewald von Rönne . The army also consisted of six infantry regiments, including the tsar's two body regiments. The way to Systerbäck was difficult. The area consisted of swamps and swamps, so that the infantry units could only slowly follow the cavalry.

On July 2, 1703, the armies clashed at Systerbäck on the Sestra , 35 kilometers from Saint Petersburg.

The battle

General Menshikov put the dragoon regiments at the center. He posted infantry regiments directly behind them. The Dragoons' first aim was to capture the only bridge over the Sestra. This was covered by the Swedish artillery and occupied by a smaller infantry unit. After the Swedish soldiers were overrun by the Rönne dragoon regiment, the Swedish artillery shelled the bridge. The Russian riders withdrew for the time being. Some of the fleeing riders were shot by Russian infantrymen, so that the riders saw each other under fire from two sides and rode back to attack the Swedish positions.

The Swedes had strengthened their positions behind the bridge with barriers, trenches and Spanish horsemen , so that the fight lasted from six in the morning until the afternoon. The Russian infantry was divided into eight meetings. These continuously attacked the Swedish positions. The fourfold superiority of the Russian infantry and the incessant attacks forced the Swedes to retreat.

Major General Abraham Kronhjort, who was surprised by the Russian army strength, misjudged the situation, he thought the Russians wanted to go straight to Vyborg to take the fortress. To prevent this, he pulled the infantry and artillery from the center of the battle order in the afternoon and had them march to Vyborg to protect the fortress. The major general let the cavalry fight the Russians for four more hours to cover the march back. Only when the cavalry was very much decimated, Kronhjort also took them out of the battle and withdrew with them to the Vyborg fortress.

This retreat was staggered and orderly so that the Russians did not dare to pursue the Swedes or attack the fortress.

losses

When it comes to losses, the sources of the two opponents differ greatly. In Russian sources the own losses are given as 150 men. The losses of the Swedes are put in these sources at 1,000–2,000 men. Swedish sources give 117 cavalrymen and 87 infantrymen and 184 wounded for their own losses.

The consequences

After this success the Russians withdrew to Ingermanland, fresh Russian regiments came across Lake Ladoga and in September 1703 the invasion of Estonia followed .

The Swedish troops in Finland were so weakened by the defeat at Systerbäck that they no longer posed a threat to the new capital Saint Petersburg. Major General Abraham Kronhjort, who was already very old, was replaced as supreme commanding general in Finland after the battle of Systerbäck. He was succeeded by Lieutenant General Georg Johann Maydell .

literature

• Ernst Hermann: History of the European States , 4th volume History of the Russian State , Hamburg 1849
• Christian Kelch: The Liefländische Geschichte from 1690–1707 , Ed. Schnakenburg, Dorpat 1875
• Not so Fryxell: Life story of Charles the Twelfth, King of Sweden. Volume 1, Friedrich Vieweg and Son, Braunschweig 1861.
• Alexander Sharimov: Предыстория Санкт-Петербурга. 1703 год (Что происходило на Неве и вокруг нее в июле 1703-го) Extract of the book on the Internet (Russian language)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Fryxell, Third Chapter, p. 24
2. ↑ Alexander Sharimov: Предыстория Санкт-Петербурга. 1703 год. P.686f (Что происходило на Неве и вокруг нее в июле 1703-го)
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Hermann, p. 159
4. ↑ ^{a b} chalice, p. 335
5. ↑ Lundblad, p. 275
6. ↑ Alexander Sharimov: Предыстория Санкт-Петербурга. 1703 год (Что происходило на Неве и вокруг нее в июле 1703-го)
7. ↑ Chalice, p. 338