Battle of Polotsk and bloody massacre in the Sokol fortress

34
Battle of Polotsk and bloody massacre in the Sokol fortress
The last assault and surrender of Polotsk. Flying Leaf, by G. Mack (Nuremberg, 1579)

Error of the Russian command


After the defeat of our army at Wenden (Why Ivan the Terrible lost the war for Livonia), where for the first time the Polish-Lithuanian and Swedish troops united against the Russians, Ivan the Terrible, seeing that the previous policy towards Poland was not working, decided to make peace with Batory. Moscow needed a break in order to focus on Sweden, which was considered a "weak link" in the coalition of opponents.

In January 1579, a messenger Andrei Mikhalkov was sent to Poland with an order to convey to the king a proposal to send "great ambassadors" to Moscow. Hoping for a peaceful pause in the war with "Lithuania", Ivan Vasilyevich decided in the summer campaign of 1579 to strike the main blow at the Swedes and finally take Revel. In Novgorod, they began to collect regiments, at least 30 thousand soldiers. It was also planned to send heavy artillery here.



But Stefan Batory did not want peace on Russian terms and was preparing for a large-scale invasion. In this he was fully supported by his allies: the Swedish king Johan, the Saxon prince Augustus and the Brandenburg prince Johann Georg. Outlining the direction of the main attack, Batory rejected the offer of his advisers to go to Livonia, where there were many well-fortified fortresses and castles occupied by Russian garrisons.

According to clearly inflated estimates of Western sources, there was a 100-strong Russian army (field troops and garrisons) in Livonia. Obviously, this is an exaggerated figure, but there were enough fortresses and Russians in the Baltic States for the Polish-Lithuanian forces to get bogged down there. Fighting in such conditions was dangerous and could not lead to quick success. In addition, in Livonia, devastated and scorched by many years of confrontation, there was no booty, provisions and fodder for the army of Batory. This would quickly provoke the dissatisfaction of the gentry and the mercenaries.

The Polish ruler decided to attack where the Russian commanders did not expect him. To recapture the strategically important Polotsk, to occupy the Russian fortifications built on the border. The return of the Polotsk fortress to the rule of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth provided a bridgehead and base for the actions of the Polish army in southeastern Livonia and gave Batory a chance to develop a further offensive against the Russian kingdom.

The Poles would regain control over a significant part of the Western Dvina, an important communications, which would facilitate the supply of troops. The security of Vilna, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, would be strengthened. Also, the Russian lands were not ravaged by the war, here it was possible to supply the army at the expense of the local population, and the soldiers could profit from rich booty.

As a result, the Poles were able to deceive Moscow. The Russian government itself was ready to cede Polotsk, the dispute was over the Livonian lands. Therefore, the Russian governors gathered troops in Novgorod and Pskov. In June, the Russian sovereign went there himself to lead the campaign. The Russian-Tatar cavalry under the command of Khilkov was sent to a raid beyond the Dvina, to Courland. It was believed that our cavalry was going to meet Batory, would conduct reconnaissance and devastate the area in front of the enemy army.

It should be noted that Russia did not have much superiority over the enemy. On the eve of the 1579 campaign, the Russian sovereign painted garrisons in 80 cities on the western, southern and eastern borders. This is not counting the whole army in Livonian fortresses and castles.

In addition, the enemy has become more active in different directions.

In Livonia (Estonia), a partisan detachment of Schenkenberg operated, which was distinguished by a rare atrocity even at that time. All Russian prisoners were not simply killed by the Livonian partisans, but tortured to death. They cut them into pieces, pulled out the veins, and burned them on the fire. Not only prisoners of war, but also women and children were terribly killed. Livonian partisans terrorized the local population to serve not the Russians, but them.

The Swedes again invaded Karelia, and from Revel, their troops advanced on Narva. The Russian command had to scatter its forces and send regiments to defend the most important port.


The offensive of Batory's army


It must also be remembered that the Russians were not afraid of the Polish-Lithuanian army. They knew that its basis was the gentry crushing (militia), cavalry. The gentry fights well in open areas, but will quickly wither away in the siege of fortresses. The Pans did not consider the siege to be a matter for the noble, for this there was a mercenary infantry. Therefore, the Poles will stand up in sieges, they will suffer losses, famine and epidemics will begin, their ardor will fade away, and they will leave.

This was an important miscalculation of the Russian command.

Bathory created a completely different army. He formed a 40-strong army, where the core consisted of professional mercenary soldiers, infantry recruited from the principalities of Germany and Hungary. Italians, French, Swiss, etc. also arrived. In Western Europe at this time a short period of peace came, many professional military and adventurers were left idle. Batory used it.

The Polish king adopted another measure, unusual for Poland at that time: the recruitment of peasants from the royal estates. It is clear that such soldiers were incapacitated and untrained, but they were used as "cannon fodder", covering professionals, and in numerous auxiliary, siege work.

The army also had strong artillery and traditionally numerous cavalry.

The Polish lords detained the next Russian embassy for a long time, they were not allowed to see the king. Finally, Bathory received the ambassadors and, without even receiving a greeting, sent them away.

On June 26, 1579, Stephen Bathory sent Ivan IV his own letter, rough and sharp, with a declaration of war. In this document, the Polish lord declared himself the liberator of the Russian people from the "tyranny" of Ivan the Terrible.

On June 30, 1579, the Polish-Lithuanian army began to advance to the Russian border. The next day, the "Lithuanian Cossacks", who were in the vanguard, immediately seized the small border fortresses of Kosyan and Krasny; on August 4, the Hungarians captured the city of Sitno. The road to Polotsk was open.

Now the direction of the enemy's main attack became obvious. Alarmed Ivan the Terrible tried to strengthen the garrison of the Polotsk fortress (there were about 3 thousand boyar children in the city, 1,5 thousand riflemen and Cossacks, up to 3 thousand local militias) and its combat potential. However, these measures were clearly delayed.

A large-caliber pishchal "Scroll" was sent to Polotsk from Pskov, but before the start of the siege it was delivered only to Sebezh. Prince Vasily Meshchersky and Konstantin Polivanov, accompanying the gun, were forced to leave the "Scroll" in this Pskov suburb (this was the name of the cities dependent on Pskov). Meanwhile, the presence of such a gun in Pskov could significantly strengthen its combat potential.

Also Ivan Vasilyevich hastily gathered all the free units, but there were few troops. Khilkov's cavalry has not yet returned from the raid. 6 thousand children of boyar and Don Cossacks Yuri Bulgakov and Vasily Karavaev were sent to Polotsk. Boris Shein and Fyodor Sheremetev were ordered to enter the city. The Rat left Pskov on August 1. But the help was late. Polotsk was already blocked. Shein, bumping into the enemy, took the troops to the Sokol fortress in order to harass the enemy from there. Batory set up a barrier of the gentry cavalry, blocking all roads.


Castles of Polotsk of the XNUMXth century on an engraving after a drawing by S. Pakholovitsky

Siege


The Polish invasion was accompanied by an informational, ideological war.

As soon as the fighting began, it turned out that Batory and his patrons had prepared several surprises for Russia.

Perhaps, for the first time, ideological weapon... The advisers of the Polish monarch in this area were Prince Kurbsky and another defector - Zabolotsky. The Poles from a distance and widely disseminated a manifesto that they were fighting not against the Russians, but for them! That they want to save the Russian people from the "tyrant", to provide "the rights and freedoms given to the Christian peoples." It was stated that the enemy of Batory is only Ivan the Terrible, and the population was called upon to throw off his "yoke" and go over to the side of the "liberators".

In Polotsk, the Polish manifesto did not work. The townspeople and peasants rose to the defense of the city, and women also fought. The defenders of the Polotsk fortress, commanded by Prince Vasily Telyatevsky, Prince Dmitry Shcherbatov, Pyotr Volynsky, Ivan Zyuzin and Matvey Rzhevsky, stood firm and courageous. Women and children extinguished fires, dragged boiling water onto the walls. Some townspeople selflessly hung on ropes behind the fortress walls and, being under enemy fire, extinguished sections of the walls that were starting to burn.

Polotsk was surrounded by trenches, earthen fortifications, under the cover of which they began to approach the walls. They started digging mines under the walls and towers. From the very beginning, heavy artillery fire was fired. They tried to set fire to the walls with new incendiary shells filled with flammable substances, but failed. It was raining. In addition, the fortress walls were built from ryazh (log house) filled with earth and stones, they did not give in to fire well.

Then Batory for money began to form detachments of volunteers so that they set fire to the walls with torches. Most of these volunteers were killed in suicidal attacks against the walls, where they were met by heavy cannon fire, rifle fire and archery. Also, huge logs were thrown from the walls, which crushed the attackers.

From 11 to 28 August 1579, attacks on the city went on continuously. The mercenary infantry showed themselves best in these battles. However, the situation became more complicated. The siege could become protracted. Bad weather (rainstorms) and lack of provisions have already affected the army. The roads became muddy, and the supply was disrupted. Food prices in the camp soared, and the royal army began to eat horses. Russian detachments were operating in the rear. These were the garrisons of the fortresses of Susha and Turovlya, left by the Polish-Lithuanian army in the rear. They attacked Lithuanian convoys carrying food from Vilna. The troops stationed in Sokol also made sorties. With the onset of autumn, the Poles would have to go home.

The fall of Polotsk


The prolongation of the siege and the approach of autumn led to the disintegration of the army, which was already expressing dissatisfaction, and the possible appearance of new Russian forces. On August 28, the military council spoke in favor of a general assault. But Batory feared that failure would finally undermine the morale of the army, so he decided to first throw Hungarian mercenaries into battle, who were supposed to set fire to the walls, to prepare a gap for the rest of the troops. Their imaginations were inflamed with stories about the enormous wealth that is stored outside the walls of the Russian city.

On August 29, the mercenary infantry, taking advantage of the clear and windy day, rushed to the walls. This time the Hungarians were able to set fire to the towers and the wall on the cape near Polota. A massive fire started. The besiegers fired violently and prevented them from extinguishing it. A big gap has formed. In the evening, Polish troops tried to break into the city at the place where the wall burned out and collapsed. However, the defenders of Polotsk managed to dig a ditch in this place, fill up a shaft and brought down the cannons. The attackers were met by heavy fire. In the course of a fierce battle, the enemy was thrown back.

At night, the Russians tried to close the gap.

On August 30, Batory ordered a repeat of the assault. First, the Poles fired on and set fire to new fortifications in the place of the breach. The Russian garrison suffered heavy losses. Then the cannons were brought directly to the ditch.

Meanwhile, strife broke out among the besieged. Many broke down and, seeing no help and no way out of the current situation, offered to surrender. They were headed by Volynsky. Negotiators were sent to Bathory. A smaller part, led by Bishop Cyprian and the rest of the governors, demanded to stand to the end. They offered to blow up the powder reserves if the enemies break into the fortress. The patriots remained in the minority and took refuge in the Hagia Sophia. They were captured by the Poles after the last fight.

On August 31, 1579, the Polotsk fortress capitulated on the condition of free passage to Russia for all who so wish. Only a few went to the royal service and received the most barren lands in Lithuania. Most of the Polotsk garrison went to Russia, despite the "bloody dictator" Ivan Vasilyevich. The Russian tsar, contrary to the myths that were composed in the West, did not offend the soldiers, sent them to serve in the border fortresses so that they would atone for their guilt in battles.

On September 1, 1579, Stefan Batory entered Polotsk. Foreign mercenaries, who did not find in the city the rich booty they were promised, almost revolted. Bathory had to promise them payments from the treasury.

Bloody battle for the Falcon fortress


The Polish-Lithuanian troops continued their offensive, took the fortresses of Drissa, Niš and Turovlya. In September, the troops of Nikolai Radziwill besieged the Sokol fortress.

The Russian garrison was significantly weakened by the unauthorized departure of the Don Cossacks. Russian troops repulsed several enemy attacks. However, the enemy was able to set fire to the wooden walls. On September 25, the Russians tried to break out of the doomed fortress. Sheremetev's cavalry was able to move some distance from the fortress, but they were overtaken. Many soldiers were killed, Sheremetev was captured.

The infantry, led by Shein, could not break through and retreated to the castle. Moreover, several hundred mercenaries on the shoulders of the Russians were able to break into the fortress. However, the archers were able to close the gates behind them and in the narrow streets blocked by carts and logs, they killed all the Germans.

Polish troops, taking advantage of the weakening of the garrison, were able to break into the burning castle. In the course of a fierce massacre, in fire and smoke, the entire Russian garrison fell a heroic death. Warlords Boris Shein, Andrey Paletsky, Mikhail Lykov-Obolensky and Vasily Krivoborsky were killed. The commander of the mercenaries, Colonel Weicher, noted that he had been in many battles, but nowhere had he seen so many corpses lying in one place. Up to 4 thousand Russians died. The Polish-Lithuanian army also suffered heavy losses. The Germans alone killed 500 soldiers.

After the capture of Sokol, the Poles laid siege to the Susha fortress, where the artillery of the Russian army was located. The fortress was surrendered on October 6, 1579 by the lost courage of the voivode Peter Kolychev. The enemy captured 21 large guns, 136 gakovits (fortress squeak), 123 long hand-held arms and 100 barrels of gunpowder.

Then Batory returned to Vilno and from there sent a “proud” letter to Ivan the Terrible, informing him of the victories and demanding that he give Livonia and recognize his rights to Courland.

The Lithuanians also ravaged the outskirts of Smolensk. In the southern direction, Prince Konstantin Ostrozhsky and Prince Mikhail Vishnevetsky crossed the Dnieper in November and laid siege to Chernigov. The Russian garrison of Chernigov repulsed the attack. The Poles retreated, but before that they devastated the Seversk land.

In White Russia, the enemy dealt a strong blow to us, but this was a defeat in a number of battles, and not in a war. Russian cavalry burned out Courland. In the north-west, the Swedish army in the fall tried to capture Rugodiv-Narva, but, having lost up to 4 thousand people in attacks, the Swedes retreated. They were pursued all the way to Revel. Our troops also intercepted Schenkenberg's "elusive" detachment, which slaughtered people in our lands for two years. The gang was defeated, the leader himself surrendered, and he was executed in Pskov.

This ended the 1579 campaign. Thus began another long-term and massive "crusade" of the West to Russia.


Sokol Castle in the drawing by S. Pakholovitsky (1579)
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34 comments
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  1. 0
    27 September 2021 08: 40
    and where is it written that the falcon? Pakholovitsky's drawing says SO COLUM ARCH / architecture?
    i579
    POSSIA / FOSSIA is not legible.
    1. 0
      27 September 2021 10: 23
      Quote: Bar1
      Pakholovitsky's drawing says SO COLUM ARCH / architecture?

      this is latin
      SOCOL VM
      the letters VM are also present on his other maps
      perhaps read correctly as roman numerals (scale?)
      1. 0
        27 September 2021 11: 40
        Quote: Flood
        SOCOL VM


        in general, the colum goes separately, it is noticeable, which means it is TWO words.
        VM, where do you see VM?
        1. 0
          27 September 2021 11: 51
          Quote: Bar1
          in general, the colum goes separately, it is noticeable, which means it is TWO words.
          VM, where do you see VM?


          similar to the image of the Koz'yan castle


          as for the seemingly separate spelling of letters and words, one must understand that this was not done on a printing press.
          this is hand engraving (engraving)
          1. +1
            27 September 2021 12: 15
            Quote: Flood
            as for the seemingly separate spelling of letters and words,


            nothing seems to me, I see that so and colum are recorded separately.
            In general, our entire culture went precisely from KOLO / sun / circle / collective, therefore the word
            -the falcon is se colo / this is the sun
            from here, it was in this direction that they went and
            -sokolyans-chipped (Herodotus) are the ancestors of the Slavs / Rus
            -bird falcon
            and since the word FALCON is a significant and superior phenomenon, then
            FALCON is not it


            but this

            1. -3
              27 September 2021 12: 17
              Dear Bar1
              I'm not interested in pagan legends
              1. +3
                27 September 2021 12: 18
                and you are not alone here, there are others who are interested.
                1. +1
                  27 September 2021 16: 27
                  Quote: Bar1
                  and you are not alone here, there are others who are interested.

                  interesting - to figure out some problem
                  find the answer to the question
                  but to build hypotheses on the basis that instead of one written word, you see two, in my opinion, an occupation of little interest
          2. 0
            27 September 2021 12: 21
            KOSSIANUM ARCH is most likely the Kozach Fortress
            1. 0
              27 September 2021 12: 24
              Quote: Bar1
              KOSSIANUM ARCH is most likely the Kozach Fortress

              Kozyanskaya fortress (Belorussian Kazianski zamak) existed in the XNUMXth century to the north of the village of Kozyany, Vitebsk povet (present-day Shumilinsky district, Vitebsk region, Belarus).

              and more precisely still arks in Russian transcription
        2. 0
          27 September 2021 12: 15
          Quote: Bar1
          VM, where do you see VM?

          seems to have figured it out
          you are partly right
          this is how it is written UM - the ending, which means in Latin the case in relation to the subsequent word "fortress"
          that is, the fortress of the Falcon - Socolum arx
          1. 0
            27 September 2021 16: 46
            Why not falcon then?
            1. -1
              27 September 2021 16: 48
              Quote: ee2100
              Why not falcon then?

              sorry, did not understand the question
              1. 0
                28 September 2021 04: 01
                Falco - in Latin, a falcon.
                1. 0
                  28 September 2021 07: 00
                  Quote: ee2100
                  Falco - in Latin, a falcon.

                  Latin was not used to distort the sound of toponyms,
                  and since from the time of the fall of Rome it was accepted in the midst of the learned fraternity
                  there was no need to translate the names of settlements and rivers into Latin
                  moreover, would create difficulties in their identification
                  1. +1
                    29 September 2021 15: 31
                    You are so serious! laughing
                    1. +2
                      29 September 2021 16: 24
                      Quote: ee2100
                      You are so serious! laughing

                      I will try to fix it wink
    2. +1
      27 September 2021 10: 32
      Quote: Bar1
      POSSIA / FOSSIA is not legible

      fossa - moat (lat.)
      1. 0
        27 September 2021 12: 37
        Quote: Flood
        fossa - moat (lat.)


        strange by the way
        -fossa (lat) -rov, and
        -fashina (rusk) is a bunch of stems or brushwood.
        1. 0
          27 September 2021 16: 22
          Quote: Bar1
          -fossa (lat) -rov, and
          -fashina (rusk) is a bunch of stems or brushwood

          accidental consonance
    3. 0
      27 September 2021 12: 02
      Quote: Bar1
      ARCH / architecture?

      arx - fortress (lat.)
    4. 0
      27 September 2021 18: 21
      in general, I would like to know where such "stories" come from, historiography in this case is more important than this ofhistory.
  2. +7
    27 September 2021 08: 45
    In Polotsk, the Polish manifesto did not work.
    The king sent a messenger to the fortress with an offer of voluntary surrender. The Russians detained the messenger and were engaged in construction all night, having managed to build on a wooden tower by morning, which was located opposite the royal camp. The next day they released a messenger, ordering to convey to the king that the keys to the fortress were in the hands of their sovereign, that is, Ivan, and therefore let the king try to open the fortress himself, if only he was able to do so.
    Women and children extinguished fires, dragged boiling water onto the walls. Some townspeople selflessly hung on ropes behind the fortress walls and, being under enemy fire, extinguished sections of the walls that were starting to burn.
    Many "decided to go down the walls on ropes and poured water supplied by others, hanging from a higher place in order to extinguish the fire approaching from the outside." At the same time, many died, but others took their place with the same selflessness. In the words of Batory himself, "the Muscovites have proved in these days that they are superior to all other peoples by perseverance and perseverance."
    The prolongation of the siege and the approach of autumn led to the disintegration of the army
    Once the German soldiers, indulging in drunkenness to the point of insensibility, carelessly fell asleep scattered on the grass. The Russians who came out of the fortress, without making any noise, cut almost all of them, and some, deeply drunk, were captured and carried away to the castle. Great was the amazement and horror of the captives when they woke up and realized where they were. The Germans began to beg their enemies for mercy, but they were ruthless and subjected them to terrible tortures. Having pierced their shoulders and passed ropes through the holes, the besieged hung them on a high wall completely naked and left them to die a slow death. Failure prompted Batory to convene a council of war to decide what to do next. The majority was of the opinion that it was necessary to attack the fortress from all sides simultaneously with all troops. But the king did not agree with this opinion, fearing that, if in such a case failure followed, it would be necessary to lift the siege and retreat from the fortress; it would be tantamount to the collapse of the entire enterprise. So without really deciding anything, the council was disbanded.
    1. +8
      27 September 2021 08: 50
      On August 29, the mercenary infantry, taking advantage of the clear and windy day, rushed to the walls. This time the Hungarians were able to set fire to the towers and the wall on the cape near Polota.
      As a last resort, Batory issued a proclamation to the soldiers, promising even greater rewards to those who would be able to set fire to the walls. There were also the following words in the appeal: "It is better to perish a valiant death under enemy fire than to dishonor oneself by shameful retreat." And again there were many hunters to take the risk. But this time, fate favored them. The rain stopped, the sky cleared and the sun shone. On August 29, a new attempt to set fire to the wall was crowned with success. The first to run up to the fortress tower was a coppersmith from the city of Lvov, who, as they said, brought with him a kettle filled with hot coals and a resinous torch; set fire to the tower, started to run back. In pursuit of him, the besieged sent many arrows, and one of them hit him in the back; however, the coppersmith rushed into the Polota River and returned safely to his own. For this feat, the king elevated him to the dignity of nobility, gave him the surname Polotinsky and granted him an estate. Meanwhile, ten people left the fortress, believing the appeal of Batory, asking for mercy, but the Hungarian soldiers immediately, in front of everyone, killed the unfortunate defectors. The rest of the besieged also showed that they wanted to surrender, but, as it turned out soon, they did it pretensely. Taking advantage of the fact that the flame and smoke covered them from the enemy for a long time, in the place where the wall had completely burned out, they poured a rampart, dug a ditch as far as they could and set up their guns. The violent fire continued until the evening; so the king, not wanting to lead the soldiers through the fire, postponed the attack until the next day. But the Hungarian soldiers, impelled by the thirst for booty, tried to break into the fortress - literally passing through the fire; after them, not wanting to lose their share, the Poles ran. But there, in the fire, the enemy met them; the Russians fought bravely and not only repulsed the unplanned attack, but also set out to pursue the attackers. A detachment of Polish infantrymen rushed to their aid; a hot fight ensued. In the end, the Russians, who had suffered heavy losses, were driven back into the fortress. In this battle, according to the Polish official news, 27 soldiers from the army of Batory and 200 defenders of the fortress were killed.
      The king, having learned about what was happening, ordered to block the road leading from Sokol - he was still afraid that help would come to the Russians. He himself drove to the position in front of the fortress. At this time the Russians opened strong fire, and one of the horsemen was killed by a cannonball next to the king; and a few moments before that, Zamoyskiy was in the place of the murdered.
      The unsuccessful assault led to discord between the Poles and the Hungarians: the Poles called the attack launched by the Hungarians recklessness, and the Hungarians, in turn, accused the Poles of not helping them enough. Because of this, Batory postponed the decisive attack and, instead of fighting the Russians, was forced to engage in establishing peace in his army; thus, the next day until noon passed in inactivity. At these hours the king again sent a letter to the fortress demanding surrender; it was promised that the dangerous letter would be valid until three o'clock in the afternoon. But the besieged did not think to surrender. Their plans, it seems, included the restoration of the burnt but standing tower. However, the king did not allow them to fulfill this intention. At his order, the Hungarians, led by Peter Rach, made a sortie and set fire to the tower a second time.
      The new fire continued throughout the night, gradually spreading to other buildings in the fortress; nevertheless, the Russians fired their cannons all night, without causing any serious damage to Batory's army. However, the next morning it became clear: the fire had caused such devastation in the fortress that its defense was impossible. Then the archers and the boyar children entered into negotiations with the king about the surrender of the fortress and surrendered it.
      1. +3
        27 September 2021 11: 48
        Thanks for the expanded addition to the article!
  3. +8
    27 September 2021 08: 57
    Bloody battle for the Falcon fortress
    "When you pull us out of him by the legs, then you will take him,
    because we were sent to defend it, not to surrender, "- this is how, according to the Polish heraldist Paprotsky, the voivode of the Russian fortress Sokol responded to his offer to surrender. Unfortunately, no information has been preserved about the number of Sokol's garrison and its armament. , in Sokol, as in an ordinary fortress, there were collars and gunners, in 1571 the Cossacks were already standing, in September 1577 a hundred Sokol riflemen were transferred to the fortress Kes (Wenden) taken by Ivan the Terrible and his warriors, and from March 1578 . together with the voivode IN Dubensky, the streltsy head was "one year old" in it (and, therefore, there was a streltsy "device" in the fortress - at least a couple of hundred streltsy). boyars - both located in the vicinity of the city, and sent from other districts of Russia. a few gunners and collars and no more than 200-300 archers and Cossacks). In any case, since May 500 the boyar's son I. Kokoshkin was the governor of the city, and with him an unnamed streltsy head. Batory wanted to take Sokol with little blood even before Polotsk - before the help came to the fortress, but this was not done; it all boiled down to skirmishes, during which several people were killed and taken prisoner on both sides. Then the king postponed the siege of Falcon until Polotsk fell, in order to take it with large forces. In the course of an unequal selfless battle, almost the entire garrison of the fortress was killed. According to R. Heydenstein, “a great murder was taking place everywhere, so many <...> did not think to assert that they had never seen a battle in any place, so that corpses lay so densely and so closely to each other. Many of those killed were obese; German waitresses, cutting up such bodies, took out fat for the well-known cures for wounds, and, by the way, this was also done by Shein. "
    The end of the battle was accompanied by extremely unsightly scenes. The battle was not over yet, on the ruins of the fortress, Russians, Poles and Germans were still mercilessly killing each other, and the surging baggage servants, pakholkas and many soldiers engaged in looting, undressing and robbing the bodies of the dead that did not have time to cool down, cutting off expensive rings and rings with their fingers, in a hurry to harvest the "harvest" before the fire consumes everything and everyone. But it was not this that struck the Russians and Ivan the Terrible - the property of the victims was considered the legitimate prey of the victors, but the fact that the German waitresses, as Heydenstein wrote, “cutting up” the bodies of those killed Russians who were obese, “took out fat for known medicines for wounds.” Not only ordinary warriors, but even the body of the governor B. Shein were subjected to desecration. Later, Ivan the Terrible wrote to Bathory that after the capture of Sokol, his people “scolded the dead with an unlawful custom, something that has never been heard in the unfaithful: they will kill a kovo in battle and abandon it, otherwise it is a military custom; and your people did the Sobatsky custom, choosing the governor and the children of the boyars who were the best of the dead, but they cut their belly, and they took out fat and zholch as if in a magical custom. " Royal Chancellor J. Zamoyskiy, composing an answer to Ivan, did not find anything better than to write that “it happens in all Christianity, those dead bodies are cut into small pieces, looking closely at all of them and their insides, anyhow they helped the living in the wounds and wounds.”
  4. +6
    27 September 2021 08: 59
    After the capture of Sokol, the Poles besieged the Susha fortress
    The king decided not to waste his energy on the capture of this fortress, especially since the siege of it seemed very difficult - the land was surrounded by lakes and vast swamps, which became impassable in the conditions of autumn bad weather. Bathory believed that she, cut off from reinforcements and a supply of food, would surrender herself. Therefore, he limited himself to ordering to put up barriers on the roads around the fortress in order to prevent reinforcements from entering the Land. Batory's calculations were justified. With the loss of Polotsk, Ivan the Terrible realized that he could not hold the Land, and therefore ordered the Sushka governor Pyotr Fedorovich Kolychev to withdraw the garrison from the fortress and burn the fortress itself; It was also ordered to bury icons, church books and church utensils in the ground, destroy gunpowder and ammunition, and drown the guns. The tsar sent letters about this on September 6 and 17. One messenger with royal charters was intercepted by the Poles and delivered to Meletsky. The hetman, wishing to take possession of the artillery, immediately sent an offer to surrender to Land on the following conditions: soldiers can take their property with them; the Russians were given guarantees of safe passage through the territories occupied by the army of Batory. These conditions were accepted by the garrison, and on October 6 the fortress surrendered to the Polotsk voivode.
  5. +5
    27 September 2021 09: 36
    On June 26, 1579, Stephen Bathory sent Ivan IV his own letter, rough and sharp, with a declaration of war. In this document, the Polish lord declared himself the liberator of the Russian people from the "tyranny" of Ivan the Terrible.
    As always, the West "liberates" the Russian people, but arranges the massacre of these people. And since that time, the entire Western pack rushes to Russia -"The 40-strong army, where the core were professional mercenary soldiers, infantry recruited in the principalities of Germany and Hungary. Italians, French, Swiss, etc. also arrived."
    But when I wrote about this "pack" during the time of Ivan the Terrible, I got a bunch of drawbacks. Liberals do not like it when you write this about the West.
    1. -7
      27 September 2021 13: 23
      This is true, the Russians have always saved the enslaved peoples from the oppression of their khans, kings, etc., and in 1940 they liberated the long-suffering proletariat of the Baltic, at the request of the working people from their exploiters, bloodsucking capitalists. They brought freedom, equality and brotherhood, along with mass deportations in cattle cars to the GULAG. The execution of enemies of the people and politically alien elements in the NKVD of the USSR.
    2. 0
      27 September 2021 16: 09
      Come on, who started the Livonian war if not Russia in the desire to occupy new lands? There are no good ones in the history of wars and conquests.
    3. -1
      27 September 2021 17: 24
      So the Livonians asked them to "release"? Well, and from the "liberators" they still have a sediment:
      1. +1
        28 September 2021 15: 06
        Yeah, you also write that this is a Russian engraving. Such medieval propaganda, frightening burghers, Catholic leaders cooked up in batches.
      2. 0
        19 November 2021 13: 21
        So the Livonians asked them to "release"?


        And who are these "Livonians"? How did they get there?
        Are they the original inhabitants of these places?
        And how did they assert their power and relate to the true local population?
        Whoever raises the sword will fall by the sword himself.
  6. 0
    28 September 2021 10: 26
    I wonder where did the author get the idea of ​​the union of Poles and Swedes? as far as I know, the war was on three sides. and even there were proposals from Grozny to both of them about the carve-up of Livonia and an alliance against a third party.
    so, while the Russians and Poles were fighting, the Swedes, on the sly, grabbed a considerable piece of land with Narva, enraging Batory, who considered Livonia his own.
  7. The comment was deleted.

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