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113-536: In Imperial Russia Stavka referred to the administrative staff , and to the General Headquarters in the late 19th-century Imperial Russian armed forces and subsequently in the Soviet Union . In Western literature it is sometimes written in uppercase ( STAVKA ), although it is not an acronym. Stavka may refer to its members, as well as to the headquarters location (its original meaning from

226-842: A decade later. As early as 1694, he established a dockyard in Archangel and built an entire ship by himself. Russia suffered from an acute lack of expertise, a problem Peter mitigated by going to the foreign quarters in Moscow ; there, in a relaxed environment far removed from the throne, he learned the particulars of such things as shipbuilding, navigation, military formation, and the erection of fortifications. Peter wanted to be everywhere at once, and see everything for himself. Not taking his role as tsar very seriously, he and his noble friends often staged elaborate drinking rituals and other forms of horseplay, displays of personal excess that helped unite his circle of friends through talk and drink. However, at

339-533: A direct attack could have succeeded, but the Ukrainian diversion turned out to be a disaster for Charles. Charles's long baggage train out of Riga , along with 12,000 reinforcements, were caught by fast-moving Russian cavalry in the fall of 1708. They harassed the reinforcements and supplies, and in the ensuing Battle of Lesnaya Peter's dragoons fought the Swedes to a standstill. Facing increasing Russian numbers,

452-509: A farce, Peter was tenacious. He understood that the reason he had lost the first battle was Turkish control of the sea, so Peter commissioned the construction of a large fleet at Voronezh on the upper Don. He worked vigilantly himself, using the shipbuilding skills he had learned earlier in his life to great effect. Thus, he was able to launch a fleet of 30 seagoing vessels and over 1,000 transports north of Azov in April 1696. This fleet accompanied

565-523: A firing line, in a low wooded area to side of the main Russian camp. Meanwhile, Peter prepared as well, moving his cavalry north to move on the Swedish left flank and also arranging his troops into a line. Charles took on the burden of attack, once again counting on the steadiness and experience of his troops to break the Russian lines. The Swedish right wing led the ensuing attack; as in earlier battles,

678-455: A force of 70,000 infantry, twice that which Peter had brought with him during the first siege, and successfully cut off the flow of Turkish supplies. After a month of attrition, a force of 2,000 cossacks stormed the fort and, although rebuffed, captured part of its outer workings. The Turks, accepting defeat, ceded the fort to the Russians on July 18, 1696. The events at Azov proved to Peter

791-519: A head much later under Catherine the Great with the First Partition of Poland . Finally, it put Russia into direct contact with another of the great powers of Europe, Germany. Peter himself emerged a national hero; scripts at the time compared him to Hercules , Samson , and David . The marathon Great Northern War was not the last war during Peter's tsardom, which saw one last short war in

904-615: A leader of the Don Cossacks , started a rebellion. This was not the first uprising in the enstrangled relations between Russia and the cossacks, but it followed the same pattern; the rebellion spread across the south widely, and at its climax may have involved as many as 100,000 men, but was ill-organized and badly led. The rebellion was systematically suppressed by Russian troops pulled off the front; dissension spread among Bulavin's men, and he committed suicide in July 1708. The remainder of

1017-601: A new fleet in the Baltic, resembling his southern one & around that time in 1705 officially formed Russia's first marine unit . Charles XII elected his own candidate to the Polish throne in 1704, and spent the next three years chasing down Augustus II, now fleeing west towards his native Saxony . Charles XII met Peter's main army, dug in at Grodno , in early 1706. Unwilling to meet an elite force on foreign territory, Peter ordered his forces to retreat, but kept light forces in

1130-503: A plot, Peter fled Moscow. In the critical days that followed, the patriarch and many of the boyars and gentry rallied behind him. Most of the streltsy wavered and took no action, and Sophia was forced, peacefully, off the throne. Thus, in August 1689, he was acknowledged as the effective ruler of Russia. However, at the age of 17, he still had little interest in military manners, and passed on his rule to his mother, Natalya Naryshkina . It

1243-403: A rout, with the panicked Russian troops attempting to swim over the frigid Narva River , many drowning in its freezing waters. The remainder of the Russian troops were mopped up with ease; only three groups, Peter's elite troops and one light infantry brigade, actually put up a reasonable fighting retreat, using supply wagons as improvised defenses. The Battle of Narva , as it came to be called,

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1356-526: A small group of advisers to the tsar (of which Menshikov was a part), and her development of the two royal guard regiments. Catherine did not rule long, and died in 1727. Although she had two surviving daughters, Menshikov engineered the crowning of Peter's grandson, Peter II , as the new tsar. Peter II was not yet 12 years old, and Menshikov aggressively maneuvered to strengthen his position; he married Peter to his own daughter, brought him into his own household, and began to methodically weaken his opponents in

1469-530: A temporary lull in the Great Northern War thanks to Poltava, Peter was quick, indeed eager, to move south. He pulled many of his troops, as well as Sheremetev, his most reliable general, south across the whole length of Russia to fight this new war. This was not the first time that Russia had fought against the Ottomans, and it would not be the last; however, like in earlier wars, Peter underestimated

1582-521: The Battle of Fraustadt . Augustus II was forced off the throne and replaced with the less aggressive Stanisław Leszczyński , and Poland ended its alliance with Russia. The six year respite proved critical for Peter the Great. With characteristic energy, he quickly rebuilt his army. New officers were pulled out of the nobility in Russia and hired from abroad, and the replacement of soldiers lost at Narva

1695-826: The Dresden raid. After the war, Antonov became Deputy Commander-in-Chief and then Commander-in-Chief of the Transcaucasus Military District . In 1955, he became Chief of Staff of the Combined Forces of the Warsaw Pact . He held this post until his death in 1962. Antonov died on 16 June 1962 in Moscow, and his ashes interred in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis . In 1956, Antonov married ballerina Olga Lepeshinskaya . It

1808-686: The Holy League 's war with Turkey . Under Ottoman power , Turkey controlled the area of the Crimean Tatars at the mouth of the Sea of Azov . The Turks and the Russian had been in on-and-off wars since 1568, vying to control the area around the Black Sea . Previous attempts to take the Crimea directly had failed, so Peter opted to lay siege to Turkish-controlled fortress of Azov at the mouth of

1921-762: The October Revolution (and dissolution of the Russian Empire) in 1917 is also sometimes called the Petrine era, in tribute to his importance. However, the Russian Empire proper was not founded until Peter took the title of imperator (emperor), at the end of the Great Northern War . Peter the Great was born on June 9, 1672, to Tsar Alexis I and his second wife Natalia Naryshkina . The tsar had more than 14 children between

2034-802: The Russian Civil War . He became an instructor at Frunze Military Academy in 1938. In 1941, Antonov became chief of staff for the Soviet Southwestern Front and Southern Front . In December 1942, he became Deputy Chief General Staff of the combined Soviet forces and Head of the Operations Directorate, a pivotal role within the Stavka . In fact, A. I. Antonov was effective leader of the Soviet General Staff since chief of staff A. M. Vasilevsky

2147-622: The War of the Spanish Succession before traveling to Russia and fighting during Peter's campaigns as an engineer. As a German delegate independent from the Russian nobility, he appealed to Anna, an appeal that Münnich used to ascend to presidency of the War College in 1732. Münnich worked to develop a smaller, stronger military. He disbanded superfluous units and introduced numerous improvements in financial management, whilst continuing

2260-423: The campaign turned out to be a disaster; the 40,000 Russian troops, stymied by the enormous distances involved, were instead trapped on the river Prut by 130,000 Turkish troops. In the only major battle, the Russians successfully held the Ottomans, unaccustomed to concentrated Russian firepower, at bay, but the fight was indeed hopeless, as Peter was trapped and facing a superior Turkish force. The resultant treaty

2373-422: The flintlock into his army, and his troops were the first to use the bayonet , originally designed for defense, offensively. He also vastly improved and expanded his siege artillery , and later, introduced light artillery . His two elite guard units also functioned as ad hoc police units, having summary powers such as the ability to bring him a transgressive noble or official in chains. What Peter lacked most

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2486-505: The river Don . He envisioned a two-part plan; first, acting as a diversion, a large cavalry force would move towards Turkish forts on the lower Dnieper . Meanwhile, a smaller infantry force moved down the Don river, laying siege to Azov in the summer of 1695. In a characteristic show of bravado Peter the Great arrived as an artilleryman. Russian forces first had to take a pair of watchtowers guarding heavy chains restricting Russian movements on

2599-476: The Air force Zhigarev , Nikolay Vatutin , head of Air Defence Voronov , Mikoyan , Kaganovich , Lavrenty Beria , Voznesensky , Zhdanov , Malenkov , Mekhlis . Very soon afterwards, the deputy defence minister of the army, Meretskov, was arrested following false charges made by Beria and Merkulov . Meretskov was subsequently released from jail on the same day, at the end of the first week of September 1941, which

2712-700: The Armed Forces, formed by decree of the President of Ukraine No. 72/2022 dated February 24, 2022 in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine on that day. Military history of Imperial Russia The military history of the Russian Empire encompasses the history of armed conflict in which the Russian Empire participated. This history stretches from its creation in 1721 by Peter

2825-701: The Great , until the Russian Revolution (1917) , which led to the establishment of the Soviet Union . Much of the related events involve the Imperial Russian Army , Imperial Russian Navy , and from the early twentieth century, the Imperial Russian Air Service . Historians have long marked the importance of Peter the Great 's reign in Russian history. Peter came of age in a vast but technologically and socially backward country. Upon taking control of Russia in 1682,

2938-459: The Great fully appreciated the importance of the battle's outcome, and made sure to thank the captured Swedes for their "lessons". However, the battle did not win the war, which was not yet even half over. The Ottomans had been apprehensive of Peter's militaristic gains, but had stayed out of the war. However, edged on by France and by Charles XII, the Ottomans, at the time harboring an exiled Charles XII, declared war on Peter by 1710. Now enjoying

3051-763: The Ottomans now settled, Peter turned his attention back to the north, and to the dismantling of the Swedish Empire on the Baltic . He seized Viborg , Riga , and Reval in 1710. With Charles XII now deposed, the coalition against Sweden was formed again. Peter divided his army between assisting his allies in the south Baltic, and his own attacks in the east. What is now Estonia and Livonia , weakly defended, fell quickly. Peter then moved north and invaded Finland in 1713. Meanwhile, Charles, traveling incognito, returned to Sweden in 1714. The Swedes, with their empire broken and nothing left to lose, continued to fight. At sea,

3164-472: The Privy Council. In the end, Menshikov overreached; his bold grabs at power alarmed the Russian nobility, and Peter, increasingly disliking Menshikov, allied himself with Prince Ivan Dolgorukov instead. Menshikov was exiled to Siberia, where he died in 1729. Peter II himself died in 1730, succumbing to smallpox , again leaving no heir. The short reigns of both Catherine and Peter II were marked by

3277-542: The Red Army's ultimate victory, he was never named a Marshal of the Soviet Union . Richard Overy writes of him at this time: Vasilevsky came to rely on one subordinate above all others: the chief of operations, General Aleksei Antonov. [...] On December 11 [1942] the forty-six-year-old Antonov stepped into the role which was more directly exposed to Stalin's inquisitive leadership than any other. Antonov rose to

3390-450: The Russian empire, including serfs, foreigners, clergymen, and foreign specialists along with the usual boyars. Thus his administration consisted of men from across the social gamut. Most prominent among them was a one Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov , a childhood friend from Peter's days with the mock troops. Menshikov was a former stableboy of the lowest rank, and would later rise up and become Peter's most able administrator. As corrupt as he

3503-542: The Russian government due to her time in Courland , and intense distrust towards the Russian nobility that had tried to slight her once already. Therefore, she staffed her rule mostly with foreigners, especially Baltic Germans, led by her deeply unpopular favorite Ernst Johann von Biron . She often elected favorites to important positions, regardless of their actual experience, and thus corruption ran rampart as many tried to accumulate personal wealth and influence. Nonetheless,

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3616-404: The Russians, but was confident that his 25,000 veteran troops, despite dwindling numbers, lack of supplies, and exhaustion, could defeat the 40,000 Russians in battle and finally end the war with Swedish victory. Peter, meanwhile, could afford to be patient; the Swedes were marooned far from support or reinforcements, and were losing numbers every day. The most direct path between the Russian camp to

3729-641: The Soviet Armed Forces during World War II , or the headquarters of the "Main Command of the Armed Forces of the USSR" ( Stavka Glavnogo Komandovaniya ) (Russian: Ставка Главного Командования Вооруженных Сил Союза ССР ), was established on 23 June 1941 by a top-secret decree signed by Joseph Stalin in his capacities both as the head of government and as the leader of the Communist Party of

3842-681: The Soviet Union . According to this decree, Stavka was composed of the defence minister Marshal Semyon Timoshenko (as its president), the head of General Staff Georgy Zhukov , Stalin , Vyacheslav Molotov , Marshal Kliment Voroshilov , Marshal Semyon Budyonny and the People's Commissar ( Narkom ) of the Navy Admiral Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov . The same decree organized at Stavka "the institution of permanent counsellors of Stavka": Marshal Kulik , Marshal Shaposhnikov , Kirill Meretskov , head of

3955-534: The Swedes and Peter's "window to the west", the fortress would later grow into one of Russia's largest and most important population centers, and under Peter, Russia's capital. Sheremetev's success continued into 1704. The major inland city of Dorpat fell in July 1704, its walls breached by Peter's new artillery. This artillery then went on to play a pivotal role in the second Battle of Narva . This time, with heavier numbers, and Charles XII far away in Poland, Peter

4068-671: The Swedes were forced to burn their supplies, bury their cannons, and make a rush for Charles's main army; out of 12,000 men, only 6,000, and virtually none of the supplies, actually made it to Charles. With more men and no supplies, this only compounded Charles's food problems. The thought-of Cossack reinforcements proved to be illusory as well; although Mazepa defected to the Swedes, he only brought 3,000 troops with him. As retribution, Menshikov sacked and razed Baturyn , slaughtering upwards of 6,000 men, women, and children and completely destroying Mazepa's capital. No one else dared defect, and Ukraine remained firmly under Peter's control. Charles

4181-535: The Swedish empire a tantalizing target for partition by its neighbors. Following the successful Azov campaign, Peter was still negotiating a peace treaty with the Turks, but even so he was negotiating a coalition with Augustus II of Poland and with the Frederick IV of Denmark . Peter began a round of conscription to fill out his ranks in late 1699, and a start date for the war was agreed upon in early 1700. The plan

4294-477: The Table organized the four major governmental branches, the army, navy, civil service, and court, into 14 major ranks. This standardized government positions and allowed officers to accurately gauge their relative importance; there was no table for common men. The Table was Peter's way of handling the appointment of nobility, as well as organizing Russian military positions; Peter had not appointed any new boyars , and

4407-683: The Tsar himself took personal command, with Mikhail Alekseyev as his chief of staff. In the years 1915–1917 Stavka was based in Mogilev and the Tsar, Nicholas II, spent long periods there as Commander-in-Chief. The Stavka was divided into several departments: The Stavka was first established in Baranovichi . In August 1915, after the German advance, the Stavka re-located to Mogilev . The Stavka of

4520-462: The area to harass the Swedes whenever possible. Part of the retreating column, led by Menshikov , met a smaller Swedish detachment at Kalisz , and in the ensuing battle defeated it soundly. However, by 1707, Charles had finally chased down and deposed King Augustus, ending his Polish detour and bringing his attention squarely back to Russia. With only 50,000 soldiers, Charles XII could not dream of conquering all of Russia. Instead, he reasoned that

4633-539: The army for life. Peter established new schools and training grounds for the officer elite that was to lead the Russian army, and dispatched large numbers of men abroad to learn under foreign masters. Finding promises of release from serfdom insufficient, Peter began drafting soldiers, starting with a levy calling for 1 man for every 50 households. This levy was repeated an incredible 53 times, drawing 300,000 new soldiers into his army. He grew increasingly adept at pulling manpower out of every available resource, including

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4746-452: The attack, Charles XII was shot in the foot. Thus, once the charge was made on the morning of 8 July 1709 ( N. S. ), he was leading the battle off of a litter . To Peter's satisfaction, the Swedes moved in exactly the way that he had anticipated. Charles was well aware of the redoubts that Peter had dug, and had reasoned that, to avoid being bogged down and losing the element of surprise, he would rush past them as quickly as he could, and accept

4859-476: The besieged city in November. The Russians, enjoying a 3 to 1 numerical advantage, expected Charles XII to wait for reinforcements before attacking; but in another daring move, the Swedish forces, under cover of a blizzard, opted instead for a surprise attack on the Russian line. Caught off-guard, thinly stretched, and vulnerable to penetration by the skilled Swedish army, the ensuing battle quickly turned into

4972-609: The better of him. He was firm, caustic, slow to praise and a tough taskmaster, but the rigorous regimen that he imposed on his staff won their respect. Above all he was adept at manipulating Stalin. He did not sugar-coat his reports. He was prepared to stand up to Stalin with what his deputy regarded as a 'brave outspokenness'. So skilled was he at providing the evening situation reports concisely and accurately that even Zhukov bowed to his capability and allowed Antonov to present them in his place. The trust that Stalin came to place in Antonov

5085-487: The broken Russian enemy; had he chosen to pursue Peter, he might vary well have forced a quick victory and changed the outcome of the war. Regardless, after breaking a Saxony siege on Riga in the summer of 1701, Charles crossed into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . Although the Polish resisted for 6 years, they were finally forced out of the war following Swedish victory, again at impossible odds, at

5198-598: The challenge. Instead of rushing off to report to Stalin when he arrived in Moscow, he spent the first week familiarizing himself thoroughly with the General Staff and the state of the front. Only when he was fully primed did he go to see his commander. The two men developed the most effective working relationship of the war. Antonov displayed a calm intelligence married to a massive energy and exceptional industry. According to his deputy, General Sergei Shtemenko , Antonov never lost his temper or allowed circumstances to get

5311-529: The city of Narva on the banks of the Narva River , just south of the Gulf of Finland . Peter organized the siege works, but left soon after to organize reinforcements for Charles's eventual relief effort (and thus, as it would turn out, taking himself out of harm's way). Choosing between Poland and Russia, Charles XII thought Russia to be the more dangerous threat, and led a small army of around 11,000 men into

5424-424: The clergy and enemy deserters . The resultant Russian army was thus heavily Russian; the army was vastly more nationalistic then its European counterparts, which relied heavily on mercenaries. Peter stressed evolution away from the streltsy and gentry cavalry, although he never discarded it entirely. He introduced a European dress code complete with knee-breeches , tricornes , and long coats . He introduced

5537-408: The core of the Russian nobility, and became training grounds for young nobles, who served as rank-and-file soldiers to learn military life before becoming officers elsewhere. As Peter grew older, Sophia realized the insecurity of her throne in the face of a fledging male heir. In 1689, she incited her supporters in the streltsy to rebel again and put her firmly in power again. Frightened by rumors of

5650-600: The destructive influence of the nobility and foreign influence. The rebellion was bloodily suppressed in March 1707. Similarly, 1705 also marked the rebellion of the Turkish Bashkirs , for parallel reasons; this rebellion was not put down until 1711. More serious was the Bulavin Rebellion in 1707. Opposed to the government position regarding fugitives and influenced by anti foreignism, Konrad Bulavin ,

5763-506: The distances involved and the stress of having to fight two wars simultaneously. Peter was the first to actively encourage Wallachia and Moldavia , mostly Christian areas under Turkish control, to revolt against their Ottoman rulers. By spring 1711 Peter was ready. He moved his army from Kyiv down through Poland, skirting wide of the Black Sea , before crossing the Dnester into Moldavia, aiming to sever it from Turkish rule. In reality,

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5876-439: The element of surprise he had hoped for earlier. With Peter now aware of Charles's movements, the plan quickly went awry; many of the Swedish forces got caught up fighting the redoubts anyway, and the smoke from fire on both sides, and the din from the engagements between the Russian and Swedish cavalry ahead of the main force, prevented him from effectively organizing his army. Charles pulled his forces west to reorganize back into

5989-590: The first significant ones in the Russian campaign, helped boost Russian morale after the catastrophe at Narva. Peter then sent Sheremetev to Ingria, where he mopped up Swedish forces on the Lake Ladoga isthmus . October 1702 marked the taking of the Swedish fort of Nöteborg . In May 1703, Peter captured Nyenschantz fortress. He chose a spot at the mouth of the Neva , surrounded by marshes, to establish his fortress of Saint Petersburg . Originally an outpost against

6102-523: The first two colleges created were the College of War , which controlled the army and was led by Menshikov, and the Admiralty Board , which controlled the navy and was led by admiral Fyodor Apraksin . The sudden rise of Russia to power, and its protracted success in the war, triggered waves of concern across Europe. To help quell these waves, Peter traveled to Paris in 1717. Although his trip

6215-452: The foreign office, under Andrey Osterman , and the army, under Burkhard Christoph von Münnich , benefited greatly from foreign influence; it serves to note that both men had previously served under Peter the Great. The palace guards had helped her ascend to the throne, but all the same, Anna created a third Izmaylovsky regiment to balance out their power. Münnich, a tireless and power-hungry figure, had accumulated experience fighting in

6328-499: The government. In short, the Privy Council was aiming to gut the power of the tsar and make the Russian Empire a de facto oligarchy . However, the plan did not come to fruition; the Russian nobility was terrified by the prospects of such a shift in power, as were the palace guard regiments, and with their collective force Anna was able to tear up the restrictions placed on her and dissolve the Council for good. Anna had few friends in

6441-458: The great wartime pressure that Peter had placed on his country, coupled with the discontent of the boyar nobility, would hand him the victory he desired. Charles had a strong base for this decision, for Peter's heavy-handed taxation had raised discontent against the crown. In the summer of 1705, an unknown monk and a member of the streltsy started a rebellion in Astrakhan against what they saw as

6554-812: The islands of Usedom and Wollin in return for money. Before the end of the Great Northern War , the Treaty of Fredriksborg was signed between Sweden and Denmark for Sweden to give up her exception from paying taxes to use the military service, the Sound. She also gave up Holstein-Gottorp. Finally, proceeding the War, in August and September 1721, the Treaty of Nyastad was signed between Sweden and Russia. Sweden ceded Livonia, Estonia and Ingria while Russia returned Finland, excluding Kexholm and parts of Karelia. Domestically, Peter contributed one last major element to Russia before his death in 1725: his Table of Ranks . Introduced in 1722,

6667-531: The issue by demonstrating in Catherine's support. The opposition collapsed, and Catherine I was named the new tsar. The two palace guard regiments would decide many such political issues in the future, resembling the old streltsy in this regard. Catherine left most of the work of ruling to her close adviser Menshikov. Her most important contribution was the formation of the Supreme Privy Council ,

6780-431: The land he captured, save Saint Peterburg and Neva, Charles would not settle for anything less than Swedish victory. Ukraine , fertile and as yet untouched by the war, lay to the south; he also knew that Cossack hetman Ivan Mazepa , who largely controlled Ukraine under Peter, was secretly scheming against his tsar. Thus, the Swedes turned south, and entered Ukraine instead. Historians still argue over whether or not

6893-567: The membership of Stavka as Stalin (President), Zhukov, Aleksandr Vasilevsky , Aleksei Antonov , Nikolai Bulganin and Kuznetsov. The Stavka of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief ( Ukrainian : Ставка Верховного Головнокомандувача ) is the highest command and control body for the troops and individual branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine , as well as law enforcement services and agencies of Ukraine, which are part of

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7006-405: The money went into the Russian metalworking industry, vastly improving the quantity and quality of the industry, and through it the quality of the Russian weaponry. Because of the large distances involved in the northern war, Peter also built up a large contingent of cavalry . Peter tempered this new army in attacks on the Swedish holdings of Livonia and Ingria on the Baltic shore. Once he

7119-459: The next before Persia finally sued for peace. In November 1719, the Treaty of Stockholm was made between Sweden and Hanover. Sweden handed over Bremen and Verden to Holstein in return for financial and naval support. The Elector of Hanover was George I. Later, in January and February 1720, another Treaty of Stockholm was signed between Sweden and Brandenburg. Sweden ceded Stettin, South Pomerania,

7232-404: The north and Poltava was through treacherous forest and marsh, and thus Peter foresaw that any Swedish attack would double around the left, heading west before turning north through open ground towards the Russian army. Peter built six earthen redoubts in a line facing this probable Swedish charge, later augmenting them with four more, extending south in a "T". In late June, while preparing for

7345-459: The officer corps; commoners who distinguished themselves could achieve officer rank as well. Peter believed in lifelong servitude to the state, whether it was growing crops or fighting wars. Thus he offered serfs escape from their lifelong servitude on the farm in return for lifelong servitude in the army. Older and disabled veterans were transferred to positions in administration and the reserves, and thus, once they joined, Peter's troops were bound to

7458-404: The old Russian word ставка , 'tent'). The commander-in-chief of the Russian army at the beginning of World War I was Grand Duke Nicholas Nicholaievitch , a grandson of Tsar Nicholas I . Appointed at the last minute in August 1914, he played no part in formulating the military plans in use at the beginning of the war. Nikolai Yanushkevich was his chief of staff . In the summer of 1915

7571-434: The old honor code of mestnichestvo , which placed more stress on hereditary origins then on actual skill, had been rightfully abolished in 1682. He had resorted to the ad-hoc appointment before, but by the time of the Great Northern War this was quickly proving tedious, necessitating the change. Those that reached a certain level on the table were granted personal nobility , and for those that reached rank 12 or 8, depending on

7684-417: The old. The epoch of Russian history that Peter created has been variously known as the Imperial Age, because of the new connection between the ruler and land; the St. Petersburg Era, as the capital was moved to the newly built Saint Petersburg during his reign; and the All-Russian Period, which stresses the greater hegemony founded in the previously xenophobic country. The period from the time of his rule to

7797-407: The prebuilt Russian fleet, which had proved useless when victory was still uncertain, was proving its worth at consolidating Russian victories; victories at Gangut in 1714, Ösel in 1719, and Grengam in 1720 gave Peter control of the sea. Even while he was dismantling the Swedish Empire, Peter continued to reform and refine his army. Russia's administration system at the time, the prikazy ,

7910-468: The rebellion was mopped up by 1709. Regardless, by the summer of 1708, Charles was positioned in Lithuania , facing a road directly towards Moscow. However, he faced a desolate tundra, deliberately laid bare by Russian forces and protected by the significant fortress of Smolensk . His troops were constantly being harassed by Russian light troops, and reinforcements were still en route. Diplomatically, although Peter offered deals that would return all of

8023-526: The reforms of his predecessors. The army dissolved annually during harvest seasons, and the only regular forces in the Russian army were the streltsy , a formally elite unit that had, by Peter's time, become a hereditary, ill-trained, ill-equipped force that garrisoned in Moscow and played more of a role in politics then in actual fighting. Peter started by firmly placing the nobility into the officer corps. Drawing on his personal experiences, he made young nobles serve as rank-and-file soldiers before ascending to

8136-513: The rest were captured on the banks of the Dnieper by Menshikov. Only a few hundred, including Charles himself, escaped south to Turkish exile. The Battle of Poltava was one of the most decisive victory in Russian history. The result of the Battle of Poltava, and of the following surrender, was that the bulk of the Swedish army was simply annihilated, leaving Sweden wide open for attack. At home,

8249-419: The resulting losses, even leaving the bulk of his artillery behind to speed his movement. However, Charles was not aware of the additional four pieces of earthwork that Peter had dug on the eve of battle; to surmount this new problem, Charles spent valuable time rearranging his troops from firing lines , superb for volley fire , to faster-moving but less fire-ready columns , a time-consuming move that lost him

8362-416: The same time, he could be cruel, not flinching from the application of force to put down rebellions and sometimes beating his own friends if he thought it necessary. Once he took over the governmental machinery, Peter found a distinct lack of skilled specialists with which to run his government. Never placing much importance in rank or origin, Peter began recruiting skilled specialists out of every corner of

8475-464: The service, hereditary nobility was granted, thus both rewarding merit and satisfying Peter's nobility. The Table, with minor changes, continued to find use until it was finally abolished in 1917. Peter's death left no clear candidate for succession to the throne. His son, Aleksei , was a shy, bookish man with little interest in the throne, as well as a constant target for revolts aimed at undermining Peter's rule. Alexei had renounced his interest in

8588-619: The six-foot eight tsar was literally heads and shoulders above others, although his disguise spared him having to partake in court formalities. He traveled through Sweden , Austria , the Netherlands , Prussia , England , and the Habsburg Empire , enlisting himself as a workman in many different docks and factories across the continent. For 18 months, Peter ingested everything he could about European craftsmanship, especially navigation, as well as European society in general. His trip

8701-420: The slow degradation of the Russian army and navy. Peter's draconian taxes were reduced, military units disbanded, and the navy was left to rot at anchor. The army would again be strengthened for various small actions in the 1730s and 1740s, but the declining trend of the Russian navy was not reversed for centuries. The next leading candidate to the throne, as chosen by the Privy Council, was Anna Ivanovna , who

8814-529: The sons of nobles and servitors, and staged mock battles. As he grew older, these battles became more and more elaborate, including organized units, formations, and even live ammunition. Once they became adults, the boys with whom Peter staged the fights would become his commanders and closest military advisers, eventually forming the core of Russia's first two elite guard units , the Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments . These two regiments contained

8927-636: The south. In 1722, Peter allied with Georgia and Armenia , looking to seize land at the expense of the declining Safavid Persia and deny it to the Ottomans. Upon declaring war, Peter ordered the construction of the Caspian Flotilla and sailed down the Volga to command a joint land-sea campaign that took the city of Derbent , before being forced to return to Astrakhan for supplies. The Russian forces fought on, facing little resistance, without Peter's involvement, taking Resht late that year and Baku

9040-500: The status quo of letting the navy rot at anchor. He established Cadet Corps to train young nobles for military service, effectively replacing Peter's requirement that they serve in the ranks first, as well as reducing the military service requirement to 25 years—still a draconian demand, but considerably better than Peter's theoretically lifelong model. Aleksei Antonov Aleksei Innokentievich Antonov ( Russian : Алексей Иннокентьевич Антонов ; 9 September 1896 – 16 June 1962)

9153-428: The streltsy, and forced her to become a nun as well. Although Peter's "grand coalition" against the Turks had failed to develop, new political developments quickly brought his military attention to the north. 1697 marked the death of Charles XI , king of Sweden . He left his throne to his 15-year-old son, Charles XII . The king's youth and inexperience, coupled with his holdings of several major Baltic ports , made

9266-458: The streltsy, torturing many into revealing that they sympathized with his half-sister and former tsarina Sophia. Thousands of streltsy were executed and hung in public, and Sophia, who had been exiled to a monastery near Moscow, was now forced to become a nun. Peter had the bodies of hundreds of streltsy hung outside her window to remind her of the consequences of confronting him. He also ended his marriage with Eudoxia Lopukhina , who sympathized with

9379-405: The suburbs of Stockholm , the Swedes finally admitted ultimate defeat. In the resultant Treaty of Nystad , Peter was extremely lenient with the Swedes, keeping Estonia, Livonia, Ingria, and part of southern Finland (especially Saint Petersburg) in exchange for the return of most of Finland to the Swedes and the payment of 2 million silver riksdaler . Peter could afford to be lenient, as the war

9492-699: The throne and killed many of the leading members of the Naryshkin family, the murders of whom Peter witnessed. In the aftermath, Ivan was proclaimed the senior tsar, and Peter the junior tsar, and Sophia the regent. In reality, Sophia took absolute power as an autocrat , shoving her half-brothers away from power. As a child, Peter, though intelligent , was neither an intellectual nor particularly refined. Physically able and possessing manic levels of energy, he turned his attention towards working with his hands. In particular, Peter found interest in seamanship and in military manners. He formed mock troops with his friends,

9605-402: The throne and making her a leading candidate, alongside Peter's grandson Peter Alekseyevich . Peter, a child at the time, was backed by the old nobility, while Catherine found support in the newer class, especially Menshikov. The Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky guard regiments, which had associated with Catherine during her trips alongside her husband during his later military campaigns, decided

9718-408: The throne in 1714, an action that made Peter furious; Aleksei was captured and tortured, and died of his injuries in 1718. None of Peter's other male children survived into adulthood. In addition, in 1722 he had declared that the naming of an heir was the tsar's choice, not a matter of genealogy . Peter had crowned his second wife, Catherine , empress of Russia in 1724, strengthening her claim to

9831-563: The time Peter became involved, the coalition was already falling apart. Charles XII proved to be an unprecedented military genius and far superior a commander then his foes had expected. With utmost daring, in July 1700 Charles crossed the straits to Denmark with 15,000 men, carrying the fighting into the heart of their territory; the Danes, utterly defeated, surrendered within a month. Unaware of this, Peter declared war on Sweden in August 1700. Peter led an army of 35,000 men, and quickly laid siege to

9944-402: The tsar energetically redressed every aspect of Russian government, society, and military to more closely match its western neighbors. He fought expansive wars against his neighbors, squeezing every resource at his disposal to power his war machine, and send large numbers of young men west, to learn the trades and skills that Russia would need in the future. Peter founded a new Russia by shattering

10057-443: The two marriages, but only three of the males, Feodor and Ivan by his first marriage and Peter by his second, survived into adulthood. Peter was considerably more healthy then his half-brothers, both of which had serious physical disabilities . Peter's father died in 1676, and Feodor, the late ruler's oldest son, was proclaimed tsar. When Feodor, in turn, died in 1682, he left no heir to the throne. With no clear path for succession,

10170-566: The two most prominent boyar families, the Naryshkins and the Miloslavsky , backed different heirs in a competition for the throne. The Naryshkins, backing Peter, won an early victory, and Peter was proclaimed tsar in April 1682, with his mother as the acting regent . However, in May, Peter's able-bodied half-sister Sophia , leading a Miloslavsky-backed rebellion by the streltsy , overtook

10283-415: The value of a sea-borne fleet. Although his predecessors had built primitive fleets on an as-needed basis, the second siege of Azov was their first successful application. Thus, with a need for shipbuilding knowledge and a desire to develop a mighty coalition against the Turks, Peter organized a 250-man expedition for Europe in March 1697. Although Peter traveled incognito as Peter Mikhailov he fooled no one;

10396-407: The veteran troops outfought the Russians, collapsing them back and seizing supporting cannon as well. However, the weight of massed Russian fire opened a hole in the middle of the Swedish line, and the Russians, now fully able to make full use of such an event, poured through it and broke the Swedish column in half. The Swedish line broke and scattered, and 10,000 Swedes were killed or captured; most of

10509-427: The victory gave Peter the political capital, and the war lull, he needed to crush ongoing domestic issues; in fact, if Peter had lost the battle, opposition to the tsar's reforms could have become active support for a new tsar. Poltava demonstrates how far the Russian army had come; after all, just nine years earlier, the Russians had been almost destroyed fighting the Swedes with an even greater numerical advantage. Peter

10622-431: The water, during which a successful sortie was launched by the Turks that captured many of the Russian siege engines . The Russians accepted the losses and laid down a steady bombardment onto the fort. However, the fort was constantly receiving supplies by water, and the attrition was hurting Peter's forces more than the Turks. After three months, Peter was forced to withdraw. Although his first attack on Azov proved to be

10735-690: Was a General of the Soviet Army , awarded the Order of Victory for his efforts in World War II . From 1945 to 1946 he was Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union . Born in Grodno in a family of Kryashen ethnicity as the son of an artillery officer of the Imperial Russian Army , Antonov graduated from Frunze Military Academy in 1921 and joined the Red Army during

10848-546: Was a crushing defeat for Peter's young army, with the vast majority of the Russian forces destroyed and nearly all of its siege equipment captured. The Swedes suffered only 700 casualties, while more than 6,000 Russian troops were killed and another 20,000 captured. Following the battle, with the Russian army broken, Charles XII reasoned that the Russians were no longer a threat to him and turned south to deal with Poland instead of pursuing Russia. Historians still argue as to whether or not Charles should have pressed his pursuit of

10961-614: Was a decisive shift in the European balance of power . The Swedish Empire was carved up, and its position as a great power was taken by Russia. Celebrating these victories, Peter took the title of imperator , and the Russian Empire was thus founded. The Northern War left Russia as the dominant power in Northern Europe , and gave it firm control over the Baltic and thus a "window to the west". The war had also bettered Russia's position with respect to its Polish rival, which came to

11074-401: Was able to take the city, albeit with heavy casualties. The commander in the city violated the ideal of an honorable surrender by refused to give in, and once the Russians breached the city, the remaining Swedish forces were massacred. Overall, the many Swedish losses on the home front put a large dent in the Swedish economy, already strained by the effects of the war. Peter also rapidly assembled

11187-425: Was accomplished through heavy-handed conscription . Peter scraped money to finance his new campaign out of every hole he could find, raising taxes, creating new ones, monopolizing the salt trade , and debasing the currency , anything he could do to raise more cash. Most notoriously, he introduced a tax on beards , and forced churches to melt their bells to make cannons. As new soldiers needed new weapons, much of

11300-501: Was an antiquated, jumbled form of governance, with overlapping jurisdictions and lacking separation of powers . In 1717 he began replacing these instead with collegias , or "colleges", based on the Swedish model. As a rule Peter employed equal parts native Russians and foreign servitors. Unlike the prikazy they replaced, colleges could not make a decision without a consensus of their members, so-called "governance by board" that helped stifle wayward decisions as well as corruption. Among

11413-630: Was called for by Stalin. Stavka's Main Command was reorganized into the Stavka of the Supreme Command ( Stavka Verkhovnogo Komandovaniya ) on 10 July 1941. This action occurred after Stalin was named Supreme Commander, and replaced Timoshenko as head of Stavka. On 8 August 1941 it was again reorganized into Stavka of the Supreme Main Command ( Stavka Verkhovnogo Glavnokomandovaniya ). On the same day Strategic Directions commands were instituted. A 17 February 1945 decree set out

11526-428: Was energetic, Menshikov could be found in every part of the Russian governmental machinery, was under constant surveillance by the Russian court, and often met Peter's cudgel, all the while somehow maintaining his prominent position. With the head of the Russian governance now firmly in place, Peter began a sweeping modernization of his army. Peter inherited a partially Westernized military, and he sought to consolidate

11639-425: Was inconclusive—France only promised to avoid involvement—once again, it gave Peter an opportunity to study Western Europe. In late 1718, Charles XII himself was shot through the head in a minor battle, possibly by his own soldiers. A broken Sweden sought allies against the Russian juggernaut, but the search proved fruitless, and with Russian troops regularly crossing the Baltic and raiding mainland Sweden, even reaching

11752-407: Was not until her death in 1694 that Peter finally assumed control of the state. Peter personally studied soldiers and sailors from the bottom up, serving in the rank and file before promoting himself into the officer corps. Thus, Peter did not become a full general until after his victory at Poltava in 1709, and did not become full admiral until the conclusion of the Great Northern War more than

11865-681: Was reflected in his survivability. He retained his office until February 1945, when he was made chief of staff in Vasilevsky's place. By 1944, Antonov was Chief Spokesman and was present at the Moscow , Yalta and Potsdam Conferences. At the Yalta Conference, he briefed the Western Allies on co-ordinating military actions, and by stressing how the Allies could aid Soviets through bombing lines of communications contributed to

11978-479: Was running out of both time and options. Winter 1708–09 was a miserable one for the Swedes encamped in Ukraine, and in the following spring Charles was bogged down in a siege of the small Russian fortress of Poltava . Peter, still wary of engaging the Swedes in a pitched battle, slowly moved his troops through fortified positions to relieve the small fort. Charles foresaw that he could not take Poltava in time to avoid

12091-410: Was specialization; he relied on irregular forces such as Cossacks and nomads for the light cavalry roles of scouting , skirmishing , and raiding , as his proper cavalry were exclusively dragoons , which rode on horseback but dismounted in battle and fought on foot. In 1695, Peter conducted his first major operation with his fledgling military. Having assumed control in 1694, Peter inherited

12204-434: Was stopped short of a planned passage through Italy by news of a streltsy rebellion at home, and Peter rushed back to Russia in 1698, along with 750 foreigners he had recruited for Russian industry. The hoped-for political gains of the embassy turned out to be dubious at best, but the military gains were enormous. Peter returned to Moscow to find that the rebellion had already been dealt with. He proceeded to interrogate

12317-512: Was sure that Charles was heading south, he ordered his field marshal , Boris Sheremetev , to attack the lightly defended colonies, whilst also sending a division south, to delay Charles XII and give Peter time to finish mending his forces. At the end of 1701, Sheremetev met a vastly outnumbered Swedish force on the field at Erastfer in Livonia, soundly defeating them; he repeated the feat again at Hummelshof in July 1702. These two victories,

12430-401: Was surprisingly lenient considering that the Russian force was facing annihilation; Peter lost Azov, was forced to abandon his southern fleet, promised not to meddle with Polish affairs, and guaranteed safe passage to Sweden for Charles XII. In return, Peter was able to extricate himself from the situation, and continued to hold a dominant position in the Great Northern War. With the issue with

12543-406: Was the daughter of Peter's late brother Ivan V . The primary reason for their choice was her political weakness as a woman and widow, something that the Council moved aggressively to take advantage of; they declared that they would approve her crowning only if she gave up the power to make and amend taxes, declare war, control the army, grant and revoke estates, and appoint people to high positions in

12656-675: Was to have Poland move on southern Livonia and the Danes attack Swedish allies in Schleswig-Holstein . However, Peter's negotiations with the Turks took him longer than he expected, and so in January 1700 Augustus II declared war on Sweden, followed within a few months by the Danes, with Russia standing on the sidelines. It was not until July of that year that the Treaty of Constantinople was finally signed, preserving Peter's gains in Turkey, and freeing him to make war with Sweden. By

12769-504: Was usually absent due to his frequent frontline missions as Stavka representative. As a result, Stavka relieved Antonov of his position in Operational Directorate, so that Antonov could fully concentrate in the leadership in the General Staff. In February 1945, Vasilevsky was appointed as the commander of 3rd Belarusian Front, and Antonov finally became the formal leader of Soviet General Staff. In spite of his key role in

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