Dano-Russian War (1430 Custom RP)

The Dano-Russian War was a war between the Kingdom of Denmark and the Tsardom of Russia which began as a dispute over trading rights in the White Sea. Russia, having been recently formed by a union of the Kingdom of Smolensk and the Principality of Moscow, felt strong enough to counter Danish naval power. However, due to the addition of large cannons, the Danish navy soundly defeated their Russian counterparts in the early stages of the war. From then on, the war quickly became an attempt to retake ports which Denmark had captured in the early phases of the war. However, it was unable to recapture Arkhangelsk, the main flash point of the conflict, and the Russian government collapsed as a result of the casualties.

Prelude
During the Danish Unification Wars, the Duke of Sjaelland saw trade income as a way to increase his power relative to his nation's nobles. Estonia, due to its strategic location controlling both the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Riga, was essential to controlling trade in the Baltic. Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Finland, the Kingdom of Smolensk, and the Association of Baltic States all claimed the country for itself, so the Duchy of Sjaelland sought to let no power control it by balancing their interests. However, the Association of Baltic States and Smolensk had entered the Eastern Bloc along with the Selenge Khanate and Poland-Lithuania, forcing Sjaelland into an alliance with Finland.

To generate trade income and to counter Smolenski expansionism, in 1440 the Danish sent an expedition to the fabled land of Bjarmia, a territory comprising the Kola Peninsula and the Dvina river valley. However, when they arrived, Smolensk had had Arkhangelsk for 11 months and claimed the whole territory for itself, placing the expedition in the diplomatic spotlight. Undeterred, the Danish set shop at Dvinaby in a location around 18 kilometers upstream from Arkhangelsk itself, sending ambassadors to tribes such as Maero.

Meanwhile, Smolensk sent two expeditions, one to capture the Kola Peninsula and one to destroy Dvinaby, which they thought was on the Ob some 1,200 km away. The Kola expedition only served to heighten tensions with Finland, who invited Danish forces to consolidate its grasp on the peninsula. Furthermore, it had founded the town of Apatity and tried taking Murmansk, which was a Finnish settlement. It was only in 1444 that Smolensk found Dvinaby, and when their troops ordered the companymen in the settlement to leave they were killed alive, starting the war.

Poland-Lithuania remained neutral both due to Danish maneuvering and Smolensk's ridiculously aggressive actions. However, on the eve of war, Moscow unified with Smolensk, bringing Muscovite troops into the war. The Association of Baltic States and the Selenge Khanate also sent troops to the war.

Danish Attacks on Russia
Prior to the war, the Danish government knew that the navy would be an essential aspect to protecting itself, Finland, and any armies that landed on the Russian mainland. Thereby, in response to Russian aggression, the Kingdom of Denmark greatly expanded its navy, allowing it to dominate the seas without much issue. Furthermore, it planned on seizing a series of key locations, namely Tallinn, Narva, the Neva's mouth, and Arkhangelsk, which would have crippled Russian access to the outside world.

In Arkhangelsk, the Danish sent a squadron of three cannon-armed sailing ships to Dvinaby to breach the city walls, while agents pretended to forment a Novgorodian restorationist uprising and invite Danish companymen in. With this surprise, the city fell rapidly and the pro-Smolensk residents of the city either got killed or left, leaving the city a Danish stronghold for the rest of the war. The Kiev, a Russian warship, tried to retake the city but fell victim to multiple ships boarding her, and when the Ida returned to retrieve her the Kiev already fell and instead the Ida sunk from multiple ships' gunfire.

The Danish then attacked the city of Tallinn, the main port in Estonia, with the bulk of their navy. When they succeeded, the Russians had retreated to a more defensible position to mobilize, which the Danish admiralty presumed to be the river Narva. After discovering this build-up of forces, Danish forces extended to take control of Estonia, hoping to requisition supplies and recruit men for the war effort. The Russians tried to do the same, sending multiple propaganda letters to the Estonian people. Thereafter, Denmark devoted itself to building defenses and countering Russian propaganda, embracing for a long siege.

Tallinn
Shortly after the capture of Tallinn, the Russians already had a sizable army raised, but they called for 50,000 men. The Tsar squeezed them from every source possible, even waiting for the horsemen of the Selenge Khanate to arrive. When he collected these forces, he sent them to assault Tallinn in a surprise maneuver, but the Danish forces had already concentrated in the city. After all, Danish command panicked when they saw the size of the army, and they quickly began reinforcing the defenses of the city into a belt of three rings. When completed, they can only wait for the onset of disease in the Russian camp.

The Russians, led by the Tsar himself, attacked immediately with their cavalry, presuming that the gates were open. With the defenses undamaged beforehand and the gates closed, this maneuver failed, incurring large casualties on the attackers. The Tsar then ordered a second cavalry assault, sure that their numerical advantage and their religion would save the day, with the help of Teutons and Selengians. However, the Prince of Moscow also came, ordering a general assault on the city. These orders confused the infantry, which only partially marched to the city, and this assault failed too. An attempt to distract the Danish failed, as it failed to change Danish plans. It took a fourth assault to break into the city itself, and a long struggle ensured in the streets, but by the end of the siege 16,000 Danish and an unknown number of Russians lay dead. The Danish had escaped, continuing to fight in Norway.

There were rumors that part of the besieging army left Tallinn to attack Finland, an action which would happen a few more times during the war.

Vologda
In the fall of 1444, the Tsar announced that an attempt to capture Vologda was unsuccessful, but that attempt was never made by the Danish due to the impossibly long supply lines needed to get there. When the Danish heard about this, they quickly inquired Smolensk about the issue, coming to the conclusion that the event was a revolt or a false-flag attack, more likely the latter. The Tsar later denied this, and so we have no leads on this event.

Arkhangelsk and Onega
After the fall of Tallinn, the Principality of Moscow sent a peace offer offering to recognize any land Denmark had taken during the war in exchange for recognizing an autonomous Estonia. Denmark signed this agreement, pulling a large portion of the Russian army out of the war. To the Tsarina, it was pointless fighting further, as Arkhangelsk was too far away. However, the Tsar refused, assembling a large army to take Arkhangelsk back.

Therefore, the Tsar sent an army of 20,000 towards Onega, and then from there to Arkhangelsk. However, the Danes had fortified Arkhangelsk, building earthen and stone defenses around the city itself and batteries on the Dvina delta. Naval artillery helped protect the delta, as it destroyed boats that tried to cross. Furthermore, as the quality of infrastructure remained poor, and as the Danish enacted a scorched earth strategy on the left bank of the Dvina, the army suffered from attrition and disease. Multiple assaults were led along this road, and all failed.

In order to cut off the Russian forces, the Danish navy launched an assault against Onega, and the Russians left inexplicably. The Russians took the city back, as the Danish did not intend to hold it, but the Danish destroyed key infrastructure such as roads and stores. When the Danish returned again, this time to cut off supplies to Kola, the Russians left again and the Danes held it until the end of the war. The Danish admiralty did not think of attacking Mezen, the last Russian settlement on the Arctic Ocean.

Kola Peninsula
Isolated with the capture of Arkhangelsk, Apatity soon fell to an assault by Danish companymen. The pride of Smolensk, the Tsar sent forces across the White Sea to retake the small settlement in a siege along with a few small ships constructed in private. To starve them of supplies, the Danish Northern Squadron blockaded them close to shore, but an attack with fire boats and pickaxes destroyed one of their three ships. When they formed a further blockade, the Russians did the same, but as they were further away from sea they failed to get near the ships.

To reinforce the blockade, the Danish sent four more ships to the squadron, and the Scots, who entered in an alliance, sent some too. The blockade was as strong as ever, and now it held strong. Therefore, Apatity remained Danish until the end of the war.

Murmansk was also attacked multiple times, and when the blockade went into effect the Russians there managed to fend for themselves. However, they failed to actually take the city.

The Neva Express
With the Tsar's attention solely dedicated to attacking Arkhangelsk, he almost completely ignored the forces threatening the heartland of his empire. In order to open a second supply route to Arkhangelsk, the Danish had captured the mouth of the Neva early in the war and had built a fort on the isle of Kronstadt, which lay in the mouth of the river. From there, the Danish forces sailed into Lake Ladoga, where they set up a fort at the mouth of the Volkhov river, threatening to cut both east and south. In response, Smolensk fortified the city of Velikiy Novgorod, which was indeed threatened, but neglected the eastern direction.

The Danish then took their chances by entering the Svir river, which connected Lake Ladoga to Lake Onega. This region had few roads, which the Danish blocked by fortifying the few villages along the Svir. However, the Russian army, ever closer, did not act against this threat either, instead attempting to assault Arkhangelsk another time. Therefore, the Danish reached Lake Onega, and although their supply chain became extended they reached the White Sea by the end of the war.

Political Instability and Peace
After reversals at Arkhangelsk, the Tsar went into a rage in the spring of 1445. He convened his army's officer class in Smolensk and killed them all, accusing them of incompetence. When the Tsar tried recruiting new ones, few came as he subjected them to a harsh regimen of memorized mock battles. When the people of Smolensk heard about this, it was enough, and they stormed the city's White Palace five times, killing the Tsar. The capital, now in full-on revolt, had been paralyzed, and soon the Smolenski part of the country started disintegrating.

It was only the work of the Tsarina that the country did not enter a full-blown civil war, as she negotiated with and strongarmed local elites to remain part of Russia. When Danish command heard about this, they drew up plans to take over Novgorod and Vologda, whether to fulfill their promises at the beginning of the war or to return it to the Tsarina, but events moved too quickly for that.

In Denmark proper, people were already chafing at the costs of continuous war, and with the disintegration of Russia asked for their debts to be payed back. The debts were so large this proved to be a hard task, so the Danish king recalled most of his troops home and dismissed them. The crown sold conquered land in Iceland and Norway and increased both the Sound Dues and everyday taxes, brining many areas to the edge of revolt. Meanwhile, Scotland and Denmark entered a merger, and the people there started to look west, as fighting in the east was costly.

Therefore, both Russia and Denmark signed a peace. The original Denmark-Moscow treaty was reaffirmed, and Russia paid a small indemnity and recognized Danish control over Iceland. However, as Denmark held all the settlements on the Dvina, the Russians believed it prevented expansion into the Dvina river basin, thereby cementing Barents Sea Company rule there.