Battle of Vilnius (1655)

Battle of Vilnius (1655)
Part of the Muscovite–Polish War (1654–1667)

Map of Vilnius in 1659
Date29 July 1655 (O.S.)
8 August 1655 (N.S)
Location
Result Muscovite–Cossack victory
Belligerents
link Tsardom of Muscovy
border=no Cossack Hetmanate
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Commanders and leaders
link Yakov Cherkasskiy [ru]
border=no Ivan Zolotarenko [uk]
Janusz Radziwiłł
Wincenty Korwin Gosiewski
Strength
41,000–180,000[1][2] 5,000–7,000[2]
Casualties and losses
Unknown 2,000 killed and wounded[2]
~20,000 civilians were massacred [ru][3]

The Battle of Vilnius,[4] Wilno,[5] or Vilna[6] was an attack by Russian and Cossack forces on Vilnius, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, that occurred on 8 August 1655[7] during the Russo-Polish War (1654–67). The Polish–Lithuanian forces under the leadership of Great Hetman Janusz Radziwiłł were defeated by the Russian army of Alexis of Russia. It was the first time that a foreign power managed to capture the Vilnius Castle Complex.[8] The six-year Muscovite occupation that followed resulted in a major depopulation and a decline of the city for many years to come.[9] The defeat was one of the reasons Janusz Radziwiłł and several other Lithuanian magnates surrendered the Grand Duchy to Sweden at the Union of Kėdainiai.[5]

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  3. ^ Norman Davies. Dievo žaislas: Lenkijos istorija: du tomai = «God’s Playground»: A History of Poland. The Origins to 1795, Volume 1. — p. 467. — 605 pp. — ISBN 0-231-04326-0. / Iš anglų kalbos vertė Inga Mataitytė, Linutė Miknevičiūtė. — 2-asis pataisytas leidimas. — Vilnius: Lietuvos rašytojų sąjungos leidykla, 1998. — Vol. I: Nuo seniausių laikų iki 1795 metų. — p. 502. — 637 pp. — ISBN 978-9986-39-520-1.
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