Peter the Great’s Disastrous Defeat (was he already ‘great’ in 1700 or just aspiring to it?)

I am dreadfully behind with my reviews, indeed I’ve been behind with everything; no games for ages, hardly any painting, not even much buying! Nevertheless, and despite the travails at home, fighting two legal cases, my wife not being well, the black dog sniffing round my heels and me with a chest infection from hell hot on the heels of a trapped nerve in my neck so bad it stopped us going to India in January, here we go with yet another book reviews. I suppose it could have been worse! At least I’ve had plenty of time to read.

Michael Fredholm von Essen’s new book covering the early part of the Great Northern War leading up to the Swedish victory at Narva in 1700 provides an absorbing insight into the lead up the battle and the annihilation of Peter the Great’s army, which had been besieging the Swedish-held town.

This is a comprehensive account of the events leading up to the battle, the siege and subsequent battle and its aftermath. I found the section entitled ‘dramatis personae’ especially useful given the nationalities involved when reading the narrative. What follows are the obligatory but no less interesting chapters on the Swedish and Russian armies, the Russian siege, the movements of Charles’ relieving force, orders of battle for both armies and the battle itself. This last subject is covered in great detail across two chapters; one covering the assault, the other the fighting between the siege lines. The comprehensive Russian defeat is evidenced by the huge losses in generals, officers, men and materiel. Of course Peter’s new army was to be an entirely different one to that which was destroyed outside Narva, much to the detriment of Charles’ ambitions. One cannot but help wondering whether Charles missed an opportunity to deal a knockout blow to Russia, but the author suggests with sound reasoning that this was an impractical and highly risky move.

The book is very well illustrated with a large number of black and white images, be they contemporary drawings, portraits, or photographs of surviving places or items of equipment. There are several black and white maps, again near contemporary, and three lovely colour maps of the Baltic region and the manoeuvring around Narva. There are also a bumper 24 pages of vibrant colour illustrations, mostly by the talented Sergey Shamenkov. These depict examples of the Swedish and Russian troops together with a large selection of colours from both armies. I was intrigued that the Russian clothing was still very much of the style set in the previous century. There are also a significant number of charts and tables to help illustrate unit strengths, losses and so forth.

I found this book to be a most enjoyable and informative read, based on much new research on the subject. It is surely a must for anyone with an interest in the Great Northern War, especially the very early years of what was to become a long, bloody and bitter conflict.


ISBN 978-1-804514-43-6. 167 pages, softback.