Siege of Smolensk (1632–33)

Siege of Smolensk
Part of Smolensk War
Siege of Smolensk, engraving from 1636
Date 28 October 1632 to 4 October 1633 Location Smolensk, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Result Polish victory
Belligerents
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth	Tsardom of Russia
Commanders and leaders
King Władysław IV Samuel Drucki-Sokoliński Krzysztof Radziwiłł Aleksander Korwin Gosiewski	Mikhail Shein Artemy Izmaylov Semyon Prozorovsky Bogdan Nagoy
Strength
Garrison of Smolensk: 2,212 soldiers less than 170 artillery pieces Relief force: 13,200 infantry and dragoons 8,300 cavalry 12,000 Zaporozhians	20,000-24,000 soldiers 160 artillery pieces
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Unknown

The Siege of Smolensk lasted almost a year between 1632 and 1633, when the Muscovite army besieged the Polish-Lithuanian city of Smolensk during the war named after that siege. Muscovite forces of over 25,000 under Mikhail Borisovich Shein begun the siege of Smolensk on 28 October. Polish garrison under Samuel Drucki-Sokoliński numbered about 3,000. The fortress held out for nearly a year, and in 1633 the newly elected Polish king Władysław IV organised a relief force. In a series of fierce engagements, Commonwealth forces gradually overran the Russian field fortifications, and by 4 October the siege had broken. Shein had become besieged in his camp, and began surrender negotiations in January 1634, capitulating around 1 of March.

In 1632, Sigismund III Vasa, the king of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, died. Russia, having recovered to a certain extent from the Time of Troubles, decided to capitalize on the temporary confusion of its western neighbor. Russia's aim was to gain control of Smolensk, which it had ceded to the Commonwealth in 1618 at the Truce of Deulino, ending the last Russo-Polish War. Smolensk was the capital of the Commonwealth's Smoleńsk Voivodeship, but it had often been contested, and it changed hands many times during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries (from the days of the Muscovite-Lithuanian Wars).

The Russian army that crossed the Lithuanian border in early October 1632 had been carefully prepared and was under the experienced command of Mikhail Shein, who had previously defended Smolensk against the Poles during the 1609–1611 siege. Estimates of the size of the Russian forces vary, from 20,000 through 25,000 and 30,000 to 34,500, with 160 artillery pieces. However, the numbers over 25,000 give the overall number of Shein's army when leaving Moscow. A part of this army was left behind as garrisons in newly conquered cities as Dorogobuzh, Belaya and others. Based on the archive documents, the Russian historian Menshikov gives the initial number of Shein's army at Smolensk as 24,000 men but indicates that the number reduced to 20,000 by August when many Russian soldiers left the army to protect their estates endangered by the Crimean khan's summer raid on South Russia.

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