Winter 1654-1655 Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich spent in Vyazma. A pestilence raged in Moscow, and the city was closed off by cordons. In April 1655, the tsar was again in Smolensk, where preparations were underway for a new campaign. On May 24, the tsar with an army set out from Smolensk and at the beginning of June stopped at Shklov. Meanwhile, Chernigov Colonel Ivan Popovich with a detachment of Zaporozhye Cossacks took Svisloch. All Poles were killed, and the castle was burned. Voivode Matvey Sheremetev took Velizh, and Prince Fyodor Khvorostinin took Minsk.
On July 29, a detachment of Prince Yakov Cherkassky and the Cossacks of Zolotarenko near Vilna attacked the troops of the hetmans Radziwill and Gonsevsky. The battle went on for several hours, the Polish-Lithuanian troops were defeated and fled across the river Viliya. On July 31, Russian troops occupied Vilna. On August 9, Tsar Alexei was informed about the capture of Kovno, and on August 29, about the capture of Grodno.
Departure of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich for a review of the troops
In the spring of 1655, boyar Andrei Buturlin was sent to Little Russia with an army. Russian troops united with the Cossacks of Bogdan Khmelnitsky and moved to Galicia. On September 18, the troops of Hetman Khmelnitsky and governor Buturlin reached Lviv. Crown hetman Stanislav Pototsky retreated from Lvov and took up well-prepared positions near Solyony Gorodok. Khmelnitsky and Buturlin, besieging Lviv, sent troops against the Poles under the command of Prince Grigory Romodanovsky and Colonel Grigory Lesnitsky of Mirgorod.
Hetman Pototsky was confident in the inaccessibility of his positions, which were protected by a swampy lowland near the Vereshchitsa river and a pond. The only way by which it was possible to approach the Polish fortified camp was the dam between the pond and the Vereshchitsa River. However, the Cossacks were able to make passages on the channels and, forcing them, overturned the Polish guards and the detachment sent to their aid. At the same time, Russian troops went on the attack. Initially, the Polish forces offered stubborn resistance. However, the Poles soon discovered the approach of a new detachment. It was a detachment of the Peremyshlian post-political crushing (militia), which was going to join the Polish hetman. But in the confusion of the battle, the Poles considered that the main forces of Khmelnitsky and Buturlin were approaching. The Polish soldiers panicked and fled. Russian soldiers and Cossacks got the crown hetman's bunchuk, banners, kettledrums, artillery, the entire train and many prisoners. Many Poles were killed during the persecution. This victory was of strategic importance - the Polish army no longer existed in the southern theater of operations. The army of Buturlin and Khmelnitsky received complete freedom of action.
They did not take Lviv. Khmelnytsky did not want to trouble himself with the siege of the city and, having taken a ransom from Lvov, retreated to the east. Another part of the Russian army under the command of Danila Vygovsky and the Russian governor Peter Potemkin laid siege to Lublin. The city surrendered "to the royal name", that is, the townspeople swore allegiance to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.
Another Russian corps moved out in early September 1655 on river ships from Kiev up the Dnieper River, and then along the Pripyat. The troops were commanded by Prince Dmitry Volkonsky. On September 15, the river army approached Turov. The locals offered no resistance and swore allegiance to the king. Volkonsky did not linger and moved by dry road to the city of Davydov (Davyd-Gorod). The Lithuanian army came forward to meet. On September 16, a battle took place. The Lithuanians fled after a short battle, and the Russian warriors on the shoulders of the enemy rushed into the town. The settlement burned down. Residents and surviving Lithuanian warriors fled through another gate. Russian troops returned to the ships and set off for the city of Stolin. On September 20, the events at Davydov's were repeated. The Lithuanians came out to meet, then ran, and the Russian warriors on their shoulders rushed into the city. Stolin also burned down. On September 25, the ship's men went to Pinsk. It was not possible to dock at the city, rifle and cannon fire prevented. Then Volkonsky landed an army several miles below the city. When approaching the city, the scenario of the fall of the city was repeated: an oncoming battle, a quick capture of the city and a fire. After a two-day rest, the detachment moved on. In the village of Stakhov, Russian troops defeated a detachment of the Lithuanian army, then swore in the inhabitants of the cities of Kazhan and Lakhva. After the victorious expedition, Volkonsky's detachment returned to Kiev.
Another Russian army under the command of princes Semyon Urusov and Yuri Baryatinsky advanced from Kovno to Brest. The Russian command did not count on serious resistance, and only part of the troops stationed in the Kovna region took part in the campaign. On October 23, 1655, 150 versts from Brest in the town of White Sands, the Russian army defeated a detachment of the local gentry. Part of the Lithuanian gentry swore allegiance to the Russian tsar. In early November, near Brest itself, the Russian army met the army of the new Lithuanian hetman Pavel Sapega (the former hetman Radziwill betrayed Poland and turned to the Swedish king with a request to accept Lithuania into Sweden).
Prince Urusov, confident that he would not be resisted, went to Brest with part of his detachment, leaving the infantry and cannons in the rear. Urusov was so sure of the situation that he even sent people to prepare the courtyards in Brest for the soldiers to stay. This was due to the fact that Sapega had already negotiated with Fyodor Rtishchev. The new great Lithuanian hetman asked for an armistice and promised that there would be no hostile actions on his part.
However, on November 11, Sapega attacked Urusov "on the Bresko field" during negotiations. The Russian noble cavalry was not ready for battle and was scattered. The prince with his troops retreated beyond the Bug and took up defensive positions behind the wagons. But soon the Russian troops were driven out of there. The Russians retreated to the village of Verkhovichi, 25 versts from Brest. The Poles went to the village and blocked the Russian detachment. For two days the Russian troops were surrounded, "they were besieged on horses for two days and two nights."
Sapega sent parliamentarians and demanded surrender. Prince Urusov refused. On November 17, Sapega began to prepare troops for the assault on Russian positions. However, Urusov preempted the enemy and suddenly struck twice the enemy. Luck was on the side of the Russian troops. The Poles did not expect this blow. The Novgorod regiment under the command of Urusov himself attacked the hetman's infantry and nearby companies, and in the other direction the troops of Prince Yuri Baryatinsky hit the hetman's hussar company. The hussars and advanced units of the hetman were destroyed by a desperate attack by the Russian troops. The Lithuanian army panicked and fled. Russian troops drove the enemy for several miles. They took 4 cannons and 28 banners as trophies. After the victory, Prince Urusov returned to Vilno. On the whole, the trip was successful. During the campaign, the nobility of Grodno, Slonim, Novogrudok, Lida, Volkovysk, Oshmyany and Troksky povet took the oath to the Russian tsar. The gentry began to come to Vilna en masse to take the oath to the tsar. Lithuanian colonels with their detachments were transferred to the Russian service.
The campaign of 1655 was successful for the Russian army. By the end of 1655, almost all of Western Russia, except Lvov, was liberated from enemy forces. The fighting was transferred to the territory of Poland.
Source:
Swedish intervention
It must be said that the campaign of Prince Urusov took place after the beginning of the Russian-Polish negotiations on an armistice. Moreover, Warsaw began negotiations not so much because of the successes of the Russian troops (the pans were not going to give land to Moscow in any case), but because of the intervention in the war by a third force - the Swedish army.
In 1648, the Peace of Westphalia was signed, ending the Thirty Years' War. This war led to the fact that the Swedish king Gustav-Adolphus carried out a fundamental military reform, as a result of which the Swedish army became the strongest in Europe. The Thirty Years' War was extremely successful for Sweden, which began to turn into an empire. Sweden received Western Pomerania, the city of Stettin with part of Eastern Pomerania, the island of Rügen, the city of Wismar, the Archbishopric of Bremen and the Bishopric of Forden. Thus, almost all the mouths of the navigable rivers of Northern Germany were under the control of the Swedes. The Baltic Sea began to turn into a "Swedish lake". It remains only to take the coastal territories from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
On June 6, 1654, Queen Christina abdicated in favor of Karl-Gustav (the queen was his cousin), the commander of the Swedish army in Germany. The new king was named Charles X Gustav. The Swedish treasury was empty, ravaged by the senseless luxury of Queen Christina's court and the distribution of crown lands. The best army in Europe has been idle for a considerable time. Sweden wanted to gain full control over the Baltic trade, and for this it was necessary to deprive Poland of its access to the sea. In addition, the successes of the Russian troops in the campaign of 1654 greatly worried the Swedish elite. Stockholm did not want to have a powerful state at hand. With the occupation of the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania on the Western Dvina, the Russian state gained control over the territories from which Riga was supplied, and acquired a bridgehead for an offensive on Swedish Livonia. Russia could return to the plans of Ivan the Terrible, who planned to return the Baltics to Russian control.
The Commonwealth was weakened by the war of liberation led by Bogdan and the war with Russia. The reason to solve several important tasks at once was excellent. Moreover, the Polish lords themselves asked for the war. During the abdication of Queen Christina, the Polish king Jan Kazimir suddenly remembered the rights of his father Sigismund III to the Swedish throne, although both his father and brother Vladislav had long ago renounced him. Jan Kazimierz demanded compensation for giving up his rights to the Swedish throne.
The Poles also abandoned the union with Sweden. In December 1654, the Swedish Riksrod (council of state under the Scandinavian kings) decided to intervene in the war. To prevent the strengthening of the Russian kingdom, the Swedes wanted to conclude an alliance with the weakened Commonwealth. For this, the Polish king had to give up his rights to Livonia, agree to a Swedish protectorate over Courland and concessions in East Prussia. This should have led to the transformation of the Baltic Sea into a "Swedish lake". Sweden gained complete control over trade in the Baltic region. However, the Polish king abandoned the alliance with Sweden.
As a result, Riksrod decided to start the war and set the time - spring-summer 1655. Fortunately, Sweden had its own "fifth column" in the Commonwealth. Part of the magnates of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth entered into negotiations with Sweden on "protection". Thus, the great hetman of Lithuania Janusz Radziwill and the bishop of Vilna were actively negotiating with Sweden. Lithuanian magnates were ready to support the election of the Swedish king to the throne of Poland.
By the summer of 1655, the campaign plan was ready. The army of Field Marshal Arvyd Wittenberg was supposed to strike from the west, from Swedish Pomerania, into the lands of Greater Poland. From the north, the Swedish army advanced from Swedish Livonia. The Governor of Swedish Livonia, Count Magnus De la Gardie, was to capture the entire north of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Jan II Casimir
On July 5, Field Marshal Arvid von Wittenberg set out from Szczecin with the first Swedish army. On July 19, he crossed the Polish border. At the same time, the second Swedish army, led by the king, landed at the port of Wolgast. On July 25, the Greater Poland militia, which was surrounded and subjected to artillery fire, capitulated. The magnates and gentry of Greater Poland recognized the Swedish king as their protector. Local authorities entered into a separate agreement with the Swedish command. Greater Poland (Poznan and Kalisz provinces) submitted to the Swedish king. Thus, the Swedish army opened its way into the interior of Poland.
The Commonwealth was engulfed in massive betrayal. Lithuanian great hetman Janusz Radziwill and Vilna bishop Jerzy Tyszkiewicz went over to the side of the Swedes. Polish tycoons and gentry went over to the side of the Swedish king en masse. Some of the lords of Greater Poland asked for protection from the Brandenburg Elector and even expressed their readiness to give him the Polish throne.
On July 29-30, the troops of Levengaupt began to force the Western Dvina. On July 31, von Wittenberg occupied the city of Poznan without a fight. On August 14, the army of the Swedish king crossed the Polish border. The Sieradz voivodeship, led by the voivode Jan Koniecpolski, did not put up resistance and went over to the side of the Swedish king. On August 24, at Konin, the army of King Charles X Gustav joined forces with von Wittenberg. On September 2, at the Battle of Sobota, the Swedish army defeated the Polish troops. The Polish king Jan-Kazimierz, with the remnants of his army, abandoned the capital and retreated into the interior of the country. This page of history, sad for Poland, was named "The Flood" ("The Swedish Flood").
On September 8, the Swedes occupied Warsaw without resistance. On September 16, in the battle of Zarnow, the Polish army suffered another heavy defeat. After this defeat, most of the gentry militia fled to their homes. The Polish king Jan Kazimierz fled to Silesia. On September 25, the Swedes laid siege to Krakow, which held out until October 17, and then surrendered. The Swedish troops also operated successfully in other directions. At the end of September, the Mazovian militia was defeated. Mazovia submitted to the Swedish king. On October 3, in the battle of Voynich, the crown hetman Stanislav Lyantskoronsky was defeated. The remnants of his army surrendered and swore allegiance to the Swedes. On October 21, the voivodeships of Krakow, Sandomierz, Kiev, Russian, Volyn, Lubelsk and Belz recognized the authority of Karl X Gustav.
Thus, within four months Poland suffered a military and political catastrophe. Almost the entire territory of indigenous Poland (Great Poland, Malopolsha and Mazovia) was occupied by the Swedes. In all the largest and most important Polish cities and fortresses, there were Swedish garrisons. Most of the Polish magnates went over to the side of the Swedish monarch. Some even took part in the conquest of their own country. Actually, the massive betrayal of the Polish gentry and gentry predetermined the lightning-fast collapse of Poland.
However, separate centers of resistance - the Yasnogorsk Monastery in Czestochowa, Polish Prussia, etc. - continued the struggle and saved Poland. The Swedish blitzkrieg frightened other states as well. The Brandenburg Elector and Duke of Prussia Friedrich Wilhelm I of Hohenzollern opposed Sweden. Poland was also supported by Holland, which assisted in the defense of Danzig. The Grand Crown Hetman Stanislav Potocki called on the Poles to rise to the nationwide struggle. The heroic defense of the Yasnogorsk Monastery by the Poles became an example for the whole country. Peasant uprisings broke out against the Swedish occupiers, and the partisans began to gain their first victories. The Swedes won open battles, but could not defeat the people.
Karl X Gustav
Vilna truce
Even before the invasion of Poland, the Swedish king Charles X Gustav sent Ambassador Rosenlind to the Russian Tsar with a letter explaining the reasons that prompted Sweden to start this war. Russia was offered a military soy against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Sweden was ready for the division of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In July 1655, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich received the Swedish ambassador to Smolensk.
From the point of view of common sense, Sweden's entry into the war against Poland was a great success for Russia. After all, Stockholm offered Warsaw a military alliance against Moscow. This could lead to the situation of the Livonian War during the times of Ivan the Terrible, when the Russian kingdom had to exhaust all its forces on the western and northwestern fronts and repel the attacks of the Crimean Turkish troops in the south. Despite all the successes and victories of the Russian army in the campaigns of 1654-1655, the situation was dangerous. The Russian army occupied most of the western Russian lands, but Poland retained its military power. Moreover, all neighboring states were worried about Russian successes. The Swedes feared the approach of the Russians to Riga, the Turks - the appearance of the Russians in Volhynia. The Cossack elite could not be completely trusted. Discontent grew among the Cossack foremen, which would soon lead to the "Ruin" (civil war). Bogdan suffered from alcoholism, went into long binges, losing control of the situation. His days were numbered.
That's why the division of the Commonwealth, which was offered by Sweden, was very beneficial for Russia. It was perfect. Sweden took over the indigenous Polish lands. Sweden would simply choke on the "Polish morsel". She did not have the opportunity to "digest" the vast Poland. Sweden had to fight not only with Poland, but also with other European states. As a result, the Northern War of 1655-1660. ended with the Swedes being able to officially secure their rights to Estonia and most of Livonia. All the fruits of the outbreak of the war were lost.
Russia, on the other hand, could calmly secure the West Russian lands, while the Poles and Swedes would exhaust each other in a long war. However, the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich clearly overestimated the successes of the first two years of the war. On May 17, 1656, Alexei Mikhailovich declared war on Sweden. Russian troops under the command of Peter Potemkin moved to the shores of the Gulf of Finland. The elderly patriarch Nikon, who harshly took care of the young tsar and imagined himself to be almost a "tsar of tsars", not only did not dissuade Alexei "Quiet", but literally incited him to new seizures. He even blessed the Don Cossacks, who were sent to help Potemkin to capture Stockholm. Overwhelmed with pride, the patriarch saw himself as the new spiritual ruler of Poland and Lithuania, the victor of Sweden.
A difficult war began with the Swedes, who were a much more serious enemy than the Poles. As a result, Moscow had to urgently seek an armistice with Poland. By the beginning of July 1656, all military operations against the Polish-Lithuanian troops, who remained loyal to the Polish king, were stopped. On July 30, peace talks opened in the city of Vilna. However, the negotiation process has reached an impasse due to the status of Little Russia. Neither side wanted to yield to her. At the same time, neither Warsaw nor Moscow wanted to break off the negotiations. The negotiation process dragged on. Poland was weak. And Russia did not want to continue the war until the campaign with Sweden was over. On October 24, only the so-called Vilna truce could be concluded. Both sides agreed to fight the Swedes and not conclude a separate peace.
Deterioration of the political situation in Little Russia
The negotiations in Vilna were held without representatives of Hetman Bogdan. This was done at the insistence of the Polish side. As a result, the enemies of Russia were able to instill in the Cossack foreman the idea that Russia had betrayed them and agreed to re-transfer the Hetmanate to the rule of the Polish crown. The Cossacks believed the disinformation of the Polish diplomats, which served as one of the prerequisites for "Ruins". In the future, Russia will have to fight on two fronts, against Poland and against Hetman Vyhovsky (he was elected after the death of Bohdan Khmelnitsky).
During the negotiations in Vilna, relations between Bogdan and the Moscow government deteriorated. Bohdan considered the truce with Poland a mistake and was right. In Chigirin in 1656-1657negotiations were conducted with Polish and Swedish representatives. Bogdan even provided some military assistance to the Swedish troops.
In June 1657, the Russian embassy arrived in Chigirin, headed by the okolnich Fyodor Buturlin and clerk Vasily Mikhailov. Buturlin demanded an explanation about the hetman's relations with the Swedes, with whom Russia is at war. Bogdan replied that he had always been on good terms with the Swedes, and expressed surprise that the tsar started a new war without completing the old one. Bohdan correctly noted: "The Polish Crown has not yet been captured and peace has not yet been brought to completion, but already with another state, with the Swedes, they started a war."
The hetman was seriously ill and Buturlin suggested that his son Yuri, whom she gladly chose to succeed Bogdan, should swear allegiance to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. However, Bogdan refused, said that his son would swear an oath after his death. These were the last negotiations between the Moscow ambassadors and the great hetman. Bogdan died on July 27 (August 6), 1657. Formally, the will of the deceased was fulfilled at the Chigirinskaya Rada on August 26 (September 5), 1657. The foreman transferred the hetman's powers to the clerk Ivan Vyhovsky, but only until Yuri reached the age of majority. At the Korsun Rada on October 21, 1657, Vygovsky had already become a sovereign hetman.
This led to a split in the Cossacks. The Cossacks did not participate in the elections and refused to recognize Vyhovsky as hetman. Among the opponents of Vygovsky there were rumors that he was not a "natural Cossack", but a "lyakh", and was going to betray the Cossacks. Soon Vygovsky's betrayal was confirmed. The new hetman began repressions against his opponents, and a civil war ("Ruin") began in Little Russia. Vyhovsky in 1658 signed the Hadyach Treaty with the Poles. According to it, the “Grand Duchy of Russia” (Hetmanate) was to pass under the rule of the Polish king and become autonomous. Vyhovsky with his troops went over to the side of the Poles.
As a result, the truce between Russia and Poland turned out to be a strategic defeat for Moscow. The Russian government overestimated its strength, starting a war with Sweden before it made peace with Poland. The possibilities of influencing the Polish authorities were overestimated and could not force the Poles to conclude peace. The Russian army in the fight against the Swedes was weakened, and the Rzeczpospolita got the opportunity to recuperate. A civil war broke out in Little Russia. The troops with Poland continued until 1667, and the annexation of most of the Western Russian lands had to be postponed until the second half of the 18th century.
Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich ("The Quietest")
