Battle of Orsha

At the end of 1512, the Grand Duchy of Moscow began a new war for the Grand Duchy of Lithuania's Ruthenian lands in present-day Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. Albrecht I, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, rebelled and refused to give a vassal pledge to Sigismund I the Old of Poland-Lithuania, as required by the Second Peace of Thorn (1466). Albrecht I was supported by Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor. The fortress of Smolensk was then the easternmost outpost of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and one of the most important strongholds guarding it from the east. It repelled several Muscovite attacks, but in July 1514 a Muscovite army besieged and finally captured it. Spurred on by this initial success, the Grand Prince of Moscow Vasili III ordered his forces farther into present-day Belarus, occupying the towns of Krichev, Mstislavl, and Dubrovna. Meanwhile, Sigismund the Old gathered some 35,000 troops, most of whom (57%) were Poles, The Lithuanian-Polish forces included 32,500 cavalry and 3,000 mercenary infantry. Sigismund also claimed that his army had killed 30,000 Muscovites and taken prisoner 46 commanders and 1,500 nobles. Extant Polish and Lithuanian documents, however, list all captured nobles by name; only 611 men in all. The Polish historian Bohun considers it improvident to rely on what he terms "propaganda data" given by Sigismund. It is known that except for Boyar sons of the sovereign's regiment, the army consisted of people from at least 14 towns: Novgorod, Pskov, Velikie Luki, Kostroma, Murom, Borovsk, Tver, Volok, Roslavl, Vyazma, Pereyaslavl, Kolomna, Yaroslavl, and Starodub. Based on figures from the well-documented Polotsk campaign of 1563, the author gives the following estimates: 400–500 Tatars, 200 boyar sons of the sovereign's regiment, 3,000 Novgorodian and Pskovians, and about 3,600 representatives of other towns, altogether about 7,200 noblemen. Once servants are included, the overall size of the Muscovite army could be 13,000–15,000 men. Considering the losses during the campaign, the level of desertion which is documented in the sources and the number of soldiers left as a garrison in Smolensk; the number of Muscovite troops present at Orsha could have been as low as about 12,000 men. and Russian historians N. Smirnov, A. Pankov, O. Kurbatov, М. Krom, and V. Penskoy. An earlier estimate also noted that at the beginning of the 16th century, the Russia could not even gather 40,000 in its ranks. Vitaly Penskoi analyzing the structure of the Russian army, also came to the conclusion that in the largest military campaigns under Vasily III, Muscovites could not have more than 20,000. ==Battle==

, 1903). On 8 September, shortly after dawn, Ivan Chelyadnin gave the order to attack. The Muscovite forces attempted to outflank the Lithuanians and Poles by attacking their flanks, which were manned by Polish, Lithuanian light hussar, and Tartar troops. One of the pincers of the attack was commanded by Chelyadnin personally, while the other was led by Prince Bulgakov-Golitsa. The initial attack failed, and the Muscovites withdrew toward their starting positions. Chelyadnin was still confident that the odds, almost 3:1 in his favor, would give him the victory. However, preoccupied with his own wing of the Muscovite forces, he lost track of the other sectors and failed to coordinate a defense against the counterattack by the Lithuanian light and Polish heavy cavalry, which until then had been kept in reserve. The Lithuanian and Polish light horse and Tartars attacked the overstretched center of the Muscovite lines in an attempt to split them. At the crucial moment the Polish cavalry seemed to waver, then went into retreat. The Muscovites pursued with all their cavalry reserves. The Lithuanian Tartars and Polish cavalry, after retreating for several minutes under chase from the Russians, suddenly turned to the sides. The Muscovite cavalry now found themselves confronted by artillery concealed in the forest. From both sides, Lithuanian forces appeared and proceeded to surround the Muscovites. Ivan Chelyadnin sounded retreat, which soon became somewhat panicked. The Muscovite forces were pursued by the army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania for five kilometres. The Muscovite defeat is often attributed to repeated failures by Ivan Chelyadnin and Mikhail Golitsa to coordinate their operations. Sigismund von Herberstein reported that 40,000 Muscovites were killed. According to accounts in Polish chronicles, 30,000 Russians were killed and an additional 3,000 were taken captive, including Ivan Chelyadnin and eight other commanders. The forces of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania seized the Muscovite camp and all 300 cannons. Upset at word of the massive defeat, Grand Prince Vasili III allegedly remarked that "the prisoners [were] as useful as the dead". ==Aftermath==

s during the Battle of Orsha (1514) Ostrogski's forces continued their pursuit of the routed Russian army and retook most of the previously captured strongholds, including Mstislavl and Krychev, and the advancement of the Russians was stopped for four years. Impressed by the scope of the Lithuanian and Polish victory, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, started peace negotiations with the Jagiellons in Vienna. On 22 July 1515, final agreements for peace were made and the broad coalition against Lithuania and Poland ceased. The war between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Grand Duchy of Moscow lasted until 1520. In 1522 a peace was signed, under the terms of which Lithuania was forced to cede to Moscow about a quarter of its possessions within the lands of the former Kievan Rus', including Smolensk. The latter city was not retaken until almost a century later, in 1611. After the peace agreement of 1522, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania tried to attack Moscow one more time, but major military conflicts were settled for around 40 years. ==Modern times==

The battle is regarded by some Belarusians as a symbol of national revival, with many seeing it as a Day of Belarusian Military Glory. On 8 September 1992, the 478th anniversary of the battle, cadets from Minsk Higher Military Engineering School and the Minsk Higher Military Command School (now the unified Military Academy of Belarus) took the first military oath of allegiance to the Armed Forces of Belarus, with their induction ceremony being held on Independence Square in the presence of defense minister Pavel Pavlovich Kozlovsky. Subsequently, however, as a result of increasing ties to Russia, the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko actively suppressed celebration of the battle. In September 2005, four members of the Belarusian National Front opposition were each fined almost (roughly €1,500) for celebrating the 491st anniversary of the battle. Ukraine has public celebrations of the Battle of Orsha, as an important victory, within the wider history of Ukrainian-Russian conflicts. On October 14, 2014, the National Bank of Ukraine presented a commemorative coin on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Orsha. There is Orsha Victory Street in Rivne. At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Warsaw, the Battle of Orsha is commemorated by the inscription "ORSZA 8 IX 1514". In Lithuania, the Battle of Orsha is commemorates as well by Lithuanian Ministry of Defense and Lithuanian government every year with concerts, conferences and military parades. During the Russo-Ukrainian War, Belarusian volunteers created the Special Unit “1514” which is part of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine. Formally, the unit was established in 2024, on the Day of Belarusian Military Glory (September 8), the anniversary of the Battle of Orsha. ==Popular culture==

On the BBC television program Being Human, Hal Yorke was made a vampire after the Battle of Orsha. ==Legacy==

In 1514, in appreciation for the victory in the battle, Konstanty Ostrogski built the Church and monastery of Holy Trinity in Vilnius. ==References==