of the Cossack Hetmanate Zaporizhian Host.

After the extremely harsh Great Frost of 1708-1709, which was the coldest recorded winter in Europe, the weakened Swedish army resumed operations in the spring of 1709 and besieged the fortress of Poltava, an important trading center and military depot on the Vorskla. Meanwhile, a numerically superior Russian army of 75,000-80,000 men commanded by Peter,