Battle of Poltava

The Battle of Poltava was the decisive victory of tsar Peter the Great against an army of the Swedish Empire under Swedish king Charles XII. It was the largest and most decisive battle in the Great Northern War.

During the course of six years in the initial stages of the war, king Charles XII and the Swedish Empire had defeated almost all participants in the anti-Swedish coalition, which initially consisted of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Denmark-Norway and the Tsardom of Russia. The latter under Tsar Peter I's rule was the only one still undefeated. Charles XII therefore chose to invade Russia in the autumn of 1707 and march towards Moscow with a large Swedish army.