Siege of Polotsk (1579)

In 1577 , interrupting the truce between the parties on July 22, 1570 , the Russian troops seized most of the territory of Livonia belonging to the Commonwealth. The ceasefire was concluded in 3 years, but actually lasted more than 6 years, since the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was “without fever” after the departure of Heinrich Valois, and the candidacy of Ivan IV the Terrible was put forward by many Orthodox Catholics of the Polish-Lithuanian state interested in ending the war with Moscow. Ivan himself was afraid that becoming the constitutional sovereign in Poland and Lithuania and the vassal of the pope and leaving for Warsaw, he would lose the autocratic power in Moscow, but he was also satisfied with the pro-Moscow party in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as a candidate from the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation. Negotiations on the division of Livonia and the terms of the reign of the new king dragged on for a long time. The raid of Turks and Tatars against Poland and the election of a Turkish citizen Stefan Batoria as king of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania to save from the raid confused all the plans of the Russian Tsar to divide Livonia with Lithuania and together with Poland and the Holy Roman Empire to push back the Turks and Tatars, which and served as the reason for the resumption of active hostilities. In this regard, on the initiative of Stefan Batory, in the same 1577, preparations began for a major military campaign against the Russian state. The preparation of the campaign, due to the importance of the necessary funds (approx. PLN 1.5 million per year of hostilities), was completed only in the 1st half of 1579.

By the beginning of the campaign, Batory succeeded in gathering a huge army, which significantly outnumbered the capabilities of the Russian army. In total, by the beginning of the campaign, there were more than 58,000 people in the army of the Commonwealth. These forces did not include garrisons of Polish fortresses, crowned Polish -Lithuanian ruin (which was collected only from Lithuania this year), and troops of vassal lands of the Commonwealth. Also not counted are the numerous servants (reekers) who served with the rich gentry and performed auxiliary functions.

The main part (almost 42,000 people) became part of the main royal army, sent to Polotsk. The remaining forces were distributed in minor directions:

• 2588 people in the garrisons of Livonian fortresses
• 1120 people in the garrisons of Lithuanian fortresses
• 1,600 people in the detachment of Filon Kmita , acting against Smolensk
• 2000 people in the detachment of Nikolai Talvosh , operating in Livonia. ^[2] .

41814 soldiers were involved in actions against the garrison of Moscow troops in Polotsk, as well as to block the approach of help from the main Moscow forces.

Crown Army Polish Cavalry: 5634 (5355 hussars , 279 Cossacks and Pyatigorsk )

• Hungarian cavalry: 1577 hussar
• German Cavalry: 100 Reiters

Total cavalry: 7311 people.

• Polish infantry: 1775 people
• Hungarian infantry: 2017
• German infantry: 2,736

Total infantry: 6528 people.

• Private mail cavalry: 3500 people.
• Private infantry mail: 1,500

Total private mail: 5000 people.

Total Crown Troops: 18,739 (10,811 cavalry and 8,028 infantry)

Lithuanian army

• Mercenary Cavalry: 2530 (2150 hussars, 300 Cossacks and five-mountaineers, 80 horse archers)
• Mercenary Infantry: 1445 (735 Lithuanian, 110 Polish, 600 Cossack infantry)
• Magnate mail cavalry: 8300 people.
• Magnate mail infantry: 1700 people.

Total magnate mails: 10,000

• Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: 9000 (8,200 cavalry and 800 infantry)

Total Lithuanian troops: 22,975 (19030 cavalry and 3945 infantry) ^[3] .

Ivan IV gathered his troops in advance and kept them ready. However, he did not expect the Poles and Litvinians to attack such a powerful fortress as Polotsk. The troops of Ivan the Terrible partially protected the borders of the state on the Volga, Don, Oka and Dnieper from possible attacks of the Crimean Tatars . The main forces were in Novgorod , Pskov and Smolensk , waiting for attacks in Livonia.

The siege began on August 11 with a powerful bombardment. The defense of Polotsk was commanded by Prince Vasily Telyatevsky , Prince Dmitry Shcherbatov , Peter Volynsky and clerk Rzhevsky. The besieged held on with extraordinary courage.

Upon learning of the siege of Polotsk, Ivan the Terrible sent forward detachments under the command of Boris Shein and Fedor Sheremetev to the city. The Russian governors, unable to get into the besieged city, occupied the Sokol fortress and, using it as a base, disturbed the enemy rear and prevented the small units of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from gathering food and fodder in the vicinity of Polotsk. Stefan Batoriy sent several regiments against the Russians under the command of Christopher Radziwill and Jan Glebovich , but Shein and Sheremetyev skillfully avoided a collision in an open field with stronger enemy units.

The city held on for about three weeks and every day the situation of the Polish-Lithuanian army, which was experiencing growing supply problems, became more and more complicated. Under these conditions, a military council was convened at which most of the military leaders spoke out for a general assault, but this was opposed by Stefan Batory, who feared that in case of failure the army would be so demoralized that it would have to lift the siege of the city altogether. The king persuaded the Hungarian mercenaries who served in the Polish army to set fire to the wooden walls of the city. Choosing a clear day on August 29, the Hungarians from different directions rushed to the city walls and lit them. The besieged could not stop them. A strong fire broke out due to which most of the city wall burned out. At the height of the fire, Stefan Batory with the main forces blocked the road to Sokol, fearing that the Russians, seeing the glow, would not go to the aid of the defenders of Polotsk. However, help did not come and the besieged sent parliamentarians to begin surrender negotiations. However, the Hungarian mercenaries killed them, as they hoped to take the city with an attack in order to gain the right to plunder it. After the killing of the parliamentarians, the Hungarians, and after them the others, went on an assault. However, the Russians managed to dig a moat behind the burnt wall and fill the shaft. They met the robbers in volleys of guns and forced them to retreat. The next day, the troops of the Commonwealth moved to a new assault, but after a fierce battle were thrown back. After the second assault, the new Russian parliamentarians managed to get to the king and agreed to surrender with the condition of a free exit for the besieged. But at the same time negotiations on the surrender were conducted only by the governor Pyotr Volynsky, who with most of the warriors no longer hoped to keep the city. The rest of the voivode, together with the protege of Moscow, Polotsk Vladyka Cyprian and part of the warriors, did not want to give up for anything. They locked themselves in the Cathedral of St. Sofia and said that only by force it would be possible to take them from there, which was done. The warriors who agreed to surrender were invited to join the army of the Commonwealth. However, the vast majority of Russians chose to return to their homeland.

Among the besiegers was Andrei Kurbsky . After the return of Polotsk, he addressed the Tsar one of the letters “ Where are your victories?” "

• Kotarski, Henryk. Wojsko polsko-litewskie podczas wojny inflanckiej 1576-1582. Sprawy organizacyjne, cz. II // Studia i Materiały do ​​Historii Wojskowości. T. 17. Cz. 1 Warszawa, 1971. P. 51–124.
• Kupisz, Dariusz. Połock 1579. Warszawa: Bellona, ​​2003.184 p.