During the Russo-Swedish War of 1788-1790, a not exactly a large-scale engagement took place on June 16th, 1789 at the small village of Sulkava, in eastern Finland, then part of the Kingdom of Sweden. The “Gustav’s War” was one of many wars in history started for internal political reasons.
Approximately 2,000 Russian troops were trying to get ahead of the main defending Swedish army in the province of Savolax, as the main push came from another direction. 10,000 Russians were advancing in a three-pronged attack against some 4,000 Swedish-Finnish troops.
Blocking the Russians at Sulkava was a small detachment of ~200 men, mostly militia raised as part of the allotment system.
The map is “upside down”, south is on top – this was drawn by the invaders. The Russians were coming from the northeast and are thus depicted on the lower side of the map.
This was the setting for this local event to which I traveled 3,5 hours each way to learn more about our history. Before the action started, a retired history professor provided an overview of the events and officers in charge.
The Russians were lead by Major General Wilhelm Schulz von Ascheraden and opposed by the 26 year young Major Carl von Morian, a personal acquaintance of King Gustav III.
Our detachment today was even smaller, comprising of three separate historical societies, one for re-enacting the Swedish Carolineans (in Finland), another for artillery and the last one for gunboats of the local lake district.
We had a lengthy demo of drills and commanding the militia, where the common language was Swedish although it was unlikely that any of the soldiers spoke it. My 15 year old who was with me got quite restless – and not only because I guess he was expecting, if not hundreds of re-enactors, but at least dozens. Here they had like eight or so. But to me it was not only funny, but probably very historical as the foot soldiers were stumbling around, turning to the wrong direction and making other mishaps. It probably went just like that 300 years ago keeping the sergeant busy herding the soldiers around.
I hadn’t even realized the opposite side of the lake was part of the show too. The Russians were there and started to fire their guns across the lake with loud bangs. Then a boat approached. The Russian general had a parley with the Swedish commander and demanded a retreat to avoid bloodshed. They had thousands of men against a handful. But Morian rejected the offer and an angry general went back to his troops.
Firing intensified as the Russian boats started to approach. Cannon and musket fire was exchanged before the overwhelming Russian forces landed.
Russian troops land in force and throw grenades to clear the area. Swedish troops put up token resistance only and start pulling back.
They quickly captured the camp and the battle ended in another parley where the Swedish major accepted his defeat but stated that the war continues. Funnily, the young major was depicted by an old gentleman…
A really cool detail was the looting of the fallen (wounded were put out of their misery with an axe) – valuables such as boots were saved by camp followers or whoever they were…
There is also a short video on YouTube.