Everything about The Battle Of Konotop totally explained
The
Battle of Konotop (also known as
Battle of Sosnivka) was a battle fought between the
hetman of
Ukraine Ivan Vyhovsky and his allies, and the armies of
Russian Tsardom, led by prince
Aleksey Trubetskoy, on
June 29 1659 near the town of
Konotop (now
Sumska Oblast,
Ukraine).
Prelude
This war happened during the period of
Ukrainian history that's generally referred to as the
Ruin. It was a time of incessant internal strife and intermittent civil war between different factions within the
Ukrainian Cossack elite that were vying for power. This period started with the death of charismatic and a very influential
hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky in
1657.
During his reign, Bohdan Khmelnytsky managed to
wrestle Ukraine out from
Polish domination, but was forced to enter into new and uneasy relation with
Russian Tsardom in
1654. His successor, general chancellor and close adviser Ivan Vyhovsky, was left to deal with
Moscow's growing interference in Ukraine's internal affairs and even overt instigation of a civil war by way of supporting Cossack factions opposing Vyhovsky. With the situation deteriorating rapidly and opposition to his rule mounting, Vyhovsky entered into negotiations with his former foes, the Poles, and finally concluded a
Treaty of Hadiach on
September 16 1658. Under the new treaty three voyevodships of central Ukraine (Kiev, Bratslav and Podilya) were to become an equal constituent nation of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth along with Poland and
Lithuania under the name of Principality of Rus, forming the
Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth.
This news alarmed Moscow and the Ukrainian cossacks opposing Vyhovsky (led by
Ivan Bezpalyi) to the extent that an expeditionary force was dispatched to Ukraine in the autumn of
1658 headed by Prince
Grigory Romodanovsky. Moscow's military commander not only supported the election by Vyhovsky's opponents of a new rival
hetman, but started actively to occupy towns held by Vyhovsky's supporters. The latter were mercilessly exterminated along with wide-spread abuse and robbery of the civilian population.
The situation having escalated that far, open hostilities followed. Skirmishes and attacks occurred in different towns and regions throughout the country, the most prominent of which was the capture of
Konotop by Cossacks of the
Nizhyn and
Chernihiv Regiments headed by
Hryhoriy Hulyanytsky, a
colonel of Nizhyn. In the spring of
1659 a huge army of 100.000 according to "The cronicle of the Witness" or 150,000 men according to Russian historian
Sergey Solovyov — was dispatched to Ukraine to assist Romodanovsky.
The army came to the Ukrainian border on January, 30, 1659 and stood 40 days till Trubetskoy negotiated with Vyhovsky since the Russian commander had instructions to persuade the Cossacks. Vyhovsky's rival Cossack forces of commanders Bezpaly, Voronko and Zaporizhian Cossacks of Barabash joined the Russian troops. The supreme military commander Prince
Aleksey Trubetskoy decided to finish off the small 4,000 garrison of the Konotop castle held by Cossacks of Hulyanytsky before proceeding in his pursuit of Vyhovsky.
Siege of Konotop
Prince Trubetskoy's hopes for quick resolution of the Konotop stand-off were dimmed when Hulyanytsky and his Cossacks refused point blank to betray hetman Vyhovsky and mounted fierce and protracted defence of Konotop. According to a historian Markevych, on
April 21 1659, after a morning prayer, Trubetskoy ordered an all-out assault on the fortress's fortifications. The city was shelled, a few
incendiary bombs were dropped inside, and the huge army moved on to capture the city. At one point the troops of Trubetskoy even broke inside the city walls, but were thrown back by the fierce resistance of the Cossacks inside. After the fiasco of the initial assault, Trubetskoy abandoned his plans of a quick assault and proceeded to shell the city and to fill the
moat with earth. The Cossacks stubbornly held on in spite of all the fire unleashed on the city: during the night the earth put to fill in the moat was used to strengthen the city walls, and the besieged even undertook several daring counterattacks on Trubetskoy's besieging army. These attacks forced Prince Trubetskoy to move his military camp 10 km away from the city and thereby split his forces between the main army at his HQ and the army besieging Konotop. It is estimated that in the siege alone the Trubetskoy forces suffered casualties up to 10,000 men. Instead of a quick campaign the siege dragged on for 70 days and gave Vyhovsky the much-needed time to prepare for the battle with the Russian army.
The hetman not only managed to organize his own troops, but secured support of his allies — the
Crimean Tatars and the Poles. By agreement with the Tatars, the Khan
Mehmed IV Giray, at the head of his 30,000-strong army, made his way towards Konotop in early summer of
1659, as did the 4000-man Polish detachment with the support of
Serbian,
Moldavian and
German mercenaries.
Battle
By
June 24 1659 Vyhovsky and his allies approached the area and defeated a small reconnaissance detachment of the invader's army near the village of Shapovalivka, several kilometers south-west of Konotop. According to the plan made that evening, the 30,000 Tatars were left in an ambush south-east of the river Sosnivka, and Vyhovsky's forces with Poles and mercenaries were positioned at the village of Sosnivka, south of the river with the same name
Meanwhile, Vyhovsky left the command of his forces to the brother of Hryhoriy Hulyanytsky, Stepan Hulyanytsky, and at the head of a small Cossack detachment left for Konotop . It was only 2 months after the battle when the citizens of
Nizhyn gave a ceremonial welcome to Trubetskoy and swear an oath of allegiance to the Russian tsar. The same month the Ukrainian citizens and cossacks regiments in
Kiev,
Pereyaslav,
Chernihiv swore an oath to the tsar as well .
Thus Vyhovsky was left to deal with the growing opposition to his rule. By the end of the year he was forced to resign and to flee to Poland where he was later executed by the Poles in
1664. His defeat is largely attributed to his alliance with the very unpopular Poles and his inability to seek support among all the strata of the Ukrainian population and not just among the rich Cossack elite, who were willing to betray him at every opportunity either to Moscow or
Warsaw. The civil war raged on and the victors of the Konotop battle were soon forgotten.
Together with a number of other battles between
East Slavs, such as
Battle of Orsha, the Konotop battle was with a few exceptions an abandoned topic in
Russian Imperial and in
Soviet historiography . This attitude towards this event is explained by the fact that it dispelled some Russian
propaganda positions about the unity of East Slavs, in particular the ones about "eternal friendship of
Russian and
Ukrainian peoples" and about "natural desire of Ukrainians for union with Russia". For all the skill and the bravery of the Cossacks — especially those defending Konotop — it still remains a bitter victory. A victory that didn't have any significant impact on the course of Ukrainian history, where fratricidal war of the Ruin and personal ambitions of treacherous hetmans prevailed . As such, the Konotop battle remains a classic example of the battle won and a war lost.
Sources
- Orest Subtelny. Ukraine. A history. University of Toronto press. 1994. ISBN 0-8020-0591-0.
- David Mackenzie, Michael W. Curran. A History of Russia, the Soviet Union, and Beyond. Fourth Edition. Belmont, California. p. 200, 1993. ISBN 0-534-17970-3.
- Yuri Mytsyk. Battle of Konotop 1659
- Sokolov C. M. Continuation of reign of Alexi Mikhailovich. Chapter 1.
- Makhun S. Battle of Konotop. Reittarr. No. 23.
Further Information
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