Early Swedish victories at Copenhagen and at the Battle of Narva in 1700 had temporarily taken both Denmark and Russia out of the Great Northern War.

King Charles XII of Sweden had proved unable to speedily end the war, however, as it has taken eight years to deal with the remaining combatant, Augustus of Saxony-Poland.

Peter the Great of Russia had meanwhile rebuilt his army into modern form, concentrating on infantry trained to use linear tactics and modern firearms properly.

He had then achieved a stunning propaganda victory in establishing the city of Saint Petersburg on Swedish territory, in Ingria.

Charles has reacted by ordering an attack on the Russian heartland, with an possible assault on Moscow from his campaign base in Poland.

The Swedish army of almost forty-four thousand men had left Saxony on August 22, 1707 and marched slowly eastwards.

When they reached the Vistula River, they waited for it to freeze and didn't cross until December 30.

Continuing through a hostile Masuria, the Swedes take Grodno on January 28, 1708, the Russians having left without a fight.

When Charles XII liberates Grodno, the Jews again have to pay a heavy fine for not having supported the Swedes.

At this time, the Russians are dealing with a large rebellion of Don Cossacks, known as Bulavin Rebellion.

The mutiny has been contained in part by the forces of the Cossack Hetmanate led by Hetman Ivan Mazepa.

The Swedes continue to the area around Smorgon and ...

...Minsk, where the army goes into winter quarters.

Eight thousand dragoons under Major General von Krassow are left in western Poland.

The Swedish army, which has suffered badly from different epidemic diseases during the winter, leaves its quarters in early June 1708 and marches towards Smolensk.

Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt, one of Sweden's foremost generals, is the commander of one of Sweden's best armies, based at the Baltic Sea port of Riga in Courland.

During the spring, Lewenhaupt had been ordered to gather supplies and march with his army of about twelve thousand men to join Charles' army, although he doesn’t leave Mitau until late June and will be unable to join Charles' forces until October 11.

Lewenhaupt is to bring a fresh supply of ammunition and food to support the Swedish army in its proposed march on the Russian capital of Moscow.

He had found, however, that gathering the needed supplies and preparing the army for an overland march took longer than expected.

Charles XII, after waiting for Lewenhaupt for weeks, abandons his camps on September 26 and decides to invade Ukraine, hoping to reach this rich granary before winter.

Lewenhaupt is at this time only about eighty miles from Charles' position.

According to the Russian history, the Ukrainian forces, under the command of Cossack hetman Ivan Mazepa, had been in discussions with Charles for some time, and at this point he, Mazepa, officially allied himself to the Swedes in order to gain independence from Russia.

However, there is no direct evidence or documentary proof of any preliminary negotiations between Mazepa and Charles.

Mazepa, however, had sent most of his Cossacks to Belarus and Right-bank Ukraine to contain Polish forces, and Charles's decision to turn to Ukraine, according to Hrushevsky, was unexpected for Mazepa.

His plans were that Charles's forces would move forward to Moscow and then he could create his own uprising in Ukraine.

Only three thousand Cossacks have followed their Hetman, however, with the rest remaining loyal to the Tsar.

Mazepa's call to arms is further weakened by the Orthodox clergy's allegiance to the Tsar.

Peter, having observed these movements, decides to attack Lewenhaupt's smaller force before Charles can support it.

As Charles forces are moving towards Ukraine, Peter sent his Moscow reserves to intercept them at Starodub and asked Mazepa to supply some reinforcements.

Prince Aleksandr Menshikov moves quickly to intercept Lewenhaupt's force, attacking it while crossing the River Sozh near a small village that gives name to the Battle of Lesnaya.

His forces meet the Russian attack, but they are amazed to find that the new Russian army gives them a serious fight.

The Swedes lose one thousand men dead and wounded and four thousand missing in the battle.

Russian casualties total one thousand one hundred and eleven killed and two thousand eight hundred and fifty-six wounded (Cossacks and Kalmyks not included), about one third of those engaged (Lewenhaupt, probably basing his account on that of a Russian prisoner-of-war, in his diary claims sixteen thousand rather than twelve thousand Russian combatants).

Lewenhaupt, seeing that he is about to lose, decides to rejoin Charles with all speed, so he abandons the cannon, the cattle and most of the food, driving some of the soldiers to mutiny.

Some of the Swedish soldiers had gotten drunk after stealing the alcohol, and Lewenhaupt had been forced to leave about one thousand of them in the woods.

By the time they finally reach Charles and the main force on October 19 (October 8 OS), virtually no supplies and only six thousand men remain, vastly increasing Charles' victuals problem.

Another effect of the battle of Lesnaya is that it has persuaded the Russian army that they are a match for Sweden's soldiers.

This newfound confidence will aid their morale during the 1709 campaign in which they destroy Charles' main Swedish army at Poltava.

Peter will later refer to Lesnaya as "the mother of the Battle of Poltava."

Cossack Hetman Ivan Mazepa's alliance with Peter of Russia has caused heavy losses of Cossacks, and Russian interference in the Hetmanate's internal affairs.

When the Tsar refuses to defend Ukraine against the Polish King Stanislaus Leszczynski, an ally of Charles XII of Sweden, Mazepa and the Zaporozhian Cossacks alliy themselves with the Swedes on October 28, 1708.

Mazepa is hesitant and gathers the Starshyna Council to decide the further course of actions.

The council, composed of Cossack military officers, approves the negotiations with Charles.

He leaves his last Cossack reserves in Baturyn and moves to the Desna River for negotiations with Charles.

When Peter hears of this move, he sends Aleksandr Menshikov to Baturyn.

Evidence of settlement in the area of present-day Baturyn dates back to the Neolithic era, with Bronze Age and Scythian remains also having been unearthed.

According to some modern writers, the earliest fortress at Baturyn would have been created by the Grand Principality of Chernihiv in the  eleventh century.

The contemporary name for the settlement, however, is first mentioned in the 1625, likely referring to the fortress of Stefan Batory, King of Poland, Prince of Transylvania, and Grand Duke of Lithuania, which had been built and named in his honor.

The area had been part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (in the Kijów Voivodeship of the Crown of Poland) since before the Union of Lublin.

Control of the town had been wrested from the Commonwealth during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, after which natives of Ruthenia had gained some degree of autonomy under Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky and his Cossack state.

Baturyn had in 1648 been transformed into a Cossack regional center (sotnia), first hosting the Starodub Cossack Regiment, and then the Nizhyn Regiment.

Home to four hundred and eighty-six Cossacks and two hundred and seventy-four villagers by 1654, Baturyn had been granted Magdeburg Rights.

As the settlement has grown, more merchants have flocked to it, and great fairs are held quarterly.

The capital of the Cossack Hetmanate, an autonomous Cossack republic in Left-bank Ukraine, has been located in Baturyn from 1669.

The area has prospered under the rule of Mazepa, increasing in size and population (with upwards of twenty thousand residents).

The period of the Ruin was effectively over when Mazepa was elected hetman, and brought stability to the state.

He has united Ukraine which, once again, is under the rule of one hetman.

The Hetmanate has flourished under his rule, particularly in literature, and architecture.

The architectural style that has developed during his reign is called the Cossack Baroque, distinct from the Western European Baroque in having more moderate ornamentation and simpler forms, and as such is considered more constructivist.

Baturyn boasts forty churches and chapels, two monasteries and a college for government officials and diplomats (the Kantseliarsky Kurin).

Baturyn is mercilessly sacked and razed by the Russian army of Menshikov on November 13, 1708, and all of its inhabitants are slaughtered.

Dmytro Chechel, the commanding officer of the Baturin garrison, is broken at the wheel.

Historian Serhiy Pavlenko estimates that six thousand to seventy-five hundred civilians and five thousand to sixty-five hundred military personnel were murdered.

A series of repressive measures spreads throughout the Cossack Hetmanate, along with claims that Mazepa has deserted to the Swedes in order to subjugate Ukraine to Poland, provide Unia, and root Orthodoxy out of Ukraine.

Tsar decrees are sent to strashyna—the equivalent of company commanders—inviting them to Hlukhiv.

Mazepa, in Hlukhiv, is figuratively dismissed as Hetman and replaced with the Starodub Colonel Ivan Skoropadsky.

Charles’s primary goal is Moscow, but the strength of his forces is sapped by the cold weather (the winter of 1708/09 being one of the most severe in modern European history) and Peter's use of scorched earth tactics.

Charles resumes his advance in the spring, but his army has been reduced by about one-third due to starvation, frostbite and other effects of the weather.

The wet weather has also seriously depleted the army's supplies of gunpowder; the cannon are also essentially out of action, due to a lack of usable ammunition.

Charles's first action is to lay siege to the fort of Poltava on the Vorskla River in Ukraine.

Peter has already organized a huge force to protect it, and he quickly arrives.

Charles receives information on June 27 that large Kalmyk forces are going to join Peter and cut off all supplies to the Swedish Army.

The Zaporozhian Host that is in opposition to Mazepa decides, after some hesitation, to side with Mazepa and Charles.

Charles on the eve of the Battle of Poltava has about fourteen thousand men, while Peter commands about forty-five thousand.

However, although Charles has faced great odds before, his expertise will not be brought forth during the actual battle, as he had been wounded during the siege on June 17, when he was hit in the foot while taking part in a small engagement during an inspection of the Swedish outposts on the banks of the Vorskla.

He has had to turn over command to Field Marshal Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld and General Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt.

This is made all the more unfortunate by the divergent personalities of the two generals.

The change in command is not communicated to the subordinate commanders when the battle is planned.

The Russians manage also to weaken the Cossacks, who have decided to join the Swedes against them.