Peter the Great brought to Vilnius a lot of soldiers and he thought that it would be convenient to control his army staying here.
Vilnius was in a war with Sweden. The Swedes did not occupy the city, but the citizens lived in tension for a whole month. Before the arrival of Peter the Great, lots of people, including the Basilian monks, fled the city. The Tsar disliked the monks of this order because they recognized the authority of the Pope of Rome.
In Vilnius, the tsar mostly had fun with local nobles and visited houses of prayer, he also visited the celebration of the end of the academic year at VU. A fancy chair was set up for him, but he sat down on a simple bench. While living in Moscow, he used to go to the dungeons of the Kremlin to torture and kill suspects in state crimes. The Tsar liked the fights that broke out at some parties, during which blood was shed. Russian soldiers were housed and fed by Vilnius citizens, but they still looted and were cruel until finally were sent to the battles with the Swedes.
Vilnius was occupied by the Swedish army twice; in 1702 and 1706. They were especially cruel during the 2-nd occupation. Led by the colonel Dikeris they looted, robbed, raped women, killed old people and babies.
After capturing Vilnius, the Swedes stationed their military guards at all five gates of Vilnius. The soldiers lit a fire under the heavy iron domes of the Gates of Dawn. They were lying down or sitting around and had a feast with wine and beer looted from the cellars of the monasteries. Some of them sang nasty songs, others grabbed the pious women who came to pray, laughed at them, taunted and poked them, and chased away the priests who had come to pray, mocking their piety and the Virgin Mary. On Holy Saturday morning, April 14, four Swedish soldiers were warming themselves by the fire under the arch of the gate and, as usual, behaved indecently. Suddenly, the large, heavy gate shook, broke loose from its hinges, and fell on the blasphemers, two of them were killed on the spot the other two had serious injuries. Even those who were taken to the hospital on the other side of the Neris passed away.
Reviews