Welcome to Russian History Retold, Episode 221, the Great Battles of Russian History,

Part 2.

Last time, we covered the first six of what I believe are the most critical battles in early

Russian history.

Today, we will cover the last six, beginning with the one that catapulted Russia under

Peter's Great and to the pantheon of great European powers, Poltava.

Before we get into that, I wanted to mention, before someone notices, that I have not included

any battles that occurred in the Crimean War.

I have two reasons.

One, I actually covered the war pretty extensively in the past.

Secondly, there wasn't one battle that changed the outcome, except maybe the siege of

Sebastopol.

The battles I chose are, in my opinion, more significant in their effect on the history

of Russia.

Now, onto Poltava.

Peter the Great had just returned from his Great Embassy in 1698, and despite all the

expectations, he had little to show for the two-year tour.

Peter wanted to have other European nations join forces with him against the Ottoman Empire.

However, they were all reluctant to do so for various reasons.

One of the main ones was their belief that Russia was a paper-tiger and not much of a major

power.

This forced Peter's hand to sign a peace treaty with the Ottomans after the Russo-Turkish

...