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Battle of Orsha
Part of the fourth Muscovite–Lithuanian War (1512–1522)
Painting attributed to Hans Krell
Date 8 September 1514 Location Orsha, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, present day Belarus54°30′N 30°23′E / 54.500°N 30.383°E / 54.500; 30.383 Result Lithuanian victory
Belligerents
Grand Duchy of Lithuania	Grand Duchy of Moscow
Commanders and leaders
Konstanty Ostrogski	Ivan Chelyadnin (POW)
Strength
12,000 25,000 35,000 men 300 cannons	12,000 35,000-40,000 80,000 men 140 to 300 cannons
Casualties and losses
500	13,000-40,000 dead and wounded, at least 5,000 captured
class=notpageimage| Location within Belarus

The Battle of Orsha (Template:Lang-lt, Template:Lang-be, Template:Lang-uk), was a battle fought on 8 September 1514, between the forces of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, under the command of Hetman Konstanty Ostrogski; and the army of the Grand Duchy of Moscow under Konyushy Ivan Chelyadnin and Kniaz Mikhail Golitsin. The Battle of Orsha was part of a long series of Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars conducted by Muscovite rulers striving to gather all the former Kievan Rus' lands under their rule.

According to Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii by Sigismund von Herberstein, the primary source for information on the battle, the much smaller army of Lithuania (under 30,000 men) defeated a force of 80,000 Muscovite soldiers, capturing their camp and commander. These numbers and proportions have been disputed by some modern historians.

Eve of battle

At the end of 1512, the Grand Duchy of Moscow began a new war for the Grand Duchy of Lithuania's Ruthenian lands in present-day Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine. Albrecht I, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, rebelled and refused to give a vassal pledge to Sigismund I the Old of Poland-Lithuania, as required by the Second Peace of Thorn (1466). Albrecht I was supported by Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.

The fortress of Smolensk was then the easternmost outpost of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and one of the most important strongholds guarding it from the east. It repelled several Muscovite attacks, but in July 1514 a Muscovite army besieged and finally captured it. Spurred on by this initial success, the Grand Prince of Moscow Vasili III ordered his forces farther into present-day Belarus, occupying the towns of Krichev, Mstislavl, and Dubrovna.

Meanwhile, Sigismund the Old gathered some 35,000 troops for war with his eastern neighbor. This army was inferior in numbers, but consisted mostly of well-trained cavalry.

The Lithuanian forces included 32,500 cavalry and 3,000 mercenary infantry. Sigismund left 4,000–5,000 men in the town of Barysau, while the main force, placed under the command of Hetman Konstanty Ostrogski and around 30,000 strong, moved on to face the Muscovites.

At the end of August, several skirmishes took place at the crossings of the Berezina, Bobr, and Drut Rivers, but the Muscovite army avoided a major confrontation.

Suffering negligible losses, the Muscovites advanced to the area between Orsha and Dubrovno on the Krapivna River, where they set up camp. Ivan Chelyadnin, confident that the Lithuanian forces would have to cross one of the two bridges on the Dnieper River, split his own forces to guard those crossings. However, Ostrogski's army crossed the river farther north via two pontoon bridges. On the night of 7 September, the Lithuanian army began preparations for a final battle with the Muscovites. Hetman Konstantyn Ostrogski placed most of his 16,000 horses from the Grand Duchy in the center, while most of the Polish infantry and the auxiliary troops manned the flanks. The Bohemian and Silesian infantry were deployed in the center of the line, in front of the reserves comprising Lithuaniancavalry.

The size of the Muscovite army

The size of the Muscovite army remains an unsolved question. Narrative Lithuanian sources generally give large numbers. King Sigismund wrote to Pope Leo X about a "horde of Muscovites" which consisted of 80,000 men. Sigismund also claimed that his army had killed 30,000 Muscovites and taken prisoner 46 commanders and 1,500 nobles. Extant Polish and Lithuanian documents, however, list all captured nobles by name; only 611 men in all. It also remains unclear why - if the figure of 70,000–80,000 men is to be trusted - King Sigismund (who knew about this superiority of the Muscovite army from Mikhail Glinsky's letters) kept a personal guard of about 5,000 men (about 15% of his army) in reserve, without sending them into the battle. The Muscovite chronicles (Novgorodian and Sophian codexes) claim a Lithuanian numerical superiority.

The Russian historian A. Lobin tried to calculate the size of the Muscovite army at Orsha based on the mobilisation capacities of the towns which had to send townspeople for military service. It is known that except for Boyar sons of the sovereign's regiment, the army consisted of people from at least 14 towns: Novgorod, Pskov, Velikie Luki, Kostroma, Murom, Borovsk, Tver, Volok, Roslavl, Vyazma, Pereyaslavl, Kolomna, Yaroslavl, and Starodub.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

Impressed by the scope of the Lithuanian and Polish victory, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, started peace negotiations with the Jagiellons in Vienna. On 22 July 1515, final agreements for peace were made and the broad coalition against Lithuania and Poland ceased.

The war between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Grand Duchy of Moscow lasted until 1520. In 1522 a peace was signed, under the terms of which Lithuania was forced to cede to Moscow about a quarter of its possessions within the lands of the former Kievan Rus', including Smolensk. The latter city was not retaken until almost a century later, in 1611. After the peace agreement of 1522, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania tried to attack Moscow one more time, but major military conflicts were settled for around 40 years.

Modern times

The battle is regarded by Belarusians as a symbol of national revival, with many seeing it as a Day of Belarusian Military Glory. On 8 September 1992, the 478th anniversary of the battle, cadets from Minsk Higher Military Engineering School and the Minsk Higher Military Command School (now the unified Military Academy of Belarus) took the first military oath of allegiance to the Armed Forces of Belarus, with their induction ceremony being held on Independence Square in the presence of defense minister Pavel Pavlovich Kozlovsky. Despite attempts at reviving the state's earlier stance on the battle, its significance is being suppressed by state authorities. In September 2005, by order of President Alexander Lukashenko, four members of the Belarusian National Front opposition were each fined almost 4 million rubles (roughly €1,500) for celebrating the 491st anniversary of the battle.

The Battle of Orsha is commemorated on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Warsaw, with the inscription "ORSZA 8 IX 1514".

Popular culture

On the BBC television program Being Human, Hal Yorke was made a vampire after the Battle of Orsha.

Legacy

In 1514, in appreciation for the victory in the battle, Konstanty Ostrogski built the Church and monastery of Holy Trinity in Vilnius.

References

1. Лобин А. Н. К вопросу о численности и составе польско-литовской армии в битве под Оршей в 1514 г. // Праблемы інтэграцыі і iнкарпарацыі ў развіцці Цэнтральнай і Усходняй Еўропы ў перыяд ранняга Новага часу. Мінск, 2010. С. 18-42
2. ^ Podhorodecki, Leszek (1997). Sławne bitwy Polaków. MADA. pp. 105–106. ISBN 8386170247.
3. ^ Spieralski, Zdzisław (1965). Wojskowość polska w okresie odrodzenia Zarys dziejów wojskowości polskiej do roku 1864, t. I, pod red. Janusza Sikorskiego. p. 331.
4. ^ Wojciechowski, Zygmunt (1946). Zygmunt Stary (1506-1548). p. 50.
5. ^ Лобин А. Н. К вопросу о численности вооружённых сил Российского государства в XVI в.//Studia Slavica et Balcanica Petropolitana 2009 Nr 1-2. p. 66
6. ^ Baranauskas, Tomas (2006-09-08). "Oršos mūšis – didžiausia Lietuvos karinė pergalė prieš Rusiją" (in Lithuanian).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
7. Plewczyński 2016, p. 42. sfn error: no target: CITEREFPlewczyński2016 (help)
8. Лобин А. Н. К вопросу о численности вооружённых сил Российского государства в XVI в.//Studia Slavica et Balcanica Petropolitana 2009 Nr. 1-2. page 61
9. Лобин А. Н. К вопросу о численности вооружённых сил Российского государства в XVI в.//Studia Slavica et Balcanica Petropolitana 2009 Nr 1-2. pp.45-78
10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lMs_c10EUc
11. https://charter97.org/ru/news/2017/9/8/262281/
12. https://charter97.org/ru/news/2017/9/8/262248/

External links

• Cherkas, B. Battle of Orsha. Prince of Ostroh against Prince of Moscow. Ukrayinska Pravda (originally from Tyzhden). July 24, 2013.
• Winged Hussars, Radoslaw Sikora, Bartosz Musialowicz, BUM Magazine, October 2016.

• 1514 in Lithuania
• Battles involving Poland
• Battles involving Russia
• Battles involving the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
• Conflicts in 1514
• Vitebsk Voivodeship
• Military history of Belarus