The Battle of Moscow (1612)

Second Militia Troops

The number of troops of the Second Militia did not exceed 7-8 thousand people ^[1] . The base of the army was foot and horse Cossack hundreds, numbering about 4,000 people and 1,000 archers ^[3] . The rest of the army was formed from the noble and peasant militias. Of the nobles, the representatives of Smolensk , Dorogobuzh and Vyazma were the most well-armed. Chronicles specifically note: “And the Smolensk Poles and Lithuania were rude from time immemorial, they lived close to them and there were frequent battles with them and Lithuania was beaten in fights” ^[3] . Of the peasants, philistines and ordinary Cossacks, only the Nizhny Novgorod militia were well-dressed and armed. The rest are “mnosias from the Kazatsk ranks and all sorts of black people who don’t have ... just the same food and the old woman’s cowgirl , ” “ovi kill the barefoot, call them another” ^[4] .

A separate military force was the detachment of Prince Dmitry Trubetskoy , consisting of 2,500 Cossacks ^[2] . This detachment was the remains of the First Militia.

The main commanders of the Second Militia were Prince Dmitry Pozharsky , Kuzma Minin , Prince Ivan Andreevich Khovansky-Bolshoi and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky-Lopata . Of all the governors, only Prince Khovansky had significant military experience by this time, Prince Dmitry Pozharsky had no experience in commanding large military forces, and Prince Lopata-Pozharsky had never been a governor before participating in the militia ^[5] .

The relations of the leaders of the Second Militia with Prince Trubetskoy were distinguished by mutual distrust. Even when approaching Moscow, the militia leaders feared the Cossacks Trubetskoy and did not know whether the prince would go to the union or not ^[6] .

Shortly before the battle, the troops of the princes Pozharsky and Trubetskoy took mutual oaths. Cossacks and nobles of Prince Trubetskoy swore "to stand against the enemies of our Polish and Lithuanian people . " The militias of Minin and Pozharsky in response to "you will see all that you die for the home of the Orthodox Christian faith" ^[7] .

Hetman Khodkevich Troops

The total number of troops of Hetman Khodkevich was about 12 thousand people. The basis was about 8,000 Cossacks. The rest of the army was divided into several detachments: about 1,400 people in three detachments, several hundred people in 15 banners in one detachment, one detachment of several hundred people and a personal hetman detachment of about 2,000 people. Separately, the Kremlin garrison stood at 3,000 people, with whom the hetman Khodkevich kept in touch and tried to coordinate actions ^[2] . The hetman’s infantry was not numerous, numbering 1,500 people: 800 people in the detachment of Colonel Felix Nevyarovsky, 400 people in the Hungarian mercenaries Graevsky, 100 people in the detachment of Prince Samuel Koretsky, 200 people in German mercenaries in the detachment of the hetman himself ^[3] .

Hetman Khodkevich himself, who managed to establish himself as a talented military leader, and Cossack commander Alexander Zborovsky, stood out from the command. The remaining commanders of the Polish-Lithuanian troops, including the commanders of the Kremlin garrison of the Khmelnytsky headman Nikolai Strus and the Mozyr corral Joseph Budilo, had significant combat experience, but did not stand out with special talents ^[8] .

Stage One

By the beginning of the battle, Russian troops managed to take a fairly strong defensive position. Russian positions adjoined the walls of the White City and were located along the rampart that dominated the area. Prince Vasily Turenin commanded the left flank. The positions of this detachment adjoined the Moscow River at the Chertolsky Gate and the Alekseevskaya Tower. On the right flank was a detachment of 400 people under the command of governor Mikhail Dmitriev and Fyodor Levashov , who stood at the Petrovsky Gate. At the Tver Gate there is a detachment of Prince Lopata-Pozharsky of 700 people. The main troops, under the command of Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, Minin and Prince Khovansky, were located at the Arbat Gate . Here Pozharsky built a fortified camp, where he placed archers. The detachment of Prince Trubetskoy was supposed to protect Zamoskvorechye and was located on the Vorontsov Field and at the Yauz Gate . On Bolshaya Ordynka and near the Zamoskvoretsky bridge , Trubetskoy’s troops equipped two fortified camps ^[9] . Several horse-drawn hundreds were sent to Trubetskoy from the composition of the troops of the Second Militia.

Prince Pozharsky knew that the hetman Khodkevich would advance from the Novodevichy Convent along the Smolensk Road, and located the main forces of his army directly on the path of the Polish-Lithuanian troops.

Early in the morning of August 22 ( September 1 ), 1612, the hetman Khodkevich with his army was already at the Novodevichy Convent, crossing the Moscow River. Hetman wanted to "forcefully enter the city into the Arbat and Chertorskie Gates" and met on his way the wooden city of Pozharsky.

The first battle ensued horseback hundreds. The battle went from the first to the seventh hour of the day. Getman Khodkevich in support of the cavalry brought his infantry into battle. The left flank of the Russian army wavered. “To the hetman who is advancing by all people, but to Prince Dmitry and all the governors, who came with him with military men, I can’t stand the horse against the hetman and ordered all the rats to leave their horses” ^[10] . Khodkevich’s troops went to the "camp attack". In the midst of battles for the "camps", the Kremlin garrison made an attempt to make sorties from the side of the Chertol Gate, the Alekseevskaya Tower and the Water Gate (Tainitskaya Tower). The garrison commanders tried to cut off part of Pozharsky’s forces and destroy them by pressing them to the river. All attempts by the garrison failed, despite the fact that artillery fired from the walls at the Russians. As Budilo recalled, “at that time the unfortunate besieged people suffered such damage as never before” ^[10] .

During these battles, Prince Trubetskoy continued to take an observant position. The troops of the prince were in no hurry to help Pozharsky, saying: "The rich came from Yaroslavl and alone can fight off the hetman . " In the afternoon, five hundred, which were attached to the troops of Trubetskoy by Prince Pozharsky, and four Cossack chieftains and their detachments arbitrarily separated from Trubetskoy and, crossing the river, joined Pozharsky. With the help of reinforcements arrived (about 1,000 people), the Polish-Lithuanian forces were able to break the onslaught, and the hetman Khodkevich retreated, suffering heavy losses. According to the "New Chronicler", more than a thousand corpses of hetman soldiers were collected ^[11] .

Getman Khodkevich retreated to his starting position on Poklonnaya Gora, but on the night of August 23 ( September 2 ), a detachment of 600 guides from the Nevyarovsky detachment broke into the Kremlin through Zamoskvorechye . This was the result of the betrayal of the nobleman Grigory Orlov, to whom Khodkevich promised to give the estate of Prince Pozharsky, but, in fact, only worsened the situation of the besieged, as new troops were added to the troops already in the Kremlin, who also needed food and water. At the same time, Khodkevich’s troops captured one of the fortified “towns” (St George’s prison) near the church of St. George in Yandovo and "opanovali" the church itself. On August 23 ( September 2 ), the hetman occupied the Donskoy Monastery and began preparations for the decisive battle ^[12] .

Second Stage

Before the decisive battle, Prince Pozharsky changed the position of his troops. The main forces were shifted south, to the banks of the Moskva River. Pozharsky’s headquarters was located near the church of Ilya the Ordinary ( Ostozhenka ). The detachment of Prince Lopata-Pozharsky also moved here.

The main place of the clash was to be Zamoskvorechye. Here, Prince Pozharsky concentrated a significant part of his troops. The front line of defense was earthen ramparts with the remains of wooden fortifications. On the ramparts was the Yaroslavl militia, archers and two guns. Behind the ramparts on Bolshaya Ordynka near the church of St. Clement was well-fortified Klimentievsky prison. Another prison, Georgievsky, was in the hands of Hetman Khodkevich. The terrain was very inconvenient for cavalry operations. To the numerous pits from the destroyed buildings, Pozharsky’s people added artificially dug. The equestrian hundreds of the Second Militia and part of the hundreds of Prince Trubetskoy advanced forward beyond the ramparts of the Earth City. The main forces of Trubetskoy were to defend the Klimentievsky prison, where there were several guns ^[12] .

On August 24 ( September 3 ), 1612 a decisive battle took place. Getman Khodkevich was about to strike the main blow from his left flank. The hetman himself headed the left flank. In the center attacked the Hungarian infantry, the regiment of Nevyarovsky and the Cossacks of Zborovsky. The right flank consisted of 4,000 Zaporozhye Cossacks under the command of the ataman Shirai. As Prince Pozharsky later recalled, the hetman’s troops were "cruel custom, hoping for a lot of people" ^[13] .

The equestrian hundreds of the Second Militia held back the attack of the Hetman Army for five hours. Finally, they could not stand it and leaned back. The retreat of the horse-drawn hundreds was erratic, the nobles tried to swim across to the other side. Prince Pozharsky personally left his headquarters and tried to stop the flight. This did not succeed, and soon all the cavalry went to the other side of the Moskva River. At the same time, the center and the right flank of the hetman's army managed to push the people of Trubetskoy out. The whole field in front of the Earthen city was left to the hetman. After that, the assault on the dilapidated Earth City began. Hetman infantry knocked out Russians from the ramparts. Continuing to develop success, the Hungarian infantry and Cossacks of Zborovsky captured the Klimentievsky prison and carved all his defenders ^[13] . The Kremlin garrison also participated in the seizure of the prison, which made a sortie to support the offensive. The hetman himself led this offensive. Witnesses recalled that the hetman “jumps around the regiment everywhere, like a lion, roaring at his own, commands the fortress to mess his weapons” ^[14] .

The soldiers of Hetman Khodkevich strengthened in prison, transported 400 carts with food for the Kremlin garrison there and hoisted the banner on the church of St. Clement. Seeing this state of affairs, the celar of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery Avraamy Palitsyn , who came with the militia to Moscow, went to the Cossacks of Trubetskoy, retreating from the prison, and promised them to pay a salary from the monastery treasury. As Avraamy Palitsyn recalled, the Cossacks “who died from Clement from the prison, and lit up on the prison of St. Clement, saw the Lithuanian banners on the church ... grew faint and sighing and shedding tears to God - few of them, and so returning and unanimous they went to the prison, and after it, Lithuanian people of all the tip of the sword betrayed them and their reserves were taken. Other Lithuanian people, fearing evil and turning back: ovii to the city of Moscow, but to their hetman; the Cossacks are chasing and beating them ... ” ^[14] . The return of the prison at noon on August 24 ended the first half of the battle, after which a long break came.

During the break, the Russian "legosh infantry in the pits and along the sprinkles on the way, so as not to miss the emtman into the city . " This happened, apparently, at the initiative of the militias themselves, as the leadership reigned in confusion, "the steward and governor Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky and Kozma Minin were perplexed by the way" ^[15] . The Cossacks, who beat off the prison, began to worry, reproaching the nobles who had escaped from the field.

Hetman, who had lost his best infantry in the battle of Klimentyevsky prison, tried to reform his troops and start the offensive again. The troops began to feel the lack of infantry, which was necessary for operations inside the Earth City.

Taking advantage of the respite, Prince Pozharsky and Minin were able to calm and gather troops and decided to make an attempt to take the initiative from the hetman's army. The voivode was sent to persuade the Cossacks by Abraham Palitsyn, who, crossing the other side of the Moskva River, began to collect deserters with a bell ringing. By persuasion and preaching, Palitsyn managed to restore the morale of the Cossacks, who vowed to fight each other without sparing their lives ^[16] .

Following this, a large regrouping of troops began, which was also noticed in the camp of Hetman Khodkevich. Towards evening, the counter-offensive of the militias began. Minin, with a squadron of captain Pavel Khmelevsky and three hundred noblemen, crossed the Moscow River and stepped toward the Crimean Court. A Lithuanian company, standing at the courtyard, seeing the enemy, ran to the hetman's camp. At the same time, the Russian infantry and dismounted cavalry launched an offensive on the hetman Khodkevich’s camp, "from the pits and from the sprinkled water, with a vice to the camps . " Polish witnesses recalled that the Russians “began to lean on the hetman’s camp with all their might” ^[16] .

The offensive was carried out by a wide front on the hetman camp and ramparts of the Earth City, where hetman troops were now defending. “By the whole Cossack, who had succeeded by the convoy of the great martyr of Christ Catherine, the speed of the battle was great and terrified; the Cossacks attacked the Lithuanian army severely and brutally: ovi kill the barefoot, call them ini, having only their weapons in their hands and beating them mercilessly. And the convoy was severed from the Lithuanian people ” ^[17] .

Hetman troops retreated along the entire front. The case was completed by the cavalry attack. The winners got a convoy, prisoners, tents, banners and timpani. The governors had to restrain their people, who were eager to leave the city in pursuit. The troops of the Hetman Khodkevich spent the night on their horses near the Donskoy Monastery. On August 25 ( September 4 ), 1612, the troops of the hetman marched in the direction of Mozhaysk and further to the border.

The defeat of the hetman Khodkevich at the approaches to Moscow predetermined the fall of the Polish-Lithuanian garrison of the Kremlin.

This battle was a turning point in the Time of Troubles. According to the Polish chronicler of the XVII century Koberzhitsky : “The Poles suffered such a significant loss that it could no longer be rewarded. The wheel of fortune turned - the hope of taking possession of the whole Moscow state collapsed irrevocably. ”

• “The Reign of the Romanov Dynasty” (1913).
• “Minin and Pozharsky” (1939).
• “1612: Chronicles of the Time of Troubles” is a Russian adventure film, the background for the plot of which is the events of the Time of Troubles. Despite the presence of historical characters in the film (Ksenia Godunova, Prince Pozharsky), he is more “costume” than “historical”, since real facts and events are significantly changed and subordinate to a fictional storyline.

• Bibikov G.N. Fights of the Russian national militia with the Polish invaders on August 22-24, 1612 near Moscow // Historical notes. M., 1950.V. 32.S. 173-197.
• Volodikhin D.M. Pozharsky. - M .: Veche, 2012 .-- 336 p. - (Great historical figures). - 2500 copies. - ISBN 978-5-9533-6403-4 .