Polish–Muscovite Wars (1605–1618)
A request that this article title be changed to Polish–Russian War (1605–1618) is under discussion. Please do not move this article until the discussion is closed. |
Polish–Muscovite War (1605–1618) | |||||||||
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Part of the Time of Troubles and the Russo-Polish Wars | |||||||||
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and western Tsardom of Russia during the Polish–Russian War. The map displays Poland (cream), Lithuania (dark red), Russia (dark green), and Polish territorial gains or areas temporarily controlled by Poland (pink). Positions of military regiments and important battles are marked with crossed swords. | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
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The Polish–Muscovite War of 1605–1618, also known as the Polish–Russian War, Polish Intervention in Russia or the Dimitriads, was a conflict fought between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia from 1605 to 1618.
Russia had been experiencing the
Sigismund's son, the Prince
The war was the first major sign of the rivalry and uneasy relations between Poland and Russia which last to this day.
Names of the war
The conflict is often referred to by different names, most commonly the Russo–Polish War, with the term Russia replacing the term Muscovy. In Polish historiography, the wars are usually referred to as the Dimitriads: the First Dymitriad (1605–1606) and Second Dymitriad (1607–1609) and the Polish–Muscovite War (1609–1618), which can subsequently be divided into two wars of 1609–1611 and 1617–1618, and may or may not include the 1617–1618 campaign, which is sometimes referred to as Chodkiewicz [Muscovite] Campaign. According to Russian historiography, the chaotic events of the war fall into the "Time of Troubles". The conflict with Poles is commonly called the Polish Invasion, Polish Intervention, or more specifically the Polish Intervention of the Early Seventeenth Century.
Prelude to the war
In the late 16th and early 17th centuries,
In late 1600, a Polish
Sigismund and the Commonwealth magnates knew full well that they were not capable of any serious invasion of Russia; the Commonwealth army was too small, its treasury always empty, and the war lacked popular support. However, as the situation in Russia deteriorated, Sigismund and many Commonwealth
Advocates for a union of Poland–Lithuania with Russia proposed a plan similar to the original Polish–Lithuanian Union of Lublin involving a common foreign policy and military; the right for nobility to choose the place where they would live and to buy landed estates; removal of barriers for trade and transit; introduction of a single currency; increased religious tolerance in Russia (especially the right to build churches of non-Orthodox faiths); and the sending of boyar children for education in more developed Polish academies (like the Jagiellonian University). However, this project never gained much support. Many boyars feared that the union with the predominantly Catholic Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania would endanger Russia's Orthodox traditions and opposed anything that threatened Russian culture, especially the policies aimed at curtailing the influence of the Orthodox Church, intermarriage and education in Polish schools that had already led to successful Polonization of the Ruthenian lands under Polish control.
The Polish invasion (1605–1606)
For most of the 17th century, Sigismund III was occupied with internal problems of his own, like the
When
Dmitry attracted a number of followers, formed a small army, and, supported by approximately 3500 soldiers of the Commonwealth magnates' private armies and the mercenaries bought by Dmitriy's own cash, rode to Russia in June 1604. Some of Godunov's other enemies, including approximately 2,000 southern
and nearly disintegrated. Dmitry's cause was only saved by the news of the death of Tsar Boris Godunov.The sudden death of the Tsar on 13 April 1605, a Polish noblewoman with whom Dmitry had fallen in love while in Poland. The new Tsarina outraged many Russians by refusing to convert from Catholicism to the Russian Orthodox faith. Commonwealth king Sigismund was a prominent guest at this wedding. Marina soon left to join her husband in Moscow, where she was crowned a Tsarina in May.
While Dmitry's rule itself was nondescript and devoid of significant blunders, his position was weak. Many boyars felt they could gain more influence, even the throne, for themselves, and many were still wary of Polish cultural influence, especially in view of Dmitriy's court being increasingly dominated by the aliens he brought with himself from Poland. The
On the morning of 17 May 1606, about two weeks after the marriage, conspirators stormed
The second Polish invasion (1607–1609)
Tsar Vasili Shuyski was unpopular and weak in Russia and his reign was far from stable.
Dmitry speedily captured
Polish–Muscovite War (1609–1618)
Polish victories (1609–1610)
In 1609 the
Although many Polish nobles and soldiers were fighting for the second False Dmitry at the time, Sigismund III and the troops under his command did not support Dimitriy for the throne – Sigismund wanted Russia himself. The entry of Sigismund into Russia caused the majority of the Polish supporters of False Dmitry II to desert him and contributed to his defeat. A series of subsequent disasters induced False Dmitry II to flee his camp disguised as a peasant and to go to Kostroma together with Marina. Dmitry made another unsuccessful attack on Moscow, and, supported by the Don Cossacks, recovered a hold over all of south-eastern Russia. He was killed, however, while half drunk, on 11 December 1610 by a Qasim Tatar princeling Pyotr Urusov, whom Dimitriy had flogged on a previous occasion.
A Commonwealth army under the command of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski, who was generally opposed to this conflict but could not disobey the king's orders, crossed the border and on 29 September 1609 laid siege to Smolensk, an important city Russia had captured from Lithuania in 1514. Smolensk was manned by fewer than 1,000 Russian men commanded by the voivod Mikhail Shein, while Żółkiewski commanded 12,000 troops. However, Smolensk had one major advantage: the previous Tsar, Boris Godunov, had sponsored the fortification of the city with a massive fortress completed in 1602. The Poles found it impenetrable; they settled into a long siege, firing artillery into the city, attempting to tunnel under the moat, and building earthen ramparts, remnants of which can still be seen today. The siege lasted 20 months before the Poles with the help of a Russian defector named Andrei Dedishin eventually succeeded in taking the fortress.
Not all of the Commonwealth attacks were successful. An early attack, led by Hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz with 2,000 men, ended in defeat when the unpaid Commonwealth army mutinied and compelled their leader to retreat through the heart of Russia and back to Smolensk. Not until Crown Prince Władysław, arrived with tardy reinforcements did the war assume a different character. In the meantime, Lisowczycy took and plundered Pskov in 1610 and clashed with the Swedes operating in Russia during the Ingrian War.
Several different visions of the campaign and political goals clashed in the Polish camp. Some of the former members of the Zebrzydowski Rebellion, opponents of Sigismund, actually advanced proposals to have Sigismund dethroned and Dmitriy, or even Shuyski, elected king. Żółkiewski, who from the beginning opposed the invasion of Russia, came into conflict with Sigismund over the scope, methods, and goal of the campaign. Żółkiewski represented the traditional views of Polish nobility, the
Poles in Moscow (1610)
On 31 January 1610 Sigismund received a delegation of boyars opposed to Shuyski, who asked Władysław to become the tsar. On 24 February Sigismund sent them a letter in which he agreed to do so, but only when Moscow was at peace.
Hetman Żółkiewski, whose only other choice was mutiny, decided to follow the king's orders and left Smolensk in 1610, leaving only a smaller force necessary to continue the siege. With Cossack reinforcements, he marched on Moscow. However, as he feared and predicted, as the Polish–Lithuanian forces pressed eastwards, ravaging Russian lands, and as Sigismund's lack of willingness to compromise became more and more apparent, many supporters of the Poles and of the second False Dmitry left the pro-Polish camp and turned to Shuyski's anti-Polish faction.
Russian forces under
Żółkiewski learned of Shuyski's relief force and divided his troops to meet the Russians before they could come to Tsaryovo and lift the siege. He left at night so that Voluyev would not notice his absence. The combined Russian and Swedish armies were defeated on 4 July 1610 at the
After the news of Klushino spread, support for Tsar Shuyski almost completely evaporated. Żółkiewski soon convinced the Russian units at Tsaryovo, which were much stronger than the ones at Kłuszyn, to capitulate and to swear an oath of loyalty to Władysław. Then he incorporated them into his army and moved towards Moscow. In August 1610 many Russian boyars accepted that Sigismund III was victorious and that Władysław would become the next tsar if he converted to Eastern Orthodoxy. The Russian Duma voted for Tsar Shuyski to be removed from the throne.[9]: 564 Shuyski's family, including the tsar, were captured, and Shuyski was reportedly taken to a monastery, forcibly shaved as a monk, and compelled to remain at the monastery under guard. He was later sent to Warsaw, as a kind of war trophy, and eventually died in Gostynin.
Shortly after Shuyski was removed, both Żółkiewski and the second False Dmitri arrived at Moscow with their separate armies. It was a tense moment, filled with the confusion of the conflict. Various pro- and anti-Polish, Swedish, and domestic boyar factions vied for temporary control of the situation. The Russian army and the people themselves were unsure if this was an invasion and that they should close and defend the city, or if it was a liberating force that should be allowed in and welcomed as allies. After a few skirmishes, the pro-Polish faction gained dominance, and the Poles were allowed into Moscow on 8 October.
In the meantime, Żółkiewski and the second False Dmitriy, formerly reluctant allies, began to part ways. The second False Dmitry had lost much of his influence over the Polish court, and Żółkiewski would eventually try to drive Dmitry from the capital. Żółkiewski soon began manoeuvring for a tsar of Polish origin, particularly the 15-year-old Prince Władysław. The boyars had offered the throne to Władysław at least twice, in the hopes of having the
However, Sigismund, supported by some of the more devout and zealous nobility, was completely opposed to the conversion of the prince. From that point the planned Polish–Lithuanian–Muscovite union began to fall apart. Offended and angered by Sigismund, the boyars dragged their feet on supporting Władysław. They were divided between electing
Władysław faced further opposition from a seemingly unlikely party: his father. When Żółkiewski returned to meet Sigismund at Smolensk in November of that year, Sigismund III changed his mind and decided that he could gain the Russian throne for himself. A majority of the Russians opposed the move, especially as Sigismund didn't hide his intent to Catholicize and Polonize the Russian Tsardom. Żółkiewski found himself in an awkward position – he had promised the boyars Prince Władysław to keep the Russian throne for Poland, and he knew that they would not accept Sigismund III, who was unpopular throughout Russia. However, he also had to explain this to his king, who was convinced, from his conquests in the west, of his popularity in Russia. Eventually, Żółkiewski, disappointed with Sigismund, returned to Poland. Sigismund eventually compromised and decided that he would allow his son to take the throne and that he would rule as
In the meantime, the siege of Smolensk continued, even as Władysław was named tsar of Russia and cities and forts throughout the area swore allegiance to the Poles. However, Sigismund III required that Smolensk not only swear allegiance, but open its gates to the Poles, which the Russians refused to do. Żółkiewski fortified Moscow with his army and returned to King Sigismund III, who had remained at Smolensk while Żółkiewski negotiated in Moscow. The largest tunneling project at Smolensk came in December 1610; however, the Poles only managed to destroy more of the outer wall – the inner wall remained intact. The siege continued. At one point, the Polish guns breached the outer wall, and the
The war resumes (1611)
A 1611 uprising in Moscow against the Polish garrison
In the meantime, in late 1611, prince Dmitry Pozharsky was asked to lead the public opposition against the Poles,[9]: 564 organized by the merchants' guild of Nizhny Novgorod. The respected town butcher (literally, a meat-trader) Kuzma Minin oversaw the handling of funds donated by the merchants to form the Second Volunteer Army (Russian: Второе народное ополчение). When part of the Polish army mutinied in January 1612 due to unpaid wages and retreated from Russia towards the Commonwealth, the forces of the Second Volunteer Army strengthened the other anti-Polish Russian forces in Moscow. The 9,000-strong Polish army under hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz attempted to lift the siege[9]: 564 and clashed with Russian forces, attempting to break through to Polish forces in the Kremlin on 1 September. The Polish forces used cavalry attacks in the open field, exercising tactics that were new to them: escorting a mobile tabor fortress through the city. After early Polish successes, the Russian Cossack reinforcements had forced Chodkiewicz's forces to retreat from Moscow.[9]: 564
Russian reinforcements under Prince Pozharsky eventually starved the Commonwealth garrison (there were reports of cannibalism) and forced its surrender on 1 November (though some sources give 6 November or 7 November) after the 19-month siege.[9]: 564 A historian (Parker) writes vividly of the Polish soldiers: "First they ate grass and offal, then they ate each other, and the survivors finally surrendered. The Moscow Kremlin fell on 6 November 1612." On 7 November, the Polish soldiers withdrew from Moscow. Although the Commonwealth negotiated a safe passage, the Russian forces massacred half of the former Kremlin garrison forces as they left the fortress.[9]: 564 Thus, the Russian army recaptured Moscow.
On 2 June 1611 Smolensk had finally fallen to the Poles. After enduring 20 months of siege, two harsh winters and dwindling food supplies, the Russians in Smolensk finally reached their limit as the Polish–Lithuanian troops broke through the city gates. The Polish army, advised by the runaway traitor Andrei Dedishin, discovered a weakness in the fortress defenses, and on 13 June 1611
A new respite (1612–1617)
After the fall of Smolensk, the Russo-Polish border remained relatively quiet for the next few years. However, no official treaty was signed. Sigismund, criticized by the
In the meantime, the Russian Time of Troubles was far from over, and Russia had no strength to take advantage of the Commonwealth's weakness.
While both countries were shaken by internal strife, many smaller factions thrived. Polish
The final stage (1617–1618)
Eventually the Commonwealth Sejm voted to raise the funds necessary to resume large scale military operations. The final attempt by Sigismund and Władysław to gain the throne was a new campaign launched on 6 April 1617. Władysław was the nominal commander, but it was hetman Chodkiewicz who had actual control over the army. In October, the towns of
Aftermath
In the end, Sigismund did not succeed in becoming tsar or in securing the throne for Władysław, but he was able to expand the Commonwealth's territory. During his reign Poland-Lithuania was the largest and most populous country in
In 1632 the Truce of Deulino expired, and hostilities immediately resumed in the course of a conflict known as the
Modern legacy
The story of the Dymitriads and False Dimitrys proved useful to future generations of rulers and politicians in Poland and Russia, and a distorted version of the real events gained much fame in Russia, as well as in Poland. In Poland the Dmitriads campaign is remembered as the height of the Polish Golden Age, the time Poles captured Moscow, something that even four million troops from
In
See also
- Prince Władysław's March on Moscow
- Livonian War (1577–1582)
- Moldavian Magnate Wars (1593–1621)
- Time of Troubles (1598–1615)
- Zebrzydowski rebellion (1606–1608)
- The De la Gardie Campaign(1609–1610)
- Ingrian War (1610–1617)
- Treaty of Stolbovo (1617)
- Polish–Swedish wars(1600–1611, 1617–1629)
- Smolensk War (1632–1634)
- Treaty of Polanów(1634)
- 1612, a Russian epic drama film released on 1 November 2007 about the expulsion of Polish troops from Moscow
References
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (October 2009) |
- ^ "Wojny polsko-rosyjskie w XVII wieku – lata 1609–1618, 1632–1634". wypracowania24.pl. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
- ^ "The Time of Troubles – World Civilization". courses.lumenlearning.com. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
- S2CID 159899487.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-2873-1.
- ^ "Moskwa pod Panowaniem Polaków – Sadistic.pl". www.sadistic.pl. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
- ISBN 0253110548. Retrieved 4 February 2019 – via Google Books.
- ^ Artur Goszczyński (Uniwersytet Jagielloński Zakład Historii Polski Nowożytnej). "Nieprzyjaciel narodu naszego. Historia stosunków polsko-moskiewskich w opinii szlachty Rzeczypospolitej w przededniu i w pierwszych latach wojny 1609–1618. In: Zeszyty Naukowe Towarzystwa Doktorantów UJ Nauki Społeczne, Numer 12 (1/2016)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 October 2023. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
- ^ "Troubles in Russia (1598–1613). History of Russia". www.advantour.com. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
- ^ ISBN 9781851096671
- ^ S.A, Wirtualna Polska Media (3 February 2014). "Polacy rządzili na Kremlu. Syna Zygmunta III Wazy obwołano carem". opinie.wp.pl. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
- ^ ISBN 978-8375431421.
- ^ Palczowski z Palczowic, Paweł (1609). Kolęda moskiewska. (To iest, Woyny Moskiewskiey, Przyczyny Sluszne, Okazya pozadana, Zwyćięstwa nadźieia wielka, Państwa tam tego pożytki y bogactwa, nigdy nieoszacowane. Krotko opisane Przez Pawla Palczowskiego, z Palczowic, Szlachćica Polskiego) (in Polish). Kraków: Mikołaj Szarffenberger (Mikołaia Szarffenbergera).
- ^ Sarmatian Review, Rice University, Texas, January 2011, Vol. XXXI, No. 1., p. 1561; The Muscovite Carol (Kolęda moskiewska) by Paweł Palczowski of Palczowic. Edited by Grzegorz Franczak. [1]
- ^ "Волуев Григорий Леонтьевич". www.hrono.ru. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
- ISBN 978-966-2083-73-6.
- ^ "NewsWeek". Newsweek. 3 February 2018.
- ^ Lipman, Masha (3 November 2017). "The New Yorker".
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Sources
- ISBN 0-231-05351-7(two volumes).
- Andrzej Nowak, Polacy na Kremlu, Tygodnik "Wprost", Nr 1182 (31 lipca 2005), (in Polish), accessed on 29 July 2005
- ISBN 83-06-01093-0.
- ISBN 83-233-1278-8
- Google Print)
Further reading
- ISBN 83-05-12776-1
- ISBN 83-11-09785-2
- ISBN 83-11-10085-3
- Moskwa w rękach Polaków. Pamiętniki dowódców i oficerów garnizonu w Moskwie (Moscow in Polish Hands: Memoires of Commanders and Officers of the Moscow Garrison). Platan, 2005, ISBN 83-89711-50-8
External links
- Polish occupation of Russia (archived 10 October 2003)