Jan Chryzostom Pasek in the Battle of Lachowicze, a Juliusz Kossak painting.
The Russo-Polish War of 1654–1667, also called Thirteen Years' War, First Northern
War, or the War for Ukraine, was a major conflict between Tsardom of Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth.
Between 1655 and 1660, the Second Northern War was also fought in the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth, thus this period became known in Poland as "The Deluge".
The Commonwealth initially suffered defeats, but regained its ground and won most of the
battles.
However its plundered economy was not able to fund the long conflict.
Facing internal crisis and civil war, Poland was forced to sign a truce.
The war ended with significant Russian territorial gains and marked the beginning of the rise
of Russia as a great power in Eastern Europe.
The conflict was triggered by the Khmelnytsky Rebellion of Zaporozhian Cossacks against
the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The Cossack leader, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, derived his main foreign support from Alexis of Russia
and promised his allegiance in recompense.
Although the Zemsky Sobor of 1651 was poised to accept the Cossacks into the Moscow sphere
of influence and to enter the war against Poland-Lithuania on their side, the Tsar waited
until 1653, when a new popular assembly eventually authorized the protectorate of Ukraine with
Tsardom of Russia.
After the Cossacks ratified this agreement at the Pereyaslav Council the Russo-Polish
War became inevitable.
In July 1654 the Russian army of 41,000 captured the border forts of Bely and Dorogobuzh and
laid siege to Smolensk.
The Russian position at Smolensk was endangered as long as Great Lithuanian Hetman, Prince
Janusz Radziwiłł, with a 10,000 man garrison, held Orsha, slightly to the west.
Cherkassky took Orsha; forces under his command, led by Kniaz Yuri Baryatinsky, forced Radziwill
to retreat in the Battle of Shklov, fought near Shklov on August 12.
Radziwill was again defeated twelve days later at the Battle of Shepeleviche.
After a three-month siege, Smolensk the main object of the previous Russo–Polish War
fell to the Russians on 23 September.
In the meantime, Prince Aleksey Trubetskoy led the southern flank of the Russian army
from Bryansk to Ukraine.
The territory between the Dnieper and Berezina was overrun quickly, with Trubetskoy taking
Mstislavl and Roslavl and his Ukrainian allies capturing Homel.
On the northern flank, V.B.
Sheremetev set out from Pskov and seized the Lithuanian cities of Nevel, Polotsk, and Vitebsk.
Thereupon the Tsar's troops swarmed over Polish Livonia and firmly established themselves
in Ludza and Rezekne.
Simultaneously, the combined forces of Khmelnitsky and the Russian Boyar Buturlin struck against
Volynia.
Despite many disagreements between the commanders, they took hold of Ostrog and Rovno by the
end of the year.
In the winter and spring of 1655, Radziwill launched a counter-offensive in Belarus, recapturing
Orsha and besieging Mogilyov.
This siege continued for three months with no conclusion.
In January, Sheremetev and Khmelnitsky were defeated at the Battle of Okhmativ, while
a second Polish army crushed a Russian-Ukrainian contingent at Zhashkov.
Alarmed by these reverses, the Tsar hastened from Moscow and at his instigation a massive
offensive was launched.
The Lithuanian forces offered little effective resistance and surrendered Minsk to the Cossacks
and Cherkassky on 3 July.
Vilnius, the capital of the Great Duchy of Lithuania, was taken by the Russians on 31
July.
This success was followed up by the conquest of Kaunas and Hrodno in August.
Elsewhere, Prince Volkonsky sailed from Kiev up the Dnieper and the Pripyat, routing the
Lithuanians and capturing Pinsk on his way.
Trubetskoy's unit overran Slonim and Kletsk, while Sheremetev managed little beyond seizing
Velizh on June 17.
A Lithuanian garrison still resisted the Cossacks' siege in Stary Bykhov, when Khmelnitsky and
Buturlin were already active in Galicia.
They attacked the Polish city of Lwów in September and entered Lublin after Pawel Jan
Sapieha's defeat near Brest.