Battle of Vilnius (1655)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Battle of Vilnius,[4] Wilno,[5] or Vilna[6] was an attack by Russian and Cossack forces on Vilnius, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, that occurred on 8 August 1655[7] during the Russo-Polish War (1654–67). The Polish–Lithuanian forces under the leadership of Great Hetman Janusz Radziwiłł were defeated by the Russian army of Alexis of Russia. It was the first time that a foreign power managed to capture the Vilnius Castle Complex.[8] The six-year Muscovite occupation that followed resulted in a major depopulation and a decline of the city for many years to come.[9] The defeat was one of the reasons Janusz Radziwiłł and several other Lithuanian magnates surrendered the Grand Duchy to Sweden at the Union of Kėdainiai.[5]
Battle of Vilnius | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the Russo-Polish War (1654–1667) | |||||||
Vilnius in 1659 | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth | Cossack Hetmanate | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Janusz Radziwiłł Wincenty Korwin Gosiewski Kazimierz Żeromski |
Yakov Cherkassky [ru] Ivan Zolotarenko [uk] | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
5,000–7,000[1] | 41,000[2] (other sources: 180,000)[1] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
2,000[1] | |||||||
~20,000 civilians massacred [ru][3] |