Russia in the 17th century, weakened by the internal social crisis and the Polish-Swedish intervention, was forced to put up with its territorial losses: Yai, Koporye, Ivangorod, as well as Smolensk, Chernihiv lands went to its neighbors - Sweden and the Commonwealth. In the south, the Crimean Tatars tormented the country ...
At the same time, the country was not able to solve all these three tasks, and it determined their priority, based on the international situation and its resources.
In the thirties of the 17th century, after the death of Sigismund, a very favorable situation developed to return Smolensk. Zemsky Sobor supported the decision of the government, and in 1632 the Smolensk War began, the purpose of which was to return the lands captured from it during the Time of Troubles.
The adoption of such a lightning decision was greatly facilitated by the fact that powerful European countries were drawn into the Thirty Years' War and were not up to the situation in Eastern Europe.
For the forty thousandth Russian rati, who faced a rather large-scale task, the Smolensk War of 1632 began in rather difficult conditions: the southern districts were constantly looted by Crimeans, and therefore the government, fearing the arrival of a large army of Crimean feudal lords, delayed the withdrawal of troops from Moscow until August.
The campaign was very slow, so the troops were found near Smolensk only in December, capturing Serpeysk, Belaya, Roslavl, Nevel, Starodub along the road.
Suddenly, Shein, the commander of the Russian troops, was unable to occupy the city of Smolensk, and the siege lasted eight long months. The fortress was completely strengthened shortly before the Smolensk War, and therefore the invaders had to retreat as much as two times, even after the approach of siege artillery.
And in the Commonwealth itself at that time, significant changes occurred: instead of his father, Vladislav ascended the throne, who began to energetically maintain the garrison of the besieged fortress.
The Smolensk war, the course of which was demoralized by the invasion of the Crimean Tatars in Russia in 1633, radically changed its course. Many nobles escaped from the army to save their families and estates, and the “freemen”, consisting of peasants, slaves and townspeople, acted as partisans, attacking not only the enemy, but also all nearby estates.
Vladislav, who managed to cut off Shein’s army from the rear, arrived in time for the city. The Russian troops, faced by 15 thousand well-trained regular soldiers and 12 thousand Zaporozhye Cossacks, began to panic. There was an acute shortage of fodder and food.
At the same time, part of Vladislav’s troops went east, literally freeing Dorogobuzh along the way, and then, in retaliation, massacres began over the villages of Velikiye Luk, Mozhaisk, Kozelsk, Kaluga, etc.
On March 1, Shein surrendered, and in fact the Smolensk war ended. The negotiation phase began, which was completed in June of that year by the signing of the Polyanovsky Treaty, according to which the Poles regained all those settlements that the Russians had captured at the initial stage of the war, including the unruly Smolensk. Vladislav, in turn, officially refused any claims to the Russian throne, which was one of the key conditions for concluding peace.
The Smolensk war, briefly described by historians as unsuccessful, deprived Russia of the opportunity to fight with its southern neighbor in 1937, when the Don Cossacks managed to capture Turkish Azov. Moscow did not dare to help, remembering the sad experience of the last war, and the Cossacks had no choice but to leave the fortress.
The Zemsky Sobor recognized the governor M. Shein as the culprit of the defeat in the Smolensk War and his head was cut off by a boyar court sentence.