The Forgotten 5th Battalion. To the Question of Garrison of the Poltava Fortress in 1709

Despite the fact that historiography contains the sufficient description of events that took place during the Poltava period of the Northern War (autumn, 1708 ? summer, 1709), the siege process of the Poltava fortress (April ? June, 1709) still has many gaps. In particular, there is no precise information concerning the numbers of the Russian garrison and the military forces of Peter the Great’s army in Poltava besieged by the Swedish troops. According to many scientific works, the army in the Poltava fortress numbered 4 182 soldier and one officer. They also mention two Russian regiments which had joined the garrison of Poltava: Tver and Ustyug infantry regiments. Besides, some research data points out that these regiments included five battalions. The Tver and Ustyug regiments consisted of two battalions, so there is a question: what battalion was the fifth? Having studied the documentary sources (letters, sheets, “officer fairy tales”) the author concludes that the fifth battalion in the garrison of the Poltava fortress during its siege (spring ? summer, 1709) was the regiment of Gavrila Repyev and consisted of one battalion. Its structure was rather that of a separate battalion, than of a regiment.