Foreign campaigns of the Russian Army in the Second and Third stages of the Northern War in historiography

Identificator

EDN: JJLEUT ; УДК: 355.4:930

Authors

Pelikhov Alexander Vladimirovich, postgraduate student of Department of Russian History, Ural Federal University. Russia, Yekaterinburg. E-mail: pelikhoff@rambler.ru

Journal

HERALD OF HUMANITARIAN EDUCATION №4 (40), 2025

Section

HISTORIOGRAPHY

Pages

96-105

Abstract

The article discusses the current problems of historiography of the foreign campaigns of the Russian army in the second and third stages of the Northern War. The article examines the assessments of domestic and foreign historians of the military and diplomatic significance of the military operations waged by the Russian army against Sweden in Germany and Finland. The author pays attention to the influence of the political context in which the research was written on the assessment data. The study revealed insufficient knowledge of the foreign campaigns of the Russian army. It is shown that historiography has formed the opinion that the Northern War was actually won as a result of the Battle of Poltava and ignored the fact that Sweden could make up for human losses in 10 years. As a result, historians have hardly studied the fighting itself in Germany and Finland, or its diplomatic consequences. In the 20th century, the desire of Soviet historians to show the decisive importance of the actions of the Russian fleet at the last stage of the Northern War played a negative role in the study of these campaigns. There was also no assessment of the ability of England and other European countries to take Swedish territories from Russia if the tsar refused to make peace. Thus, several important features have emerged in the historiography of the Russian Army's foreign campaigns. Among them, the Russian Army's military actions in Germany and Finland both the campaigns themselves and individual battles have been very poorly studied. These military actions were overshadowed by the Battle of Poltava, yet it was precisely as a result of them that the victorious Treaty of Nystad was concluded. Consequently, the Russian Army's foreign campaigns require a thorough, comprehensive study based on the correlation between diplomatic actions and specific battles in Germany and Finland.

Keywords

Russia Sweden Northern War Russian army diplomacy historiography

Recieved

02.09.2025

Published

19.02.2026

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