The first fortified camp of the Russian army was built on June 20, 1709, at the site where the Russian Army crossed the Vorskla River near the villages Semyonovka and Petrovka. When the Russians realized that the Swedes did not intend to attack a fortified camp, Tsar Peter I ordered his army to move and to encamp close to the village Yakovtsy. This second camp was built during the night of June 25th. It was rectangular in shape but open at the rear, overlooking the Vorskla River.
  The fortified camp was protected by a trench, a palisade and a rampart. The Russians deployed approx. 25,000 infantry men and 73 guns in the camp. A small detachment of Kozaks was posted in the Yakovetski Wood to guard the southern approaches to the camp. In front of the camp there was a large field of sandy soil stretching westwards. To cover the open approach to the camp and disrupt the battle formation of the advancing Swedish army Tsar Peter I ordered two lines of square or rectangular redoubts to be built. These redoubts were placed in the form of the letter T, with one battalion and two guns in each redoubt.
  In 1854 the cadets of the Poltava Military School, working under the supervision of Lieutenant-General E. Wrangel, reconstructed some of the earthworks of the camp. Unfortunately any questions concerning the exact position of the camp were raised only in 1909, just before the 200-year anniversary celebration of the battle, when almost all traces of the camp had disappeared. A memorial stone designed by architect P. Gumich was installed in 1973 on the place assumed to have been the Russian command post.