Battle of Berestechko

Battle of Berestechko
Part of the Khmelnytsky Uprising

Battle of Berestechko 1651. Counterattack by the Poles against the Zaporozhian Cossacks and Crimean Tatars
Date28 June – 10 July 1651
Location
Berestechko, Rivne Oblast, Ukraine
Result Polish–Lithuanian victory
Belligerents
Cossack Hetmanate
Crimean Khanate		 Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Commanders and leaders
Bohdan Khmelnytsky
Ivan Bohun
Fylon Dzalaliy
Matviy Hladky
İslâm III Giray
Tugay Bey  †		 John II Casimir
Jeremi Wisniowiecki
Mikołaj Potocki
Marcin Kalinowski
Stefan Czarniecki
Stanisław Lanckoroński
Strength
200,000 total[1]
33,000 Cossacks
many thousands of peasants
30,000 Crimean Tatars
2,000 Don Cossacks
Several thousand Turks and Vlachs		 80,000 total[2]
17,000 cavalry
16,000 infantry
56,000 Pospolite ruszenie
Casualties and losses
30,000–40,000 killed[3] 700[4]

The Battle of Berestechko (Ukrainian: Битва під Берестечком, Polish: Bitwa pod Beresteczkiem; 28 June – 10 July 1651) was fought between the Cossack Hetmanate and Crimean Khanate against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as a part of the Khmelnytsky Uprising. Near the site of the present-day city of Berestechko in Ukraine, a forces of the Zaporozhian Cossacks and Crimean Tatars under the command of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Otaman Tymofiy Khmelnytsky, Colonels Ivan Bohun and Fylon Dzhalaliy with Khan İslâm III Giray and Tugay Bey, who was killed in the battle, was defeated by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth's forces under the command of the Polish King John II Casimir, Prince Jeremi Wiśniowiecki, Hetmans Marcin Kalinowski and Stanisław Lanckoroński.[5] The battle took place in the Volhynian Voivodeship on the hilly plain south of the Styr River.[6] The Polish–Lithuanian camp was on the Styr River opposite Berestechko and faced south, towards the Zaporozhian Cossacks about two kilometers away, whose right flank was against the Pliashivka (Pliashova) River and the Crimean Tatars on their left flank.[7] It is considered to have been among the largest European land battles of the 17th century.[8][9]

  1. ^ Hrushevsky, M., 2004, History of Ukraine-Rus, Volume Nine, Book One, The Cossack Age, 1650–1653, Toronto: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, ISBN 1895571227, p. 304
  2. ^ Hrushevsky, p. 304
  3. ^ Romuald Romański, Książę Jeremi Wiśniowiecki. p. 338.
  4. ^ Romuald Romański, Beresteczko 1651, p. 192
  5. ^ Tucker, S.C., editor, A Global Chronology of Conflict, Volume II: 1500–1774, Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2010, ISBN 9781851096671, p. 621
  6. ^ Hrushevsky, pp. 304–305
  7. ^ Hrushevsky, pp. 304, 313
  8. ^ Varvounis, Miltiades (2016). "Made in Poland: The Women and Men Who Changed the World". ISBN 9781524596644. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  9. ^ Cybriwsky, Roman Adrian (2018). "Along Ukraine's River: A Social and Environmental History of the Dnipro". ISBN 9789633862049. Retrieved 23 January 2019.