Polish-Russian war 1609-11AD - advance on Smolensk

 Salvete Omnes,

Yesterday, i.e., the 21st of September,  but in 1609AD,  Polish-Lithuanian army crossed the border the Commonwealth-Muscovy border and advanced onto Smolensk, the most important fortress of the western Muscovy, guarding the so called Smolensk Gate. 

 
Since 1582 Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Muscovy had been under the truce, although our Polish-Lithuanian magnates supported Dmitry, the alleged son of Ivan IV,  who even married and crowned a tsarina Maryna Mniszech, Polish noblewoman. 

Since 1605AD Muscovite realm, Grand Duchy of Muscovy, was in the throes of the civil war  known as the Dimitriads, where various factions of the Muscovite aristocrats aided by Polish-Lithuanian magnates, foreign mercenary armies and foreign powers, like Sweden etc, were meddling within the Russian realm. Technically, upon the murder of tsar Dmitry I in 1606,  there was a tsar or grand duke Vasili IV Shuisky in Kremlin, but his fraction had to face Dmitri II, known as false Dmitry II, whose armies and popularity with the population allowed for control of rather vast areas of the huge Muscovite realm since 1608AD.

Since 1600AD Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth already had been in a war, this was a dynastic war  against the usurper Karl IX of the kingdom of Sweden, where  the war was  mostly carried by Lithuanian  army with many private banners and companies. Ducal  forces were under the commanded of Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, victor of Kircholm 1605. 

King Sigismund III,  the scion of the Swedish Vasa dynasty elected by the noble host  to sit on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth throne in 1587, and his councilors decided to breach the 1582 AD truce and to attack Smolensk, taken by the Muscovite armies in 1514AD. The ship had sailed- Mars ruled.

 

Smolensk on the Dniepr/Dnieper River 1609-11

Royal Polish army was divided into various divisions, the advance party was led by  Lew Sapieha, a chancellor of Lithuanian, and Stanislaw Stadnicki, castellan of Przemysl - reached Smolensk on September 28. 
Then came hetman Stanislaw Zolkiewski division, with the artillery park = reached the camps on September 29.
And finally the king's division and court with the rest of the army and thousands of wagon trains filled with ammunition, powder, food, fodder and other supplies and necessities, but also thousands of servants, traders, and camp followers. 

King and his contingent  crossed the border, via a bridge over the river Iwala or Iwata,  on the 21 of September, 1609 and reached Smolensk camps on  October 1, 1609.

The anonymous diary of this campaign tells that  in vanguard 800 Hungarian infantry marched first, then the 200 [infantry] of starost of Sacz [Stanislaw Lubomirski], 100 [infantry] of lord of Krakow[Janusz Ostrogski], then 100 strong  horse banner of  Old Polish Kozak cavalry of starost of Sacz,   then lord of Krakow also  a 100strong  Kozak cavalry. Thena very fine 200 winged hussars banner of starost of Sacz. Just before the His Majesty person and  retinue(70 strong) a very well equipped   100-lancer strong winged hussar banner  of lord of Krakow. After the king [marched] the court banner of 600 lancers, after them a 150 horse [reiter] banner made out of Prussians, Pomeranians and 'Inflanteers'  under pan Nowodworski*, each rider with two carbines. After them a 100 strong Kozak cavalry royal banner. Then 1400 German infantry under [Ludwik] Weiher [marched across the bridge]. The weather was fine, no clouds in the sky and this fine weather lasted until the evening. The king arrived in Wasylov where he joined hetman [Zolkiewski] already in the camp there. This day a finely equipped banner of prince Porycki, 150 horse strong, came[to our side].  (page 65 of the diary).

According the Polish archives,   during the quarter of the 5th of July through Ocbober 5, 1609 the cavalry arm of the army consisted of:

- 2,300 winged hussars or lancers

- 800 Polish kozak cavalry

- 300 "German' reiters.

By the next quarter - October through January 1610, the number of winged hussars would grow to 4000 lancers, Polish Kozaks to 900 horsemen, while reiters would fall to 269. Again in 2 quarters- January to July  1610AD the winged hussar would drop to 2205 lancers, Polish Kozaks to 400, and the reiters would grow again to 300 horsemen (after Kazimierz Gorski, 1895). 

Infantry - German, Hungarian hajduk, Polish hajduk and royal guards -  and artillery - cannon masters, gunsmiths, gun crews and craftsmen  -   also waved in numbers during the first year of the siege - started with 4213 officers and soldiers, went down to 2513 (June) and to 1698 in July 1610.  Gunmasters 

The siege continued during the summer of 1610,  the following winter and spring of 1611. During this period hetman Zolkiewski defeated the allied army at Klushino, July 1610, and consequently  the Muscovite Shuisky regime collapsed and victorious and Sun Tsu-like hetman Zolkiewski entered Moscow and new era, our Poles in Moscow, ensued.

King Sigismund III victorious at Smolensk

 Finally  our king ended victorious in June 1611AD,  when on the 13th  the Polish army stormed and captured the fortress, king  had medals made for the happy occasion. During the final assault knight of Order of Malta pan Bartlomiej Nowodworski *,  Nalecz coat of arms,  sallied to blow the gate and having succeeded became a hero. Winged Hussar Samuel Maskiewicz wrote his diaries describing the war. Hetman Stanislaw Zolkiewski wrote his famous work about his war -  Poczatek i progres wojny moskiewskiej. Another warrior ,Mikolaj Scibor Marchocki also wrote his history of the war.

Meantime, since 1605 many thousands of Cossacks, Zaporozhian and Don, roamed the Muscovite lands siding with this or that party or power But perhaps more importantly it was during this period that the  new Polish light cavalry was born:  the Lisowczycy (Lisowski' kozacy [singular Lisowczyk, kozak lisowski] cossacks), one could say also to the detriment of the civilian populations in Muscovy and in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and further west in the Holy Roman Epire and Hungaries.
For the project about Khotyn 1621 I did draw two Lisowski kozaks.

Valete

Orsza 1514 - a 1515AD woodcut

 Salvete omnes,

so yet another anniversary of 9-11 -  in the link my old post about my experiences that day - pacem aeternam to all the victims 

a quick return to the Orsza battle and victory over the Muscovy ..

 so probably the very first image of the battle appeared in 1515AD in printed  poem written by Andrzej Krzycki, Kotwicz coat of arms, who was queen Barbara Zapolya secretary, Ad Divum Sigismundum Poloniae regem et Magnum Ducem Lithuaniae semper invictum post partam de Moskis victoriam Andree Krziczki inclite coniugis sue Cancelarii carmen, Kraków 1515, 

the printer was Jan Haller and they published  this poem in Krakow, then the capital of the Polish state.

perhaps Polish commander hetman Janusz Swierczowski, Traby coat of arms, on the left while horsemen of opposing armies are dueling between the armies 

there is a horse drummer next to the Polish hetman

emjoy

valete

Notes Upon Russia - Sigismund von Herberstein - saddles etc

 Salvete Omnes, 

 

ten years ago I posted some quotes from Sigismund Herberstein's Notes Upon Russia et al. (Major's Translation)  then and now available on Archive.
Today I am going to add more text from that translation and the plates from the Latin original - wiki gallery.

 

Muscovy two-headed eagle is high on the news totem-pole these days, and their deeds are absolutely  not of kind and pleasant type to be proud of, but quite on the contrary  they bring death and destruction, misery and cold and perhaps hunger...

Saddles - of two types

***
 and may God and good willed people bring peace to the people of Ukraine

Valete

Orsza 1514 -2022

 Salvete Omnes,

 

and as every year on this day we commemorate the 2nd battle of Orsza 1514AD.

King Zygmunt I Stary (Sigismund I the Old) and his army commanded by prince Konstanty Ostrogski, Ostrogski coat of arms, and hetman Janusz Swierczowski, Traby coat of arms,  won resounding victory over grand prince Vasili III and his  Muscovite army(augmented with the Tatar allied and converted recently into Orthodox Christianity).

 Our king lost Smolensk, his largest and most needed fortress, to Vasili III and his commander Lithuanian Michal Glinski in July 1514- perhaps a 80 thousand strong Muscovy army , with camp followers, servants and retainers, invaded our king's eastern realms in the Spring of 1514Ad.
Polish historian and prolific researcher of this period  prof. Marek Plewczynski puts some blame on the Lithuanian commander prince Ostrogski, who perhaps like the ancient Cuncator tried the tactic of  hanging on  awaiting for the expected large number of Polish Crown troops, but before they could have come to the rescue the fortress of Smolensk fell to mighty charm or magic spelled by prince Glinski. The stronghold at Orsza, however,  defended by Jan Spargeld with resolve and under much less assault than Smolensk withstood perhaps a weaker Muscovite siege and repelled their assaults until king's army came in August.

Having gathered his nobles, retainer, mercenaries and volunteers it was at Minsk in Grand Duchy of Lithuania where our king reviewed his armies before seeing them go east: 

 - 15 thousand Duchy horse - commanded by prince Ostrogski and prince Jerzy Hercules Radziwill.

 - 14 thousand crown horse (heavy lancers, early hussars and light horse armed with crossbows and bows and some early firearms perhaps, and 3 thousand crown  infantry -  this Crown contingent was commanded by Swierzowski, 

 -2,5 thousand court horse, and several thousand of Polish lords private volunteer retinues- commanded by Wojciech Sempolinski, Nalecz coat of arms.

Perhaps as many as 38 thousand horse and men including unknown number of guns, plus many thousands of camp followers and retainers had gathered at Minsk to march onto river and seek a return of captured Smolensk to our lord king's domain.

King decided to stay with 4 thousand soldiers at the fortified camp at Borysow, on the Berezina River, while the combined king's army marched having forded Berezina and forced, with artillery fire,  the vanguard of the Muscovite army to quit the vicinity of Berysow on August 27 and then the royal army marched after the enemy toward Orsza and Dnieper. On the 28 of August Polish vanguard led by Jan Pilecki defeated a Muscovite rearguard ambush, and our royal army continued on the Orsza Road to the Bobr River crossing where at this ford another action was fought, where starost of Rohatyn Jan Boratynski defeated 2000 strong Muscovite command and took their commander, voivode Kiselich(?), prisoner.  During another action by the royal vanguard rotmaister (Captain) Jan Sapieha's command defeated  another Muscovy command.
Voivode Ivan Chelyadnin, who now commanded the entire Muscovy grand prince's field army in this area of war, aided in his command by prince Mikhail Golitza and prince Dymitr Bulgakov withdrew across the Dnieper keen on attacking royal army during their fording of the big river, always a difficult and dangerous maneuver in warfare  for the fording command.

  and so the opposite armies stood, then during the night of 7-8th of September our royal army engineers built two wooden pontoon bridges, on top of wooden large kegs,  the whole royal army crossed fast and the battle joined and the men with lances, bows and arrows, swords, matchlocks and halberds, pikes and axes in hand went to achieve victory.

Ostrogski has become the field victor of this battle  - being supposedly the commander of the combined echelons of the royal army - and here we see this brave Ruthenian as he was seen in this 1540s? Radziwill family painting - now at the Polish National Museum at Warsaw.

Polish heavy lance cavalry and their commander 

early hussars

so let us celebrate with some imagery from the period or near in time period, with some caveat  - our king was unable to recover hie lost city of Smolensk, the most important fortress in that part of  the Grand Duchy of Lithuanian Ukrainian (borderland) zone with the Grand Duchy of Muscovy. It took   circa100 years and a decisive action by our king's namesake Zygmunt, but the III (and his grandson), who campaigned in Grand Duchy of Muscovy and captured Smolensk. 

 ..

 

Valete

Smolensk 1634 and March 1...

 Salvete Omnes,

 

in Poland the Day of the Damned Soldiers is celebrated on March 1. After 1944 - the beginning of the occupation of Poland by the USSR, and patriotic Polish fighters fought the Soviet Union and their servile Polish security forces.
Gloria Victis.

 

And going back to 1634AD, our king, Wladyslaw IV, vanquished completely Russian Muscovite armies at Smolensk.

War in Ukraine, the Russian invasion of that poor country, is becoming more and more like a typical XXI century war (like Iraq 2002-16, Afghanistan, Israel over the Palestine, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Kurdistan etc)- atrocities, powerful technologically driven weapons,  misinformation and propaganda, but also a fog of war.

This map - so  it is an attempt, by the Finnish military researchers, to observe incomplete and delayed developments on this war of aggression and imperial ambitions. 

 

 Ukraine needs some Polish winged hussars but

our Western leadership (POTUS will deliver SOTU today) is 'sin cojones'...
My friend Paul Zambrzycki( and owner of Persjarnia company ) with sponsorship from  OLD Poland Bakery from NYC and with help  from friends from Krakow's Kur Fraternity  went across the Polish-Ukrainian border into Ukraine with a food-truck full of food and hot coffee and tea. The lines of Ukrainian refugees - women and children in cars, trucks, buses and vans - are long, last night they were about 50km long going to each of the border crossings  (Medyka and Hrebenne are two largest border crossing between the two countries).

So let us pray for peace in Ukraine and pray for the Ukrainian peoples...

Valete

Smolensk - March 1, 1634 - triumph of Polish Vasa king

 Salvete Omnes,

today in Poland there is the Day of the Damned Soldiers - the anti-communist  and anti-Soviet resistance - however with 'mysharonacirrus' around us there is no much celebration nor happiness. These resistance fighters, symbolized by Witold Piecki and 'Inka,'  persisted for many years after 1945, but countless thousands of great Polish patriots were murdered in that herculean struggle against the greatest evil of those days  - Gloria Victis. 

But less than four centuries ago this day was of happiness and relief.

     for it is today that we mark the anniversary of the His Majesty Wladyslaw IV's victory over the Muscovite Russian army of Mikhail Borysovych Shein at Smolensk - 1st of March 1634 -  where after unsuccessful siege of Polish-Lithuanian town of Smolensk this Muscovite army surrendered  to our king's relief army.

 

This was epic victory and upon a peace treaty with the Grand Duchy of Muscovy  in 1634  our Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth reached the following size: 

The borders as seen of the map lasted only 20 years and then 12 years of wars followed...

Valete

Maryna Mniszech from Laszki Murowane & Moscow

Salve,
today let us go back to Europe, and to the lands of the winged hussars.
some years ago I wrote about this painting - showing Polish tsarina Maryna Mniszech going to her coronation  in Moscow. I wrote that that it had been lost.
Well, it has not been lost, but rather the Russian took it ... far away, to Russia, and presently it is kept at the Moscow State Historical Museum.

The canvass was painted (perhaps by Szymon Boguszowicz from Lwow), for the Mniszech family castle at Laszki Murowane during the first half of the XVII century, and then was taken to the Wiśniowiec Palace, the XVIII century opulent  magnate residence of the Wisniowiecki and Mniszech families (destroyed mostly during the Polish-Soviet War of 1920, and some more during the 1939-45 period of the Soviet and German destruction of the cultured Central Europe).

and

a fragment of the above Maryna's coronation painting, showing  splendid garments of the Polish nobility and her own coronation costume

in her betrothal painting there are more fine examples of historic Polish costumes

and finally her husband, tsar Dimitri , in a very royal stance typical of the period,  appearing very martial wearing a  set of armor not dissimilar from those worn by the wealthy winged hussar comrades.

enjoy
ps if you are in Moscow, Russia, try to see if they display these fine and very  Polish XVII century paintings.