A detailed look at the Russian army during the Great Northern War utilising material previously unseen in the West.

This is the story of Sweden ́s Army during the wars 1700-1721 against a number of enemies, foremost Russia, until the collapse of the Swedish Empire.

The siege of the Swedish stronghold of Narva by the Russians in 1704 is very typical yet rather unusual operation of this kind. Its study covers both operational and tactical levels, deals with peculiarities of the siege warfare, and describes everyday life of the participants.

This detailed study explains and illustrates the Russian, Scandinavian, Polish, and German armies of the crucial series of wars that saw Russia's arrival as a great military power in Northern Europe, displacing Sweden's 60-year hegemony. The Great Northern War was a long series of campaigns in which Russia, linked with several other countries in temporary alliances, confronted and eventually replaced Sweden as the predominant power in Northern Europe. While contemporary with the Duke of Marlborough's pivotal campaigns against France, the Great Northern War was in fact more decisive, since it reshaped the Northern European power balance up to the eve of the Napoleonic Wars. It began with a series of astonishing Swedish victories lead by King Charles XII, from Denmark to Poland and deep into Germany. But Peter the Great of Russia showed steadfast determination, and Charles overreached himself when he invaded Russia in 1708; the Russians adopted classic “scorched earth” tactics until they could destroy the Swedish army at Poltava in 1709, one of the most overwhelming victories in history. Nevertheless, Sweden continued to fight, and frequently win, in Germany, Denmark, and Norway, until Charles' death in battle in 1718, though the war itself did not conclude until 1721. This study explores, in detail, the numerous armies and complex alliances engaged in the war for Northern European dominance. Containing accurate full-color artwork and unrivaled detail, Armies of the Great Northern War offers a vivid insight into the troops which battled for control of the North.

'This victory', exulted Peter the Great, 'has laid the final stone in the foundations of St Petersburg!' The Battle of Poltava, 1709, marks the birth of the Tsar's vast Russian Empire. In 1700, seeking to open Russian trade routes to the West, the Tsar combined with Denmark, Saxony and Poland to attack Swedish hegemony in the North. Against the odds, King Charles XII of Sweden subdued the hostile coalition for nearly a decade, but in 1708 took his fatal decision to march for Moscow. His defeat at Poltava, in the Ukraine, proved the turning-point of the Great Northern War, heralding the collapse of the Swedish Empire and the rise of Russia, the effects of which would be felt for almost three hundred years. Swedish historian Peter Englund's vivid account of the three violent days of battle is an internationally acclaimed classic of military history, admired by scholars and the lay reader alike.

This volume presents a comprehensive exposition of both the prehistory and medieval history of the whole of Scandinavia. The first part of the volume surveys the prehistoric and historic Scandinavian landscape and its natural resources, and tells how man took possession of this landscape, adapting culturally to changing natural conditions and developing various types of community throughout the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. The rest - and most substantial part of the volume - deals with the history of Scandinavia from the Viking Age to the end of the Scandinavian Middle Ages (c. 1520). The external Viking expansion opened Scandinavia to European influence to a hitherto unknown degree. A Christian church organisation was established, the first towns came into being, and the unification of the three medieval kingdoms of Scandinavia began, coinciding with the formation of the unique Icelandic 'Free State'.