Battle Between the Russians and the Swedes at Lesnaya on 28 October 1708
1870
Lesnaya is a village in Belarus, and a battle took place nearby on 28 September 1708, during the Northern War, in which the 12,000-strong force of Peter the Great defeated the 16,000-strong Swedish corps of General Adam Lewenhaupt. The Russians also captured a very large supply train, with food for three months, artillery and munitions. Peter the Great saw the Battle of Lesnaya as the “mother of the Battle of Poltava” – the Russian army’s main and concluding victory in the Northern War (27 June 1709) – since the army of Charles XII was greatly weakened after the loss of its supply train. Alexander von Kotzebue painted battle pieces showing victories by Russian arms to commissions from the Imperial Court. The artist’s painting devoted to the Battle of Lesnaya is remarkable both for the masterly way that he constructs dynamic scenes involving figures and also for his expressive treatment of the landscape which, with its sense of anxiety, increases the power of the emotional effect on the viewer.