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Concept
Battle of Narva (1700)
Summary
The Battle of Narva (Битва при Нарве Bitva pri Narve; Slaget vid Narva) on (20 November in the Swedish transitional calendar) was an early battle in the Great Northern War. A Swedish relief army under Charles XII of Sweden defeated a Russian siege force three to four times its size. Previously, Charles XII had forced Denmark–Norway to sign the Treaty of Travendal. Narva was not followed by further advances of the Swedish army into Russia; instead, Charles XII turned southward to expel August the Strong from Livonia and Poland-Lithuania. Tsar Peter the Great of Russia took Narva in a second battle in 1704.
During the 17th century, Russia was less advanced technologically than the rest of Europe, a condition which extended to its armed forces. Despite this shortcoming, Peter the Great of Russia was keen to get "an adequate opening to the Baltic" by conquering parts of Sweden's Baltic provinces Russia lost during the Time of Troubles. However, there was a problem: while most states' armies of the time consisted of poorly trained militia and small contingents of mercenaries, Sweden had a professional army, one of the largest and most disciplined of northern Europe.
The new Russian tsar, Peter I, would drastically modernize Russia in the coming years, but the army with which he traveled in 1700 was still poorly drilled. Preparing for war, he decided to form 31 new regiments. At the same time, in the spring of 1700, a revision of the officer corps was made whereby the majority of officers were sent into retirement or to garrison units where they were to serve without pay. A catastrophic shortage of command personnel (up to 70% at the company level) resulted. The vacancies were filled with young Moscow noblemen who had neither the experience of command, nor the experience of service in the infantry, nor regular military training—their traditional places were elite irregular cavalry or court service. Serious problems were also with non-commissioned officers—they were not veteran soldiers, but elected from new recruits.
Official source
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