In the years preceding the invasion of Russia, Charles had inflicted significant defeats on the Danish and Polish forces, and enthroned the king Stanisław Leszczyński in Poland.

He entered Russia by crossing the frozen Vistula River at the head of 40,000 men, approximately half of them cavalry.

This tactic was characteristic of his military style, which relied on moving armies with great speed over unexpected terrain.

Charles was a skilled military leader, and probably considered the invasion to be a risky enterprise; he had resisted the advice of his generals to invade during the Russian winter following the first Battle of Narva (1700).

Charles fled with his surviving 543 men to the protection of the Ottoman Turks to the south, who were traditionally hostile to Russia.