Battle of Verki

At the beginning of March 1658, a congress of senators of the Commonwealth took place in Warsaw , on which further paths of the state’s foreign policy were determined ^[2] . At the congress, a decision was made to convene a diet on June 24, 1658 to consider the election of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to the Polish throne. But at the same time, on March 14, the congress decided to enter into negotiations with the hetman Vygovsky on the return of the Zaporizhzhya Army to the Commonwealth (in March 1658, the embassy of Stanislav Benevsky met with the representative of the hetman, Colonel Pavel Teterey ^[3] ). In order to support Vygovsky, the troops of the great Lithuanian hetman Pavel Sapieha must have been advanced to the borders of hetmanism. Crown (Polish) senators, who spoke in favor of concluding peace with Sweden and resuming the war with Russia, came out in favor of such a decision. The Lithuanian ambassadors from Zemaitija and the Trok Voivodship came out in favor of an early conclusion of peace with Russia, but their appeal remained unanswered ^[4] . Lithuanian hetmans Sapega and Gonsevsky also expressed their disagreement with the policy of the crown senators ^[5] .

After the congress, the Lithuanian senators went to Brest , the estate of the hetman Sapega, where they decided to start separate negotiations with Russia. Sapega informed Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich that “the Korun hetmans and Poles were beckoning to the great sovereign and dragging the term on purpose” and, seeing this, the Lithuanians intend to tell the Poles that “we want a separator from them” . Sapega even asked Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to send his troops to the hetman and come out from Moscow himself ^[6] . The negotiations that began after this were unsuccessful, in which the enmity of the hetmans Sapegi and Gonsevsky played an important role ^[7] .

By the beginning of September 1658, the new foreign policy position of the Commonwealth acquired a real shape. A real plan was drawn up for the start of hostilities against Russia. Such a decision was connected with the current foreign policy circumstances. In August 1658, the Swedish king Charles X Gustav attacked Denmark . In this regard, one could not be afraid that the Swedish troops would begin active hostilities against the Commonwealth. But the main influence was exerted by the favorable situation for the Polish side in Ukraine ^[8] .

As a result of negotiations with the hetman Vygovsky, a draft agreement was drawn up by the beginning of July 1658. On August 4, 1658, Vygovsky once again wrote a letter to King Jan Casimir , in which he assured the king of his desire to bring the Zaporizhzhya Army under the rule of the king. Hetman declared his readiness to wage war against the enemies of the Commonwealth, "especially Moscow" ^[9] .

On September 10, 1658, a detailed plan for the upcoming campaign was presented by Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Christopher Patz . According to the plan, the troops of the great hetman Sapega were to come to the aid of the hetman Gonsevsky, to whom the universals were sent to convene the Commonwealth ruin . Sapieha’s troops were to enter the rear of the Russian army of Prince Yuri Dolgorukov , who was in Kovn , providing the environment. The troops of the hetman Vygovsky had to play an important role. In Warsaw, it was believed that the hetman Vygovsky had already begun military operations against the Russian troops. In Lithuania, the Hetman’s help was to be provided by the regiment of the Chaussky Colonel of the Zaporizhzhya Hetman’s Troop Ivan Nechai , who was supposed to take the crossing and prevent the troops coming from Russia from connecting with the army of Prince Dolgorukov ^[10] .

In September 1658, prince Mikhail Shakhovskoy of the Vilnius governor reported to Moscow about an attack on Russian soldiers in the Volkovysk , Slonim , Vilensky and Trok counties. The cities of Grodno and Novogrudok were blocked by units of the Hetman Sapega. Three regiments from the army of Sapieha appeared in the Coven district, and the hetman Gonsevsky crossed the Neman ^[11] .

At that time, the Russian Great Embassy and the Commissars of the Commonwealth were in Vilna , who were negotiating a peace agreement. Prince Shakhovskaya informed the great ambassadors of the events, as a result of which the ambassadors turned to the hetman Sapieha. Sapega promised to keep his troops from fighting, but demanded to withdraw the Russian garrison from Novogrudok. Despite promises, Sapieha’s troops continued to move towards Vilna ^[12] .

In view of the advance of the enemy forces, Prince Yuri Dolgorukov sent to Vilna the dragoon regiment of Colonel Semyon Brynka of 1,200 people. On September 29, at 25 miles from Vilna, the regiment was surrounded by the troops of the hetman Sapega ^[12] . Dragoons Brynka became a wagon train and organized a defense. Sapieha ’s troops launched a brutal attack on the colonel and the dragoon. And Colonel de Semyon Brynka, with the initial people and the dragoon, from the Polish people in the convoy sat out from the attack, and from the convoy the Polish people were recaptured, and they took the banner from the Polish people ” ^[13] . The great ambassadors, led by Prince Nikita Odoevsky, protested to the commissars of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and sent a request to the hetman Sapieha to let the Brynka regiment go to Vilna and stop the “untruths” . The hetman refused to do this and stood 10 miles from Vilna ^[13] .

On October 9, 1658, the commissars of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth announced to the Russian great ambassadors that they were breaking the negotiations, and the hetmans “wanted ... with Prince Yury Alekseevich Dolgorukovo from the goods of a translator” ^[14] .

October 9, 1658 , learning from Prince Odoevsky about the failure of the peace negotiations, Prince Dolgorukov ordered his troops to prepare for battle. The hetman Sapega sent to Prince Dolgorukov his ambassador of the Vendian feeding Valery Kurchevsky, who asked to postpone the battle until tomorrow and promised that the hetman and commissars would enter into negotiations with the Great Embassy "about a good deed" ^[15] .

The battle did not take place the next day, and there were no negotiations declared by the envoy. As Prince Dolgorukov recalled: “both the hetman Pavel Sopega and the royal commissars lied in all that, and they did not send us to speak about a good deed” ^[15] . On the same day, the soldiers of the prince took the language, which showed during interrogation that the hetmans want to join forces to attack the prince’s troops ^[14] .

On October 11, near the village of Verki (today under the name Vyarkiai district of Vilnius), in an effort to prevent the unification of the hetman armies, Prince Dolgorukov attacked the troops of the hetman Gonsevsky. At the beginning of the battle, due to the successful actions of the Lithuanian cavalry, the situation was in favor of the Lithuanians, however, two Russian infantry regiments left by Dolgorukov in reserve and entered into battle at a critical moment decided the battle. The Lithuanians fled, leaving their hetman and the entire convoy in the hands of the Russians. As Dolgorukov wrote: “Vincent Korvin of the subcarbia of the great hetman of full Gonsevsky was taken, and his convoy, and in the wagon train of his tents, and the bunchuk and his hetman’s banner, and timpani, and the banners of the Hussars, Reitars, and Cossacks, and dragoon companies and his regiment hetman of Gonsevskago colonels, and lieutenant colonels, and captains, and captains, and lieutenants, and royal stewards, and other ranks of many people took the same. And his military men, the hetman of the Gonsevsk regiment, were beaten on the head; and your military people, hetman of Gonsevskogo, slaughtered the military people at 15 miles ” ^[15] .

The great hetman Sapega at that time tried to capture Vilna and even managed to break into the city through the ostrobramskie gate, but his banners were repulsed and retreated. Upon learning of the defeat of Gonsevsky’s troops, Sapega “went away from Vilna along the Novogrodskaya road to the river to the Neman” ^[14] .

The victory was complete, but Dolgorukov failed to take advantage of it. Due to the ruin of the area, the army of the prince was without bread and horse feed. On October 19 , leaving 1,500 soldiers of Colonel Jacob Urwin in Vilna with Prince Shakhovsky, the prince left his position and retreated to Shklov ^[16] .

On November 7, the prince’s army went to Shklov, but it turned out that the area was devastated by Vygovsky’s troops ^[16] : “But the Shklovsky district, near the town of Shklov, villages and villages were burned, and there was no horse feed from the war of the Cherkasy colonels Nechay and Murashka from Cherkasy” ^{[ 15]} . In mid-November, the army of Prince Dolgorukov came to Smolensk .

Despite objective reasons, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich did not approve of such a decision by Prince Dolgorukov. The tsar wrote to the prince: “What honor will you have, how will Kovno or Grodno be taken?” As a result of the retreat of Dolgorukov’s army, the Russian garrisons in Vilna, Kovny, Novogrudok and Grodno were under siege ^[16] .

• Malov A.V. Russo-Polish War of 1654-1667 - Moscow: Tseikhkhauz, 2006. ISBN 5-94038-111-1 .
• Florya B.N. Russian state and its western neighbors (1655-1661). - M .: Indrik, 2010 .-- ISBN 978-5-91674-082-0 .
• Acts of the Moscow state. - SPb. : Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1894. - T. II.