How Pskov saved the Russians, or the inglorious enemy siege of a fortress city

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In early February 1582, the Polish army of King Batory forcibly and ingloriously completed the Pskov siege. Russian stubbornness broke the enemy's pressure. The stubborn 5-month resistance of the Pskovites forced the enemy to retreat. After the conclusion of peace, the Russian lands captured earlier by the Poles returned and the invasion of the invaders into the heart of the Moscow state was stopped. Then Pskov did not yet know that soon he would again have to save all of Russia at that time.

The Livonian War and the enemy's plans for the Russian Pskov-fortress

Having dealt with the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates that stood in the way of Ivan the Terrible to Siberia and the Caspian Sea, the tsar decided to get rid of the Livonian Order. After successful operations at the beginning of the Livonian War, the goal was achieved and Livonia was defeated. But Russia's military achievements alerted its neighbors - Lithuania and Poland (Rzeczpospolita), and later Sweden, opposed Grozny. One defeat after another fell on the Russians. The Polish king-general Stefan Batory first deprived the Moscow tsar of all his conquests in Livonia. One of the strongest Russian fortresses was Pskov, and in 1581 Batory was already standing under its gates, intending, with a successful outcome, to go to Moscow and Novgorod.

At the same time, the Swedish king attacked the north-west of the Moscow state. The situation was becoming so difficult that if the siege of Pskov had not been sustained, the Russian lands would have been devastated. And the Polish leader would only have to advance through Russia to its very heart. Realizing the importance of the operation, Stefan Batory strained all available resources. Taxes were collected in advance for two years in advance, large-scale funds were borrowed from European sovereigns, mercenaries were collected throughout Europe. Reliable siege weapons were prepared ahead of time, and qualified military engineers were hired.

The superior forces of the enemy and the saving maneuvers of Shuisky

Before the start of the assault on Pskov, the Polish king sent a letter to the city with a proposal for the voluntary surrender of the fortress. The garrison's answer was unequivocal: we will not surrender the city, we are ready to die, we are calling for a fair battle. In anticipation of the enemy, the Russians repaired the leaky sections of the fortress wall, erected new earthworks in several lines, demolished more than a thousand wall structures to avoid fires. The tsar endowed Peter Shuisky with special powers for the leadership of Pskov. The besiegers, the number of which many times outnumbered the defending garrison, undertook incessant attacks, conducted prolonged shelling, blew up the fortress walls with mines and went to all kinds of dastardly maneuvers.

The situation for the Russians was very difficult. The leader of the garrison, Shuisky, personally fought in the most dangerous area near the Pokrovskaya Tower, being wounded. Encouraging the exhausted defenders with fiery speeches, he successfully led his subordinates into counterattacks and repelled enemies over and over again. Local women and even children took the places of the killed Pskov residents without hesitation. Shuisky upset the attackers with counterattacks and swept away any obstacles in his path. Fighting off the captured areas, he managed to seize weapons and ammunition from the flinching enemy.

On one of the hottest days, the defenders of Pskov lost about 900 people killed and more than 1,500 wounded. At the same time, the damage of the enemy was 5 times more than the fallen. Then Batory gave the order to burn the city. For 24 hours the battery fired red-hot cannonballs at Pskov. The fires were quickly extinguished, and then a large detachment of invaders decided to manually cut the wall. The Pskovites again drove off the enemy. With the first frosts, the position of the Poles worsened, as counting on a quick success, they did not prepare for the cold. Affected by the lack of food and ammunition. Attempts to get food in the local vicinity met with stiff resistance from the civilian population.

Stefan Batory, having received reinforcements from Riga, began to prepare for a general assault. After five days of artillery preparation, everyone who could hold a weapon went to the attack. But the attempt failed again, and the troops retreated to the camp. A debilitating blockade began. Bathory tried to take the city with a dastardly deception. He sent a letter on an arrow into the city, promising all sorts of blessings to the commanders who had gone over to the side of the enemy. The Polish king was in confusion, not knowing what to do next. Another attempt to destroy Shuisky by cunning was a chest sent to him with explosives inside. The "gift" from the enemy camp was brought by a released Russian prisoner. The attached note said that inside there was valuable intelligence information from the German Moller, who wanted to go to the Pskov camp. Shuisky did not fall for the trick, ordering the master to neutralize the box in a deserted place.

Poland's war with Russia is at an impasse. At the end of 1581, with the assistance of the papal representative, Russian-Polish negotiations began, which led on January 5 of the following year to the conclusion of a ten-year truce. The main result of the defense of the Pskov stronghold was the disruption of the aggressive ambitions of Batory in relation to the Russian state. Pskov saved the country from the greatest danger.

Another invader under the Pskov walls

Already in 1615, Pskov was again besieged. This time the king of Sweden Gustav II Adolf decided to seize the fortress and the entire Russian North. But the Swedes clearly overestimated the fighting qualities of their own infantry against the background of the level of the morale of the city garrison. As in the previous time, the enemy was initially content with luck. The Swedes attacked and actively used artillery. But soon things went much worse for the interventionists. The Russians, behind whom the whole of Russia stood, had no right to surrender their positions. And therefore they acted desperately, irrepressibly and daringly, demoralizing the enemy.

During the next artillery barrage, which preceded the assault, an explosion occurred on the Swedish battery, and many gunners were injured. Here the nerves of the Swedish king surrendered, and he lifted the siege of Pskov. The walled city again defended the entire state. Gustav Adolf, under pressure from his European brothers, decided to make peace. The Stolbovo treaty between the Russians and the Swedes was drawn up only in 1617. So the Swedish intervention ended ingloriously.

However, during the Great Patriotic War, Pskov was still occupied. And after liberation Stalin decided to deport the Pskov population for this reason.