Russia's Imperial Ascendancy: A Deep Dive into the Great Northern War - Documentary

Kings and Generals animated historical animated documentary series on the Early Modern history continues with a video on the Great Northern War in which we will talk about the conflict in which the Swedish king Charles XII attempted to win against an alliance of Russia, Denmark, Prussia, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the others. This conflict led to the rise of the Russian empire under Peter I, the fall of the Swedish empire and the destabilization of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. We will cover all the major battles of this conflict, including Gedebusch, Gangut, Narva, Poltava, Kliszow, Fraustadt, Lesnaya and many more.

The video was made by Ilhan Altunkaya, while the script was researched and written by David Muncan. This video was narrated by Officially Devin. Machinimas by MalayArcher on Total War: Empire engine, using Darthmod, Imperial Splendour mod, Colonialism 1600AD, and reShade mod. Illustrations - Nargiz Isayeva.

#Documentary #Russia #GreatNorthernWar

00:00 Intro
Beginning of the war:
10:26 Landing at Humlebæk (1700)

Allied invasions of the Swedish Baltic Dominions [Estonia, Ingria, and Livonia]:
14:50 Battle of Narva (1700)
25:15 Crossing of the Düna (1701)
42:53 Battle of Erastfer (1702)
46:36 Fall of Nöteborg (1702)
54:03 Fall of Narva (1704)

Swedish invasion of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth:
33:40 Battle of Kliszów (1702)
1:02:16 Battle of Fraustadt (1706)
1:10:20 Battle of Kalisz (1706)

Charles XII's Russian campaign:
1:18:31 Battle of Holowczyn (1708)
1:24:37 Battle of Lesnaya (1708)
1:31:40 Siege of Poltava (1709)
1:32:59 Battle of Poltava (1709)

Allied invasions of western Sweden, eastern Sweden [Finland], and Swedish Pomerania:
1:45:45 Battle of Helsingborg (1710)
1:50:03 Fall of Viborg (1710)
1:57:34 Battle of Gadebusch (1712)
2:08:08 Battle of Pälkäne (1713)
2:14:37 Battle of Gangut (1714)

[Michael-kdho]

Tsar Peter once supposedly said : "My brother Charles seeks to become Alexander, but in me he shall not find his Darius."

[fsblninjx]

Charles is a total war player. He wins in battle, gets favourable treaties, decline so he can have the entire pie, waltz deep into enemy lands so he can take significant places only to lose supplies and get defeated and lose his entire army. Been there. If only he could exit and load.

[Lord_Stickman]

The Great Northern War is such a huge topic and this video handled it with ease. Shows the amount of time put into these videos... and for free. Mind blowing.

[Leaffordes]

*Beginning of the war:*
10:26 Landing at Humlebæk (1700)

*Allied invasions of the Swedish Baltic Dominions [Estonia, Ingria, and Livonia]:*
14:50 Battle of Narva (1700)
25:15 Crossing of the Düna (1701)
42:53 Battle of Erastfer (1702)
46:36 Fall of Nöteborg (1702)
54:03 Fall of Narva (1704)

*Swedish invasion of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth:*
33:40 Battle of Kliszów (1702)
1:02:16 Battle of Fraustadt (1706)
1:10:20 Battle of Kalisz (1706)

*Charles XII's Russian campaign:*
1:18:31 Battle of Holowczyn (1708)
1:24:37 Battle of Lesnaya (1708)
1:31:40 Siege of Poltava (1709)
1:32:59 Battle of Poltava (1709)

*Allied invasions of western Sweden, eastern Sweden [Finland], and Swedish Pomerania:*
1:45:45 Battle of Helsingborg (1710)
1:50:03 Fall of Viborg (1710)
1:57:34 Battle of Gadebusch (1712)
2:08:08 Battle of Pälkäne (1713)
2:14:37 Battle of Gangut (1714)

[Luboman]

After seeing about 1.5 hours of this episode, I am struck at how much King Charles XII resembled Napoleon. Very haughty, extremely capable, preternaturally gifted at battlefield tactics, very good at picking excellent men to lead his smaller armies (akin to Napoleon's marshals), this man was a beast. Unfortunately, like Napoleon, King Charles XII had one massive weakness--the inability to identify when he was weak, to call it quits and retreat to let his men rest. Napoleon also had this inability to see the bigger picture and just fold for his sake and the sake of his men. Thus Peter the Great struck upon this Achilles' heel at 1:21:54--the scorched earth tactics that would starve Charles XII's troops into submission and defeat. It totally worked. I bet in 1812 Czar Alexander I had read about these battlefield tactics from Peter the Great's Northern War and realized that he could vanquish Napoleon and his giant Grand Armee in the same way. And it worked too. Precisely because Napoleon just didn't know when to call it quits and retreat with his great Russian invasion. Just like King Charles XII roughly 100 years earlier.

[andrewwarren]

This gives me flashbacks to going to student parties in Finland and inevitably being trapped in a long conversation with a drunk Finnish dude giving me the complete history of the Great Northern War. Happens almost every time.

[yindoh]

This comment isn’t necessarily related to this video, but I was wondering if you could do a video about how armies in general (I am thinking specifically Roman legions since that is my favorite period) were levied, how they wintered, and how their supply lines/trains operated. These aspects of battle and campaigns are very often mentioned, almost in every single video, but, to my knowledge, and I may be wrong, I haven’t seen a video regarding them. There are similar ones like how the legions built their forts which is very interesting though. I have always been curious about how such large armies could be levied so quickly, sustained through their supply trains and throughout long stays in lands whose food stores weren’t expecting such a large shock in terms of population increase so quickly due to armies stationed there.

[sapphoesque]

A 2 hour documentary on a subject that I know barely about?
Well, sign me up!
These are very well made, and I can't even think how much effort goes into these, so good job.

[koke]

Charles was like a XVIII century Napoleon, he could defeat all of his enemies at least once, but they kept coming at him

[morfy]

The production quality in these videos have never let me down, I can't wait to watch all of this... 2 hour video, you guys are amazing.

[siggevibes]

The history of the Swedish empire is basically a long grind of punching way above your weight. Amazing how much they could do with those terrible odds.

[carpetcreamer]

Hay I just watched this entire 2 hour video and honestly this was completely enthralling, excellent writing and commentary and the block blocked animations amusing, just thought I’d let whoever created this video know, you’re amazing, congratulations on such an amazing video, new patreon supporter incoming! 💖

[MrDMIDOV]

I LOL'ed out loud during that scene of Peter giving the same sword that he had gifted Augustus before back to him! Such a burn!!! Peter was an absolute lad

[StormSong]

As an American I've learned nothing of significance about European history in school, so videos like this are a big deal to me. I appreciate them and thank you. I don't know how much editing goes into a 2+hour video because I'm not a content provider, but I assume it's a lot!

[timjobs]

The fact that you can find content of such high quality for free made me smile. Thanks Kings and Generals !!!

[Zarastro]

Karl XII is probably one of the biggest real life examples of “pride comes before the fall, ” in history. A brilliant tactical mind with the charisma and drive to back it up. Yet at every turn after his early successes and especially when things started to go bad, he screwed himself over due to his own stubbornness and pride. From refusing favorable peace deals, to refusing treatment for his foot wound, to refusing the INCREDIBLY fortuitous Ottoman offers to get him safe passage home, and then AGAIN refusing the much needed potential Prussian alliance because he didn’t want to give up one rinky dink fortress town that was already surrounded by Prussian territory anyway. He got more second chances than frankly a lot of other people, and he threw them ALL away, and ended up with nothing in the end.

[huwenkai]

Russia's rise to power came by a war against a formidable neighbour. I found that really interesting because it is very similar to the rise of the Tang dynasty in making China the most powerful empire in ancient time - and the war that set the rise of the Tang, was also against the formidable Goguryeo Kingdom. I love that chapter.

[firestorm]

It’s incredible how many parallels in history we see in this conflict. There’s the obvious one of Charles foreshadowing the fates of Napoleon and Hitler (spectacular early victories that went to his head, followed by a disaster in the Russian winter). Also I’m amazed how much the final brave but hopeless Swedish charge at Poltava echoes what would happen a century and a half later on Cemetery Ridge. Not to mention the numerous times both before and after this war when an army with superior is defeated by an enemy who can simply afford to take heavy losses, then raise a new army and try again.

[Baddy]

Charles had that real EU4 spirit: "I will not lose a single province, I will quit before I lose this war".

[DoRhado]

I appreciate your work with the battling details, the strategic and tactical analysis of every battle and with these deep conjuncture of factors analysed regarding the Great Northern War and how Russia managed to gain their power as a Eastern and Nordic juggernaut. I would like also to add some of your thoughts regarding how it would have been better managed the entire operations and strategic improvement on each side as a conclusion. Keep up the good work!