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Revision as of 13:27, 5 September 2006 by Balcer (talk | contribs) (→Invasion of the Commonwealth)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The Russo-Polish War of 1654-1667, also called the War for Ukraine, was the last major conflict between Muscovite Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Sometimes viewed in Poland as part of the so-called Deluge, the war marked the beginning of the rise of Russia as the greatest power in Eastern Europe.
Background
The conflict was triggered by the Khmelnytsky Rebellion of Ukrainian Cossacks against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Cossack leader, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, derived his main foreign support from Alexis of Russia, promising his allegiance in recompense. Although the Zemsky Sobor of 1651 was poised to accept the Cossacks into the Muscovite sphere of influence and to enter the war against Poland on their side, the tsar temporized until 1653, when a new popular assembly eventually authorized the unification of Ukraine with Muscovy. After the Cossacks ratified this agreement at the famous Pereyaslav Rada the Russo-Polish War became inevitable.
Invasion of the Commonwealth
In July 1654 the Russian army of 41,000 — nominally under the tsar, but in fact commanded by Princes Yakov Cherkassky, Nikita Odoevsky and Andrey Khovansky — captured the border forts of Bely and Dorogobuzh and laid siege to Smolensk.
The Russian position at Smolensk did not lack danger as long as Great Lithuanian hetman, Prince Janusz Radziwiłł with 10,000 men held Orsha, slightly to the west. Cherkassky marched on Radziwill with a velocity which paralyzed resistance and defeated him near Shklov. After three months of siege, Smolensk — the main object of the previous Russo-Polish War — fell to the Russian armies on 23 September.
In the meantime, Prince Aleksey Trubetskoy led the southern flank of the Russian army from Bryansk to the Ukraine. The territory between the Dnieper and Berezina was overrun quickly, with Trubetskoy taking Mstislavl and Roslavl and his Ukrainian allies capturing Homel. On the northern flank, Fyodor Sheremetev set out from Pskov and seized the Lithuanian cities of Nevel (July 1), Polotsk (July 17), and Vitebsk (November 17).
Thereupon the tsar's troops swarmed over Polish Livonia and firmly established themselves in Ludza and Rezekne. Simultaneously, the combined forces of Khmelnitsky and the Muscovite boyar Buturlin struck against Volynia. Despite many disagreements between the commanders, they took hold of Ostrog and Rovno by the end of the year.
Campaign of 1655
In the winter and spring of 1655, the Russians and Ukrainians suffered some setbacks. Prince Radziwill launched a counter-offensive in Belarus, recaptured Orsha and besieged Mogilyov. This siege dragged on for three months with no apparent result. In January Sheremetev and Khmelnitsky routed the Poles at Akhmatov; while another Polish army joined the Tatars and crushed a Russian-Ukrainian contingent at Zhashkov.
Alarmed by these reverses, the tsar hastened from Moscow to the army and at his instigation a massive offensive was launched. The Belarusian population offered little if any resistance and surrendered Minsk to the Cossacks and Cherkassky on 3 July. Wilno, the capital of the Great Duchy of Lithuania, was taken by the Russians on 31 July. This success was followed up by the conquest of Kowno and Hrodno in August.
Elsewhere, Prince Volkonsky sailed from Kiev up the Dnieper and the Pripyat, routing the Lithuanians and capturing Pinsk on his way. Trubetskoy's unit overran Slonim and Kletsk, while Sheremetev managed little beyond seizing Velizh on June 17. A Lithuanian garrison still resisted the Cossacks' siege in Stary Bykhov, when Khmelnitsky and Buturlin were already active in Galicia. They laid siege to Lwow in September and entered Lublin after Sapieha's unit had been beaten near Brest.
Armistice
These brilliant feats of arms — utterly unprecedented in Russo-Polish relations — alarmed Charles X of Sweden and aroused his jealousy. The Swedes invaded Poland in summer 1655 and took hold of Warsaw by the end of the year. After the Polish king fled abroad and the seemingly vacant Polish throne was promised by some magnates to the tsar, the Russians lost interest in further weakening Poland in the face of the Swedish invasion, as Sweden was their long-standing foe in the Baltics.
Accordingly, Afanasy Ordin-Nashchokin — who advised the tsar on foreign affairs — opened negotiations with the Poles and signed an armistice with them on 2 November. After that, Russian forces marched on Swedish Livonia and besieged Riga, in what became known as the Russo-Swedish War, 1656-1658.
The Livonian embroglio had unexpected repercussions in the Ukraine, too. Khmelnitsky, who considered Sweden his ally, viewed the armistice as a betrayal and prepared to break with the tsar when he died in August 1657. His successor, Ivan Vyhovsky, allied himself with the Poles, who had largely succeeded in repelling the Swedish invasion by that time.
Campaign against Vyhovsky
Under such circumstances, the tsar concluded with Sweden the advantageous truce of Valiersari, which allowed him to resume hostilities against the Commonwealth in October 1658. During two years of peace, Belarusian nobility and many Cossack leaders had changed sides and now helped the Poles to launch a winter offensive in Belarus.
In the north, Sapieha's attempt to blockade Wilno was promptly checked by Prince Yury Dolgorukov (October 11). In the south, Vyhovsky failed to wrest Kiev from Sheremetev's control. In July 1659, however, Vyhovsky and his Crimean Tatar allies inflicted a heavy defeat upon Trubetskoy's army, then besieging Konotop.
The threat to the Russian conquests in Ukraine was relieved by Sheremetev's forces, which set out from Kiev in August. Whilst Vyhovsky was defeated near Chyhyryn and fled to Poland, the Cossacks deposed him and elected Khmelnitsky's son Yurii as a new hetman of Ukraine.
End of the war
During the 1660s, the international situation was more favourable to Poland than ever. Although the new hetman was not as outspoken a critic of the Muscovite regime as his predecessor, he was gravitating towards the Polish alliance in what was seen in Moscow as a betrayal of the common cause. On the other hand, John II Casimir, having concluded the Northern Wars against Sweden with the Treaty of Oliva, was able to concentrate all his forces on the Eastern front.
The Poles unleashed a major offensive and drove the Russians out of Belarus by the end of 1660. Khovansky was defeated by Sapieha and Sheremetev was forced to capitulate near Chudnov. The most brilliant Polish general was Stefan Czarniecki: he routed Dolgorukov's army in the Battle of Polonka and recaptured Wilno in 1661. Other towns of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania fell to the Poles one by one. These reverses forced the tsar to accept the humiliating Treaty of Kardis, by way of averting a new war against Sweden.
Towards the end of 1663, the king crossed the Dnieper and invaded Left-Bank Ukraine. Many towns surrendered to him without resistance, but his siege of Glukhov in January was a costly failure and he suffered a further setback at Novgorod-Seversky. The last notable action of the war was a defeat of Russian forces near Vitebsk in summer 1664.
Peace negotiations dragged on from 1664 until January 1667, when Jerzy Lubomirski's rebellion forced the king to conclude the Treaty of Andrusovo, whereby Poland ceded to Russia the fortress of Smolensk and the Left-Bank Ukraine with Kiev. This was the greatest loss of territory in the history of Poland up to that date.
References
- Malov A.V. Russo-Polish War (1654-1667). Moscow: Exprint, 2006. ISBN 5-94038-111-1.