'like a Swede at Poltava'

Published: 15th May 2007 14:07 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/7314/

This summer will see the first ever excavation of the battlefield at Poltava in the Ukraine. Researchers are hoping to uncover fresh information about the Swedish army's overwhelming defeat at the hands of Russian forces in 1709....
....The defeat at Poltava was so decisive that it later gave rise to the Russian phrase 'like a Swede at Poltava', meaning totally helpless.....