Battle of Narva ( 1700 ) The Battle of Narva on 19 November 1700 ( 30 November , N . S . ) was an early battle in the Great Northern War . A Swedish relief army under Charles XII of Sweden defeated a Russia n siege force three to four times its size . Before , Charles XII had forced Denmark - Norway to sign the Treaty of Travendal . Narva was not followed by further advances of the Swedish army into Russia , instead , Charles XII turned southward to expel August the Strong from Livonia and Poland - Lithuania . Peter the Great took Narva in a second battle in 1704 . Prelude . During the 17th century , Russia was less advanced technologically than the rest of Europe , a condition which extended to their armed forces . Despite this shortcoming Peter the Great of Russia was keen to expand his territory by conquering parts of Sweden ' s Baltic provinces . Russia made a military alliance with Frederick IV , king of Denmark - Norway ; and August the Strong , king of Poland - Lithuania and elector of Saxony , to wage war against Sweden . Whereupon all five countries attacked Sweden from several directions . Charles XII , assisted by the British Royal Navy and the Dutch Navy , first landed in Humlebæk north of Copenhagen and forced Denmark - Norway to leave the alliance in August 1700 ( until 1709 ) . He then moved part of the Swedish army across the Baltic Sea to Estonia where it was joined by Estonian and Finnish regiments of the Swedish army . The new Russian Tsar , Peter I , would drastically modernize Russia in the coming years , but the army with which he traveled in 1700 was still poorly drilled . Peter had employed foreign generals and officers to improve his armed forces , but they were still far from seasoned . Sweden , on the other hand , possessed a well - drilled and well - equipped army . Charles XII of Sweden had the most complete military force in northern Europe , even if it was not the largest , and Peter envied its capabilities . During November , Russian troops surrounded the Swedish city of Narva in Estonia ( part of Sweden at the time ) , attempting to secure its surrender via siege . A Saxon - Polish army commanded by August II and Steinau was outside Riga in Swedish Livonia . The Saxon - Polish army however had gone into winter camp south of the river Daugava so Charles XII decided to deal with the more immediate Russian threat against Narva . King Charles moved to relieve the city and push Peter ' s forces back into Russia . The battle . On 19 ( OS ) or 30 ( NS ) November 1700 ( 20 November in the Swedish transitional calendar ) , Charles XII positioned his 8 , 000 men ( another 2 , 500 men were garrisoned in the city and would also take part in the battle at a later stage ) opposite the besieging Russian army of about 34 , 000 to 40 , 000 troops . The Swedish army was commanded personally by Charles XII , assisted by General Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld . The Russian forces were commanded by Tsar Peter and Charles Eugène de Croy . Claiming important domestic events in Russia to which he was required to attend , Peter had left Narva just days before and was therefore not present during the actual fighting . He trusted that his commanders would draw success from the battle and presumed that Charles would not immediately attack his well fortified forces of superior number . Some interpretations view his flight from Narva days before the battle an act of cowardice ; most of Europe mocked the Tsar after the battle for his departure . However , some scholars believe this accusation has little merit , as reportedly the Tsar had placed himself in physical danger too many times previously for his flight to be out of cowardice . For much of the day , a blizzard engulfed both armies , making attacks impossible . However , at midday , the winds changed and the snowstorm blew directly into the eyes of the Russians . Charles saw his opportunity and advanced on the Russian army under cover of the weather . The Swedes attacked in two columns , quickly broke through the Russian lines cutting them in three , and rounded them up . At one crucial point , a bridge over the Narova river collapsed under retreating Russian troops : The stampede led to the overall losses of 6 , 000 – 18 , 000 dead Russians , depending on sources . The remainder surrendered . The Russian surrender brought to Charles XII ' s army all of Peter ' s cannons , muskets and military supplies . This left Russia ' s remaining armed forces with essentially no equipment . If Sweden , or any other aggressor , had invaded Russia immediately after Narva , Peter would have been almost powerless to stop them . Russian Memorial . In 1900 , 200 years after the battle of Narva , the Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky regiment s initiated the construction of a memorial to the Russian soldiers who had fallen in the battle of Narva . The memorial consists of a granite pedestal with a cross on top , placed on a mound of earth . The inscription says : " Our heroic ancestors who fell in November 1700 . " Victory Monument . On November 20 , 2000 , the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs , Lena Hjelm Wallén inaugurated the new memorial / monument to celebrate the victory . It was erected with economic contribution from the Swedish Institute , and was a replacement for an older memorial erected in 1936 , that disappeared during the Second world war . The monument is surmounted by a " Swedish Lion " , his left paw resting on a ball ingraved with the Three Crowns of Sweden . It stands on a pedestal of granite . The pedestal is inscribed in Latin with ; " MDCC " ( 1700 ) and " Svecia Memor " ( Sweden Remembers ) . Second battle . Four years after the first battle of Narva , Tsar Peter marched again in an attempt to capture Narva . Peter marched with 45 , 000 men . The garrison of Narva was under the Commandant Major - General Henning Rudolf Horn af Ranzien and consisted of 3 , 800 infantry and 1 , 300 cavalry . The Russians made a three - fronted attack and after a long battle they took Narva . General Horn , several officers and a large number of Swedish soldiers were captured , with about 3 , 200 casualties while the Russians lost over 10 , 000 men during the siege and the battle .