Battle of Monastyryshche

Battle of Monastyryshche
Part of the Khmelnytskyi Uprising
Polish–Lithuanian cavalry attacking the Cossacks during the battle. Painting by Henryk Pillati in 1857
Date 20–21 March 1653 Location Monastyryshche, Uman Regiment, Cossack Hetmanate Result Cossack victory
Belligerents
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth	Cossack Hetmanate
Commanders and leaders
Stefan Czarniecki (WIA)	Ivan Bohun Ivan Hrozdenko †
Strength
8,000–15,000	400–1,000 Inside of the town: 70,000 peasants
Casualties and losses
1,000–6,000+ killed and wounded	Unknown

The Battle of Monastyryshche happened in March 1653 during the Khmelnytskyi Uprising. The Ukrainian Cossack peasant army defeated the Polish–Lithuanian army near the town of Monastyryshche, in the Uman Regiment of the Cossack Hetmanate.

Comparison of Forces

At the time of the battle, there were approximately 2,500 Cossacks under the command of Ivan Bohun. Taking into account the spring roadlessness (bezdorizhzhia), flooding of rivers and streams, the considerable distance between military units, as well as diseases and other important reasons, the Cossacks of the Kalnytskyi regiment were unable to arrive at the assembly points on time. Under such critical conditions, Ivan Bohun was able to gather only the nearest units of Cossacks. Polish magnate Stefan Czarniecki was considered one of the best generals of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth due to his strategic insight, and he predicted these circumstances in advance. Therefore, the corps led by him advanced on the "Black Path" through the territory of the Kalnytskyi regiment in March 1653 almost unhindered.

It is estimated that the Polish forces numbered around 8,000 soldiers at the Battle of Monastyryshche. It was one of the battles that took place without the participation of the hussars, instead of which about 1,000 dragoons took part in the battle. On the Cossack side, the vast majority were Cossack cavalry. Czarniecki set his course on the Cossacks of Ukraine. After merging with the regiments of S. Hurski and S. Machowski in the town of Pavloch (now a village in the Popilninsk district, Zhytomyr Oblast), their number rose to 20,000 men (including servants). However, this is not the exact number of Czarniecki's troops. However, the number of troops under Czarniecki's command is uncertain, with Polish sources claiming 8,000 soldiers. It is fairly certain that they vastly outnumbered Ivan Bohun's army. However, the Cossacks could count on the support of 70,000 town residents.

Background

To frighten the Cossacks, Czarniecki ordered the territory to be ransacked "with fire and sword". Men and women, children and old people were brutally tortured, hanged and impaled. Property was looted, and houses were burned. Flying Polish troops destroyed small Cossack outposts and fortified towns. In this way the small Cossack strongholds of Samhorodok, Pogrebyszcze, Pryluka, Lypovets and many other Cossack villages and farms were burned to the ground. Colonel Ivan Bohun found out about the massive enemy attack through his territory already when the Poles were practically "at the doorstep" of the regimental town of Kalnyk.

There was no time for meetings, as almost all Cossacks were at home in the early spring. Surprised, Colonel Ivan Bohun sent messengers to the units closest to Kalnyk to block the advance of Polish units along the "Black Road" to Humania. According to the alert, only three hundred Cossacks from the Kalnitsa regiment had gathered: one hundred from Kalytsky, Balabanov and Terlytsky and one hundred from Tsybuliv of the Umansky regiment, i.e. a total of about 400 Cossacks. With such a small detachment at his disposal, Colonel Ivan Bohun, being one of the best strategists of the Zaporozhian Army, made the only right decision—to block the "Black Road" towards Humansk.

Battle

Ukrainian version

From inside the fortress it was defended by a hundred Tsybuliv troops from the Uman Sotnia regiment of Khrozdenko and part of Ivan Bohun's cavalry. After the two-day assault, according to Samiilo Velychko, the Poles set fire to the palisade in several places and also set fire to the castle. At night, under the cover of smoke thickly enveloping the fortress and the surrounding area, Ivan Bohun led about a hundred cavalry from the Avram Fortress. This small detachment of Cossacks dressed in coats with wool turned up in the Tatar fashion and made their way to the rear of the Poles, using the 'Galay Dam', which connected the village to the fortress by a deep ravine. The Cossacks, together with Bohun, struck the Poles in the rear at the most dramatic moment of the battle. This is how the participants of this battle - Polish noblemen W. Kahowski and Twardowski - wrote about it: "The army broke into the suburbs, they had already captured the fortress rampart, the Sotnia of Khrozdenko had already been killed, they had already seen the keel (rampart). Everyone hoped that the city would soon be captured...". Nobleman Twardowski also recalled that terror gripped the Polish army after the unexpected appearance of Ivan Bohun at the rear of the Polish convoy.

Czarniecki then started to move into the city with his army, but a shot from an ambulance wounded him and the army was left without a commander, which caused panic. Taken from his horse, Czarniecki regained consciousness and was about to say "Has the city been taken?" and the ldiers replied that the capture of the city had failed.

The escape route of the Crown army ran along a road past the Cossack settlement of Letychowka and a dense oak forest. For six versts (about 7 km) the entire road towards the century-old town of Tsibulow, where the Poles slumbered "all the way to the forest", was littered with the bodies of German mercenaries and Polish honour guards, chopped to stumps.

Samiylo Velikhko reports that the Poles fled in panic towards the town of Tsibuli and puts Polish losses at more than 5,000 dead and their abandoned wagon near Monastrichia. The Polish flags, although panicked, became frightened but did not completely lose control. Retreating from the blanks, they performed the so-called retreat manoeuvre. Fleeing in the direction of the Cossack settlement of Tsibul, they turned along a forest road along a branch of the "Sokolovskaya Path", now passing through the village of Antonina to cross and ford the Girski Tikicz in the area of the village of Kniaża Krynica, in order to be able to continue plundering unburned Cossack villages and manors, capturing provisions for soldiers and fodder for horses. The remnants of the Polish penal corps reoccupied the "Black Road" and hurriedly marched to Volhynia, to the border of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but this isn't quite true as witnesses reported much smaller losses.

Polish version

Polish version says the same mileage only with the Hussars did not take part in the battle, as Ukrainian historians claim, and in addition that Bohun fled the battlefield and did not fight to the end according to the Ukrainian version.

Aftermath

Ivan Bohun managed to leave Monastyryshche with part of his army, while the rest stayed to defend the castle. As Wespazjan Kochowski wrote years later, this was probably a deliberate manoeuvre to help the defenders. However, the commander of the Polish troops, Stefan Czarniecki, was wounded during the fighting, which may have determined the final defeat of the Poles in the Battle of Monastyryshche.

Historiographical issues

Troop numbers

The Battle of Monastyryshche took place during the Khmelnytsky Uprising in March 1653. The town, defended by Ivan Bohun, was besieged by the Polish army of Stefan Czarniecki. The Poles were defeated and ceased hostilities for a time. On the occasion of the 360th anniversary of the battle in 2013, celebrations were held in Ukraine, including a show by historical reenactors. A video of the re-enactment was posted on YouTube on March 22, 2013. It shows hussars being defeated by Cossacks fighting on horseback.

Participation of hussars

Polish historians are rubbing their eyes in amazement. According to Dr Radoslaw Sikora, author of the book "Hussars under Vienna", the best-known expert on the Hussar army, the number of errors and falsifications during the show and in Olejnik's article is overwhelming. Firstly, the Polish army did not have 15,000 soldiers. According to Joachim Jerlicz (his brother Maciej fought and died there), there were 8,000. This can be taken as the actual state of this army," Dr Sikora assesses in an interview with the NaszDziennik.pl portal.

Bohun's troops and participation

The third misrepresentation concerns the whole context of the battle, which weakens the overtones of the 'victory' of Bohdan Khmelnytsky's Cossacks. Before the battle of Monasterzys, the Polish army clashed with Bohun's 5,000–8,000 army at Kalnik. The Poles won this clash. The Cossacks saved themselves by fleeing. Thanks to this, Stefan Czarniecki, who commanded the Poles, captured Kalnik, Ilińce and Bałabanówka," says Dr Sikora. He points out that Bohun's army then retreated to Monasterzysk. This town was defended by many more than the 400 Cossacks mentioned in the account. There were masses of commoners even counted (probably with considerable exaggeration) at 70,000. These 400 Cossacks, who were supposed to have driven the Polish army away, are a number taken completely from the ceiling. Not only does it not appear in the sources, but it contradicts them," notes the historian. He points out that Monasterzys, which was surrounded by a rampart, moat and palisade, was taken by storm by the Poles. Then some of the defenders locked themselves in the castle, which was within the town, and the others, led by Bohun, left Monasterzysk. This begs the question: what for? To fight the Poles? There is no mention of such a battle in the sources. So the clash between mounted Cossacks and hussars presented during the event is pure fiction—he stresses. According to him, many years after these events, Wespazjan Kochowski wrote that Bohun was a deliberate manoeuvre to somehow help the defenders.

Historians speculate whether this might have been a demonstration of the approaching relief effort. However, Joachim Jerlicz His brother Maciej fought at Monasterzysk), Samuel Twardowski and even the Ruthenian chronicler Samiilo Velychko state that Bohun simply fled the town. There was no talk of any battle. All the more about 400 Cossacks defeating 15,000 Polish soldiers," he states.

Samiilo Velychko about escape: Bohun saw his own danger in this tumultuous chaos and, having left his army in the smoke of gunpowder and the thunder of muskets, got out of Monastyrys and headed for Khmelnytsky. Bohun's army was in good shape, defended itself bravely with the rest of the officers and killed another thousand and a half soldiers, while Czarniecki himself was left hard done by in these battles.

Bibliography

• Stefan Czarniecki urywek historyczny 1891 - Jenike, Ludwik
• Jam nie z soli ani z roli.... W: Jerzy Besala: Wielcy hetmani Rzeczypospolitej. Warszawa: Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza, 1983, . ISBN 83-03-00160-4.
• МОНАСТИРИЩЕНСЬКА ОБОРОНА 1653
• Крип'якевич І. П. Богдан Хмельницький. Львів, 1990
• K Laskowski, Stefan Czarniecki jako człowiek, obywatel i wojownik, 1907 (pol.).
• Ciesielski T. Od Batohu do Żwańca. Wojna na Ukrainie, Podolu io Mołdawię 1652-1653. Zabrze, 2007.