In 1609-1611, the defense of Smolensk became one of the most important events of the Time of Troubles in Russia, when the country was torn apart by internal contradictions and foreign intervention.
Prerequisites for the siege
The attack on Smolensk was the first episode of the Russian-Polish war in the Time of Troubles. The siege of the city was led by the king himself. The monarch attacked Rus' after a series of adventures by Polish magnates.
Back in 1604, an impostor appeared on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, posing as the long-dead Tsarevich Dmitry (son of Ivan the Terrible). This man was Grigory Otrepiev - a fugitive monk who decided to become a king, posing as the deceased legitimate heir to the throne. At this time, Boris Godunov ruled in Moscow. He did not belong to the Rurik dynasty. In addition, during his reign, mass famine began due to crop failure. The superstitious poor and the poor blamed the tsar for their misfortunes and were just waiting for the appearance of False Dmitry.
Otrepiev enlisted the support of Polish nobles, including the Mniszech family. The aristocrats gave him money, and most of the impostor's troops were Cossacks from the Polish-Russian border regions. In 1605, False Dmitry, thanks to a fortunate combination of circumstances, managed to seize power in Moscow.
He made the Poles his confidants and gave them key positions in the state. The former Moscow elite did not like this. A conspiracy arose, during which False Dmitry was killed, and the Poles were captured and imprisoned. The former boyar Vasily Shuisky became the new king.
Beginning of the Russian-Polish War
All this time, King Sigismund remained neutral. However, the arrest of many Polish nobles angered him. At the same time, a new impostor appeared in Russia, who is known in historiography as Polish aristocrats, who had recently experienced an unsuccessful uprising against Sigismund, joined him.
An army of robbers and adventurers stood near Moscow and cut off the capital’s communications with other cities within the country, and therefore the flow of food and other resources into it. Famine began in the city. Shuisky agreed to release all Poles from prison. At the same time, the king entered into an alliance with the Swedish king, promising his northern neighbor several regions for help in the fight against the impostor.
Sigismund was a sworn enemy of the Swedish crown. He took the conclusion of an alliance between neighbors as an official reason for war. The Polish monarch hoped that he would quickly be able to take Moscow, because by this time Russia had already been in a state of chaos for several years. In 1609, Sigismund officially declared war on Shuisky and moved to the border with his own army.
Preparing for the siege
Thus began the siege of Smolensk. This city was located on the way from Poland to Moscow and was the main “shield” for the capital. A 20,000-strong Polish army approached the fortress. At this time, in Smolensk there was only a small garrison of 5 thousand, led by governor Mikhail Shein.
On the eve of the start of the campaign, in January 1609, Sigismund held a Diet in Warsaw, at which he proposed a plan to the gentry, according to which he wanted to place his son Vladislav on the Russian throne. In the spring, systematic raids by Polish troops began on the border towns of the Russian kingdom. Mikhail Shein, realizing that a real army might soon approach Smolensk, organized in advance the construction of outposts on the outskirts of the city. The position of the fortress worsened when in the summer all the roads to the capital were occupied by the troops of False Dmitry. Since his main camp was located in Tushino, near Moscow, he himself began to be called the Tushino thief, and his troops - Tushino people.
The Poles' siege of Smolensk could have ended very quickly if not for Shein's prompt actions. He gathered all the gunners, archers and boyar children who were nearby. In August, the voivode actively sent out decrees on the recruitment of soldiers from various fiefdoms. Peaceful peasants were taught to use weapons so that they too could defend their hometown.
The governor divided his garrison into two parts. Two thousand people ended up in a siege detachment that was supposed to defend the walls of the fortress to the end. The rest of the army was intended for forays into the enemy camp. The siege garrison was divided into 38 identical detachments, each of which had to defend one tower on the fortress walls. If there were no sorties, the second part of the army joined the besieged and helped in areas where the enemy could gain the upper hand.
This is how the defense of Smolensk from the Poles proceeded. The situation inside the camp was characterized by severe discipline. The voivode managed to mobilize all city resources. Civilians also helped the garrison. They took part in regular patrols around the walls. The service was carried out in shifts, which made it possible to monitor security at city borders around the clock.
The issue of planting also became acute. This was the part of the city located outside the fortress walls. The total number of households here reached 6 thousand. All of them were burned so that the Poles could not settle there. The population of the settlement hid inside the fortress walls, which is why conflicts began in the city over housing. In the end, Shein issued a decree according to which property owners had to let in homeless people free of charge. Cash rent was prohibited. This allowed the conflicts to subside. While the Russian kingdom was suffering from raids by various enemies, Smolensk was actively preparing for defense.
The appearance of the Poles at the walls of Smolensk
The first organized Polish troops approached Smolensk on September 16, 1609. They were led by the military leader Lev Sapega. Three days later, the troops of King Sigismund III found themselves at the walls. At first there were 12 thousand people in the enemy army, but over time this figure reached 22 thousand. Despite its impressive size, the enemy army had certain disadvantages. It was designed mainly for field battles, so the infantry and artillery necessary for a siege were practically absent. Most modern historians agree that Sigismund did not intend to besiege the city for a long time, but hoped to receive the keys to it immediately upon arriving at the gates. But his aspirations were not destined to come true.
The beginning of the siege of Smolensk was marked by the fact that the Polish invaders occupied an area of about twenty square kilometers around the city. The few peasants who by that time still lived on the outskirts of Smolensk were deprived of all food supplies - they were simply confiscated to feed the king’s army. In addition, the villagers had to supply food in the future. This led to the fact that most of the local population simply fled to the forests rather than cooperate with the enemy. When the Polish troops finally took their positions, a parliamentarian went to the Smolensk governor demanding the surrender of the city. Information about the content of the Smolensk response varies. According to one version, the besieged residents did not answer anything at all, according to another, they promised to give the Poles water from the Dnieper next time (that is, drown them).
First assault
The defense of Smolensk lasted almost three years (1609-1611). It is noteworthy that the Poles did not even draw up a siege plan and at first did not bring up the necessary artillery. This carelessness was associated with Sigismund’s vain aspirations for the quick surrender of the city. When the commander and hetman Stanislav Zholkiewski took his place, he honestly informed the king that the army did not have enough resources to carry out a successful immediate assault. Therefore, he proposed leaving Smolensk under blockade and moving the main forces to Moscow. Sigismund, however, did not agree with this plan and ordered preparations for the assault.
Polish sappers tried to blow up several gates, but they failed, and all thanks to the fact that the defenders of the city installed log houses filled with stones and earth in time. These attempts were made during the day, while the garrison closely monitored the actions of the enemy. The next venture took place at night. The Poles still managed to blow up the Avramievo Gate, but this did not bring any practical benefit. The troops were unable to get through the gap due to poor organization of the assault and an untimely signal to start the attack, which was noticed by the garrison. Smolensk's resistance came as a surprise to the attackers. Heavy fire was opened on the troops, which mowed down the ranks of Poles and Lithuanians. The reason for the large losses was also the dense formation of the assault troops. Russian riflemen hit the enemy almost every time. The fire superiority of the defenders of the fortress allowed them to fire even at the royal camp, which was located at a considerable distance from the site of the direct battle for the gate.
After failures on the eastern flank, the Poles decided to launch an offensive on the northern and western sections of the fortress wall. The bloodiest battles took place near the Pyatnitsky and Dnieper gates, where hundreds of soldiers on both sides were killed. At this critical moment, Mikhail Shein brilliantly used the tactics of effectively and mobilely using the reserve, which appeared where the battle began to turn in favor of the enemy.
The small-caliber guns that the besiegers wielded in the first days did not cause noticeable damage to the wide walls of the Smolensk fortress. This encouraged the defenders, who saw the futility of the enemy's efforts.
Transition to a long siege
The first unsuccessful assault ended on September 27, 1609. The time of troubles did not prevent the defenders of the fortress from uniting and successfully repelling enemy attacks. At the beginning of October, another 10 thousand people from among the Zaporozhye Cossacks joined the besieging army. A new stage of the siege began. Now Polish engineers and sappers tried to destroy the enemy walls, resorting to cunning. Interestingly, the king even hired Western foreign specialists (including Germans) who successfully fought mine warfare during European conflicts. Practice has shown that most of their efforts near Smolensk were in vain.
At the same time, Sigismund did not involve the army in preparation for the assault. But the defenders of Smolensk did not sit idle. The garrison covered almost all the gates, reducing to a minimum the number of places where they could enter the city. The scouts promptly uncovered the next mine installations near the walls and prevented the Poles from harming the fortifications. Over time, the garrison identified all the vulnerable points through which the enemy could get inside. Regular guards were organized there.
The siege continued in this mode for several months. Periodically, the Smolensk people organized forays, during which they destroyed enemy infrastructure and also obtained water. With the onset of winter, such flying detachments also went for firewood. Meanwhile, commander Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky finally unblocked Moscow. After this, active partisan actions began in the rear of the Polish army. This dispersed Sigismund's forces and gave respite to the besieged.
However, unfortunately for the Smolensk people, the winter of 1609-1610. turned out to be particularly harsh. The frosts weakened the garrison and left it with virtually no supplies. Famine began in the city. When the Tushino camp near Moscow fell, many Poles located in the Moscow region came under the command of Zolkiewski and increased pressure on the besieged Smolensk. In the spring, the city learned about the sudden death of Skopin-Shuisky, who for everyone personified the hope of victory over the interventionists. The young commander died in Moscow after he was treacherously poisoned by the boyars.
Despite this misfortune, the royal army nevertheless moved out of the capital to drive the interventionists away from the walls of the besieged city. This army was defeated at the Battle of Klushino on June 24, 1610. The winner turned out to be the same Stanislav Zholkiewski, who specially left the camp near Smolensk to give a general battle to the Russian-Swedish army. But even this news did not deprive the besieged of the desire to fight the invaders to the end.
That same summer, the Poles finally brought full-fledged artillery, which posed a serious threat to the city walls. The siege of Smolensk continued. On June 18, near the Faceted Tower, the cannons managed to break through a significant gap. Sigismund gave the order to begin the next assault. Three attacks were launched, but all of them, to the king’s surprise, ended in failure. The Smolensk people literally threw the Poles out of the breach. Pyotr Gorchakov helped lead the defense.
Final isolation of Smolensk
Meanwhile, news came from Moscow that Tsar Vasily Shuisky had been overthrown in a boyar coup. The new rulers of the Kremlin turned out to be supporters of the Polish king. In historiography, this short-lived regime is known as the Seven Boyars. An order came to Smolensk to surrender the city to Sigismund. However, Mikhail Shein refused to obey. The residents of the fortress unanimously supported his decision. The turmoil and political changes in Moscow did not in any way affect the mood of the besieged. After almost two years of hardship, people became accustomed to a variety of hardships and hated the Poles.
Sigismund, having learned about Shein’s disobedience, gave the Smolensk people a period of three days to surrender the city. Otherwise, he promised to execute everyone. Meanwhile, the Smolensk men dug into the Polish positions and blew up their artillery. As a result, Sigismund had to request new guns in his homeland, which were delivered to the front of the fighting within another two months. During this time, the besieged residents managed to catch their breath. Some Smolensk boyars doubted the need for defense due to the fall of Moscow. Shein suppressed these treacherous sentiments. In addition, in the fall it became known about the organization of the First People's Militia, which only strengthened the hope of the city’s defenders for their own salvation.
Fall of the fortress
Not many survived the second siege winter. Over the past years - 1609-1611 - the defense of Smolensk completely weakened the city's inhabitants. Knowing this, the Poles launched a new assault on June 3. They managed to break through. The defenders of Smolensk retreated deeper into the city and fought with the invaders in the streets. The invaders carried out a merciless massacre. Among them were unscrupulous mercenaries who were thirsty for blood. A large group of local residents, including women and children, took refuge in the Monomakh Cathedral. Temples often became the last refuge in besieged cities of those times. There was a gunpowder warehouse under the church. It was blown up by sheltering residents. The blast wave destroyed the temple, at the same time burying many of the interventionists.
The fate of Mikhail Shein and other prisoners
Thus ended the Poles' siege of Smolensk. The brave commander Mikhail Shein, who fought off the royal army for two years, locked himself in one of the towers and fought with the Poles to the last. Those close to him begged him to give up rather than commit suicide. Finally, he listened to his family and laid down his arms. The governor was brought to Sigismund. The king was infuriated by the two-year siege, which not only exhausted the army, but also caused serious reputational damage to the monarch. Many nobles died - the color of the nation and the support of the throne. It was Mikhail Shein who caused all this shame. Therefore, the king treated the prisoner with all cruelty. He ordered the governor to be tortured so that he would surrender all his supporters. To top it all off, the exhausted Shein was taken to Poland, where he was subjected to public humiliation typical of that era: paraded through cities, carried in an open carriage, etc.
The Smolensk governor, like many other significant opponents of Polish power in Russia, found himself in long-term captivity. He had to go through another test. The former Tsar Vasily Shuisky, on whose side the Smolensk people stood, was captured by the Poles after their appearance in Moscow. The deposed monarch was also sent to bow to Sigismund. Shein was also present at the humiliating meeting with the king.
When the Polish intervention in Russia ended in failure, and Mikhail Romanov came to power in Moscow, the first thing he wanted to do was rescue all the prisoners, including the Smolensk governor. This only happened in 1619, when the war between the two countries finally ended. Mikhail Shein returned to his homeland as a national hero. With him was another important Polish prisoner - Fyodor Romanov. This was the father of Tsar Michael, who later became the Patriarch of Moscow.
The meaning of defense
Despite the fact that the years 1609-1611 (the defense of Smolensk ended with the fall of the city) turned out to be sad for the history of Rus', the victory of the Polish army can be called Pyrrhic. More than two years of heroic resistance by the inhabitants of the isolated city served as an inspiring example for the rest of the Russian people, who, it would seem, were on the sidelines of the war. The Smolensk events united the scattered forces in the rear. This is how the First and then the Second People's Militia appeared. It was these troops that ultimately liberated Moscow from the invaders and created the preconditions for the Romanovs’ accession to the throne.
The arrival of Sigismund's army to Smolensk and the two-year delay under its walls had economic consequences for Poland. The king had to devote most of his resources to the camp set up near the besieged city, while he was losing strategic initiative in Moscow and other important regions. When Smolensk finally fell, the Polish army was already drained of blood and subsequently could not stay long in the Russian capital. In total, the king lost about thirty thousand well-trained soldiers in the siege. Sigismund did not even imagine how many of his warriors the Smolensk fortress would bury. The history of this siege is still considered as a key and turning point in the Time of Troubles. After the capture of Smolensk, the king returned to his homeland.
Russian-Polish War 1609-1618 ended with the city finally passing to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. However, Smolensk was not under foreign rule for long. In 1654, already under the son of Mikhail Romanov Alexei, it was returned to the Russian kingdom. In that war, Left Bank Ukraine (together with Kiev) was also annexed to Moscow’s possessions, which symbolized the historical reunification of the lands of the Eastern Slavs.
The Smolensk defense became one of the longest in Russian history. Never before has the Russian kingdom defended its city with such tenacity. After the return of Smolensk under Alexei Romanov, it never became part of Poland.
In modern Russia, the holiday of National Unity Day has been established, which is celebrated annually on November 4. This is the date of the capture of the Moscow Kremlin by the militia of Minin and Pozharsky.
The armed clash between the Russian state and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was called the Russian-Polish War of 1609 - 1618.
Causes of the war
In 1604, the Russian Tsar B. Godunov died. The Time of Troubles begins in the country. Impostors claim the throne: first False Dmitry I, then False Dmitry II. The Polish king Sigismund III, under the pretext of providing support to impostors, organizes a campaign against Rus'. The ultimate goal of the campaign was the capture of the Moscow state.
Smolensk defense
September 1609 The Poles, led by Stanislav Zholkiewski, approached the walls of Smolensk. Their plans did not include a long siege of the city. They hoped to quickly capture the strategic fortress and move on to Moscow. But the talented preparation of Smolensk for a meeting with the enemy by governor M. Shein violated Polish plans. It was Shein who quickly gathered an army from the inhabitants of the surrounding villages, strengthened the city walls, and foresaw the enemy’s plans.
The first Polish assault failed. 5,400 thousand people fought steadfastly in the Smolensk fortress. And the enemy army consisted of 22,000 fighters. The city held out for twenty months. But by June 1611, the resistance was broken, and the enraged Poles broke into Smolensk.
Mikhail Shein fought to the end, but was captured and taken to Poland.
The significance of the Smolensk defense for the course of the war
- The Polish army weakened (30,000 people died).
- For almost 2 years the royal army was pinned down near Smolensk and did not conduct military operations near Moscow.
- The courage of the defenders of Smolensk inspired the Russian people and served as the beginning of the First People's Militia.
Battle of Klushina
1610 In June, the army under the command of Dmitry Shuisky came to the aid of the defenders of Smolensk. The bulk of the army were Russians (35,000), Swedes (5,000) and mercenaries: French, Germans, British. 48,000 soldiers against 12,400 Poles.
It would seem that the outcome of the battle is predetermined - the forces are too unequal. But discontent arose in the Russian-Swedish army. The command delayed the salaries of the mercenaries. And the commander of the Polish army, S. Zholkiewski, learned about this from defectors. He prepared a daring plan - he led troops through difficult forests and on July 4 unexpectedly led his subordinates to the Russian-Swedish camp near the village of Klushino. And although the lightning defeat failed, the spirit of the Russian army was broken. Senior officers fled into the forest or showed complete passivity. And Scottish and French mercenaries began to negotiate with Zolkiewski, asking for immunity in exchange for a promise not to fight against the King of Poland.
Shuisky, having learned about the betrayal, hastily began to distribute salaries to the soldiers. But it was too late. Then the commander of the Russian army ordered jewelry, furs, treasury, and artillery to be scattered on the ground in order to delay the enemy and give his troops time to retreat.
Result of the Battle of Klushina:
- The Russian army ceased to exist.
- The Polish army increased due to the Swedish mercenaries who came over to its side.
Occupation of Moscow
The indignant Moscow people overthrew Vasily Shuisky from the throne. A government of 7 boyars, known as the Seven Boyars, came to power. The boyars entered into an agreement with the Poles that the son of Sigismund III, the Polish prince Vladislav, would ascend the throne. And in the fall of 1610, Zholkiewski led Polish troops into Moscow.
First militia
Patriarch Hermogenes, trying to inspire the people to fight the Poles, sent letters throughout the country. “The Fatherland is being plundered,” he wrote. “Innocent blood is being shed!” His call was supported by the governor Prokopiy Lyapunov, and later by Prince Dmitry Trubetskoy and Ivan Zarutsky. They gathered an army of patriots to liberate the capital from the invaders.
In March 1611, the First Militia approached Moscow, where a popular uprising was raging. The Poles set Moscow on fire and crushed the uprising. And the militia troops suffered a complete collapse. And the main reason for the defeat was civil strife among the command.
Second militia. Battle for Moscow
The Russian state was dying. Moscow, Smolensk, Novgorod were captured. Foreign gangs roamed Russian soil, ruining the population. The Orthodox Church appealed to the people, urging them to fight against troublemakers and invaders.
The written appeal reached the Nizhny Novgorod meat merchant Kuzma Minin. His financial contribution to the creation of the Second Militia became an infectious example for others. Nobles, peasants, and townspeople stood under Russian banners. Dmitry Pozharsky became the leader of the army. And in September 1612, the Second Militia was able to drive the Poles out of Moscow.
Siege of Smolensk
Inspired by the victory, the Russian regiments set off on a new campaign - to Smolensk. Having recaptured Vyazma and Dorogobuzh from the enemy without a fight, they assumed that the frightened Poles would capitulate and there would be no need to storm the Smolensk fortress. Russian governors did not even try to attack or take active action. In unsuccessful clashes, the chance to regain Smolensk was missed. A 4-year (1613 – 1617) siege of the city began.
New attempts to capture Moscow
Before 1618, the Polish government tried to capture Moscow several times:
- Pan Lisovsky with light cavalry penetrated deep into the territory (1615), describing a loop around the capital. But Prince Pozharsky and the squads of the Second Militia repelled the onslaught of the interventionists near Orel.
- Prince Vladislav and Hetman Sagaidachny approached Moscow. During the campaign (1617 - 1618) they managed to capture Vyazma and Dorogobuzh. The assault on Moscow (October 1618) failed.
Truce of Deulino
The Russian government did not see the possibility of expelling the Poles from its territory. In December 1618, in the village of Deulino, the Russian Kingdom and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth entered into an agreement according to which:
- The cities: Smolensk, Chernigov, Novgorod - Seversky and adjacent territories were assigned to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
- The Polish king Vladislav had the right to be called the Russian Tsar.
- The term of the truce is 14.5 years.
Results
The confrontation between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Russian state ended in favor of the Poles:
- The territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth grew.
- The border of the Russian state moved greatly to the east.
- The Polish king officially laid claim to the Russian throne.
But, at the same time, in Rus' the long-term Troubles that tormented the people ended, and the raids of infidels on Russian lands ceased.
The outcome of the war, after the Polish-Lithuanian invasions of 1579 - 1580. and the fall of Polotsk and Velikie Luki, was to be decided by the third, decisive blow of Stefan Batory against the Russian kingdom. By this time, Ivan the Terrible had made several peace proposals; the Poles were offered peace on very favorable terms. The decision on the need to end the long war, which ruined the Russian state, was made at the end of 1580 at the Zemsky Sobor. However, the Polish government, intoxicated with success, did not want peace; the Poles dreamed of Smolensk, Pskov, Novgorod and the capture of Moscow. For the new campaign, the Polish ruler borrowed money from the Saxon and Brandenburg electors and the Prussian ruler. Batory also convinced the Diet, assembled in February 1581, to agree to collect taxes for two years. The Sejm, in turn, asked the monarch to end the war with this campaign, since the population was already tired of constant extortions for military operations.
In December 1580 - March 1581, the enemy made a deep raid on Russian soil, reaching Lake Ilmen. During this campaign, the enemy captured Kholm with a surprise attack; in March 1581, the Poles burned Staraya Russa. The city was not protected by fortifications and its commanders took away the entire population in advance. However, during the secondary attack on the city, it turned out to be sudden; the senior governor Vasily Turenin was captured in the city. During the same period, the enemy captured the Pskov fortress of Voronech, and in Livonia the Shmilten castle.
The betrayal of the royal steward Davyd Belsky, who fled to Lithuania in May 1581 and spoke about the difficult situation in the Muscovite kingdom, finally persuaded Batory to the decision to continue the war and capture Pskov, and with the successful development of the offensive, Novgorod.
The third campaign of the Polish-Lithuanian army. Heroic defense of Pskov (1581-1582)
June 20, 1581 47 thousand. The Polish army (it included more than 20 thousand mercenaries from European states) set out on a campaign. However, this time the Polish command failed to keep the direction of the main attack secret. Russian governors even carried out a pre-emptive military operation, ravaging the outskirts of Dubrovna, Orsha, Shklov and Mogilev. This blow not only slowed down the advance of the enemy army for two weeks, but weakened its strength. The Polish king had to send a strong detachment under the Trotsky governor Christopher Radziwill to the eastern borders of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In addition, thanks to the gain in time, the Russian command was able to transfer reinforcements from the Livonian castles from the Baltic States.
Pskov governors Vasily Skopin-Shuisky and Ivan Shuisky began to prepare the city for defense. The Pskov garrison consisted of 4 thousand nobles, children of boyars, archers and Cossacks, it was reinforced by 12 thousand armed residents of Pskov and its suburbs. Already during the siege, the garrison was reinforced by the breakthrough detachment of the Streltsy head Fyodor Myasoedov. Pskov had a powerful system of defensive structures, which, thanks to regular attacks by the Livonians, was constantly being improved. The city had four lines of defense - Krom (Kremlin), Dovmontov city, Middle city and Okolny city (Big city). The outer wall of the Okolny City had 37 towers and 48 gates, stretching for almost 10 miles. The western part of the city was protected by the Velikaya River, so only here the walls of Pskov were wooden, on all other sides - stone. On the eve of the siege, the Pskov fortress was strengthened by the construction of additional fortifications. New wooden towers were built outside and inside the walls and wide tower platforms were built - peals, designed to install powerful guns. The construction of additional towers eliminated the main drawback of the old fortifications - insufficient flank defense (longitudinal shelling, hitting the target from the side; longitudinal fire makes it possible to defend large spaces with small forces and, at the same time, cause significant harm to the advancing troops). The walls of the new outer towers were protected by turf, which protected them from incendiary shells, and they were equipped with a large number of loopholes. The roundabout city was also crossed by the Pskova River. To protect against enemy penetration in Pskov, two arches were built, which had lower and upper gratings for the passage of water and ships. In anticipation of the enemy, the Pskovites hastily repaired the fortifications and supplemented them with new ones. Guns were installed on towers, ramparts and walls. Two large guns, the “Bars” and the “Treskotukha”, played a particularly important role in the defense of the city, which fired at a distance of about 1 verst. The Polish army did not have a single cannon equal in power.
On August 18, the advanced detachments of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth troops reached the near approaches to Pskov, and on the Cheryokha River the Poles defeated a detachment of Russian cavalry. On August 21, unable to withstand the fierce artillery shelling, the small fortress of Ostrov surrendered to the enemy. During the day, the advanced Polish detachments approached Pskov itself, stopping at a distance of three cannon shots from the fortress walls. Russian commanders, when the enemy approached, ordered the siege bell to be rung and the suburbs set on fire. However, the siege itself began only a week later, on August 26, when the main forces of the enemy army approached the city and engineering work began. The city's defenders met the enemy with artillery fire and forced him to retreat to a safe distance.
On September 1, having become convinced of the strength of the Russian defense and the strength of the fortress’s artillery, Stefan Batory gave the order to begin digging trenches to bring the artillery and infantry positions closer to the city. The Poles dug trenches, gradually approaching the fortress, and at the same time built large and small dugouts in the trenches. The earth dug out from the trenches was used to build a rampart to protect workers from shelling from the fortress and to hide the work being carried out. Batory decided to storm the city from the southern side of the Okolny town, where the Pokrovskaya and Svinorskaya towers were located. By September 4-5, the siege work in this direction was completed. The installed battery of 20 guns opened fire on the fortifications of Pskov, which continued for two days. The main efforts of the enemy artillerymen were concentrated on two towers and a 150 m section of the wall between us. As a result of powerful shelling, the Pokrovskaya and Svinorskaya towers were severely damaged, and a 50-meter gap appeared between them.
Stefan Batory scheduled the assault on Pskov for September 8. The best forces of the royal army went on the attack - Polish and mercenary, German, Hungarian infantry. Despite the strong barrage, the enemy was able to capture the Svinorskaya and Pokrovskaya towers. Royal banners were raised on them, Stefan Batory was sure that the assault was a success, his soldiers broke into Pskov, victory was near. However, things didn’t go so well for the Poles. Before the assault, behind the dilapidated wall, the defenders managed to build a wooden wall with several rows of loopholes. The enemy infantry, which tried to break through further, was stopped by heavy fire. The Poles began to fire at the city from the Swinorskaya Tower, but this attempt failed. With one shot from the Bars cannon installed on the Pokhvalsky raskat, the upper tiers of the Svinorskaya tower were destroyed. Then, the Pskovites rolled barrels of gunpowder to the base of the dilapidated tower and blew it up. The explosion of the Svinorskaya Tower was the signal for a counterattack by the Russian garrison, led by Prince Shuisky. Russian troops drove the enemy out of the captured section of the wall. The Pokrovskaya Tower was destroyed by digging and gunpowder was planted. The few surviving enemy soldiers retreated to their trenches.
During this battle, the defenders lost about 2.5 thousand people killed and wounded. The attackers lost only up to 5 thousand people killed. It was a serious defeat, the enemy army lost several thousand of its best warriors. The Pskovites quickly restored the damaged wall, strengthened it with an additional wall, dug a ditch, strengthening it with a palisade. Stefan Batory, despite this defeat, did not lift the siege. He ordered mines to be dug to blow up the walls. Siege weapons were installed at the Mirozhsky Monastery on the left bank of the Velikaya River and in Zavelichye; on October 24, the Poles began shelling the city with red-hot cannonballs. But the townspeople quickly extinguished the fires that started in Pskov.
Total autumn and winter 1581 - 1582 the enemy attacked 31 times, but to no avail. Each time the assaults were repelled with heavy losses for the attackers. The Pskovites put up fierce resistance and invariably won. The Polish command, having decided that the weak point of the fortress was the wall that goes to the Velikaya River, decided to strike again here. On October 28, the Hungarians, having walked along the Velikaya to the slope on which the city wall stood between the corner tower and the Pokrovsky Gate, began to destroy its foundation with picks and crowbars. However, when part of the fortifications collapsed, it turned out that there was another one behind the wall, and in front of it was a ditch. The enemy tried to take the second wall by storm, but the defenders met them with volleys of gunfire, threw jugs of gunpowder, and poured boiling water and hot tar. The Hungarians, having suffered heavy losses, stopped the assault and retreated.
Military failures led to a decline in the morale of the Polish army, which was aggravated by the onset of cold weather, the outbreak of mass diseases, and difficulties associated with supplying the army with food and ammunition. The enemy army made the last significant attempt to take the city in early November, after another 5-day bombardment of Pskov. By this time, the city wall had already been destroyed in many places and did not pose a serious obstacle to the attackers. This time the main attack came from the western side. On November 2, the Poles crossed the Velikaya River on ice, but they were met by such heavy fire that they stopped and then returned to their original positions.
The enemy's attempts to make a large hole in the fortifications using mines also failed. The defenders of Pskov discovered them using special wells - “rumors”. These wells helped determine the direction and depth of the Poles' underground work. Most of the enemy mine galleries were discovered, and two were blown up using counter-galleries. The enemy did not manage to complete the rest of the tunnels.
The Polish king sent detachments of Germans and Hungarians to capture the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery, 60 km from Pskov. The garrison of the monastery was small - about 300 archers under the command of the archery head Nechaev with the support of monks. The enemy destroyed part of the monastery wall with artillery fire, but on October 28, during the assault, the mercenaries suffered heavy losses and retreated.
On November 6, Stefan Batory ordered the guns to be removed from the batteries, siege work to be stopped and preparations for the winter. Stefan Batory himself handed over leadership of the army to the great crown hetman Jan Zamoyski and left for Vilna. At the same time, he took almost all the mercenaries with him, as a result, the size of the army was reduced by almost half. This decision meant the complete collapse of the aggressive plans of Stefan Batory and his advisers. The remaining Poles suffered from cold and disease, and the number of deaths and deserters grew. In addition, the Pskovites constantly disturbed the enemy army with bold forays and made about 40 attacks on the enemy camp. The heroic defense of Pskov undermined the offensive power of the Polish army, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was forced to seek peace.
The Polish-Lithuanian state was exhausted and could not continue the offensive war; Stefan Batory decided to meet the peace proposals of Ivan the Terrible. On December 13, 1581, when the fighting near Pskov was still ongoing, peace negotiations began in the village of Kiverova Gora, 15 versts from Zapolsky Yam (not far from Pskov).
Monument to the 300th anniversary of the Defense of 1581
End of the Livonian War. Yam-Zapolskoe and Plyusskoe truces
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was represented by the governor of Braslav Y. M. Zbarazhsky, the prince of Nesvizh A. Radziwill, the secretary M. Garaburda and Kh. Varshevitsky. The representative of the Pope, the Jesuit Antonio Possevino, persistently persuaded Poland towards peace. He hoped to convince Ivan the Terrible to accept a union with the Catholic Church. Russia was represented by Voivode Kashinsky D.P. Eletsky, Voivode Kozelsky R.V. Olferyev, clerk N.N. Vereshchagin and clerk Z. Sviyazev.
The negotiations ended on January 5 (15), 1582 with the conclusion of a 10-year truce. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth returned to Moscow the previously captured cities - Velikiye Luki, Nevel, Zavolochye, Kholm, Rzhev, and the Pskov suburbs - Ostrov, Krasny, Voronech and Velyu. The Moscow government agreed to transfer to Poland all the cities and castles in Livonia that were occupied by Russian troops (there were 41 of them). Thus, most of the Baltic states were assigned to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In addition, Stefan Batory achieved the transfer to Poland of the Polotsk land, the cities of Velizh, Sokol, Ozerische and Usvyat.
On February 4, almost a month after the conclusion of the Yam-Zapolsky truce, the last Polish troops left the Pskov land. In June, the terms of the Yam-Zapol truce were confirmed at negotiations in the Russian capital.
The war with Sweden soon ended. The Swedish command successfully used the time during which all the Russians' attention was focused on Pskov and the Polish army. On September 4, 1581, the Swedish army under the command of Pontus Delagardie captured Rugodiv (Narva). The fortifications of the fortress were destroyed by the fire of 24 siege weapons. During the assault, the Swedes killed not only its garrison - 2.3 thousand archers and boyar children, but also 7 thousand “Russian burghers” (citizens), including women and children. It was a real massacre. In 1580, the Swedes carried out a similar massacre in Oreshka, killing 2 thousand people. On September 17, 1581, the Swedish army occupied Ivangorod, its governor A. Belskoy surrendered the fortress to the enemy.
Having gained a foothold in Narva and Ivangorod, the Swedish army continued the offensive and captured Yam-gorod on September 28, and Koporye and its districts on October 14. This was a serious success for the enemy. However, the Swedish offensive soon fizzled out. At the beginning of February 1582, Russian troops under the command of Prince D. Khvorostinin and M. Beznin near the village of Lyamitsy in Votskaya Pyatina completely defeated the Swedish forces that had begun a new offensive. Having suffered a heavy defeat, the Swedes hastily retreated to Narva. In addition, the Swedish siege of Oreshek failed; they were unable to take this well-defended fortress.
Peace negotiations soon began. In May 1583, a preliminary truce was concluded (for two months). The Swedish kingdom was represented by: the governor of Livonia and Ingermanland, Pontus Delagardie, Baron Ekholm and the governor of Finland, Claes Tott. On the Russian side, negotiations were conducted by Prince I. S. Lobanov-Rostovsky, Duma nobleman I. P. Tatishchev and clerk of the Ambassadorial Prikaz D. Petelin. On August 10, 1583, a 3rd truce was concluded on the Plyussa River between Sweden and the Muscovite kingdom. In December 1585, the second Truce of Plus was signed between the Kingdom of Sweden and the Russian state for a period of 4 years. According to the Truce of Plus, the Swedes retained all the cities they captured.
The difficult almost 25-year Livonian War was over. At the initial stage of this war, the Russian state achieved great success, defeating Livonia and capturing almost the entire Baltic region. However, in the end, Russia suffered a serious defeat in the war, losing previously captured lands and parts of its own territory to Sweden and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Russia in the Baltic states only had the Oreshek fortress and a small narrow corridor along the Neva River with access to the Baltic Sea. It should be noted that this was not a historical defeat for Russia. It was obvious that Moscow would continue to fight with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden for its lands. So, the next war with Sweden will begin in 1590 and end with the victory of the Russian state.
Conducting military operations in Livonia and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Russian state was forced to hold the defense on the southern borders, where the Crimean Tatars and Nogais carried out their raids. This forced the Moscow government to conclude a truce with Sweden in the fall of 1564. Moscow recognized the transition to Swedish rule of Revel (Kolyvan), Pernau (Pernova), Weissenstein and a number of other cities and fortresses in the north of the former Livonian Estland. The truce was signed in September 1564 in Yuryev.
This allowed the tsarist troops to launch a major offensive against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In October 1564, the Russian army set out from Velikiye Luki and on November 6 captured the Ozerishche fortress. After this, the Russian authorities, consolidating their presence in the Polotsk land, began to build new fortresses on the western borders: in 1566-1567. Kozyan, Sitno, Krasny, Sokol, Susha, Turovlya, Ula and Usvyat were built. The Lithuanian authorities, trying to strengthen their positions in the difficult war with the Muscovite kingdom, decided to unite Poland. On July 1, 1569, deputies of the Polish and Lithuanian Sejms at a general Sejm convened in Lublin approved a union, a state union between the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which created a single federal state - the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This event ultimately had a decisive influence on the outcome of the Livonian War.
However, the strategic turning point in the war did not occur immediately. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania suffered heavy losses and needed a peaceful respite. Ivan Vasilyevich accepted the proposals of the Polish king for a truce. In the summer of 1570, a three-year truce was concluded between the Russian state and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. According to his terms, the status quo was maintained during this period. Polotsk, Sitno, Ozerishche, Usvyati and several other castles went to the Russian kingdom.
War in the Baltics
Ivan the Terrible decided to take advantage of this time to deal a decisive blow to the Swedes. In the Kingdom of Sweden at this time, Eric XIV was overthrown, and the brother of the lost monarch, Johan III, who was married to the sister of the Polish king Sigismund II Augustus, Catherine Jagiellonka, became the new king. Johan broke the alliance treaty with Russia, which was concluded by his predecessor at the beginning of 1567. In Stockholm, the Russian embassy, which arrived to ratify the union agreement, was robbed. This was a serious insult to Moscow, war became inevitable.
Preparing to strike Revel, Ivan the Terrible decided to win over part of the local German nobility to his side. In addition, Moscow sought an alliance with Denmark, which was at enmity with Sweden. For this purpose, a vassal kingdom was created in the part of Livonia occupied by Russian troops; the younger brother of the Danish king Frederick II, Prince Magnus (in Russian sources he was called “Artsimagnus Krestyanovich”), became its ruler. Magnus became related to the Rurik dynasty, was married to the cousin of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich Maria Vladimirovna, Princess Staritskaya - the daughter of Prince Vladimir Andreevich. Magnus arrived in Moscow in June 1570 and was showered with favors and proclaimed “King of Livonia.” The Russian Tsar released all the captured Germans in order to strengthen the position of the “king”. The prince brought few soldiers, Denmark did not send a fleet to help, but Ivan the Terrible appointed him commander-in-chief of the Russian troops sent against the Swedes.
Siege of Revel. August 21, 1570 25 thousand. The Russian-Livonian army led by Magnus and governors Ivan Yakovlev and Vasily Umny-Kolychev approached Revel. The townspeople who accepted Swedish citizenship refused the offer to accept Magnus's citizenship. A difficult and long siege of a well-fortified city began. By this time, the Russian army already had extensive experience in capturing Livonian strongholds. Opposite the gate, large wooden towers were built, on which guns were installed to bombard the city. However, this time such tactics did not bring success. The townspeople conducted an active defense, often making forays, destroying siege structures. In addition, the size of the Russian-Livonian army was insufficient to take such a large and strong fortress-city by storm. However, the siege continued; the Russian command hoped to take the fortress in the winter, when the Swedish fleet would not be able to supply reinforcements and supplies to Revel. The siege entered a passive stage, when Russian and Livonian troops were engaged in devastation of the surrounding area, turning the population against themselves, without taking active action against the fortress.
The Swedish fleet was able to supply the city with the necessary reinforcements, ammunition, provisions and firewood before the onset of cold weather. This eased the situation for the besieged. The shelling of Revel with incendiary shells, which began in mid-January 1571, also did not bring success. Continuing the siege became pointless, only diverting significant forces of the Russian army from solving other problems. On March 16, 1571, the siege was lifted.
In 1571, the Swedes tried to attack the Russian kingdom from the north - in the summer the enemy fleet entered the White Sea for the first time. A combined squadron of ships from Sweden, Holland and Hamburg appeared near the Solovetsky Islands. However, for an unknown reason, the interventionists did not dare to attack the monastery, which did not yet have fortifications, and left without a fight.
A new trip to Estland. Ivan the Terrible decided to continue the attack on Swedish Estland, taking advantage of the death of the Polish king Sigismund Augustus (July 7, 1572), which interrupted the Jagiellon dynasty and the ensuing “kinglessness” in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Russian command changed tactics: Revel was temporarily left alone, switching to the capture of other cities and fortresses that did not have such powerful defenses, and the complete displacement of the enemy from the area. The Moscow government hoped that having lost all the cities and fortifications, the Swedes would not be able to hold Revel. This plan brought success to the Russian army.
At the end of 1572, Ivan the Terrible led a new campaign to the Baltic states. In December 80 thousand. The Russian army besieged the Swedish stronghold in central Estland - Weissenstein (Paide). At this moment there were only 50 warriors in the castle, led by Hans Boye. After a powerful artillery bombardment, on the sixth day of the siege, January 1, 1573, the castle was taken by storm. During this battle, the Tsar's favorite Grigory (Malyuta) Skuratov-Belsky died.
Continuation of hostilities. After the capture of Weisenstein, Ivan the Terrible returned to Novgorod. Military operations in the Baltic continued in the spring of 1573, but at that time the Russian army was already weakened by the transfer of the best regiments to the southern borders.
The 16 thousand Russian army under the command of Simeon Bekbulatovich, Ivan Mstislavsky and Ivan Shuisky continued the offensive and took Neuhof and Karkus, after which they approached Lode Castle in Western Estonia. By this time, there were 8 thousand soldiers in the Russian army (according to Swedish rumors, 10 thousand). The Russians met 4 thousand (according to Swedish data there were about 2 thousand people in the detachment) Swedish detachment of General Klaus Tott. Despite the significant numerical superiority, the Russian army was defeated and suffered heavy losses. The commander of the Right Hand regiment, boyar Ivan Shuisky, also died in battle.
However, this defeat did not affect the strategic situation. Russian troops continued to win victories: in 1575-1576. They, with the support of Magnus's supporters, occupied all of Western Estonia. On April 9, 1575, the Pernov fortress was captured. The capitulation of Pernov and the merciful treatment of the victors with those who submitted predetermined the further campaign. Relatively small 6 thousand. The fortresses of Lode (Kolover), Gapsal and Padis surrendered to the Russian detachment. "King" Magnus captured Lemzel Castle. As a result, in 1576 the campaign plan was implemented - Russian troops captured all the cities and fortresses of Estonia, except Revel.
Attempts by the Swedes to organize a counter-offensive failed. So, in 1574, the Swedish command organized a sea voyage. The Swedish landing force was supposed to make a surprise attack on Narva, but the storm washed most of the ships ashore, where they became easy prey for Russian warriors.
Fight for Poland
Despite the successes on the Baltic front and the failures of the Swedes, the situation remained precarious. The Russian state could win victories until the opponents organized a simultaneous offensive. The decisive turning point in favor of Russia’s opponents was also associated with the name of the talented military leader Stefan Batory. He came from the influential Transylvanian family Bathory. In 1571-1576. - Transylvanian prince. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, after the flight of Henry Valois in 1574 (he chose France over Poland), a period of kinglessness began again. Orthodox Western Russian gentry nominated Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich as a candidate for the Polish throne, which made it possible to unite the forces of Lithuania, Poland and Russia in the fight against the Crimean Khanate and the powerful Ottoman Empire. In addition, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II and the Austrian Archduke Ernst, who also adhered to the anti-Turkish line, were nominated as candidates for the throne. Their candidacies were supported by Moscow.
Stefan Batory was nominated by the Turkish Sultan Selim II and demanded that the nobles not choose other candidates. This demand was reinforced by military pressure from the Crimean Khanate: the Tatar campaign in September-October 1575 in the eastern regions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Podolia, Volhynia and Chervonnaya Rus) pushed the middle-class gentry to the candidacy of Stefan Batory. Batory was elected king of Poland on the condition of marrying fifty-year-old Anna Jagiellonka, sister of the deceased king Sigismund. In 1576, members of the Sejm of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania proclaimed the Transylvanian prince and Polish king Batory as the Grand Duke of Lithuania (in 1578 he acquired the rights to the throne of the Livonian kingdom for the Batory family).
Having become the ruler of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Batory began active preparations for war with the Russian kingdom. However, he was able to begin active hostilities only after he suppressed the uprising in Gdansk, which was provoked by agents of the Habsburgs, who lost the fight for the Polish throne. In addition, he carried out a series of military reforms that qualitatively strengthened the armed forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: Batory took the path of abandoning the gentry militia, when recruiting the army, trying to create a standing army by recruiting recruits from the royal estates, he widely used mercenaries, mainly Hungarians and Germans . Before this, he delayed negotiations with Moscow in every possible way.
New campaign of Russian troops to Revel
Ivan the Terrible, who wanted to resolve the issue with Revel before the start of the war with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, was in no hurry to start a war with the Poles. On October 23, 1576, a 50-thousand army under the command of F. Mstislavsky and I. Sheremetev set out on a new campaign. On January 23, 1577, Russian regiments approached the city and besieged it.
The fortress was defended by a garrison under the command of General G. Horn. The Swedes managed to thoroughly prepare for a new siege of the city. Thus, the defenders had several times more guns than the besiegers. For six weeks, Russian batteries bombarded the city, trying to set it on fire. However, the Swedes took countermeasures: they created a special team of 400 people, which monitored the flight and fall of incendiary shells. The discovered shells were immediately extinguished. The Revel artillery fired back heavily, inflicting heavy losses on the besiegers. Thus, one of the main commanders of the Russian army, Ivan Sheremetev, died from a cannonball.
Russian troops launched attacks three times, but they were repulsed. The Revel garrison actively carried out forays, destroyed siege weapons and structures, and interfered with engineering work. An attempt to place a mine under the walls of the fortress also failed. The besieged learned about the underground work and carried out counter-galleries, destroying the Russian underground passages.
The active and skillful defense of the Revel garrison, as well as winter conditions and diseases, led to significant losses in the Russian army. The bombing of the powerful fortress, despite the large number of shells fired - about 4 thousand cannonballs, was ineffective. On March 13, 1577, Mstislavsky was forced to lift the siege and withdraw his troops.
Hike to the Polish cities of Livonia
After the departure of the Russian army, the Swedes, with the help of local volunteers, tried to organize a counteroffensive to recapture the fortresses in Estland. But soon their troops hastily retreated to Revel. A large Russian army, led by Ivan the Terrible, again entered the Baltic states. On July 9, 1577, the army set out from Pskov, but did not move to Revel, which the Swedes feared, but to the cities of Livonia captured by the Poles.
The Russian command decided to take advantage of the difficulties of Stefan Batory, who continued to besiege Gdansk and could not transfer large forces to the war with the Russian Empire. Having captured lands along the Western Dvina River, the Russian army could cut Livonia into two parts. The success of the operation was facilitated by the small number of Polish forces present here. Hetman Khodkiewicz, who commanded the Polish-Lithuanian Baltic group, had only about 4 thousand soldiers.
Before the start of the campaign, Ivan Vasilyevich concluded with King Magnus, according to which the lands north of the Aa (Govya) River and Wenden Castle south of the river passed under the authority of the Livonian king (Pskov Agreement). The remaining territories went to the Russian kingdom.
Russian troops defeated the detachment of Colonel M. Dembinsky and began to capture cities and fortresses. 30 thousand The Russian army and individual Livonian detachments of Magnus occupied Marienhausen, Lucin (Luzha), Rezhitsa, Laudon, Dinaburg, Kreutzburg, Sesswegen, Schwaneburg, Berzon, Wenden, Kokenhausen, Wolmar, Trikatu and several other castles and fortifications.
However, during this campaign, disagreements arose between Moscow and Magnus. The Livonian “king,” taking advantage of Russian victories, captured a number of cities that were outside the territory allocated to him under the Pskov Treaty. He issued a proclamation calling on the population to recognize his power and occupied Wolmar and Kokenhausen. Tried to capture the Pebalg fortress. Tsar Ivan the Terrible harshly suppressed Magnus’s willfulness. Detachments were immediately sent to Kokenhausen and Wolmar, and Ivan Vasilyevich himself moved to Wenden. The Livonian king was summoned to the king. Magnus did not dare to contradict and appeared. He was briefly arrested. A few days later, when he agreed to fulfill all the demands of Ivan the Terrible, he was released. In cities that dared to recognize the power of Magnus and resist the will of the governor of Grozny, demonstrative executions of Germans were carried out. The inner castle at Wenden resisted and came under heavy artillery fire. Before the assault, the Wenden garrison blew itself up.
The new campaign in Livonia ended in complete victory for the Russian army. In fact, the entire coast was captured, except for Revel and Riga. Triumphant, Ivan the Terrible sent Stefan Batory one of the captured Lithuanian military leaders, Alexander Polubensky. Moscow's peace proposals were conveyed to the Polish king.
However, Batory did not want to come to terms with Russian conquests in the Baltic states. He sent detachments of the Lithuanian militia to the war, but the detachments were few in number. In the autumn of 1577, Polish and Lithuanian troops were able to recapture Dinaburg, Wenden and several other small castles and fortifications. In addition, the Livonian king Magnus entered into secret negotiations with the Poles. He betrayed Moscow. Magnus ceded the throne to Batory and appealed to the population to surrender to the Poles if they did not want to be subjugated to Moscow.
To be continued…
Description of the Livonian War
The Livonian War (1558–1583) was a war of the Russian kingdom against the Livonian Order, the Polish-Lithuanian state, Sweden and Denmark for hegemony in the Baltic states.
Main events (Livonian War - briefly)
Causes: Access to the Baltic Sea. Hostile policy of the Livonian Order.
Occasion: Refusal of the order to pay tribute for Yuriev (Dorpat).
First stage (1558-1561): The capture of Narva, Yuriev, Fellin, the capture of Master Furstenberg, the Livonian Order as a military force practically ceased to exist.
Second stage (1562-1577): Entry into the war of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (since 1569) and Sweden. Capture of Polotsk (1563). Defeat on the river Ule and near Orsha (1564). Capture of Weissenstein (1575) and Wenden (1577).
Third stage (1577-1583): Campaign of Stefan Batory, Fall of Polotsk, Velikiye Luki. Defense of Pskov (August 18, 1581 - February 4, 1582) Capture of Narva, Ivangorod, Koporye by the Swedes.
1582– Yam-Zapolsky truce with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Ivan the Terrible’s refusal from Livonia for the return of lost Russian fortresses).
1583– Plyusskoe truce with Sweden (renunciation of Estland, concession to the Swedes of Narva, Koporye, Ivangorod, Korela).
Causes of defeat: incorrect assessment of the balance of power in the Baltic states, weakening of the state as a result of the internal policies of Ivan IV.
Progress of the Livonian War (1558–1583) (full description)
Causes
In order to start a war, formal reasons were found, but the real reasons were Russia’s geopolitical need to gain access to the Baltic Sea, as it would be more convenient for direct connections with the centers of European civilizations, and the desire to participate in the division of the territory of the Livonian Order, the progressive collapse of which became obvious, but which, not wanting to strengthen Muscovite Rus', prevented its external contacts.
Russia had a small section of the Baltic coast, from the Neva basin to Ivangorod. However, it was strategically vulnerable and had no ports or developed infrastructure. Ivan the Terrible hoped to take advantage of the Livonia transport system. He considered it an ancient Russian fiefdom, which was illegally seized by the crusaders.
The forceful solution to the problem predetermined the defiant behavior of the Livonians themselves, who, even according to their historians, acted unreasonably. Mass pogroms of Orthodox churches in Livonia served as a reason for aggravation of relations. Even at that time, the truce between Moscow and Livonia (concluded in 1504 as a result of the Russian-Lithuanian war of 1500-1503) had expired. To extend it, the Russians demanded payment of the Yuryev tribute, which the Livonians were obliged to give to Ivan III, but for 50 years they never collected it. Having recognized the need to pay it, they again did not fulfill their obligations.
1558 - the Russian army entered Livonia. Thus began the Livonian War. It lasted 25 years, becoming the longest and one of the most difficult in Russian history.
First stage (1558-1561)
In addition to Livonia, the Russian Tsar wanted to conquer the East Slavic lands, which were part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. 1557, November - he concentrated a 40,000-strong army in Novgorod for a campaign in the Livonian lands.
Capture of Narva and Syrensk (1558)
In December, this army under the command of the Tatar prince Shig-Aley, Prince Glinsky and other governors advanced to Pskov. The auxiliary army of Prince Shestunov, meanwhile, began military operations from the Ivangorod region at the mouth of the Narva (Narova) River. 1558, January - the tsarist army approached Yuryev (Dorpt), but was unable to capture it. Then part of the Russian army turned to Riga, and the main forces headed to Narva (Rugodiv), where they united with Shestunov’s army. There was a lull in the fighting. Only the garrisons of Ivangorod and Narva fired at each other. On May 11, Russians from Ivangorod attacked the Narva fortress and were able to take it the next day.
Soon after the capture of Narva, Russian troops under the command of governors Adashev, Zabolotsky and Zamytsky and Duma clerk Voronin were ordered to capture the Syrensk fortress. On June 2, the shelves were under its walls. Adashev set up barriers on the Riga and Kolyvan roads to prevent the main forces of the Livonians under the command of the Master of the Order from reaching Syrensk. On June 5, large reinforcements from Novgorod approached Adashev, which the besieged saw. On the same day, artillery shelling of the fortress began. The next day the garrison surrendered.
Capture of Neuhausen and Dorpat (1558)
From Syrensk, Adashev returned to Pskov, where the entire Russian army was concentrated. In mid-June it took the fortresses of Neuhausen and Dorpat. The entire north of Livonia came under Russian control. The Order's army was numerically several times inferior to the Russians and, moreover, was scattered among separate garrisons. It could do nothing against the king's army. Until October 1558, the Russians in Livonia were able to capture 20 castles.
Battle of Thiersen
1559, January - Russian troops marched on Riga. Near Tiersen they defeated the Livonian army, and near Riga they burned the Livonian fleet. Although it was not possible to capture the Riga fortress, 11 more Livonian castles were taken.
Truce (1559)
The Master of the Order was forced to conclude a truce before the end of 1559. By November of this year, the Livonians were able to recruit Landsknechts in Germany and resume the war. But failures never ceased to haunt them.
1560, January - the army of governor Borboshin captured the fortresses of Marienburg and Fellin. The Livonian Order practically ceased to exist as a military force.
1561 - the last master of the Livonian Order, Kettler, recognized himself as a vassal of the King of Poland and divided Livonia between Poland and Sweden (the island of Ezel went to Denmark). The Poles got Livonia and Courland (Kettler became Duke of the latter), the Swedes got Estland.
Second stage (1562-1577)
Poland and Sweden began to demand the withdrawal of Russian troops from Livonia. Ivan the Terrible not only did not comply with this demand, but also invaded the territory of Lithuania, allied with Poland, at the end of 1562. His army numbered 33,407 men. The goal of the campaign was well-fortified Polotsk. 1563, February 15 - Polotsk, unable to withstand the fire of 200 Russian guns, capitulated. Ivan's army moved to Vilna. The Lithuanians were forced to conclude a truce until 1564. After the resumption of the war, Russian troops occupied almost the entire territory of Belarus.
But the repressions that began against the leaders of the “elected Rada” - the de facto government until the end of the 50s - had a negative impact on the combat capability of the Russian army. Many of the governors and nobles, fearing reprisals, preferred to flee to Lithuania. In the same 1564, one of the most prominent governors, Prince Andrei Kurbsky, moved there, close to the Adashev brothers who were part of the elected council and fearing for his life. The subsequent oprichnina terror further weakened the Russian army.
1) Ivan the Terrible; 2) Stefan Batory
Formation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
1569 - as a result of the Union of Lublin, Poland and Lithuania formed a single state, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Republic), under the leadership of the King of Poland. Now the Polish army came to the aid of the Lithuanian army.
1570 - fighting intensified in both Lithuania and Livonia. To secure the Baltic lands, Ivan IV decided to create his own fleet. At the beginning of 1570, he issued a “charter” to the Dane Karsten Rode to organize a privateer fleet, which acted on behalf of the Russian Tsar. Rohde was able to arm several ships, and he caused significant damage to Polish maritime trade. In order to have a reliable naval base, the Russian army in the same 1570 tried to capture Revel, thereby starting a war with Sweden. But the city unhinderedly received supplies from the sea, and Grozny was forced to lift the siege after 7 months. The Russian privateer fleet was never able to become a formidable force.
Third stage (1577-1583)
After a 7-year lull, in 1577, the 32,000-strong army of Ivan the Terrible launched a new campaign to Revel. But this time the siege of the city brought nothing. Then Russian troops went to Riga, capturing Dinaburg, Volmar and several other castles. But these successes were not decisive.
Meanwhile, the situation on the Polish front began to become more complicated. 1575 - an experienced military leader, the Transylvanian prince, was elected king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was able to form a strong army, which also included German and Hungarian mercenaries. Batory entered into an alliance with Sweden, and the united Polish-Swedish army in the fall of 1578 was able to defeat the 18,000-strong Russian army, which lost 6,000 people killed and captured and 17 guns.
By the start of the 1579 campaign, Stefan Batory and Ivan IV had approximately equal main armies of 40,000 men each. After the defeat at Wenden, Grozny was not confident in his abilities and proposed to begin peace negotiations. But Batory rejected this proposal and went on the offensive against Polotsk. In the autumn, Polish troops besieged the city and, after a month-long siege, captured it. The army of governors Shein and Sheremetev, sent to the rescue of Polotsk, only reached the Sokol fortress. They did not dare to engage in battle with superior enemy forces. Soon the Poles captured Sokol, defeating the troops of Sheremetev and Shein. The Russian Tsar clearly did not have enough strength to successfully fight on two fronts at once - in Livonia and Lithuania. After the capture of Polotsk, the Poles took several cities in the Smolensk and Seversk lands, and then returned to Lithuania.
1580 - Batory launched a large campaign against Rus', he captured and ravaged the cities of Ostrov, Velizh and Velikiye Luki. At the same time, the Swedish army under the command of Pontus Delagardie took the city of Korela and the eastern part of the Karelian Isthmus.
1581 - the Swedish army captured Narva, and the following year they occupied Ivangorod, Yam and Koporye. Russian troops were expelled from Livonia. The fighting moved to Russian territory.
Siege of Pskov (August 18, 1581 – February 4, 1582)
1581 - a 50,000-strong Polish army led by the king besieged Pskov. It was a very strong fortress. The city, which stood on the right, high bank of the Velikaya River at the confluence of the Pskov River, was surrounded by a stone wall. It stretched for 10 km and had 37 towers and 48 gates. However, from the side of the Velikaya River, from where it was difficult to expect an enemy attack, the wall was wooden. Under the towers there were underground passages that provided secret communication between different sections of the defense. The city had significant supplies of food, weapons and ammunition.
Russian troops were dispersed over many points from where an enemy invasion was expected. The Tsar himself, with a significant detachment in number, stopped in Staritsa, not risking going towards the Polish army marching towards Pskov.
When the sovereign learned about the invasion of Stefan Batory, the army of Prince Ivan Shuisky, appointed “great governor,” was sent to Pskov. 7 other governors were subordinate to him. All residents of Pskov and the garrison were sworn that they would not surrender the city, but would fight to the end. The total number of Russian troops defending Pskov reached 25,000 people and was approximately half the size of Batory’s army. By order of Shuisky, the outskirts of Pskov were devastated so that the enemy could not find fodder and food there.
Livonian War 1558-1583. Stefan Batory near Pskov
On August 18, Polish troops approached the city within 2–3 cannon shots. For a week, Batory conducted reconnaissance of Russian fortifications and only on August 26 gave the order to his troops to approach the city. But the soldiers soon came under fire from Russian cannons and retreated to the Cherekha River. There Batory set up a fortified camp.
The Poles began to dig trenches and set up tours to get closer to the walls of the fortress. On the night of September 4-5, they drove up to the Pokrovskaya and Svinaya towers on the southern face of the walls and, having placed 20 guns, on the morning of September 6 began to fire at both towers and the 150 m wall between them. By the evening of September 7, the towers were severely damaged, and a 50 m wide gap appeared in the wall. However, the besieged managed to build a new wooden wall against the gap.
On September 8, the Polish army launched an assault. The attackers were able to capture both damaged towers. But with shots from the large Bars cannon, capable of sending cannonballs over a distance of more than 1 km, the Pig Tower occupied by the Poles was destroyed. Then the Russians blew up its ruins by rolling up barrels of gunpowder. The explosion served as a signal for a counterattack, which was led by Shuisky himself. The Poles were unable to hold the Pokrovskaya Tower and retreated.
After the unsuccessful assault, Batory ordered digging to blow up the walls. The Russians were able to destroy two tunnels with the help of mine galleries, but the enemy was never able to complete the rest. On October 24, Polish batteries began shelling Pskov from across the Velikaya River with hot cannonballs to start fires, but the city’s defenders quickly dealt with the fire. After 4 days, a Polish detachment with crowbars and picks approached the wall from the Velikaya side between the corner tower and the Pokrovsky Gate and destroyed the base of the wall. It collapsed, but it turned out that behind this wall there was another wall and a ditch, which the Poles could not overcome. The besieged threw stones and pots of gunpowder on their heads, poured boiling water and tar.
On November 2, the Poles launched their final assault on Pskov. This time Batory's army attacked the western wall. Before this, it had been subjected to heavy shelling for 5 days and was destroyed in several places. However, the Russians met the enemy with heavy fire, and the Poles turned back without reaching the breaches.
By that time, the morale of the besiegers had dropped noticeably. However, the besieged also experienced considerable difficulties. The main forces of the Russian army in Staritsa, Novgorod and Rzhev were inactive. Only two detachments of archers of 600 people each tried to break through to Pskov, but more than half of them died or were captured.
On November 6, Batory removed the guns from the batteries, stopped siege work and began preparing for the winter. At the same time, he sent detachments of Germans and Hungarians to capture the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery 60 km from Pskov, but a garrison of 300 archers, with the support of monks, successfully repelled two attacks, and the enemy was forced to retreat.
Stefan Batory, convinced that he could not take Pskov, in November handed over command to Hetman Zamoyski, and he himself went to Vilna, taking with him almost all the mercenaries. As a result, the number of Polish troops decreased by almost half - to 26,000 people. The besiegers suffered from cold and disease, and the death toll and desertion increased.
Results and consequences
Under these conditions, Batory agreed to a ten-year truce. It was concluded in Yama-Zapolsky on January 15, 1582. Rus' renounced all its conquests in Livonia, and the Poles liberated the Russian cities they had occupied.
1583 - the Truce of Plus was signed with Sweden. Yam, Koporye and Ivangorod passed to the Swedes. Only a small section of the Baltic coast at the mouth of the Neva remained behind Russia. But in 1590, after the expiration of the truce, hostilities between the Russians and Swedes resumed and this time were successful for the Russians. As a result, under the Tyavzin Treaty of “Eternal Peace,” Rus' regained Yam, Koporye, Ivangorod and Korelsky district. But this was only small consolation. In general, Ivan IV's attempt to gain a foothold in the Baltic failed.
At the same time, acute contradictions between Poland and Sweden on the issue of control over Livonia eased the position of the Russian Tsar, excluding a joint Polish-Swedish invasion of Rus'. The resources of Poland alone, as the experience of Batory’s campaign against Pskov showed, were clearly insufficient to capture and retain a significant territory of the Muscovite kingdom. At the same time, the Livonian War showed that Sweden and Poland had a formidable enemy in the east that they had to reckon with.