Smolensk jam

Smolensk was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1404 , when it was besieged and captured by the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitovt . The following decades were characterized by rising taxes, feudal oppression, ruin, and famine. . Among the "black people", which included artisans and peasants, there was a growing discontent and a protest mood. The immediate reason for the open uprising was the events in Lithuania itself.

In April 1440, in Troki, the conspirators killed the great Lithuanian prince Sigismund Keistutovich . As a result of this event, the political situation in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania became very unstable. The twelve-year-old successor of Sigismund Casimir IV , by virtue of his minority, had weak political power and a number of Russian lands tried to achieve independence from Vilna .

After the Smolensk governor, pan Andrei Sakovich tried to force the citizens to swear allegiance to Casimir, a large number of Smolensk people gathered in the center of the city armed with bows, arrows, braids and axes. The townspeople were supported by peasants from the nearest villages. The local nobility preferred to maintain Vilna’s loyalty, because of which an armed clash occurred at the Borisoglebsky Monastery between the rebels and Sakovich’s supporters. Boyar and noble cavalry and the viceroy’s detachment “having beaten a lot of black people to death, while some others were wounded alive and escaped from Pan Andrei ”. However, the loss also suffered the army of Sakovich, who left the city at night with part of the boyars, nobles and the remnants of his detachment. Power passed to the popular veche .

A court was ordered over the captured Marshal Petryka, after which he was drowned in the Dnieper . After some time, an army of Lithuanians and their supporters again approached the city. The demand for the official authorities to enter the city was resolutely refused. The city was surrounded and attacked from all sides. Smolyans turned for help to Prince Mstislavsky Yuri , an experienced commander who also declared his possessions independent. Yuri agreed to become the Smolensk prince and defeated the siege army.

After that, Lithuania began to prepare a large-scale campaign against Smolensk. Yuri urgently left for Moscow , trying to convince Vasily II to send his troops to defend Smolensk. However, Muscovite Russia itself was at that time in a state of internecine war and Vasily II could not render him military assistance.

In the spring of 1441, the Polish ^[1] -Litovian army was sent to Smolensk. This army stood for three weeks under the city, according to the annals of “ posadshi and churches and monasteries of the fire, and there are many people who are more numerous, but the living ones are full of people .” However, this time it was not possible to take the city, and the siege army was forced to move home. In the autumn of the same year, Lithuania gathered an even larger army, at the head of which the young Grand Duke Kazimir personally went to Smolensk. Upon learning of the approach of the Lithuanian army, Prince Yuri fled to Veliky Novgorod with his wife. Smolensk was taken by storm, and Lithuania’s power over the Smolensk lands was restored until 1514 , when Vasily III took the city and annexed it to the Russian state .

The events of 1440-1442 form the basis of the poem by Nikolai Rylenkov “The Great Jamie”.

• Mozyr rebellion
• Mogilev uprising
• Vitebsk uprising

• Kondrashenkov A. A. The history of Smolensk land from ancient times to the middle of the XVII century. - Smolensk, 1982.- 124 p.
• Polekhov S.V. Smolensk Uprising of 1440 // Historical Bulletin. - T. 7 (154): Lithuania, Russia and Poland of the XIII — XVI centuries. - M., 2014 .-- S. 160—197.
• Shirokorad A. B. Chapter 8. The death of the Principality of Smolensk // Alternative to Moscow. Great principalities Smolensk, Ryazan, Tver. - Moscow: AST, 2010.