ZolotoyRetriever — 6 years ago(May 16, 2019 03:33 AM)

This is from a book called
Little-Known Wars of Great and Lasting Impact: The Turning Points in Our History We Should Know More About
– October 1, 2009, by Alan Axelrod:
This relates to the prelude to the Battle of Poltava, between Russian and Swedish armies, July, 1709:
Outrage against Peter the Great had blinded Mazepa to the enduring loyalty his Cossacks bore to the Czar. Between 2,000 and 3,000 followed the hetman into his new allegiance with Charles XII. For his part, however, Peter repaid the loyalty of the majority of Cossacks by taking indiscriminate vengeance on all Cossacks. The Russian army stormed into the Cossack capital of Baturyn, slaughtered the small garrison there along with the entire civilian population, then put the town to torch. As if this were not message enough, the Russian troops collected the Cossack corpses, tied them to improvised wooden crosses, and set them floating down the Dnieper River to its mouth at the Black Sea. Peter intended that all who were inclined to betray him by swearing fealty to Mazepa would see this grim spectacle and think the better of it.