In new textbooks on the history of Ukraine, one of the most important events in the history of Nezalezhnaya and Europe is considered the great battle of Konotop in 1659, when 15,000 Ukrainians, under the leadership of Hetman Vyhovsky, destroyed 150,000 Russian invaders and the entire flower of the Russian nobility.
In 2008, President Yushchenko signed a decree to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the Battle of Konotop. This great peremoga is sometimes celebrated in Ukraine almost as "Victory Day in the Second World War" - with historical reconstructions and the presence of the first persons of the state, monuments were built, commemorative coins were issued. In Crimea and Sevastopol, the administrations were instructed to consider renaming streets in honor of the participants in this battle.
Commemorative coin of the victory over the Russians at Konotop. Congratulations to Russians on the 350th anniversary of the Battle of Konotop during President Yushchenko's speech
Monument to the victory over the Russians at Konotop
Surprisingly, we in Russia know little about this terrible tragedy and the shameful page of our history. How was it really?
The Battle of Konotop is one of the episodes of the Russian-Polish war, which lasted from 1654 to 1667. It began when, after repeated requests of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnitsky, the Zemsky Sobor accepted the Zaporozhye army with people and lands into Russian citizenship. During this war, Russia, barely recovering from the difficult times of turmoil, had to fight not only with the Commonwealth (the alliance of Lithuania and Poland with the occupied lands of the Russian voivodeship (Little Russia)), but also with Sweden and the Crimean Khanate, that is, in general something, with everyone.
While dying, Bohdan Khmelnitsky bequeathed the hetman to his son Yuri, however, Ivan Vyhovsky, a nobleman who once served in the regular troops of the Polish king Vladislav IV, was appointed part of the Cossack elite with the secret support of the Polish gentry as the Cossack hetman. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich approved the election of the hetman. However, ordinary Cossacks disliked the hetman, especially in the eastern part of Little Russia. As the Greek Metropolitan of Colossi Mikhail, who was driving through Little Russia in December 1657, said, “The Zadneprovsky Cherkassians love Hetman Ivan Vygovsky. And those who are on this side of the Dnieper, and those de Cherkasy and all the rabble, do not like him, but fear that he is a Pole, and so that he would not have any advice from the Poles”. As a result, the hetman betrayed the tsar and went over to the side of the Poles, accepting the title of “Great hetman of the Russian principality” (note, RUSSIAN, not Ukrainian).
Vyhovsky's actions aimed at a new subordination to the Polish Crown provoked strong resistance among the Cossacks. The Zaporozhian Sich, Poltava and Mirgorod regiments opposed Vyhovsky. In order to impose his power on the Cossacks by force, Vygovsky had, in addition to the Polish king, to swear allegiance to the Crimean Khan Mehmed IV Girey, so that he would provide him with military assistance.
Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, not wanting war, began negotiations with Vygovsky on a peaceful resolution of the conflict, but they did not bring results. In the fall of 1658, the Belgorod regiment of Prince Grigory Romodanovsky entered the Ukraine.
In November, Vygovsky asked for peace and confirmed his allegiance to the oath of allegiance to the Russian tsar, and in December he changed his oath again, joining with the Tatars and Potocki's Polish detachment.
On March 26, 1659, Prince Alexei Trubetskoy moved against Vyhovsky. For 40 days Trubetskoy tried to persuade him to settle the matter peacefully, but to no avail. Then he led his army to siege Konotop.
Here is how many troops the Russian army numbered (lists from the discharge order of April 11, 1659):
Army of Prince Trubetskoy - 12302 people.
Army of Prince Romodanovsky - 7333.
Army of Prince Kurakin - 6472.
At the time of the Konotop battle, in connection with the losses and the dispatch of the order of V. Filosofov to the garrison of Romen, there were 5,000 people in the regiment of Prince Kurakin. In June 1659, the regiment of Prince Trubetskoy was joined by: the soldier's (reinforced engineering) regiment of Nikolai Bauman - 1,500 people, the Reitarsky regiment of William Johnston - 1,000 people, Moscow and city nobles and boyar children - 1,500 people.
Thus, the total number of Russian troops at the time of the battle was about 28,600 people.
The total number of the coalition of Tatars and Vygovsky:
The army of Khan Mehmed Girey: about 30-35 thousand people.
Cossack regiments of Hetman Vyhovsky: 16 thousand
Polish-Lithuanian mercenaries: from 1,500 to 3,000
Total: the total number of Vyhovsky's coalition troops ranged from 47,500 to 54,000 people.
That is, 28000 against 47000-54000. Where did Ukrainian historians get the rest of the 122,000 "polite people" from is not clear. Apparently, Putin is personally to blame for the falsification of Russian historical documents (it was he who persuaded Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to do this in exchange for a discount on gas). And the diplomas with the lists of service people, according to which the Russian troops were then receiving salaries, were specially changed …
The battle itself
On June 28, 1659, the Crimean Tatars attacked the small mounted guard detachments guarding the camp of the Russian army of Trubetskoy. Prince Pozharsky with 4,000 servicemen and 2,000 Zaporozhye Cossacks loyal to the Russian tsar attacked the Tatars of Nureddin-Sultan Adil-Girey and German dragoons, defeated them, defeated them and drove them in a southeast direction. Note about 6,000, not 150,000!
Scotsman Patrick Gordon described what happened in the following way: “Pozharsky pursued the Tatars through the mud and swamp. The Khan, who was imperceptibly standing with an army in the valley, suddenly escaped from there in three huge, like clouds, masses."
A detachment of Pozharsky, numbering about 6 thousand people, was ambushed. The Russian detachment was opposed by an almost 40,000-strong army, which included the Crimean Tatars under the command of Khan Mehmed IV Girey and mercenaries. Pozharsky tried to turn the detachment in the direction of the main attack of the khan's troops, but did not succeed. Firing thousands of arrows, the Tatars went on the attack. Of the reitar assigned to Pozharsky, only one regiment (Colonel Fanstrobel) “managed to turn the front and fire a volley of carbines point-blank at the attacking Tatar cavalry. However, this could not stop the Horde, and after a short battle the regiment was exterminated. Having a significant superiority in manpower, the Tatars managed to surround Pozharsky's detachment and defeat it in close combat. This was no longer a battle, but a beating by the enemy, which outnumbered the Russian avant-garde by 6 times. At this moment, that is, to the nodding analysis, when the outcome of the battle was practically decided, and Vygovsky came up with his 16,000. That is, in fact, what his Great Peremoga consists of.
So we can talk not about the death of 150,000 Russian troops, but about the destruction of the 6,000th vanguard, which broke away from the main forces (22,000 people) and was ambushed. And even this local defeat of the Russian army was inflicted not by hetman Vyhovsky, with his right-bank Cossacks, but by the Crimean Tatars.
The further fate of the Russians who were ambushed was sad. According to Gordon, "the khan, being too agile for the Russians, surrounded and overpowered them, so that few were saved." The Cossacks of Hetman Bespaly also died, who wrote to Alexei Mikhailovich: “… on that, Sovereign, in the battle of Prince Semyon Petrovich Lvov and Prince Semyon Romanovich Pozharsky, everyone was mortally beaten, forcibly, the Sovereign, through the troops of Vygovsky and the Tatar, several dozen people made their way into the army to the camp ". Prince Semyon Pozharsky himself, fighting with the enemies to the last opportunity, "many … lashed out and stretched out his great courage", was taken prisoner.
Pozharsky himself was executed by the khan in captivity, when he called Vygovsky a traitor and spat in the khan's face. The rest of the prisoners were also executed. According to Naim Chelebi, initially they wanted to release the Russian prisoners for ransom (according to the usual practice of that time), but this was rejected by the "far-sighted and experienced Tatars": we "… must use all our efforts to strengthen the enmity between the Russians and the Cossacks, and completely block they are the path to reconciliation; we must, not dreaming of wealth, decide to cut them all … Before the Khan's chamber, the heads of all significant captives were cut off, after which each soldier separately delivered the captives that fell to his lot to the sword."
The stubborn nature of the battle is evidenced by the descriptions of the wounds of those who managed to break out of the encirclement and reach Trubetskoy's camp: Boris Semyonov, son of Tolstoy, "was slashed on the right cheek and on the nose with a saber, and shot from a bow on the right hand below the elbow", Mikhailo Stepanov, son of Golenishchev Kutuzov (ancestor of the great field marshal MI Kutuzov) "he was slashed with a saber on both cheeks, but on the left shoulder, and on the left hand", Ivan Ondreev son Zybin "was slashed over the head with a saber and shot from a bow on the right temple from the eye to the ear" …
Further military operations of the coalition against the Russian troops did not have much success.
On June 29, the troops of Vygovsky and the Crimean Khan advanced to the camp of Prince Trubetskoy near the village of Podlipnoye, trying to take the camp under siege. By this time, Prince Trubetskoy had already managed to complete the unification of the camps of his army. An artillery duel ensued.
On the night of June 30, Vygovsky decided to storm. The attack ended in failure, and as a result of a counterattack by the Russian army, Vygovsky's troops were driven out of their fortifications. During the night battle, Vygovsky himself was wounded. A little more, and Trubetskoy's army "took possession of (our) camp, for it had already broken into it," the hetman himself recalled. The troops of the hetman and the khan were thrown back 5 miles.
Despite the success of the night counterattack by Trubetskoy's army, the strategic situation in the Konotop area changed. Further besieging Konotop, having a numerous enemy in the rear, became senseless. On July 2, Trubetskoy lifted the siege from the city, and the army, under the cover of the Gulyai-city, began to retreat to the Seim River.
Vyhovsky and the khan tried to attack Trubetskoy's army again. Again, this attempt failed. According to the prisoners, the losses of Vygovsky and the khan were about 6,000 people. In this battle, Vygovsky's mercenaries also suffered heavy losses. The hetman's brothers, Colonels Yuri and Ilya Vygovskiy, who commanded the mercenary banners, recalled that "at that time, many Cossack troops and Tatars were attacked, and the maer and cornet, captains and other initial many people were killed." The losses of the Russian side were minimal. Hetman Bespaly reported to the tsar: “To the camp, Sovereign, our enemies repaired cruel attacks, and, by the mercy of God … we rebuffed that companion and did not bear any hindrances, and they beat many of those enemies on the retreat and on the march, and came, Sovereign, to the river Seim God gave great
On July 4, it became known that the Putivl governor, Prince Grigory Dolgorukov, came to the aid of the army of Prince Trubetskoy. But Trubetskoy ordered Dolgorukov to return to Putivl, saying that he had enough strength to defend against the enemy and did not need help.
According to Russian archival data, “In total, in Konotop during the big battle and on the withdrawal: the regiment of the boyar and the governor of Prince Alexei Nikitich Trubetskoy with the comrades of the Moscow rank, the city noblemen and the children of the boyars, and the newly baptized, Murzas and Tatars, and the Cossacks, and the Reitar formation of the initial people and reitar, dragoons, soldiers and archers, 4769 people were beaten and completely caught. The main losses fell on the detachment of Prince Pozharsky, who fell into an ambush on the first day. Not 150,000 and not even 30,000, but 4,769. Almost all of them died in the battle with the Tatars, and not with the garnet boy and hetmans, the Russian principality Vyhovsky.
After the retreat of the Russian troops, the Tatars began to plunder the Ukrainian (although the word "Ukraine" was not then) farms (on the left-bank Ukraine), burned 4,674 houses and captured more than 25,000 peaceful peasants.
What do we end up with?
1. The Ukrainians did not participate in the Konotop battle. The hetman of the self-proclaimed RUSSIAN principality of Vygovsky and the subjects of this RUSSIAN principality, respectively, the Russians, mostly right-bank Cossacks, took part.
2. If we assume that those Russian Cossacks were still the ancestors of today's Ukrainians and they can to some extent be called proto-ukras, although they themselves did not consider themselves as such, then even in this case, all the merit of Vyhovsky, who betrayed his kings 4 times (2 times Polish and 2 times Russian), and his Cossacks is that: a) he set the Tatars on the Russians and Zaporozhye Cossacks and b) took part in the final stage in finishing off the vanguard of the Russians, despite the fact that against the 1st Russian there was 8 Tatars, Cossacks, Lithuanians and Germans.
3. The Russian army was not defeated, but under pressure from a numerically superior enemy it was forced to lift the siege from Konotop. The pursuit of the Russian army was unsuccessful and led to large losses on the part of the coalition and minimal on the part of the Russians. The losses of the Russians amounted to only 4,769 people killed and captured, that is, approximately 1/6 of the army and 2,000 left-bank Cossacks. Vyhovsky and the Tatars lost from 7,000 to 10,000. The Russian-Polish war itself ended with the victory of our state, Smolensk, today's eastern Ukraine, were returned, and our enemies were defeated and soon ceased to exist.
After 150 years, Lithuania, Poland, the Russian Voivodeship, the Crimean Khanate, the Nogai hordes and others, part of the Swedish kingdom and the Ottoman Empire became part of the Russian Empire.
And what are our Ukrainian brothers celebrating?
The victory of the 35,000th Tatars' army over 4,000 Russians and 2,000 Zaporozhye Cossacks lured into the swamp.
Who is being honored?
A man who considered himself the hetman of the RUSSIAN principality, who betrayed his sovereigns 4 times, set the Tatars against his people and began the era called "Ruina" in Ukraine.
Where did the 150,000-strong Russian army come from and 30,000-50,000 killed?
And oddly enough, in the middle of the 19th century, in the writings of our compatriot Solovyov, who was criticized by historians and even his own friends during his lifetime, not only in Russia, but also abroad.
According to the American historian Brian Davis, “Solovyov's statement is true only in the sense that at least 259 of those killed and prisoners were officers. Based on the number of officers and nobles, Solovyov drew the number 150,000.
It must be said that in 1651 the total number of military men in Russia was generally equal to 133,210 people. What part of this army do you think Russia could send to fight the rebellious hetman, if it was fighting from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and the main enemy forces were concentrated in the north-west of the country near the borders with Sweden, Poland and the Baltic, and with it was necessary to leave garrisons in cities and fortresses - from Irkutsk to Ivan-gorod and from Arkhangelsk to Astrakhan? The country was restless: after all, Razin's uprising would begin soon …
You can argue about the number of armies as much as you like and invent as many as you like, but under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich there was such a thing as regiment lists and casualty reports … The lists of losses from the Discharge Order are not a chronicle or chronicle of a private person who does not possess accurate information, but a documentary report provided by the voivode directly to the king. The clerical documentation of Russian orders was drawn up primarily in the interests of control over the finances and supply of the armed forces, therefore, it was carefully monitored and only real numbers were written, and this is precisely the information that is the only correct one, hence the exact number of warriors who entered the regiments and the exact number of Russian casualties. And a wide spread of losses among the army of Vygodsky and the Crimean Tatars: they simply did not keep such statistics, but estimated the number by eye or as anyone wanted …
