Siege
In September 1609, the Polish king Sigismund began an open intervention in Russia and laid siege to Smolensk (Heroic Defense of Smolensk; Part 2). In addition to the Poles, his army included Zaporozhye Cossacks, "Lithuania", Lithuanian Tatars, German and Hungarian mercenaries. The main part of the army was cavalry, the infantry was small (no more than 5 thousand), there was no strong artillery. That is, they planned to take Smolensk on the move, and then quickly go to Moscow. However, it was not possible to take the city with "good" or a quick attack. The Polish ultimatum on surrender was left unanswered, and the Russian voivode Mikhail Shein promised the messenger that if he appeared again, he would be drowned.
Smolensk was the most important Russian fortress in the western direction; its fortifications were erected in the late 16th - early 17th centuries. A powerful fortress with 38 towers, walls 13–19 m high, 5–6.5 m thick, armed with 170 cannons, was difficult to take on the move. The garrison consisted of 5, 4 thousand warriors and was constantly replenished at the expense of the inhabitants of the posad. It was necessary to have supporters inside, who would surrender the fortress, open the gates.
Shein was an experienced commander, distinguished by personal courage, strong will, and was not going to surrender the fortress. Smolyan fully supported him.
The royal army did not have a large infantry for siege work and assaults, and there was no heavy artillery. She was brought later, when the siege had to start. Therefore, the most experienced and sensible Polish commander, Hetman Zolkiewski, suggested limiting himself to the blockade of Smolensk, and with the main forces going to Moscow. But Sigismund makes a mistake: he decided to take the fortress at any cost.
Obviously, the king and his advisers believed that the siege would be short. On September 25-27, Polish troops stormed the fortress for three days, but failed. The Poles fired heavy artillery fire, but small-caliber cannons could not cause serious damage to the walls.
The Russian artillery, with superior firepower, crushed enemy positions. The Smolensk garrison showed high combat readiness, acted decisively and quickly. All the weaknesses of the fortress were immediately eliminated. The gate, which could be dispensed with, was covered with earth and stones.
The enemy's engineering work, in which foreign specialists participated, also did not lead to success. The Russians successfully carried out countermine work. Smolyans destroyed several enemy mines, proving the futility of an underground war against them. The Russian garrison during the first period of the siege acted very actively, constantly making sorties, alarming the enemy, to deliver water and firewood (in winter). A partisan war was going on behind enemy lines. The Smolensk partisans exerted strong psychological pressure on the enemy, destroying his small units and foragers.
After the fall of Vasily Shuisky and the establishment of the power of the Seven Boyars, the boyar government recognized the Polish prince Vladislav (son of Sigismund III) as the Russian tsar. One of the conditions of the treaty was the lifting of the siege of Smolensk by the Poles. The Russian embassy arrived at the Polish camp. However, the ratification of the treaty by the Polish king was delayed, he himself wanted to rule in Russia. The Polish side again offered surrender to the residents of Smolensk.
The Zemsky Council of the city refused to surrender Smolensk.
In 1610, the Smolyans repulsed three assaults. Both sides suffered heavy casualties. However, the royal army was replenished with troops from Poland and detachments of Polish adventurers who operated on Russian territory. In the winter of 1610-1611. Smolensk's position deteriorated significantly. Famine and epidemics mowed down the Smolyans. The cold was added to them, since there was no one to get firewood. The lack of ammunition began to be felt. By the summer of 1611, about 200 warriors remained from the garrison. There were barely enough of them to watch the walls. The Polish command, apparently, did not know about this, otherwise the last assault would have begun earlier.
Failure of new negotiations
With the onset of the summer of 1611, the position of the Russian state deteriorated even more. The first zemstvo militia was bound by the siege of Moscow, where the Polish garrison settled. The city itself was almost completely burned out (Moscow fire of 1611). Swedish troops were approaching Novgorod. Poland strained all its forces to put an end to Smolensk.
Back in January 1611, the Moscow boyar government sent Ivan Saltykov to the royal camp near Smolensk in order to achieve concessions from the Russian ambassadors Golitsyn and Filaret and surrender the city. Vasily Golitsyn put forward a compromise plan: the Smolensk people let a small Polish garrison into the city and swear allegiance to the prince Vladislav, and the king lifts the siege.
In February, the ambassadors met with the residents of Smolensk and agreed on the adoption of this plan. However, the concessions of Golitsyn and Filaret did not bring peace closer.
The Polish senators put forward new conditions: Sigismund lifts the siege when the townspeople confess, let the Polish soldiers in, and put a mixed guard of Poles and Russians at the gates. The city must compensate for all the losses suffered by the Polish army during the siege. Smolensk will temporarily remain a part of Russia, until the conclusion of a final peace.
Smolensk voivode Mikhail Shein summoned zemstvo representatives and all the people to discuss the proposals of the Polish side. The Russian people were well aware of the value of Polish promises. Only a few agreed to end the resistance. Almost no one believed that after the surrender, Sigismund would spare the Smolyans. The burning of Moscow by the Poles only confirmed this opinion. The negotiations fell through. The Russian embassy was defeated, the royal soldiers killed the servants and plundered the property. Golitsyn and Filaret were arrested and taken prisoners to Poland.
Hetman Zolkiewski, convinced of the failure of the idea of union, tried to persuade the senators to mutually beneficial negotiations with the boyar government in Moscow, but the king refused to follow the advice of his best commander. Dissatisfied with the arrest of the Russian ambassadors and the failure of the union plans, the hetman left the royal camp and returned to Poland.
The last decisive assault
The forces of the defenders of Smolensk were running out. The garrison suffered huge losses. Shein had very few people left to keep the big fortress. There were still provisions in the warehouses. But now they were distributed only among the warriors. Common people were dying of hunger and disease. However, the residents of Smolensk knew about the uprisings in Moscow and other cities, the siege of enemies in the Kremlin by the forces of the zemstvo militia. The hope for the expulsion of the Poles from Moscow and the help supported their will to fight.
Meanwhile, the Polish command, concerned about the state of affairs in Moscow, decided to throw all its forces into a decisive assault. The commanders began preparations for a decisive assault. The artillery bombarded the fortress with heavy fire. The western wall was the most destroyed. On June 2, 1611, Polish troops took up their starting position. They had a huge superiority in forces, only one company of German mercenaries - 600 people, three times the entire Russian garrison. And there were more than ten such companies in the royal army.
At dawn on June 3 (13), 1611, a powerful explosion shook the city. At the northeastern Kryloshevskaya tower, a part of the wall flew into the air. Shein was expecting an attack from the western side, where the walls were most damaged, and the main batteries were located there. Indeed, the royal troops launched an attack at the site of the western breaches and at the Boguslav tower in the northwest. But there was an auxiliary attack here. The enemy struck the main blow at the Kryloshevskaya tower and further south against the Avramiev monastery. The soldiers climbed the walls using the assault ladders and burst into the city. The forces of the Russian garrison were too small to organize a dense defense in all directions. Most of the city's defenders fell in arms.
The few surviving defenders and townspeople shut themselves up in the Theotokos Cathedral (Monomakh Cathedral) in the center of Smolensk. When Polish soldiers and mercenaries broke into the cathedral, began to kill and rape, one of the warriors blew up the remaining supplies of gunpowder. The cathedral was destroyed along with the last warriors, townspeople and invaders.
Shein with several warriors held the defense in one of the western towers. Once under siege, he fought for some time, then, at the request of his family, laid down his arms. Sigismund, enraged by the long siege and heavy losses, ordered Shein to be tortured. The governor was asked:
"Who advised him and helped him stay in Smolensk for so long?"
He answered:
“Nobody in particular because nobody wanted to give up ».
Then Shein was taken to Lithuania, where he was imprisoned. In captivity, being humiliated, the voivode spent 8 years. He was returned to Russia in 1619.
The defense of Smolensk lasted almost two years.
The Russian fortress fettered the main forces of the invasion, did not allow them to pass into the interior of the country. Out of about 80 thousand townspeople and neighboring residents who fled to Smolensk, about 8 thousand survived. The garrison was killed almost entirely. The royal army suffered heavy losses - up to 30 thousand people. After that, the Polish troops could not continue the hostilities and, instead of going to Moscow, were disbanded.
The news of the fall of Smolensk spread throughout the Russian land, sowing alarm in the hearts of people. They expected the king to immediately lead his troops to Moscow. But the king did not want to risk it. I decided to celebrate my hard-won victory. His army temporarily lost its combat capability, and the treasury was empty, burdened with debts. Smolensk itself remained with Poland until 1667.
