The start of the war was led by the decision of the Zemsky Sobor in 1653 to include all Western Russian lands into Russia. In accordance with this decision, on October 23, 1653, the Moscow state declared war on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but in historical literature it is generally accepted that it began in 1654, when the actual fighting began at the end of spring.
On May 15, 1654, the Tsar's campaign to the west began with the advance of the Advanced Regiment from Moscow. On May 18, the tsar himself advanced to the western borders of the country with the main forces. At the same time, his advanced troops, joined by detachments of Ukrainian Cossacks, crossed the Lithuanian border and began the liberation of the Smolensk and Novgorod-Seversk lands. Having cleared these territories of the enemy, they moved to Eastern Belarus and occupied Smolensk, Dorogobuzh, Orsha, Mogilev, Gomel, Mstislavl, Chechersk, Propoisk, U Svyat, Shklov and others.
In the winter of 1654–1655, Polish troops tried, acting in alliance with the Crimean Tatar army, to invade Ukraine, but their attack was repelled by the efforts of the Russian-Ukrainian army, commanded by V. B. Sheremetev and B. Khmelnitsky. The siege of Mogilev that began was unsuccessful for the enemy, and the subsequent offensive of the Russian troops ended with the capture of the cities of Minsk, Grodno, Vilno, and Kovno. By the end of the summer of 1655, the troops of Y. K. Cherkassky and Ukrainian Colonel I. N. Zolotarenko reached the city of Brest-Litovsk and the Neman River. In November 1655, Russian troops under the command of the Novgorod governor Prince S. A. Urusov defeated an army under the command of Hetman P. Ya. Sapieha near Brest-Litovsk, but failed to take the city itself. Brest-Litovsk was well fortified, with a large garrison holding its defense.
An important event of this year's campaign was the entry into the war of Sweden, whose troops occupied most of the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian state. After the first great Swedish victories, the point of view of A. L. Ordin-Nashchokin prevailed in the political leadership of the Russian state, who believed that the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, lying in ruins, now did not pose a threat to Russia. From now on, according to Ordin-Nashchokin and his like-minded people, Sweden becomes Moscow's main enemy.
Moscow decided that the time had come to return the Karelian, Izhora, and, if possible, Baltic lands that previously belonged to Russia. In May 1656, a war with Sweden began, even before the end of military operations against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Only on October 23, 1656, Russian representatives entered into an agreement with the Polish delegates on their temporary termination.
Having received a respite, Polish troops were able to repel the Swedish invaders and expel them from their country, and then, refusing to recognize the annexation of Ukrainian and Belarusian lands to Russia, they resumed hostilities in their eastern voivodeships. The situation was greatly complicated by the betrayal of the Ukrainian hetman I. E. Vygovsky, who, at the head of the united Ukrainian-Polish-Tatar army on June 27–28, 1659, defeated the army of Prince A. N. Trubetskoy near Konotop. And although after the uprising of the pro-Russian part of the Ukrainian Cossacks, led by I. Bohun and I. D. Sirko, he fled to Poland, who became hetman in 1660, Yurko Khmelnytsky also went over to the side of the enemies of Russia. Thanks to this, one of the Russian armies operating in Ukraine was surrounded and capitulated at Chudnov. Voivode V.B. Sheremetev, who commanded the Russian troops in Ukraine, was captured.
Only in 1664, having recovered from the Chudnovsky defeat, were Russian troops able to attack the enemy again. However, the fighting was carried out with varying degrees of success, since the forces of the parties were exhausted. Under these conditions, the authorities of Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth began peace negotiations. They ended on January 30, 1667 with the signing of the Truce of Andrusovo for 13.5 years. The lands of Smolensk and Chernigov, annexed to Poland under the Treaty of Deulin in 1618, and Left Bank Ukraine went to Russia. Kyiv was transferred to Russia for two years, but was not returned to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - the legality of this action was recognized by the “Eternal Peace” of 1686. The Zaporozhye Sich passed under the joint control of Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian state. Poland retained Belarusian and part of Ukrainian lands on the right bank of the Dnieper.
One of the important conditions of the agreement concluded in Andrusovo was the mutual obligation of the parties to confront the Turkish and Crimean threat. Both Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth should not have helped the Tatars in their campaigns against the possessions of the neighboring state. Soon Russia had to move against the Ottoman Empire. Having concluded an alliance with the hetman of Right Bank Ukraine P. Doroshenko, the Turks occupied Podolia, supporting the claims of this hetman to the left bank part of Ukraine, where hetman I. Samoilovich ruled. In 1673, military operations began between Russian troops and Samoilovich’s Cossacks against Doroshenko. They continued until September 1676, when Doroshenko surrendered to the tsarist commanders and was exiled to Russia. A Russian garrison was stationed in Chigirin. It was then that full-scale hostilities began between Russia and Turkey. The main events unfolded around Chigirin, who became the main irritant for Sultan Mehmed IV.
During the first campaign against Chigirin, the 120,000-strong army of Ibrahim Pasha, nicknamed “Shaitan” by the Turks themselves, crossed Russian lines and besieged this fortress. The commander of the Russian troops in Ukraine, Voivode G. G. Romodanovsky, hastened to come to the aid of the Chigirinsky garrison, despite the fact that the number of his army, together with the Cossacks of Hetman I. S. Samoilovich who joined, did not exceed 60 thousand people. In this campaign, to protect against attacks by the Tatar cavalry, instead of the shields of the sedentary “walk-city”, light slingshots were used for the first time - rows of interconnected sharpened stakes capable of stopping the attacks of the Tatar cavalry. On the night of August 26-27, 1677, G. Romodanovsky crossed with his regiments to the right bank of the Dnieper. In a night battle near the city of Buzhin on August 28, he defeated the forward corps of the Janissaries and the Tatar detachments operating on its flanks. Without waiting for the Russian army to approach Chigorin, Ibrahim Pasha abandoned the cannons, lifted the siege of the fortress and retreated to the Ingul River.
The next year a second campaign was organized. This time the 125,000-strong Turkish army was led by the Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa. On July 9, 1678, his troops approached Chigorin and began his siege. Chigorin's garrison numbered only 12 thousand people. It was commanded by the okolnichy I.I. Rzhevsky, who died in the explosion of a Turkish grenade during the battles for the city. The army of G. G. Romodanovsky numbered 80 thousand people. and stood on the Buzhinsky fields near the Dnieper, repelling attacks from numerically superior enemy forces. Then, having crossed the Dnieper, on July 12 the Russians moved to Chigorin. During a fierce battle on August 3, 1678, Romodanovsky’s army managed to capture Turkish positions on Strelnikova Mountain and push back enemy troops across the Tyasmin River. However, by that time the Turks had captured the Lower Town, and on the night of August 12, the Russian garrison, commanded by Colonel Patrick Gordon, left the fortress. With minimal losses, he managed to break through to his main forces.
The new battle, which took place on August 19, ended in favor of the Russian army. After this, the position of the enemy army became critical, Kara-Mustafa had to forget about the further continuation of the campaign. On August 20, a hasty retreat of the Turkish army began from the walls of the completely destroyed Chigorin; Moscow decided not to restore it. However, failures in the fight for this city predetermined the collapse of the aggressive plans of the Ottoman Empire towards the whole of Ukraine. The enemy's forces were undermined, and in 1681 the Russian and Turkish sides signed the Peace of Bakhchisarai. In fact, it was a truce for a 20-year period. The Dnieper was recognized as the border between the two states.
Russo-Turkish War 1676–1681 led to a convergence of the foreign policy interests of Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and in 1686 the “Eternal Peace” was concluded between the two countries. Under this agreement, Poland recognized the annexation of Kyiv to Russia, receiving compensation for it in the amount of 146 thousand rubles. The Russian government committed itself to entering into a coalition with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Venice and Austria and starting a war with Turkey. This war dragged on and ended under Peter I with the signing of the Peace of Constantinople in 1700.
The new Russian-Polish war began in 1654 after the annexation of Ukraine to Russia under the Pereyaslav agreements. Moscow declared war on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on the eve of this event, on October 23, 1653. In June - August 1654, Russian troops entered the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and captured the Smolensk and Seversk lands and eastern Belarus. Smolensk fell after a two-month siege on September 23.
The new Russian-Polish war began in 1654 after the annexation of Ukraine to Russia under the Pereyaslav agreements. Moscow declared war on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on the eve of this event, on October 23, 1653. In June - August 1654, Russian troops entered the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and captured the Smolensk and Seversk lands and eastern Belarus. Smolensk fell after a two-month siege on September 23.
Polish troops launched a counteroffensive in Ukraine, which ended in failure. In the summer of 1655, Russian troops captured Minsk, Grodno, Vilna and Kovno, occupying almost the entire territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. At this time, Sweden declared war on Poland. Swedish troops occupied almost all Polish lands including Warsaw and Krakow. The army of King John Casimir was able to hold only a small bridgehead in the southwest of the country, including the sacred city of Czestochowa for the Poles, which the Swedes unsuccessfully besieged for several months.
The position of the Poles was eased by the fact that on May 17, 1656, Moscow declared war on Sweden, seeking to liberate the Livonian lands. The Swedish king Charles X Gustav, in turn, hoped to tear away from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth not only Prussia and Courland, which the Swedes had to return in 1635, but also Danzig, Lithuania and Belarus. At first, Russian troops managed to occupy Oreshek (Noteburg), Dinaburg and Dorpat, but the campaign against Riga failed. Charles X was forced to transfer part of his forces from Poland to the Baltic states. A de facto truce was established between Moscow and Warsaw.
Meanwhile, the position of the Russian troops in Ukraine worsened after in 1657, his closest ally, the clerk general (in European - chancellor) Ivan Vygovsky, became hetman instead of the deceased Bohdan Khmelnytsky. In 1658, he concluded the Gadyach Treaty with Poland, according to which Ukraine again became part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth under the name of the Grand Duchy of Russia. The Greek-Catholic union in the Ukrainian lands was abolished, and the Cossack elders were completely equal in rights with the Polish and Lithuanian gentry. The Poles were forced to make such broad concessions because they really needed the help of the Cossack army to fight the Russians and Swedes.
Near the village of Varka, a battle took place between the Russian army under the command of governor Yu.A. Dolgorukov and the Polish-Lithuanian army under the command of Hetman A. Gonsevsky. At first, the Polish cavalry acted successfully and were able to push back the Russian infantry. To help the faltering infantrymen, Dolgorukov sent two regiments of the new formation. The blow of fresh Russian forces decided the outcome of the battle, putting the Polish-Lithuanian army to flight. Many Poles were captured, including their commander, Hetman Gonsevsky. However, the Russian commander was unable to build on his success due to tensions that arose between Russian governors over subordination. When Dolgorukov asked to send reinforcements to another commander, Prince Odoevsky, he did not want to do this because of disputes about who should obey whom. Nevertheless, the defeat at Varka cooled the ardor of the Poles, encouraged by the transition of Hetman I.E. to their side. Vygovsky This defeat did not allow the Poles to immediately move troops to help Vygovsky.
In the spring of 1659, the army of the governors of princes Alexei Trubetskoy and Semyon Pozharsky entered Ukraine, which on May 1 besieged the Ukrainian colonel Grigory Gulyanitsky with 4 thousand Nizhyn and Chernigov Cossacks in Konotop. The besieged fought off several attacks with heavy losses for the Russian army. From the ramparts, Cossack cannons and muskets fired much more accurately at the attackers, while the Moscow archers and gunners, according to Trubetskoy, “wasted the sovereign’s potion.” The governor ordered the ditch around the fortress to be covered with earth, but the Cossacks made forays at night and took the earth from there, and during the day they interfered with the diggers with well-aimed shots.
Meanwhile, at the end of May, Russian troops took the Borzna fortress, defeating its garrison under the command of Bogdan Khmelnitsky's brother-in-law, Colonel Vasily Zolotarenko. Some of the city's inhabitants were exterminated, some were driven away to Russia. Later, 30 of them were exchanged for 66 Russians captured after the defeat of Prince Pozharsky near Konotop.
Near Nizhyn, the army of Trubetskoy’s subordinate Prince Romodanovsky on May 31 defeated the Cossack-Tatar army of the assigned hetman Skorobogatenko, who was captured. But Romodanovsky did not dare to pursue the retreating troops, fearing that they would lure him into a trap. Not deciding to besiege Nezhin, Romodanovsky returned to Konotop. Trubetskoy had no information about where Vygovsky and the army were.
On June 1, 1659, the Polish Sejm approved the Gadyach Treaty. The Ukrainian hetman, meanwhile, with 16 thousand Cossacks and several thousand mercenaries from among the Poles, Wallachians and Serbs, was waiting for his ally - the Crimean Khan Makhmet-Girey. At the beginning of July, the khan appeared with 30 thousand Tatars. Together they moved to Konotop. On the way, they defeated a small Moscow detachment and learned from the prisoners about the condition and number of Russian troops near Konotop, and also that Trubetskoy did not expect the enemy to approach quickly. Vygovsky decided to lure the Russian army to the bank of the swampy Sosnovka River, 15 versts from Konotop, where he hoped to suddenly attack it with pre-covered cavalry and destroy it. The hetman gave command of the part of the army left at Sosnovka to Colonel Stepan Gulyanitsky, the brother of Grigory Gulyanitsky, besieged in Konotop. Vygovsky himself, with a small detachment of Cossacks and Tatars, went to Konotop to lure the enemy out of there. Khan with the main part of the Tatars settled down in the Torgovitsa tract, 10 versts from Konotop, in order to hit the Russian troops from the rear when they approached Sosnovka.
On July 7, Vygovsky suddenly attacked Trubetskoy’s troops. The Cossacks took advantage of the surprise and captured many horses, which the Moscow horsemen did not have time to jump on. But soon Trubetskoy’s cavalry, using their multiple superiority, drove Vygovsky’s detachment beyond Sosnovka. The next day, a 30,000-strong cavalry army led by Prince Semyon Pozharsky crossed Sosnovka and chased the Cossacks, and about the same number of infantrymen under the command of Trubetskoy remained at Konotop.
Vygovsky allowed the enemy to form a battle formation. At this time, 5 thousand Cossacks under the command of Stepan Gulyanitsky secretly dug a ditch towards the bridge over which Pozharsky’s army crossed. The hetman attacked, but after the first shots from the Russian camp he began to retreat, feigning panic, provoking the enemy to pursue. Pozharsky's army left their camp and gave chase. Meanwhile, Gulyanitsky's Cossacks brought the ditch to the bridge, captured the bridge and, having destroyed it, made a dam on the river, flooding the coastal meadow. Seeing the enemy in his rear, Pozharsky turned his horsemen against Gulyanitsky. Then Vygovsky’s Cossacks, with the support of mercenary infantry, in turn attacked the “Muscovites” from the front, and a horde of the Crimean Khan attacked them from the left flank. Pozharsky began to retreat and ended up in a flooded meadow. The guns got stuck in the resulting swamp and the horses could not move. The noble cavalry dismounted, but there was no way to walk. Almost the entire 30,000-strong army died or was captured.
Prince Semyon Pozharsky was captured by the khan and was executed. The son of one of the leaders of the First Militia, Lev Lyapunov, two princes Buturlins and several regiment commanders were also beheaded or later died in Tatar captivity. The death of the noble cavalry decisively undermined the combat effectiveness of the Russian army. During the Russian-Polish War, it was unable to carry out a single successful major offensive operation.
On July 9, Vygovsky and the khan lifted the siege of Konotop. By that time, only 2.5 thousand people remained in the city garrison. Trubetskoy began to retreat, and a significant part of the archers and soldiers drowned while crossing the river. The remnants of the Russian army took refuge in Putivl. There Vygovsky did not pursue them, still hoping to come to an agreement with the Moscow Tsar. The Poles, who were with the Ukrainian hetman, were eager to fight, hoping to avenge the capture of the Lithuanian hetman Vincent Gonsevsky, who, in violation of the truce, was captured by deceit along with his people by the army of the Russian prince Khovansky in Vilna. But Vygovsky forbade them to operate from Ukrainian soil. He still had naive hopes that Tsar Alexei would recognize the independence of Ukraine under Polish protectorate and the matter would end in peace.
The Ukrainian army retreated to Gadyach, which they were never able to take. There, a supporter of the Moscow orientation, Colonel Pavel Okhrimenko, stubbornly defended himself. Khan and the main part of the army left for Crimea. Individual Tatar and Cossack detachments plundered the Russian border lands, populated mainly by immigrants from Ukraine. Vygovsky returned to the hetman's capital Chigirin and was going to expel the governor Sheremetyev from Kyiv. But Sheremetev and a fellow governor, Prince Yuri Boryatinsky, burned all the towns around Kyiv, mercilessly exterminating the population.
But by that time the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was already turning into the “sick man of Europe.” Royal power was very weak. She could not protect her Orthodox subjects either from the excesses of Catholic magnates or from the threat of church union, which the Cossacks rejected. Therefore, in practice, the Polish-Ukrainian alliance was as fragile as the Russian-Ukrainian one. The hetmans of Ukraine with their troops have visited both the side of Russia and the side of Poland more than once, and Hetman Petro Doroshenko has been an ally of Turkey for a long time.
Vygovsky’s position, even after the victory at Konotop, remained precarious. Many Cossack colonels, under the influence of Russian agitation, remained oriented towards Moscow. They were joined by Nizhyn Colonel Vasily Zolotarenko, who himself hoped to become hetman. Together with Archpriest Filimonov, they led an uprising against Vygovsky and at the end of August invited Trubetskoy, who was busy setting up cordons against a possible Cossack-Tatar invasion of Russian lands, with an invitation to return to Ukraine again with the Moscow army. In Pereyaslavl, Colonel Timofey Tsytsura exterminated more than 150 Vygovsky supporters and freed several hundred Russian prisoners.
On September 11, Tsytsura’s Cossacks, with the support of Zolotarenko and the local population, suddenly attacked five Polish banners stationed in the city and killed almost all the Poles. In other cities and villages of Left Bank Ukraine, Polish troops were also beaten. The local population did not want to endure the hardships associated with the stationing of Polish soldiers, and suspected the Poles of intending to establish a union. Almost all the cities of the Left Bank broke away from Poland and again swore allegiance to the Russian Tsar.
At the end of September, after much hesitation, the Moscow army finally returned to Ukraine. On September 21, at the parliament near Germanovka, not far from Chigorin, the Ukrainian foreman rejected the Gadyach Treaty. Vygovsky fled under the cover of a detachment of a thousand Poles under the command of Andrei Pototsky. A few days later, at the new parliament near Bila Tserkva, Vygovsky renounced the hetmanship. The son of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Yuri, was elected the new hetman of Ukraine.
For a short time, all of Ukraine returned to Moscow's rule. But this did not last long. In 1660, after the conclusion of the Polish-Swedish peace in Oliva, Polish hetmans Stefan Charnetsky and Pavel Sapieha defeated the troops of princes Dolgoruky and Khovansky in Belarus, forcing them to retreat to Polotsk and Smolensk, respectively.
In Ukraine, in September, a large Moscow army of governor Vasily Sheremetev, with the support of Khmelnitsky’s Cossacks, launched an attack on Lviv. With his arrogance and open contempt for the Cossacks, Sheremetev irritated the Cossack elders and the hetman. The governor confidently said that with such an army as the tsar gave him, it would be possible to turn all of Poland into ashes and deliver the king himself to Moscow in chains. Sheremetev passionately asserted: “With my strength, it is possible to deal with the enemy without God’s help!” The army, indeed, was large - 27 thousand people, and in 11 Cossack regiments, subordinate directly to the governor, there were approximately 15 thousand people. But the Cossacks were not eager to shed their blood along with the “Muscovites.” In addition, the Cossacks' salaries were paid in Moscow copper kopecks, which depreciated before our eyes, which the following year became the cause of the famous Copper Riot in Moscow. Yuri Khmelnitsky, with the main part of the Cossack army numbering up to 40 thousand people, set out on a campaign against Poland along the Goncharny Way. Sheremetev, together with the Russian army and the attached Cossacks, walked along the Kyiv Way.
The Poles became aware of the discord in the enemy camp. Polish crown hetman Stanislav Pototsky and full hetman Yuri Lyubomirsky suggested that Yuri Khmelnytsky return to the king’s rule. Potocki stood with his army at Tarnopol, and Lyubomirsky hurried to his aid from Prussia. The united Polish army had 12 infantry and 10 cavalry regiments - a total of more than 30 thousand people. Sheremetev expected to meet only Potocki in Volhynia and was very surprised to also meet Lyubomirsky’s army here.
In the camp near Chudnov, the Russian army was besieged by the Poles and the 40,000-strong Tatar horde that came to their aid. Sheremetev hoped only for the approach of Khmelnitsky, who was taking a different road than the Moscow army.
The Poles knew the route of the Cossack army. Pototsky remained with Chudnov with the infantry, and Lyubomirsky moved with the cavalry against the Cossacks. With him was the former hetman Vygovsky, who bore the title of governor of Kyiv. At Slobodishche, not far from Chudnov, the advanced units of Khmelnytsky were defeated on October 17, after which the hetman and foreman went over to the side of the Poles along with the entire army on the 19th.
Sheremetev, who received news of the Polish attack on Khmelnitsky and not knowing about the hetman’s treason, came to his aid on October 24, but stumbled upon Polish trenches. Being attacked from three sides by the Poles and the Tatar detachments that came to their aid, the governor lost his convoy and artillery and took refuge in the forest with the remnants of his army.
On October 27, a new agreement was concluded between the hetman of Ukraine and Poland in Chudnov, repeating the Gadyachsky one, but without mentioning the Russian Principality, which limited the autonomy of Ukraine in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. After this, the Cossacks who were in Sheremetev’s besieged camp went over to the Poles.
After the defeat at Chudnov, Sheremetev was captured by the Tatars and stayed there for 22 years. Ukraine was subject to Tatar raids, and the Cossacks were forced to fight these Polish allies. Prince Baryatinsky held Kyiv. Russian troops remained on the left bank of the Dnieper. But after the Chudnov disaster, Russian troops were limited to defense until the end of the war. Polish troops subsequently launched several raids on the Left Bank, but could not hold out in the devastated country. It was impossible to take fortified cities, since there was not enough forage and food for a long siege. The last of these raids, led by King John Casimir and Right Bank Hetman Pavel Teterey, was carried out at the end of 1663 - beginning of 1664.
At the beginning of 1663, Yuri Khmelnytsky renounced the hetmanship, after which the Left Bank and Right Bank of the Dnieper began to elect separate hetmans. Thus, the division of Ukraine between Russia and Poland was actually consolidated.
In Belarus and Lithuania, less affected by the war than Ukraine, Moscow's armies lost one position after another. The Tatars did not reach here, and the Cossacks did not appear often. The gentry, who initially abandoned the king, under the influence of oppression from the Moscow governors, again took the side of Jan Casimir. In 1661, the Russian garrison in Vilna was besieged, capitulating in November of the following year. In the fall of 1661, the Poles defeated the Russian army at the Battle of Klushniki. Soon Polotsk, Mogilev and Vitebsk, the last Russian strongholds in Belarus, came under Polish control.
On January 30, 1667, a Russian-Polish truce was concluded in the village of Andrusovo near Smolensk. The Smolensk and Chernigov lands and Left Bank Ukraine passed to Russia, and Zaporozhye was declared under a joint Russian-Polish protectorate. Kyiv was declared a temporary possession of Russia, but according to the “eternal peace” on May 16, 1686, it finally passed to it. In exchange for Kyiv, the Russians ceded several small border towns in Belarus to the Poles.
The cessation of the Russian-Polish wars was facilitated by the threat to both states from Turkey and its vassal Crimean Khanate. As a result of the Russian-Polish wars, Poland lost a significant part of its possessions with a predominantly Orthodox population. These wars, as well as the wars between Poland and Sweden, contributed to the weakening of the Polish state. This process ended during the Great Northern War. The divisions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772-1795 between Russia, Prussia and Austria took place without major wars, because the state, weakened due to internal turmoil, could no longer provide serious resistance to its more powerful neighbors.
Source: Sokolov B.V. One Hundred Great Wars - Moscow: Veche, 2001
Russian Civilization
Hello, dear reader. Today we will talk about an absolutely important historical event - the Russian-Polish War of 1654-1667. This campaign greatly influenced further, so to speak, geopolitics in Eastern Europe. This topic may also come up in the Unified State Exam and Unified State Exam in history, and therefore, my dear friend, I advise you to read this short article so as not to get into an awkward situation. So, let's begin to briefly study the main events.
Background to the conflict
In Russia at the beginning of the 17th century, there was such a very unpleasant event as the “Time of Troubles”. During this period, there were internal strife in Rus', actually a civil war, and constantly emerging troublemakers from Europe and beyond.
Poland became one of these troublemakers; at that time, after the Union of Lublin (1569), it was already the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. As a result, only a truce was concluded with them. Therefore, the Poles decided to take theirs back to the Time of Troubles. They plundered the country, seized territories and even put forward their claims to the throne so that the Polish prince Vladislav would rule in Russia. Agree that the Russian people did not like such impudence. In 1612, the second people's militia under the command of Minin and Pozharsky expelled the Poles from their homeland, but the interventionists managed to grab territories for themselves.
Origins
The reasons for the conflict were as follows. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Orthodox population was persecuted, and peoples such as Ukrainians and Belarusians were considered servants and cheap labor. Ukrainians wanted reunification with Russian brothers in faith and blood.
That is why in 1654 at the Zemsky Sobor, after numerous requests from the hetman of Zaporozhye - Bohdan Khmelnytsky, a decision was made to reunite the Ukrainian people with the Russians. And of course the Poles were furious. Naturally, after all, their main rival took a significant piece of land from under their noses. This served as the actual “Casus belli”.
Progress of the war
The course of military operations was uneven: with constant biases of success towards one of the sides.
At the beginning of the war, the united tsarist and Zaporozhye troops, during the so-called “Sovereign Campaign,” were able to quickly and massively defeat the Poles and occupy territories such as Smolensk, Polotsk, and Orsha. However, at this time another player appears on the world map - Sweden. The Swedes enter the war and it was a complete surprise for both sides.
Two irreconcilable enemies decide to conclude a temporary “Treaty of Vilna” in 1656. The war freezes and another one begins - the Russian-Swedish one. We will not consider it separately and will only tell you briefly. It did not last long, from 1656 to 1658. Russia managed to conquer only part of the Baltic states and was forced to conclude another truce again, because Poland resumed hostilities.
Another stage has begun. In general, it is worth mentioning that the war was a war of attrition and was sluggish. The parties constantly seized the initiative from each other. In 1657, Bogdan Khmelnytsky died and this contributed to the escalation of the situation within the Cossacks.
Quite a funny fact, the Cossacks were very heterogeneous and therefore the appointment of a new hetman almost always influenced the course of politics. One hetman would like to assimilate with Russia, another, on the contrary, with Poland, and the third would simply rob and spread banditry. This case was no exception. The newly appointed head of the Cossacks quickly established relations with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and concluded an agreement to return the lands back. This split the Cossacks into 2 camps and greatly weakened Russia’s position.
1660 was a bad year for Rus'. Polish-Lithuanian troops defeated the Russian army and returned some of the captured territories. Fortunately, unrest began in the Polish army due to delays in salaries. The treasury was emptying, the war was no longer profitable for Poland. It was the last phase of the battles that became the period of the main course of hostilities.
In 1663-1664, they decided to carry out a kind of “blitzkrieg” to return all lands - the great campaign of King John Casimir. This campaign was already a last-ditch effort and a last-ditch effort, so to speak – a death throes. At first, the Poles even had a huge advantage and won victory after victory, only reserves and resources were running out, and Rossiyushka had plenty of them, because she was huge in size.
The tsarist army carried out a series of counterattacks and finally finished off the Polish-Lithuanian army. The last stage of the war is characterized by calm and only local skirmishes in some places. Although Russia still had strength, there was no longer any point in continuing hostilities.
End of the war
Finally, the parties calmed down due to the lack of desire to fight, the people in the countries wanted peace and continued clashes could turn out badly for both. Plus, there were also constant raids by the Crimean Tatars. The war ended in 1667 with the signing of the Andrusovo Peace Treaty. The results were:
Conclusion of a truce for 13 years
- Russia regained Smolensk and Chernigov, lost during the Time of Troubles
- Russian control over Left Bank Ukraine and the transfer of Kyiv to lease for two years
- The Zaporozhye Sich became a buffer zone and had dual control between Poland and Muscovy.
In conclusion, it is worth noting that this topic is part of a more global one: the foreign policy of the Muscovite kingdom under Alexei Mikhailovich. We discuss all the nuances of these topics in detail in our training courses. It is here that you can also practice solving Unified State Exam tests for this period and beyond.
In response to numerous requests from representatives of the Ukrainian people, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich convened the Zemsky Sobor. The question was not easy. The conflict with Poland was considered by many to be inappropriate due to the concluded peace, as well as material complications. The memory of the actions of the Ukrainian Cossacks in the previous Russian-Polish wars was also fresh. And the enemy himself inspired fears. Previous clashes with the Poles ended unsuccessfully for the Russians. At first, Moscow tried to protect Khmelnitsky through negotiations with Warsaw. But all the negotiations ended in nothing. In an effort to hurry the tsar, the hetman said that, otherwise, he would accept the Turkish Sultan’s offer of citizenship. This not only lowered the international prestige of Russia, but also meant the appearance of the borders of the Ottoman Empire, which had views of Kazan and Astrakhan, near Kursk and Kharkov.
The council dragged on for a long time - from 1651 to 1653. In the end, supporters of the protection of the Ukrainian people and Orthodoxy prevailed. An embassy headed by boyar Vasily Buturlin went to Khmelnitsky. On January 8, 1654, in Ukraine, in the city of Pereyaslav, a general council was held, at which the citizens of Ukraine unanimously swore allegiance to the Moscow Tsar. “God, confirm! God, strengthen! So that we may all be one forever.” These were the final words of the people's oath. Under the agreement with Moscow, Ukraine (Little Russia) retained local self-government and its army. This is how a historical event took place - the reunification of Ukraine with Russia. The consequence of this was the wars of the Russian state with Poland, Sweden, and subsequently with Turkey.
The wars from 1654 to 1667 can be roughly divided into a number of campaigns. 1. Campaign 1654-1655 2. Campaign of 1656-1658, or Russian-Swedish War 3. Campaign of 1558-1559 4. Campaign of 1660. 5. Campaign of 1661-1662. 6. Campaign 1663-1664 7. Campaign 1665-1666
In all campaigns, Russian troops simultaneously fought in two theaters of military operations - northern (Belarusian-Lithuanian) and southern (Ukrainian). In terms of scale, it was one of the largest wars of the Russian state in the previous period. It is worth noting that for the first time the Russian army had to conduct major military operations in Ukraine. This war was accompanied by strong internal conflicts on the territory of hostilities (primarily in Ukraine), as well as the involvement of other states (Sweden, the Crimean Khanate) in the conflict.
Campaign of 1654-1655
This campaign was generally offensive in nature on the part of the combined Russian-Ukrainian forces. It was distinguished by major successes of the allies, who drove back the troops of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the Dnieper to the Bug. The primary goal of the Russian command in the initial period of the war was the return of Smolensk and other Russian cities captured by Poland. Based on these tasks, the plan for the first year of the campaign was built. The main forces of the Russian army, led by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, were marching towards Smolensk. To the north, in the direction of Polotsk and Vitebsk, the army of governor Vasily Sheremetev struck. The Russian auxiliary corps operated in Ukraine together with the troops of Bogdan Khmelnitsky.
The composition of the Russian army was significantly updated. Its core was foreign regiments, the majority of which were Russian rather than mercenary units. Together with the regiments of the foreign system, horse and foot militias, archers, as well as significant Cossack formations went on campaign. The power of the combined forces of Russia and Ukraine made it possible to achieve previously unprecedented results in the first period of the war. The first and one of the largest successes of Russian weapons in this war was the capture of Smolensk.
Capture of Smolensk (1654).
In June 1654, the Russian army led by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (about 40 thousand people) approached Smolensk. The city was defended by a Polish-Lithuanian garrison under the command of Voivode Obukhovich (over 2 thousand people). The siege began on July 26. On the night of August 16, the Russians launched an assault, which ended unsuccessfully for them. The besieged blew up one of the towers, into which the attackers burst, forcing them to retreat. The Russians lost 300 killed and 1 thousand wounded during the assault. Poles and Lithuanians - 200 people. killed. However, this success did not help raise the morale of the besieged. They did not have enough people, gunpowder, and the desire to defend themselves.
After the defeat of Hetman Radziwill's troops on the Shklovka River, the besieged's hopes for outside help disappeared. In addition, the townspeople expressed open sympathy for the Russian troops and did not want to sit in a long siege. Desertion began among the Smolensk garrison. In September, Voivode Obukhovich proposed to begin negotiations on the surrender of the fortress. The negotiations were accelerated by the townspeople themselves, who opened the gates to the Russian Tsar. On September 23, 1654, the garrison capitulated. The leaders of the defense (voivode Obukhovich and Colonel Korfu) were allowed to travel to Lithuania. The remaining defenders of the fortress and townspeople received the right to choose - either to swear allegiance to the Moscow Tsar or to leave for Lithuanian possessions. From now on, Smolensk was returned to the Russian state.
Battle on the Shilovka River (1654). During the siege of Smolensk, troops under the command of Voivode Alexei Trubetskoy defeated the Polish army of Hetman Radziwill on the Shklovka River, outside the village of Shepelevichi (eastern Belarus) on August 14, 1654. The Russians captured the convoy, banner and carriage of the wounded Radziwill, who barely escaped. 282 people were captured by the Russians, including 12 colonels. The Russians lost 9 people killed and 97 wounded. After this battle, the Poles no longer had large forces left in the south of Belarus, between the Dnieper and Berezina. Under the influence of the Russian victory at Shklovka, Mogilev surrendered on August 26. Radziwill's defeat actually deprived the Smolensk garrison of hope for outside help.
Capture of Polotsk and Vitebsk (1654). Meanwhile, the army of governor Sheremetev, after a two-week siege, captured Polotsk in June, and then, after defeating Polish troops in the battles of Susha and Glubokoye, approached Vitebsk in August. Sheremetev did not have sufficient forces to storm this powerful fortress. Therefore, the Russian commander tried to persuade the garrison to surrender. After long fruitless negotiations, Sheremetev, sensing the approach of winter cold, nevertheless decided to storm Vitebsk in November. The Russians captured two forts and forced the besieged to retreat to the main citadel, the attack on which was continued. The “immense attack” impressed the defenders of Vitebsk, and on November 22 they capitulated. This was the last major Russian success in the northern theater of operations in the 1654 campaign.
Battle of Drozhipol (1655).
In the southern (Ukrainian) theater, the summer of 1654 was not marked by allied activity, which allowed the Poles to seize the initiative here at the end of the year. The 18,000-strong Polish army led by hetmans Lyantskoronsky and Pototsky, reinforced by the troops of the Crimean Khan Magmet-Girey, went on the offensive in Right Bank Ukraine. Russian-Ukrainian troops under the command of governor Vasily Sheremetev and hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky (25 thousand people) came out to meet them. The decisive battle between the Polish-Crimean and Russian-Ukrainian troops took place in the Akhmatova region (Right Bank Ukraine) in January 1655.
The battle took place in a severe cold (that’s why the battlefield received the name Trembling Field). Despite the numerical superiority of the Polish-Crimean army, Sheremetev and Khmelnitsky boldly entered the battle. The Russian and Cossack regiments built a fortification from carts (camp) and valiantly fought back for four days. The Poles and Crimeans burst into the camp several times, but were repulsed in hand-to-hand combat. In the end, the Russian-Ukrainian army managed to break through to Bila Tserkva, where the army was stationed under the command of governor Fyodor Buturlin. The Poles and Crimeans, who suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Drozhipol, did not dare to launch a further offensive. As a result of this fierce battle, the Polish-Crimean offensive against Ukraine was stopped.
Winter offensive in Belarus (1655). That same winter, Polish-Lithuanian troops went on the offensive in Belarus. Taking advantage of the fact that the main Russian troops were withdrawn to Russia in the winter, the detachment of Prince Lukomsky in January 1655 tried to recapture Vitebsk, but was defeated by the detachment of the governor Matvey Sheremetev. At the same time, the Polish-Lithuanian army under the command of Hetman Radziwill (24 thousand people) entered the eastern part of Belarus. She recaptured Kopys, Dubrovna and Orsha, and also relieved the Polish garrison besieged in Old Bykhov. But Radziwill's attempt to take possession of Mogilev ended in failure. After a three-month siege of this city, the Polish-Lithuanian army was forced to retreat.
Battle of Vilia (1655). March on Lviv (1655).
In the summer of 1655, Russian-Ukrainian troops in Belarus launched a decisive offensive. On July 3 they took Minsk, and at the end of the month they reached the Vilna region. Here, near the Viliya River (a tributary of the Neman), on July 29, 1655, a battle between the Russian-Ukrainian army under the command of Prince Jacob of Cherkassy and Hetman Ivan Zolotarenko took place with the Polish army under the command of Hetman Radziwill. The stubborn battle lasted the whole day. In the end, it ended in complete defeat for the Poles, who retreated across the river in confusion. The victory at Vilia allowed the Russians to take possession of the capital of Lithuania, Vilna, for the first time. In August, Kovno (Kaunas) and Grodno were also taken. The Russian victories were made easier by the fact that Poland was also attacked by Sweden in the summer of 1655, whose troops captured Warsaw in August.
In the southern theater of military operations, Russian-Ukrainian troops under the command of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky and governor Vasily Buturlin went on the offensive in Right Bank Ukraine and besieged Lviv in September 1655. However, this offensive had to be stopped, since Ukraine was invaded by a huge army of the Crimean Khan Magmet-Girey, who took advantage of the departure of the main Russian-Ukrainian forces to the west. The Crimean onslaught was repulsed, but the Russian offensive in the south also had to be stopped. The campaign of 1655 became the peak of success for the Russian-Ukrainian troops, which reached the Grodno-Brest-Lvov line.
Russo-Swedish War (1656-1658)
Further struggle between Russia and Poland was temporarily interrupted by the outbreak of the Russian-Swedish war. Sweden's aggression made serious adjustments to the Russian-Polish conflict. Part of the Polish nobility recognized the Swedish monarch Charles X as their king. In an effort to prevent the strengthening of Sweden by creating a unified Polish-Swedish state, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich concluded a truce with the Poles and in 1656 began a war with the Swedes. At the same time, he hoped (under the influence of the unprecedented successes of his army) to recapture from Sweden the Russian lands it had captured during the Time of Troubles, and also to achieve access to the Baltic Sea. The change in guidelines was also explained by the presence of disagreements among the Moscow elite regarding foreign strategy. Some, led by boyar A.S. Matveev, considered the main task to be the unification of Ukraine with Russia. Others, primarily boyar A.L. Ordin-Nashchokin, saw the primary goal in the struggle for the Baltic coast.
In 1658, due to the resumption of the war with Poland and the aggravation of the situation in Ukraine, the Russians agreed to a truce with the Swedes. According to the Treaty of Valiesar (1658), the parties concluded a three-year truce with the Russians retaining the territories they occupied (primarily Dorpat).
Campaign 1658-1659
The end of the war with Poland strained Russian-Ukrainian relations. The leaders of the Cossacks acted as instigators of unrest. They no longer needed Moscow's support and wanted to rule the country independently. Their ideal was the position of the Polish lordship. Having expelled the Poles, the Cossack elite seized significant lands into their own property and now tried to secure them for themselves with the considerable set of privileges that existed in the neighboring kingdom.
In 1657, Bohdan Khmelnytsky died. On the initiative of the elders, Ivan Vygovsky, a supporter of an alliance with the Poles, was elected hetman. He secretly concluded the Gadyach Treaty (1558) with them, providing for a federal union of Poland and Little Russia. The agreement gave the Cossack elite the rights of the Polish aristocracy and high privileges. Having united with the Crimean Khan, Vygovsky established his power in Ukraine, suppressing popular discontent with the help of the Poles. As a result, events took an unfavorable turn for Moscow. Poland, having acquired a new ally, resumed the war against Russia.
First of all, hostilities broke out in the northern theater, where Polish troops under the command of Hetman Gonsevsky tried to unite with that part of the Ukrainian regiments stationed in Belarus that took the side of Vyhovsky. To prevent this, the army of governor Yuri Dolgoruky quickly advanced to meet the Poles.
Battle of Varka (1658). The meeting of the Polish and Russian armies took place on October 8, 1658 near the village of Varka, near Vilna. At first, the Polish cavalry acted successfully and were able to push back the Russian infantry. To help the faltering infantrymen, Dolgoruky sent two regiments of the new formation. The blow of fresh Russian forces decided the outcome of the battle, putting the Polish-Lithuanian army to flight. Many Poles were captured, including Gonsevsky. However, Dolgoruky was unable to build on his success. When he asked for reinforcements from another commander, Prince Nikita Odoevsky, he did not want to do this because of disputes about who should obey whom. Nevertheless, the defeat at Warka did not allow the Poles to seize the initiative in the northern theater of military operations. After the victory at Varka, Russian troops suppressed the resistance of Vygovsky’s supporters in Belarus.
Battle of Konotop (1659).
In the southern theater of military operations, events unfolded at first not so successfully. After Vygovsky’s betrayal, a large army headed by governor Alexei Trubetskoy (according to some sources, up to 150 thousand people) moved to Ukraine in the spring of 1659. But instead of joining forces with the troops of governor Vasily Sheremetev stationed in Kyiv, Trubetskoy decided to first take Konotop, where the supporters of the betrayed hetman were settled. The siege dragged on for more than one month. In June, Vygovsky approached the city, bringing with him the troops of the Crimean Khan Magmet-Girey. Leaving the main forces in ambush beyond the Sosnovka River, the hetman with a small detachment of Cossacks attacked the Moscow army on June 27, and then began to feign retreat. Trubetskoy, seeing a small number of attackers, sent only cavalry led by princes Semyon Lvov and Semyon Pozharsky to pursue them. They did not attach any importance to the testimony of the prisoners about the impending ambush and resolutely rushed in pursuit.
On June 28, Pozharsky defeated a small Cossack detachment and began the pursuit with excitement. However, having crossed Sosnovka, the Moscow cavalry unexpectedly encountered a huge army, was surrounded and completely defeated, losing up to 30 thousand people. (including more than 5 thousand prisoners who were mercilessly slaughtered). Lvov and Pozharsky were also captured. When Pozharsky was brought to the Crimean Khan, the Moscow governor, instead of expressing submission, spat in his face and scolded him, for which he was immediately beheaded. Lvov’s life was spared, but he soon died in captivity. The Battle of Konotop became one of the most brutal defeats of Russian troops in the 17th century. The flower of the Moscow noble cavalry, which could not be restored throughout the war, perished in it.
But Vygovsky was unable to develop his success. His advance was stopped by the stubborn defense of the Gadyach fortress. After the Don Cossacks attacked Crimea, the khan left to defend his possessions. The Poles also could not yet send serious reinforcements to Vygovsky. Without their support, his army no longer represented a serious force. It moved to the right bank of the Dnieper in Chigirin. In August, Vygovsky’s troops tried to launch a new offensive in Left Bank Ukraine, but were defeated near Kiev by the troops of Vasily Sheremetev.
If the Cossack elite followed Poland, then the majority of the Cossacks, for whom the Gadyach Treaty meant the return of Polish feudal order, remained loyal to Russia. In the fall of 1559, the Cossacks overthrew Vygovsky and reaffirmed their oath to the Moscow Tsar. Khmelnitsky's son Yuri was elected hetman.
Campaign of 1660
The year 1660 was a turning point in the Russian-Polish war. It was from this time that the Russians lost the strategic initiative, which gradually passed to the Polish-Lithuanian side.
In the northern sector of military operations, the campaign of 1660 was initially successful for the Russians. Thus, the troops of governor Ivan Khovansky occupied the strong fortress of Brest, and the detachment of steward Semyon Zmeev defeated the Poles near Slutsk. However, the situation soon changed. In the spring of 1660, Poland concluded the Peace of Oliwa with Sweden. Now the Polish command was able to transfer all forces against the Russians and launch a counteroffensive in Belarus. During the fighting, the Polish army ousted Russian troops from Lithuania (except Vilno), as well as most of the regions of western and central Belarus. The Polish onslaught was temporarily stopped in the fall of 1660 in the battle near the village of Gubarevo (Mogilev region).
Battle of Gubarevo (1660). On September 24-26, 1660, near the village of Gubarevo, a battle took place between the united Polish troops under the command of hetmans Sapieha, Charnetsky, and Polubensky with the Russian army under the command of Prince Yuri Dolgoruky (25 thousand people). The Poles attacked Russian positions from two sides. The Russian cavalry was the first to falter, but the infantry stationed in the forest repelled the Polish onslaught and restored balance. The stubborn battle lasted three whole days and did not give a final advantage to either side. However, the Polish offensive was stopped. In October, a 12,000-strong detachment of Prince Khovansky set off from Polotsk to help Dolgoruky. The detachments of Sapieha and Chernetsky came out to meet him. They inflicted defeat on Khovansky's army, forcing him to retreat. After this, Dolgoruky’s army, without receiving reinforcements, retreated to Mogilev.
Battle of Lyubar and Chudnov (1660).
At this time, truly dramatic events were unfolding in the southern theater of military operations. The end of the unrest in Ukraine finally allowed the Russian and Ukrainian command to resume joint offensive operations. At the beginning of September 1660, the Russian army of governor Vasily Sheremetev (30 thousand people) and the Cossack army of Yuri Khmelnitsky (25 thousand people) set out on a campaign against Lviv along two converging roads. On September 5, near Lyubar, Sheremetev’s troops were stopped by the Polish-Crimean army under the command of hetmans Pototsky and Lyubomirsky (30 thousand Poles and 60 thousand Crimean Tatars). In a two-day battle, the Russians were defeated.
Sheremetev's army, outflanked, dug in and, hiding behind the carts, stubbornly defended itself until September 16. Then it began to move towards Chudnov (a town on the Teterya River) in a moving camp. Approaching Chudnov, Sheremetev took a very unfortunate position in the lowland. However, the Russian commander considered these inconveniences temporary, since he expected the approach of Khmelnitsky’s allied army from hour to hour. When Sheremetev learned about the approach of the Cossacks, he tried to break through to them, but to no avail. Khmelnitsky did not come to his aid. Fearing defeat, the Ukrainian hetman concluded peace and alliance with the Poles. After this, the Russians found themselves surrounded by a dense ring and finally lost all hope of outside help. They lost a third of their personnel from battles, hunger and disease. On October 23, Sheremetev capitulated.
Under the terms of surrender, he pledged to withdraw all Moscow troops from Ukraine. For this, the Poles had to let his army go home without banners and weapons. Instead, they handed over the prisoners to their allies - the Crimeans. Sheremetev was also sent to Crimea (he returned from there 21 years later). After their victory, the Poles demanded that the governor Yuri Boryatinsky, who was stationed near Kiev, fulfill the Chudnovsky Treaty. But he answered them with a historical phrase: “I obey the decrees of my tsar, not Sheremetev! There are many Sheremetevs in Moscow.” The Poles did not dare to storm Kyiv and retreated. Soon unrest began in their army due to non-payment of salaries. In this regard, most of it refused to participate in further hostilities. As a result of Boryatinsky’s firmness and its own troubles, the Polish side missed an opportune moment for a major offensive on Left Bank Ukraine.
Nevertheless, the defeat at Chudnov had extremely negative consequences for the Russians. After it, Ukraine split. The left bank part remained loyal to Moscow, and a new hetman was elected on the right bank of the Dnieper. This caused a multi-year civil war in Ukraine. The Little Russian Troubles and the loss of an entire army completely deprived the Russians of offensive initiative in the southern theater of military operations. From now on, the Russian army limited itself to the defense of the Left Bank. In addition, in this difficult situation, Russia had to agree to the Treaty of Kardis with Sweden (1661) and abandon its conquests in the Baltic states. The Battle of Chudno became one of the largest defeats of the Russian army in the 17th century.
Campaign 1661-1662
During this period, Polish troops held the initiative. However, due to financial and economic problems, they were unable to ensure a simultaneous offensive in Belarus and Ukraine. The main efforts of the Polish command focused on the northern theater of military operations.
Battle of Kushliki (1661).
This battle became decisive in the 1661 campaign in Belarus. In the fall of 1661, the Russian army under the command of governors Khovansky and Ordin-Nashchokin (20 thousand people) fought with the Polish-Lithuanian army under the command of Marshal Zheromsky. In this battle, the Russian army suffered a heavy defeat. According to some reports, only a thousand out of twenty people, together with Khovansky and the wounded Nashchokin, managed to escape within the walls of Polotsk. The rest died or were captured, including Khovansky’s son. The winners also received 9 cannons and banners. After the defeat at Kushliki, Russian troops were forced to leave the main part of Belarus.
In the winter of 1662, Polish troops captured Mogilev, and Borisov in the summer. By the end of 1662, the Russians held in Belarus mainly the Vitebsk region. Desertion among their troops is increasing. The situation within the country is also becoming more complicated due to the difficult financial and economic situation. The Copper Riot broke out in Moscow in 1662. In the face of military failures and an aggravation of the internal political situation, the Russian leadership began peace negotiations with Poland in 1662.
Vilna defense (1661-1662). Events in Ukraine (1661-1662).
During this period, the cut-off Russian garrison of Vilna under the command of governor Danila Myshetsky continued to bravely defend. The Russians heroically repelled five attacks, enduring almost a year and a half of siege. By November 1662, only 78 soldiers remained in the ranks of the fortress’s defenders. Nevertheless, Myshetsky did not want to give up and wanted to blow up the fortress. Having learned about this, the surviving defenders of Vilna captured the governor and then handed him over to the Poles. By order of the Polish king Jan Casimir, Myshetsky was executed. With the loss of Vilna, the last Russian stronghold in Lithuania fell.
During the same period, local battles took place in Ukraine. In winter, detachments of Yuri Khmelnitsky, Poles and Crimean Tatars made a series of incursions into the territory of Left Bank Ukraine, but were repulsed. After the departure of the main Polish units from Ukraine to Belarus, the Crimean Khan became the main ally and defender of Yuri Khmelnitsky. In the fall, detachments of Khmelnitsky and the Crimeans again invaded Left Bank Ukraine and besieged Pereyaslavl, but were repulsed. In the early summer of 1662 they repeated their raid. After a series of battles in the Pereyaslavl area, the Crimean-Ukrainian troops were again forced to retreat.
The repulsion of Khmelnytsky’s onslaught coincided with a fierce internal conflict on the Left Bank associated with the election of a new hetman here. The main fight took place between three contenders - Samko, Bryukhovetsky and Zolotarenko. In April 1662, Samko was finally chosen as hetman. But he did not retain the hetman’s mace for even a year before he was overthrown by his rival, Bryukhovetsky. Thus, the Moscow government had to not only fight with Poland, but also sort out the complicated Little Russian affairs, in which the betrayal of the hetmans, their mutual struggle and denunciations became commonplace. The complex, contradictory situation in Ukraine, where national and religious problems were combined with the strategic interests of neighboring powers and the property claims of individual classes, extremely complicated both the actions of the Russian army and the work of Moscow diplomacy.
Campaign 1663-1664
The main events in these years unfolded in the southern theater of military operations. Having knocked out the Russians from Lithuania and Belarus, the Polish command decided to achieve decisive success in Ukraine. In the fall of 1663, a Polish army led by King John Casimir with a total number of less than 10 thousand people came to Right Bank Ukraine. Having united with a 5,000-strong Crimean detachment and the Cossack army of the Right Bank Hetman Teteri (who replaced Yuri Khmelnitsky), the Poles began an attack on Left Bank Ukraine. Not having sufficient forces to carry out such a large military operation, the king hoped to win over the left bank Cossacks to his side. If successful, the Poles could invade Russia, go behind the Russian troops in Belarus and organize a campaign against Moscow.
At first, the Polish army was successful. She captured 13 cities, but then events took a turn unfavorable for the king. As his army advanced, so did the resistance it faced. The Lokhvitsa fortress was stubbornly defended, taken by the Poles only after a fierce assault. The city of Gadyach, besieged by Teterya, did not surrender either. The king himself unsuccessfully besieged Glukhov, and then was defeated by Russian troops near Novgorod-Seversky and was forced to retreat. Only the indecisiveness of the governor Yakov Cherkassky saved the Polish army from complete defeat. The royal campaign on the Left Bank failed. In the winter - spring of 1664, Russian-Ukrainian troops launched a counter-offensive and carried out a number of raids on the Right Bank. In the summer of 1664, local battles on the Right Bank took place in the area of Korsun and Kanev, where only one Russian detachment of governor Grigory Kosogov (2 thousand people) operated. Moscow could not allocate more for the offensive on the Right Bank.
Campaign 1665-1666 Truce of Andrusovo (1667)
Jan Casimir's campaign against Left Bank Ukraine was the last major operation of the Russian-Polish war. After this, hostilities began to fade. Neither Russia nor Poland had the strength for a decisive blow. In 1665, local battles took place in both the northern and southern theaters of military operations. In the south, Russian-Ukrainian troops in 1665 continued to make shallow raids on the Right Bank - in particular, they captured Korsun and defeated the Poles near Bila Tserkva. There were no major battles in Belarus either. The military activity of the parties gave way to diplomatic activity. In 1666, negotiations began, which ended in January 1667 with the signing of a truce for 13.5 years in the village of Andrusovo (near Smolensk).
According to the Truce of Andrusovo, Russia received Smolensk and all the lands it had lost during the Time of Troubles, as well as Left Bank Ukraine with temporary possession of Kiev (then it became permanent). The Zaporozhye Sich received autonomy. Belarus and Right Bank Ukraine remained with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. For Russia, this war turned out to be one of the longest, it lasted for thirteen years with interruptions. Having acted there as a defender of Orthodoxy and its half-brothers, Moscow fought not only to change its borders, but also to restore the living space of the East Slavic world. After this war, Catholic Europe, which had extended its influence to the banks of the Dnieper, began to roll back.
The Treaty of Andrusovo, which meant the collapse of Warsaw's eastern policy, ends the period of armed rivalry between Russia and Poland. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was no longer able to fully recover from the losses suffered. It is beginning to lose its role as a regional leader in Eastern Europe and ceases to pose a serious threat to Moscow. Soon there is a rapprochement between the two countries, first on the basis of joint actions against the Ottoman Empire, and then against Sweden.
"From Ancient Rus' to the Russian Empire." Shishkin Sergey Petrovich, Ufa.
Russian-Polish War 1654–1667 And its results. Voluntary reunification of Ukraine with Russia
From the end of the 16th century. most of Ukraine and Belarus were part of the Polish-Lithuanian state - the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (formed in 1595 under the Union of Lublin). Polish feudal lords brutally exploited Ukrainian and Belarusian lands, eradicating national traditions.
According to the Union of Brest (1596), a union concluded between the Orthodox and Catholic churches, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and Belarus was subordinate to the Pope; in the future, the Catholicization of Ukrainians and Belarusians was expected.
Triple oppression - religious, national and feudal, caused mass protests by the population of Ukraine and Belarus. The driving forces of this struggle were the peasantry, Cossacks, townspeople, middle and small national nobility, and clergy.
In the 40s–50s. XVII century The liberation struggle of the Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples reached its highest scale when Bohdan Khmelnytsky (1595–1657) was elected hetman of the Zaporozhye Sich. Khmelnitsky understood that it would take a lot of effort before Ukraine would become free. Therefore, he turned to Russia for help. But Russia at that time was unable to respond to Khmelnitsky’s call, since urban uprisings were raging in Russia, and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was strong. Russia limited itself to economic and diplomatic support for Ukraine.
Only in 1653 did Russia finally manage to come to grips with the problems of Ukraine. This year the Zemsky Sobor decides to provide assistance to Ukraine. On October 1, 1653, Russia declared war on Poland, and the Russian embassy left for Ukraine.
On January 8, 1654, a rada (council) was held in the city of Pereyaslavl (now Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky), where the reunification of Ukraine with Russia was announced. Russia recognized the authorities that formed in Ukraine during the war of liberation, including the election of a hetman, recognized the class rights of the Ukrainian nobility, and the temporary weakening of serfdom (only in the second half of the 18th century was serfdom legally formalized here). Ukraine remained independent in foreign policy, in addition to relations with Poland and Turkey, it could have its own troops of up to 60 thousand people. But taxes from Ukraine already went to the Russian treasury.
The reunification of Ukraine with Russia saved the Ukrainian people from enslavement by Poland and Turkey, from national and religious humiliation and contributed to the formation of the Ukrainian nation.
The reunification of Ukraine with Russia had a beneficial effect on Russia itself. This strengthened and strengthened the Russian state, which made it possible to return the Smolensk and Chernigov lands. On the other hand, more favorable conditions have emerged for expanding Russia's external relations with other countries.
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth did not agree with the decision of the Pereyaslav Rada and a long war between Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for Ukraine and Belarus began (1654–1667). Soon this war drew other countries into its orbit - Sweden, the Ottoman Empire and its vassals (Moldova and the Crimean Khanate).
In the spring of 1654, hostilities began. Russian troops operated in two places. Part of the Russian army moved to Ukraine for joint military operations with the army of B. Khmelnitsky, and the main military forces of Russia chose the Belarusian direction. The beginning of the war turned out to be very successful for the Russian troops. For 1654–1655 Smolensk and the Belarusian and Lithuanian cities of Mogilev, Vitebsk, Minsk, Vilno, Kovno, Grodno were annexed to Russia. Moreover, Russian troops everywhere met with support from the local population.
Russian troops and Khmelnitsky's troops fought successfully in Ukraine; in the fall of 1656, they managed to liberate Western Ukrainian lands from Poland to Lvov.
Later, hostilities between Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were interrupted by a truce. In 1656–1658 Russia was busy with a war with Sweden for the Baltic lands, which was unsuccessful for Russia, especially since Poland used it to resume military operations against Russia in 1659. Under pressure from Polish troops, Russia was forced to lose Minsk, Borisov, and Mogilev. And in Ukraine, Russian troops were defeated by the combined Polish-Crimean forces. Soon the Polish offensive was stopped and a long period of protracted war began. Only in 1667, as a result of negotiations in Andrusovo (near Smolensk), a truce was concluded for 13 and a half years. On behalf of Russia, negotiations were conducted by the head of the Ambassadorial Prikaz, A.L. Ordin–Nashchokin (ca. 1605–1680). Russia retained Smolensk with its lands and Left Bank Ukraine with Kiev, which was transferred to Russia for 2 years. Belarus and Right Bank Ukraine remained with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The Truce of Andrusovo in 1667 did not completely resolve all the issues, since Ukraine was divided.
Only in 1686 was the “Eternal Peace” finally concluded between Russia and Poland. According to it, Smolensk and Chernigov lands became Russian, as well as Left Bank Ukraine and Kiev. However, large parts of Ukraine and Belarus remained Polish territory.
Thus, the Andrusov Agreement became a great diplomatic success for Moscow. It had a great international resonance, since it was given the character of an act of pan-European significance. In the event of complications in further negotiations on “eternal peace” between Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, it was planned to “call on Christian sovereigns as mediators.” In addition, a very important obligation was that Poland could not conclude treaties with Turkey without the participation of the Muscovite state. This, Firstly.
A, Secondly, Ukraine was given a royal charter. However, at the same time:
the tsarist government recognized the election of the hetman and his confirmation by the tsar;
the hetman retained the right of diplomatic relations with all states except Poland and Turkey;
the entire military-administrative apparatus of Ukraine, formed during the liberation war, and its election were preserved;
the court continued to act on the basis of local laws and customs;
the Cossack register was established (at the request of the hetman) with a total number of 60 thousand people;
The tsarist government established its control over Ukrainian tax collectors (some of them were allocated for the needs of Ukraine itself).
