The museum sits on the battlefield south of the city centre, where on 27 June 1709 Peter the Great's Russian army crushed Charles XII of Sweden and their Cossack allies under Hetman Ivan Mazepa. The exhibits include weapons, maps, and period armour — and most memorably, the outsized uniform of Peter the Great, made for a man who stood nearly 2.1 metres tall. Outside, redoubts (small earthwork fortifications) built for the battle have been partially reconstructed, and a round rotunda with a panoramic painting of the battle stands nearby.
story: > Sweden's defeat here was not simply a military setback — it was a catastrophe. Charles XII's army had spent a brutal winter in Ukraine without adequate supplies, weakened by cold and disease before a shot was fired. On the day of battle, Charles himself was being carried on a litter, wounded in the foot. His army fought hard but was outnumbered roughly three to one. Peter the Great afterward invited his captured Swedish officers to dine with him, toasting them as "my teachers in the art of war."