Battle
1706 battle
The Battle of Grodno (1706) was a siege in early 1706 during the Great Northern War. Grodno (Hrodna) was a city of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth at this time.
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Text from the Wikipedia article “Battle of Grodno”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Battle of Grodno (1706) was a siege in early 1706 during the Great Northern War. Grodno (Hrodna) was a city of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth at this time.
At the beginning of the Swedish invasion of Poland (1701–1706), Western Poland, Lithuania (including Vilnius and Grodno) and Courland (including Mitau) fell in the hands of the pro-Swedish Warsaw Confederation (formed in 1704), while Eastern Poland, Ukraine and Belarus initially fell under the control of the pro-Russian Sandomierz Confederation. Meanwhile, the aftermath of the Lithuanian Civil War (1697–1702) was still going on, with the now pro-Swedish Jan Kazimierz Sapieha defeating the now pro-Russian Ogińskis in the Battle of Druja (20 June 1704). By autumn 1704, the Russian army was directly intervening in the internal conflicts of the Commonwealth, invading Lithuania and participating in the Battle of Skuodas (12 November 1704 N.S.), defeating the Swedish-Sapieha coalition. In December 1704, Russian troops occupied Minsk and Grodno, with most of Belarus following thereafter.
In the first half of 1705, the anti-Swedish coalition (with their main camp in Brest-Litovsk) was planning how to defeat Charles XII of Sweden in the field. The main plan was to lure Charles to Grodno and trap him there. In early July 1705, the Campaign of Grodno was launched, with Peter I entering Vilnius on 19 July 1705. However, the coalition was defeated near Warsaw on 31 July, and failed to disrupt the coronation of Stanisław Leszczyński on 4 October. Meanwhile, Anikita Repnin launched a campaign to occupy all of Courland, winning the Siege of Mitau (25 August 1705 – 15 September 1705 N.S.). The Battle of Praga on 25 October brought yet another Swedish victory. The plan to trap Charles at Grodno could still succeed, however, as his army approached the city walls in late January 1706.
Between 26 January and 10 April 1706 (N.S.), Grondo was subjected to a tight blockade by the joint Swedish–Polish army (21,000 Swedes, 10,000 Poles; 3,000 Swedes had already died due to frostbite prior to the arrival). In the city and close vicinity, there were about 41,000 Russian and Saxon troops under the command of General Field-Marshal Ogilvy as well as general Repnin. On 13 January 1706, the Swedish army coming from Poland crossed the Neman River and squeezed out the Russian cavalry units of Menshikov towards Minsk, cutting of all connections to Russia for the Grodno garrison. The situation of the Russian troops was made even more difficult after the allied Polish-Lithuanian king Augustus II quickly left Grodno in Polish direction, taking four Russian dragoon regiments with him. As a result, the Grodno garrison was left without cavalry, which was necessary for reconnaissance and food supplies.
After putting Grodno under siege, the Swedes occupied Nyasvizh (23 March N.S.) and besieged Lyakhavichy (late March – 12 May 1706). Meanwhile, the Russian garrison of Grodno suffered great hardship from the lack of food, as well as from diseases. This took the lives of about 8,000 soldiers. After the blockade of his main troops in Grodno, Peter the Great had only 12,000 men left in Belarus. Being in Minsk with this army, he communicated with the besieged garrison via a poruchik named Yakovlev, who made his way to Grodno dressed as a Polish peasant. Besides that, the 14,000 Ukrainian Cossacks of Ivan Mazepa were ordered to constantly engage the enemy. Peter did not dare to face Charles in an open battle so far from Russia. Because of that, he ordered the Grodno garrison to hold out until spring, when the rivers would get free of ice. Then they had to retreat behind the Neman towards Brest and further to the Dnieper, what they successfully did until May 1706.
Charles incorrectly predicted the direction of the Russian retreat, expecting them to retreat eastwards where he placed his main forces. Having discovered the surprisingly rapid Russian retreat towards southwest too late, he started the pursuit, hoping to catch up the Russians via the shortcut of the Pripyat Marshes in Polesia. However, they proved to be impassable, and Charles had to give up the pursuit of the Russians, and to seek a battle with the Saxons first.
Nevertheless, Charles had won one of his greatest victories at the Battle of Grodno, and the overall Grodno campaign, by simply cutting off his opponents' resources and supplies. Later, in a letter to his ally Frederick IV of Denmark, Peter I confirmed losses of up to 17,000 men during the encirclement and retreat from Grodno.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Battle of Grodno (1706)”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.