The Battle of Walk on July 8, 1657 between forces of

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

commanded by Friedrich von Löwen on one side, and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n forces led by

stolnik Stolnik (, , , , ) was a court office in Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine and Russia, responsible for serving the royal table, then an honorary court title and a district office. It approximately corresponds to English term wikt:pantler, "pantler". S ...

Matvey Sheremetyev, who for the first time in his career commanded an army by himself, on the other side.Курбатов О. А. Русско-шведская война 1656-58 гг.: проблемы критики военно-исторических источников // Россия и Швеция в средневековье и новое время: архивное и музейное наследие. М., 2002. С. 150-166
/ref> The largest part of the Russian army disobeyed Sheremetyev and left the battle at the beginning, forcing him to rely on the 250

reiter ''Reiter'' or ''Schwarze Reiter'' ("black riders", anglicized ''swart reiters'') were a type of cavalry in 16th to 17th century Central Europe including Holy Roman Empire, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Tsardom of Russia, and others. Cont ...

s of Colonel Denis Fonvizin, who played the key role in the breakthrough and allowed the rest of the army to escape.Курбатов О. А. Морально-психологические аспекты тактики русской конницы в середине XVII века // Военно-историческая антропология: Ежегодник, 2003/2004: Новые научные направления. — М., 2005. — С. 201—202 The Swedish forces won the battle, and according to their sources they defeated an army of 8,000 men, 32 standards, banners and other field declarations had been captured in the battle and 1,500 Russians were dead or wounded along with their commander Matvey Sheremetyev, who later died in captivity.Finlands historia under Karl X Gustafs regering. Karl Emil Ferdinand Ignatius. Edlund, 1865. p. 103 In comparison, some 12 Swedes, including Lieutenant Captain Tiesenhusen, were killed. However, a recent analysis of Russian 17th-century archive documents related to the battle demonstrates that the entire Russian force, most of which escaped, consisted of only 2,193 men, 353 additional troops failed to arrive in time, and even Tsar

Alexis I Alexei Mikhailovich (, ; – ), also known as Alexis, was Tsar of all Russia from 1645 until his death in 1676. He was the second Russian tsar from the House of Romanov. He was the first tsar to sign laws on his own authority and his council ...

in his correspondence expected his army to be no larger than 3,000, while the casualties included 108 killed, 28 wounded, 5 captured. The Swedish declaration has been criticized by Oleg Kurbatov, an expert in the Russian military history of the 17th century, as often tendentious and inaccurate in its description of the Russian army and having inflated numbers. Before succumbing to his wounds in Swedish captivity, Sheremetyev had said that the task of his force was to force the Swedes to retreat either into Tallinn or Riga, to then loot and burn the land, creating a scorched earth buffer against the Swedes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Battle of Walk Conflicts in 1657 1657 in Sweden 1657 in Russia 17th century in Estonia Walk (1657) Walk (1657)