The main reason Denmark, Poland and Russia formed an alliance and declared war on Sweden in 1700 was that they, quite erroneously, believed that Sweden under the young regent of Charles the XII was an easy prey.
Little did they know that the 18 year old Charles XII was to become a legend, already in his lifetime, widely acknowledged as one of the finest military minds of his own lifetime (and throughout world history some still would say).
Even though the energetic Swedish monarch in the end was defeated by Peter the Great at Poltava (Ukraine), it is more than obvious that the final result of the war was that neither Denmark or Poland again rose to the status of being a great European power and Russia, ironically (as Peter the Great usually is considered to be an 'enlightened absolutist'), in the end was left even more crippled and backwards in comparision to Western Europe than before the days of Tsar Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov.
THE PRESENT SCENE:
In Sweden of today, Charles XII lives on as a symbol of Swedish resistence towards a dark, foreign and hostile world outside of our territory, a Scandinavian territory most of us view as an idyllic land of Volvos, Pippi Longstocking, the world's highest standard of living, PC attitudes, ice hockey players and ABBA.
Ever since the early 19th century, Charles XII has been a symbol of Swedish nationalist ideals in my country. In Sweden of today, Liberals and Social Democrats seem to believe Charles XII was nothing but a fanatic warmonger, some members of the intellectual elite compare him to Hitler, while Conservatives often regard him as a competent monarch and a brilliant military tactician although some question his understanding of military strategy (in this sense, even a lot of Swedes would admit Peter the Great was superior to him).
Swedish nationalists believe Muslim immigrants to be the main threat to the above mentioned paradise and the Neo Nazis regard the Jews as their blood-sworn enemies.
Communists, Anarchists and fanatical Muslims together with some other activists naturally can't stand the idea of anyone in Sweden wishing to celebrate the memory of Charles XII (but I think it's pretty OK with most of the non-extremist people living in Sweden who are of Danish, Polsih or Russian ancestry). Therefore these two latter, 'extremist' groups always clash on November 30th.
Most ordinary people in Sweden yawn upon hearing about these riots, but one thing is for sure:
Charles XII will not be forgotten.
For us the Communists and anarchists are folded into the Democrat Party. I'm sure they are trying to pick up the Muslim vote, but with prominent, albeit leftist Jews this is difficult. So there is something to be said for having the country, politically divided near equally. There is no incentive to pick up any radical Muslim votes as that will cause equal amounts or more of long term supporters to defect. They are out in the cold. We have a few anarchists, but they are often skinny and hungry. Otherwise why would they attack McDonalds?
Just wonder why Charles XII, not Gustav II Adolf? The latter was way more successful in many fields of kingship.