Fight for Wenden
Stefan Batory planned not only to repulse the cities and fortresses of Livonia conquered by the Russian troops, but to inflict a series of decisive blows on the Russian state. The Polish king planned to cut off the Russian troops in the Baltics from Russia and capture Polotsk and Smolensk, in order to then conquer Moscow. The Polish Sejm, convened in Warsaw in March 1578, decided to renew the war with the Russian kingdom.
For its part, the Russian command did not want to yield to Wenden (Kes), which the Poles and Lithuanians captured in 1577. In 1578, Russian troops laid siege to this fortress twice, but both times to no avail. In February, Wenden laid siege to the army under the command of princes I. Mstislavsky and V. Golitsyn. The siege lasted four weeks. The siege of Polcheva (Verpol) was more successful, the fortress was taken.
A combined Polish-Swedish army under the leadership of Hetman Andrei Sapega and General Jurgen Nilsson Boye approached Wenden. Initially, the Russian military council decided not to retreat, so as not to abandon the siege artillery. However, soon after the start of the battle, four commanders: Ivan Golitsyn, Fyodor Sheremetev, Andrei Paletsky and Andrei Shchelkanov, abandoned their positions and took their regiments to Yuriev. Under Wenden, only the troops remained under the command of Vasily Sitsky, Peter Tatev, Peter Khvorostinin and Mikhail Tyufyakin, who decided to defend the "large detachment". On October 21, 1578, the Russian infantry suffered a heavy defeat at Wenden. The Russian gunners put up fierce resistance and repulsed the enemy's onslaught in the earthworks. After the ammunition ran out, the gunners, according to some sources, committed suicide, according to others, they were killed by the enemy who had burst into the camp. According to Livonian sources, in the battle of Wenden, the Russian army lost 6 thousand people (apparently, Western sources greatly exaggerated the losses of the Russian troops), 14 large-caliber guns, several mortars and field guns. In the battle, the commanders Sitsky and Tyufyakin fell, Tatev, Khvorostinin, Gvozdev-Rostovsky and Klobukov were captured.
The modern view of the Wenden Castle.
Further hostilities. An attempt to start peace negotiations. The Swedes, inspired by the victory at Wenden, hastened to besiege Narva. However, due to supply interruptions and attacks by the Russian-Tatar cavalry, they were forced to lift the siege and retreat, having lost at least 1.5 thousand people.
Ivan the Terrible, worried about the activity of the Swedes in the North, decided to carry out a qualitative strengthening of the defense of the Solovetsky Monastery. In August 1578, a large batch of weapons was sent to the monastery: 100 handguns, several arquebuses, and ammunition. However, due to the hostilities in the Baltic and on the southern borders, they could not send the troops (they sent only a unit of 18 people with the head of Mikhail Ozerov). True, the abbot received permission to recruit several dozen people as archers and gunners (zatinschiki). In addition, they began to build a prison around the monastery that had not been fortified before. In 1579, the Moscow government received new information about the impending attack on the Russian North, a new batch of weapons and ammunition was sent to Solovki. The timeliness of these measures was confirmed by subsequent events. In the summer of 1579, the Swedes invaded the Kemsky volost and defeated the detachment of Mikhail Ozerov (he died in battle). The next attack, in December, was repelled. 3 thous. The Swedish detachment laid siege to the border Rinoozersky prison, but having suffered heavy losses in the assault, the Swedes retreated.
The defeat at Wenden, the unification of the Polish and Swedish forces in the fight against the Russian state, forced the Russian government to seek an armistice with the Commonwealth. A respite was needed in order to concentrate forces in the fight against Sweden, which was considered a weaker enemy. The Russian command wanted in the summer of 1579 to strike at the Swedes and take Revel. Troops and heavy siege artillery began to be concentrated near Novgorod. At the beginning of 1579, Ivan Vasilyevich sent Andrei Mikhalkov to the Rzeczpospolita with a proposal to send "great ambassadors" to Moscow to negotiate peace. However, Stefan Batory did not want peace on Russian terms. In addition, his allies pushed him to war: the Swedish king Johan III, the Brandenburg elector Johann Georg and the Saxon elector Augustus.
The invasion of the army of Stephen Batory in 1579. The fall of Polotsk
Batory rejected the proposal of the allies to lead troops to Livonia, where there were many well-defended fortresses, castles and fortifications, there were numerous Russian troops - according to Reingold Heydenstein's clearly overestimated estimate (in the "Notes on the Moscow War"), there were about 100 thousand people in Livonian land. Russian soldiers. A war in such conditions could lead to a loss of time, energy and resources. In addition, Batory took into account the fact that in Livonia, already ravaged by a long war, his troops would not find a sufficient amount of provisions and booty (this was important for numerous mercenaries). Therefore, the Polish king decided to strike at Polotsk, a fortress of strategic importance. The return of this city to the rule of the Polish-Lithuanian state ensured the safety of the offensive of troops in southeastern Livonia and provided a springboard for a further offensive against the Russian kingdom.
On June 26, 1579, Stephen Bathory sent a letter to Ivan the Terrible with an official declaration of war. In this document, the Polish ruler declared himself the "liberator" of the Russian people from the "tyranny" of Ivan the Terrible. On June 30, the Polish-Lithuanian army began to move towards the Russian border. The Lithuanian vanguard captured the small border fortresses of Koz'yan and Krasny, on August 4, Hungarian mercenaries occupied Sitno, and the road to Polotsk was laid.
The Russian government, alarmed by the actions of the enemy, tried to strengthen the garrison of Polotsk with artillery and reinforcements, which set out from Pskov on August 1. But these measures were late. The army under the command of Boris Shein, Fyodor Sheremetev, having learned about the complete blockade of Polotsk, fortified in the Sokol fortress. The siege of Polotsk lasted three weeks. Initially, the enemy tried to set fire to the wooden fortress with artillery fire. However, the defenders of the fortress under the leadership of Vasily Telyatevsky, Peter Volynsky, Dmitry Shcherbatov, Ivan Zyuzin, Matvey Rzhevsky and Luka Rakov successfully eliminated the emerging fires. In this regard, Stephen King Bathory said that the Muscovites are superior to all other peoples in the defense of fortresses. The spread of the fire was also hampered by the steady rainy weather.
Then Bathory persuaded the Hungarian mercenaries to storm the fortress, promising them rich booty and generous rewards. On August 29, 1579, the Hungarians launched an assault. They set fire to the walls of the fortress and burst into the breach. However, the defenders prudently prepared an earthen rampart with a ditch behind the gap and set up guns. The bursting enemies were met with a volley at point-blank range. Having suffered heavy losses, the enemy retreated. Soon the Hungarians launched a new assault, which the defenders had already repulsed with great difficulty.
The Polotsk garrison suffered heavy losses. Having lost hope for help, and no longer hoping to keep the dilapidated fortifications, some of the commanders led by P. Volynsky went to negotiations with the Poles. They ended with an honorary surrender, subject to the free passage of all Russian warriors from Polotsk. Some of the Russian soldiers refused to surrender and fortified themselves in the Cathedral of St. Sophia, where their remnants were captured, after a stubborn battle. Some of the soldiers went to the service of Batory, while the majority returned to Russia. Ivan the Terrible, contrary to the fears of the guilty soldiers, did not punish them, confining himself to their distribution among the border fortresses.
After the capture of Polotsk, Lithuanian detachments under the command of hetman Konstantin Ostrozhsky raided the Seversk land, reaching Starodub and Pochep. Another Lithuanian detachment ravaged the Smolensk land. On September 4, the Poles occupied the Turovlya fortress without a fight.
On September 19, Nikolai Radziwill, at the head of the Polish, German and Hungarian troops, laid siege to the Sokol fortress. By this time, its garrison was already greatly weakened by the departure of part of the detachments. During the fierce battles, the burning fortress was taken. On September 25, the remnants of the Russian regiments tried to break out of the fortress, but were defeated and driven back to Sokol. A detachment of German mercenaries burst into the fortress behind them, the defenders managed to lower the grate, cutting off the Germans from the main forces of the enemy. A bloody hand-to-hand fight was going on in the burning fortress. The Poles rushed to the aid of the Germans and broke through the gate and burst into Sokol. The Russians again tried to break out of the Falcon, but in the fierce battle almost all were killed. A few were captured together with the commander Sheremetev. The destroyed fortress presented a terrible picture; in its limited space, 4 thousand bodies were counted. The Polish army also suffered heavy losses, only German mercenaries killed up to 500 people.
After the capture of Sokol, the Polish army captured the Susu fortress. On October 6, the voivode P. Kolychev, who had lost courage, handed it over. The artillery of the Russian army was located in the fortress, only large guns were lost 21. Batory, returning to Lithuania, sent a proud letter to Ivan Vasilyevich, where he reported victories and demanded to cede Livonia and recognize the rights of the Commonwealth to Courland.
Swedish offensive. Influenced by the Polish successes, the Swedes began their attack on Rugodiv-Narva. In July, the Swedes undertook reconnaissance in force: the enemy flotilla fired at Narva and Ivangorod, but without much success. In early September, the Swedish army under the command of Heinrich Horn crossed the Russian border and on September 27 laid siege to Narva. The siege lasted two weeks, the Swedes were defeated. Having lost about 4 thousand soldiers in the attacks, the Swedish army retreated, since the army under the command of Timofei Trubetskoy and Roman Buturlin came from Pskov to help the Narva garrison, and from Yuriev - the regiments of Vasily Khilkov and Ignatiy Kobyakov.
Campaign of 1580. Fall of Great Bows
The victory at Narva could not make up for the losses of Polotsk, a number of fortresses on the western border and the death of troops in Sokol. The Polish king, intoxicated by the victories won, rejected Moscow's peace proposals. Bathory still intended to advance not in Livonia, but in a northeastern direction. He planned to capture Velikiye Luki. Thus, Batory wanted to cut off the communications of the Russians with Yuryev and other cities of Livonia.
Batory's plans again turned out to be unsolved by the Russian command. Russian troops were spread over a large area from the Livonian fortresses to Smolensk. In addition, part of the army was on the southern borders, defending the Russian kingdom from the Crimean troops. It should be noted that the Crimean attacks strongly influenced the outcome of the war - from 25 years of the Livonian War, only for 3 years there were no significant raids of the Crimean Tatars. The blows of the Crimean Khanate forced the Russian command to keep large forces on the southern borders. The main blow of the Polish-Lithuanian army was expected at the Livonian fortress of Kukonas (Kokenhausen), where the main forces of the Russian army in Livonia were assembled.
At the end of August 50 thous. the Polish-Lithuanian army crossed the Russian border with first-class artillery. Velikiye Luki defended 6-7 thousand people.the garrison under the command of Fyodor Lykov, Mikhail Kashin, Yuri Aksakov, Vasily Bobrischev-Pushkin and Vasily Izmailov. In 60 versts in the area of Toropets there were 10 thousand people. army under the leadership of Vasily Khilkov and Ignatiy Kobyakov. However, due to the obvious superiority of the enemy forces, the detachment was in no hurry to help the Velikiye Luki garrison. Khilkov and Kobyakov limited themselves to reconnaissance and sabotage, waiting for reinforcements.
On August 6, the Poles besieged Velizh, after one day of artillery shelling, the governors P. Bratsev and V. Bashmakov surrendered the fortress (in Velizh there was a garrison of 1,600 with 18 cannons and 80 pishchal). On August 16, also after one day of siege, the Usvyat fortress fell. The garrisons of Velizh and Usvyat were released - most of the soldiers returned to the Russian land, rejecting Polish service. On August 26, the siege of Velikiye Luki began. The very next day, the Russian "great embassy" arrived at Batory: Ivan Vasilyevich proposed to transfer 24 Livonian cities to the Rzecz Pospolita and expressed his readiness to give up Polotsk and the Polotsk land. However, Bathory considered these proposals insignificant, demanding the whole of Livonia. In addition, surrounded by the Polish king, plans were being made to seize the Novgorod-Seversk, Smolensk, Pskov and Novgorod lands.
The defenders surrounded the wooden walls with earthen embankments to protect the fortifications from artillery fire. But soon the embankment was shot down by artillery fire. The Velikiye Luki garrison fought back courageously, made sorties, extinguished the fires that engulfed the wooden fortifications. However, over and over again, the city set on fire was doomed. On September 5, a fire engulfed most of the city and the garrison surrendered. The Poles, furious with large losses, perpetrated a cruel reprisal, not sparing not only men, but also women and children. During the massacre, the fire was forgotten, and the fire reached the supply of gunpowder. A powerful explosion destroyed the fortifications, killing about 200 Polish soldiers. The massacre killed the remnants of the garrison and the entire population of the city.
On September 21, the Polish cavalry under the command of the governor of Bratslav Filippovsky defeated the Russian army near Toropets. On September 29, the Polish army captured the Nevel fortress, on October 12 - Ozerishche, on October 23 - Zavolochye. Zavolochye put up a heroic resistance that lasted three weeks.
In the fall of 1580, Rzeczpospolita tried to organize an offensive in the Smolensk direction. Soon after the capture of Velikiye Luki, 9 thousand men set out from Orsha. detachment of the head Philo Kmita, who was appointed "voivode of Smolensk." He planned to ravage the Smolensk, Dorogobuzh, Belevsk lands and unite with the army of the Polish king. In October, Kmita's detachment was located 7 versts from Smolensk. Suddenly, the Polish-Lithuanian army was attacked by the regiments of Ivan Buturlin. The enemy was driven out of the camp, the Polish-Lithuanian forces retreated to the wagon train, where they fortified. During the night, Kmita began a hasty retreat. The Russians began pursuing the enemy and overtook him 40 versts from Smolensk on Spasskiye Lugi. After a stubborn battle, the enemy was finally defeated. 380 people were taken prisoner, 10 cannons, 50 squeaks and a baggage train were captured. However, this victory could no longer turn the outcome of the war in favor of the Russian state. It had only tactical significance - the Smolensk lands were saved from ruin by the enemy.
It should be noted that the hope of the Polish command for a massive transfer of Russian servicemen to their side did not come true.
Swedish offensive. The Swedish command in the fall of 1580 organized a new offensive. The Swedes planned to cut off the Russian kingdom from the Baltic and White Seas, to seize Narva, Oreshek and Novgorod. In October - December 1580, the Swedish army besieged the Padis (Padtsu) castle, which was defended by a small garrison under the command of the governor Danila Chikhachev. The food supplies in the fortress were small and soon ran out. The defenders suffered a terrible hunger, ate all the cats and dogs, and at the end of the siege they "fed" on leather and straw. Russian soldiers fought off enemy attacks for 13 weeks. Only after this period was over, the Swedish army was able to take the fortress, which was defended by barely living soldiers. The soldiers who survived in the last battle were killed. The fall of Padis put an end to the Russian presence in western Estonia.
On November 4, the Swedes, under the leadership of Pontus De la Gardie, took Corela, staging a massacre - 2 thousand inhabitants were killed. Korela was renamed to Kexholm.
