Siege of Pskov

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Siege of Pskov

A Siege of Pskov, an etching by Boris Chorikov for "Picturesque Karamzin, the Russian history in pictures" published in 1836.

Date	September 8, 1581 - February 8, 1582
Location	Pskov, Russia
Result	Peace of Jam Zapolski

Combatants

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Tsardom of Russia

Commanders

King Stefan Batory

Prince Ivan Shuisky
Prince Vasili Skopin-Shuisky

Strength

31 000

16 000

Siege of Pskov, the last (and unfinished) painting of Karl Briullov; the siege from Russian perspective...

...and the siege from Polish perspective, "Bathory at Pskov" by Jan Matejko.

The Siege of Pskov, known as the Pskov Defense in Russia (оборона Пскова in Russian) took place between August of 1581 and February of 1582, when the army of the Polish king Stefan Batory laid an ultimately unsuccessful siege to the city of Pskov during the final stage of the Livonian War of 1558-1583.

The first detachments of the Polish-Lithuanian army, which in the past two years captured Polock (1579) and Velikiye Luki (1580) appeared at the walls of Pskov on August 18, 1581. The main forces of the invaders (31,000 men[1]) laid siege to the city on August 24-26. Prince Vasili Skopin-Shuisky was nominally in charge of the defense of Pskov, but Prince Ivan Shuisky was the one to actually implement it. The latter had up to 4,000 dvoryane, streltsy, and Cossacks and some 12,000 armed citizens of Pskov and its surroundings at his disposal.

After a two-day shelling of Pskov, the Polish army attacked the city for the first time on September 8. The Russians repelled the assault, which resulted in heavy losses for the Poles. Attempts to blow up the fortifications with sapping and a general attack on November 2 turned out to be fruitless, as well. In November, some of Polish forces attacked the Pskovo-Pechorsky Monastery, but with no result.

Stefan Batory then ordered a passive siege, and the battle became a a blockade. In the harsh winter of 1581-2 the army would have mutinied without the iron will of the Chancellor Jan Zamojski. The Russian partisans had been active in the Pskov area since the beginning of the siege, attacking enemy foragers and communications. The Pskovian garrison undertook frequent sallies (approximately 46[2]), mostly in November and December of 1581. There were 31 attacks by Polish troops during the five month siege[3]. The siege dragged on, with neither side able to end it; in the meantime, diplomatic negotiations, in which Vatican became involved, led to the end of hostilities.

Stefan Batory and Ivan III finally signed the Treaty of Jam Zapolski on January 15; Russia renounced its claims to Livonia and Polotsk and in exchange the Commonwealth returned Russian territories its armies had captured. On February 4 of 1582, the last detachments of the Polish-Lithuanian army left the outskirts of Pskov.