The heroic defense of Pskov began 440 years ago. The city was besieged by the 50,000-strong army of the Polish king Stefan Batory, in which mercenaries and military specialists from all over Europe served. The Russian garrison led by Ivan Shuisky and the townspeople withstood a 143-day siege, 2 decisive assaults and more than 30 attacks.
The successful Pskov defense was of strategic importance. Batory's plans to conquer Smolensk, Seversk land and Novgorod went to waste. Russia resisted, repelled the next crusade of the West. Poland, exhausted in the war, had to conclude an armistice.
Livonian war
The Livonian War began with victories (1558). The Russian army crushed the Livonian knights to smithereens, took Narva and Yuryev-Dorpat. Most of Livonia was ravaged and burned. This caused fears of Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania and Poland, which had their own views on the Livonian lands. The Livonian Confederation began to fall apart. The lands of the Order and the possession of the Archbishop of Riga in 1559 passed under "clientele and patronage", that is, under the protectorate of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Revel withdrew to Sweden, the Bishop of Ezel ceded the island of Ezel to Duke Magnus, brother of the Danish king.
In 1560, Livonia suffered new defeats from the Russians and collapsed. Livonia was divided by Poland and Lithuania, they demanded the withdrawal of the Russian army. Ivan the Terrible refused. Two new fronts were formed. In addition, the Crimean horde, reinforced by the Turks, threatened from the south of Russia. The war became protracted and difficult. However, during the Russian-Lithuanian war of 1561-1570, the Russians defeated the Lithuanians and recaptured Old Russian Polotsk with the adjacent region. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania, exhausted and devastated by the war, was forced to conclude an armistice. The Russian kingdom, bound by the Crimean threat, was unable to build on its success.
Lithuania, which was facing the threat of a complete military catastrophe, in 1569 concludes the Union of Lublin with Poland. A powerful state was created - the Commonwealth (united Poland and Lithuanian Rus). The vast territories of Lithuanian Rus - Podlasie, Volhynia, Podolia and the Middle Dnieper region - were transferred to the control of the Polish crown. The Lithuanian-Russian statehood was absorbed by the Polish one, and the polonization of the Lithuanian and Russian gentry (nobility) began. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a period of rootlessness began, which was accompanied by turmoil. Even a pro-Russian gentry party was formed, which offered to transfer the Polish table either to Ivan the Terrible or his son in order to unite the forces of the Commonwealth and Russia in the struggle against the powerful Port and the Crimean Khanate. The Crimeans at that time were a real disaster for the southern part of Lithuanian Rus and Poland, devastating and enslaving entire regions.
The Russians set up their fleet in the Baltic under the command of the Dane Karsten Rode, and strike at the Swedish and Polish maritime trade. Ivan the Terrible began to create a fleet in the White Sea (in 1584 Arkhangelsk was founded by decree of the tsar). That is, the Russian sovereign Ivan Vasilyevich did everything that was then attributed to Peter I. In Livonia, in the course of a stubborn struggle with the Swedes and Livonians, by 1576 the Russians captured almost the entire coast, except for Riga and Revel.
In 1577, the Russian army laid siege to Revel, but failed to take it. The most implacable German knights who fled from all over Livonia defended themselves in the city. The Swedes managed to ferry several thousand mercenaries. The fortress was powerful, with strong artillery. The best Russian voivode Ivan Sheremetev was mortally wounded in battle. After his death, things went badly. The second voivode Fyodor Mstislavsky was inferior to Sheremetev in military affairs and could not inspire the warriors. The siege was lifted.
Polish affairs
Unfortunately, Russia was unable to end the Livonian War in its favor and consolidate the Baltic states. While the Russians were crushing the enemy in Livonia, a new threat emerged in the West.
The struggle for the throne was coming to an end in Poland. Turkey demanded that the Polish gentry did not elect the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Maximilian II or his son, the Austrian Archduke Ernst, as the king, and the vassal of Porta, the Transylvanian prince Stephen Batory, was named as a contender.
The Crimean attack of 1575 on Podolia and Volhynia was a warning to the Poles. At the same time, a powerful campaign was launched for Batory, they spent money without counting, watered the gentry. And not only Turks helped the prince of small Transylvania. Convinced that the Swedish Johan and Sigismund were hopelessly inferior, the Roman throne staked on Batory. His candidacy was supported by the Bishop of Krakow and the crown hetman of Zamoysk.
Batory himself played along with the gentry in every possible way, took any obligations to get to the throne. He confirmed Henry's Articles - a document on the limitation of royal power in the Commonwealth, approved by the Diet and signed by King Heinrich de Valois in 1573 (Heinrich quickly fled to France when the throne was vacated there). He promised a lasting peace with the Turks and Crimeans, which meant the security of the estates of the gentry in southern Poland and Lithuanian Rus. He promised a war with the Russians in alliance with Turkey, opening up tempting prospects for the plunder of Russia. He even promised to marry the elderly sister of the deceased King Sigismund II, that is, he gave a guarantee that he would not have heirs.
At the beginning of 1576, a split occurred in the electoral Diet. The pans made sure that Maximilian was elected by a majority of votes. But the gentry revolted. They shouted that they did not want to be "under the Germans," and shouted out to Batory. It came to a fight. Maximilian's supporters lost and fled. Batory's supporters occupied Krakow, captured the royal regalia. As a result, two kings were chosen. The one who would be more decisive and faster should have won. The indecisive Maximilian, who had something to lose, remained in his domain. Prince Batory, who had the prospect of becoming the ruler of a huge power, immediately set out with his retinue and appeared in Krakow, where he was proclaimed king.
Situation in the south
The election of Batory meant the war of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against Russia. There was also a threat of simultaneous action against us by Turkey and the Crimeans.
Indeed, Batory's coming to power inspired the Crimeans. In the spring, Devlet-Girey led a large army to the Field, for the first time after the defeat of the Crimean Turkish troops at Molodei. But Russian intelligence discovered the threat in time. Russian regiments reached the southern defensive line. Ivan the Terrible himself left for Kaluga. In the lower reaches of the Dnieper and Don, detachments of Cossacks began to gather to strike at the Crimean rear. The Crimeans did not dare to storm the Russian borders and turned back.
A detachment of hetman Bogdan Ruzhinsky, with the support of the Don Cossacks, laid siege to the Turkish fortress on the Dnieper - Islam-Kermen. The Cossacks brought mines, blew up the walls and took the fortress. But Ruzhinsky, who created a serious threat to the Crimea and Turkey, died in this battle. The Crimeans launched a counteroffensive and drove the Cossacks back. However, the Cossacks immediately responded with a series of successful raids. Dnieper and Don regions devastated the outskirts of Ochakov, Ackerman and Bender.
Bathory at this time began negotiations for an alliance with the Port and the Crimean Khanate. But from the Turks and Crimeans a stream of complaints poured out against his subjects - the Dnieper Cossacks. Turkey and Crimea demanded to punish those responsible and pay damages. The pans made excuses that the raids were made by dashing people, fugitives from different countries, and the king was not responsible for their actions.
At the same time, the government of Batory tried to split the Cossacks, remove them from the influence of Moscow and establish their control. In 1576, a universal (law) was issued on the acceptance of the Cossacks into the service and the introduction of a register for 6 thousand people. Registered Cossacks were given their regalia (banner, bunchuk, seal), the hetman and the foreman were approved by the king. Registered Cossacks were paid a salary, land was allocated. A military estate was created, which over time had to equalize in rights with the gentry. And those who were not included in the register were not recognized as Cossacks and turned to the peasantry. As a result, Batory was able to subjugate part of the Cossacks.
The Pans could not subdue all the Cossacks. Those who were not included in the register refused to obey and created the Grassroots Army - the future Zaporozhye. Zaporozhye itself has not yet been mastered. Grassroots Cossacks lived near the Russian borders beyond the Dnieper. The Cossack camps were then at Chernigov, on an island on the river. Samara (a tributary of the Dnieper). Later, when the main forces of the Cossacks moved to Zaporozhye, the fortress on Samara was turned into the Desert-Nikolaevsky monastery.
Big politics: Poland, Holy Roman Empire, Turkey and Crimea
Batory was definitely going to fight with Moscow. On accession to the throne, he solemnly promised to return all the former possessions of Lithuania, which had been recaptured by the Moscow sovereigns. That is, he was going to fight for Polotsk, Smolensk and Severshchina.
True, at first the Polish king covered up his aggressive designs with courteous diplomacy. An embassy was sent to Ivan the Terrible, which convinced the tsar of the peacefulness of the Commonwealth, vowed to observe friendship. But Ivan Vasilyevich was not titled tsar, and Batory was called "the sovereign of Livonia." Therefore, the Polish ambassadors were received in Moscow coolly.
The Russian sovereign expressed surprise at why Batory calls him "brother"?
He noted that he was an equal only for high-born princes - Ostrog, Belsky, etc. Moscow did not refuse negotiations, but demanded to abandon claims to Livonia.
Moscow was well aware of the reasons for Batory's "courtesy". About his negotiations with Turks and Crimean Tatars. The power of the Polish king and the Grand Duke of Lithuania was still unstable. Prussia did not recognize him, Gdansk revolted. Many pans continued to regard the Emperor Maximilian as the legitimate sovereign. At his court, Polish and Transylvanian nobles, hostile to Batory, gathered and called on the emperor to start a war.
In Lithuania, the pro-Russian party retained its position, turned to Moscow, offered to send troops. But Ivan Vasilievich did not want the resumption of the war in Lithuania, he was waiting for Maximilian to speak. Habsburg was going to convene the Reichstag on the Polish question, he planned to conclude an alliance with Moscow against Batory. The elderly and already ill Maximilian II did not oppose Batory. He died.
He was succeeded by Rudolph, a pupil of the Jesuits. He was more interested in religion, art and the occult than in Eastern affairs. He pursued a flexible policy. He wrote to Moscow that he was ready to conclude an alliance. At that time he himself recognized Batory as the king of Poland, established friendship with him and introduced a ban on the import of copper and lead into Russia.
But even Batory was not immediately able to oppose Russia. The anti-Russian alliance with Turkey did not take place. Shah Tahmasp died in Iran, a struggle for power, civil strife began in the country. The new Shah Ismail, distinguished by extreme suspicion and cruelty, interrupted his brothers and other relatives, began repressions against the nobility. Thus, he caused strong opposition, he was poisoned. Muhammad, who was weak in health and mind, was elected as the new shah. All power in the country belonged to the emirs, tribal strife and civil strife began.
Persia was extremely weakened. The Ottoman Sultan Murad decided to take advantage of this. In 1578, the Turks started a war with Iran. The war was successful, the Ottomans easily defeated the Persians, mired in internal squabbles, captured Georgia, Azerbaijan, the southwestern coast of the Caspian Sea and other areas. However, the war was long, the Ottomans got bogged down in it. They called for help from the Crimean troops.
Devlet died in Crimea. The new khan Mehmed-Girey, in order to strengthen his position among the nobility and warriors, organized a campaign to the north. It was dangerous to go against the Russian kingdom, which had strong defensive lines, and a strong tsar. Therefore, they rushed to Ukraine, subject to Poland. They burned out and devastated Volyn Rus.
Bathory had to pay a large tribute to avoid further incursions. The new Crimean Khan wanted to "milk" Russia as well. He presented his robbery campaign as a break in the alliance with the Polish masters. For the sake of "friendship" I asked 4 thousand rubles, to give Astrakhan, to remove the Cossacks from the Dnieper and Don. The Khan was sent 1 thousand rubles as a gift, it is clear that the Crimeans were left without Astrakhan. As for the Cossacks, they answered with a traditional answer: the Dnieper are subjects of the Polish crown, the Don are fugitives from Lithuania and Russia and do not obey anyone.
In 1578-1581, the Crimean Tatar troops fought in the Transcaucasus. For Russia, the turn of Turkey and the Crimean Horde to the east was very useful. The threat of a clash with a strong Ottoman army was pushed back. And the Polish king at this time was bogged down in internal problems. He had to form an army of mercenaries, mainly Hungarians and Germans, deal with Prussia, besiege Gdansk. The Polish and Lithuanian lords at this time were waiting, they were in no hurry to help Batory. At this time, Moscow hoped to complete the campaign in Livonia, and then negotiate with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from advantageous positions.
