Battle of Chudnov
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Battle of Chudnov (Cudnów) | |||||||
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Part of Russo-Polish War (1654–1667) | |||||||
Polish troops besiege the camp of the Russian forces led by Vasily Sheremetev and Tymish Tsetsura. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Crimean Khanate | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Stanisław Potocki (Polish side) Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski (Polish side) Safer Giray (Crimean side) |
Vasily Sheremetev (Russian side)Tymish Tsetsura (Ukrainian side) | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
28,000 Poles with 20 artillery pieces [a][1] 12,000 Tatars[1] |
15,000 Russians with 48 artillery pieces[1] 15,000 Cossacks with several artillery pieces (under Tsetsura; not counting 20,000 under Khmelnytsky)[1] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Poles: 2,700 dead, 2,500 wounded[2] Tatars: 400 dead, 600 wounded |
Russians: 2,300 dead, 2,000 wounded, 12,500 captive and all artillery Cossacks: 1,900 dead, 2,000 wounded, 8,000 |
The Battle of Chudnov (Chudniv, Cudnów) took place from 14 October[
Background
In July 1660, tsar
In September 1660, the commander of the Russian army, Sheremetev – acting on misleading information greatly underestimating the numerical strength of the Polish army – decided to seek out and destroy the Polish forces with what he believed would be overwhelming strength (15,000 Russian soldiers and 15,000–35,000 of his Cossack allies).
The Polish commanders –
The combined Polish army (not counting 12,000 Tatars and 1,500 Cossacks under Vyhovsky) numbered about 27,000 (including about 700
The Russian army was surprised near
Battle
Sheremetev decided to stop the Poles by repeating his previous tactics. He burned the town on the side the Poles were approaching from, and created a new camp on the other side of the river. The Poles took the other bank, including the local fort, which Sheremetev abandoned, and which provided them with a useful stronghold and observation point. The Tatars drove the Russians foraging parties into their main camp, but for now no major encounters took place. The Poles were however able to surround the Russian camp, and started engineering works designed to flood their camp.
The Poles learned that a
On 8 October, facing hunger, flooding and low morale, Sheremetev tried to break out of the camp but was defeated. Another attempt on 14 October, initially more successful, proved to be also futile and only succeeded in moving the camp to a non-flooded area.
In the meantime, Khmelnytsky (also suffering from heavy desertions) decided to enter negotiations with the Poles. The
The remaining Cossacks (numbering around 8,000), abandoned by Tsetsura and Khmelnytsky, left the Russian camp on 3 November, but were ambushed by the Tatars; surrounded and with no help from their former Russian allies, nearly all were taken captive (see
Aftermath
The battle was a major victory for the Poles, who succeeded in eliminating most of Russian forces, weakened the Cossacks and kept their alliance with the Crimean Tatars. The Poles, however, were unable to capitalize on that victory; their army retreated in poor order (there was little aid for the wounded, which accounted for hundreds of deaths after the battle). Furthermore, the country had failed to provide wages for most of the army, which resulted in mutinies in 1661. This prevented the Poles from taking initiative and allowed the Russians time to rebuild their armies.
Yury Baryatinsky who commanded the Russian garrison in Kyiv refused to follow Sheremetev's agreement with the Poles and leave the city, saying his famous phrase "I obey only His Majesty, not Sheremetev. There are many Sheremetevs in Moscow!" The Poles did not risk attacking the city which thus remained in Russian hands. A similar development took place in Pereiaslav whose inhabitants led by Yakym Somko swore "to die for the great Tsar, for God's churches and Orthodox faith".[15]
The Battle of Chudnov is commemorated on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Warsaw, with the inscription "CUDNOW 14 IX-3 X 1660".
See also
Notes
a. ^ Numerical estimates are based on 1995 work of Łukasz Ossoliński; in particular his Chapter 3 dedicated to estimating strength of opposing forces. He notes that older historiography often overestimated numbers for that battle (for example, a common mistake in Polish historiography was to estimate Russian forces at 50,000).
References
- Inline:
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Ossoliński, 1995, pp.12–20
- ^ Ossoliński, 1995, pp.47–48
- ^ Ossoliński, 1995, p.5
- ^ Ossoliński, 1995, pp.9–10
- ^ Ossoliński, 1995, p.10
- ^ Ossoliński, 1995, p.8
- ^
- ^ Ossoliński, 1995, p.22
- ^ Ossoliński, 1995, p.31
- ^ Ossoliński, 1995, p.39
- ^ Ossoliński, 1995, p.44
- ^ Ossoliński, 1995, p.45
- ^ Ossoliński, 1995, pp.45–46
- ^ a b c Ossoliński, 1995, p.46
- ^ Sergey Solovyov: История России с древнейших времен. Том 11. Глава 2. Продолжение царстования
- General:
- Łukasz Ossoliński, "Cudnów – Słobodyszcze 1660", Inforteditions 2006, ISBN 83-89943-12-3
- Łukasz Ossoliński, "Kampania na Ukrainie 1660 roku"; doctoral thesis (University of Warsaw), 1995, available here
- Mała Encyklopedia Wojskowa, Tom I, A-J, Warszawa 1967, Wydanie I
Further reading
- Antoni Hniłko, "Wyprawa cudnowska w 1660 roku", Wojskowy instytut naukowo-wydawniczy, 1931
- Romański Romuald, "Cudnów 1660 (Historyczne bitwy)", Bellona 1996, ISBN 83-11-08590-0
- Winged Hussars, Radoslaw Sikora, Bartosz Musialowicz, BUM Magazine, 2016.