Chapter 24: Blood of Sychyovka
Part 24: Blood of Sychyovka (1574)
Basatin does add that the morale of the Russian soldiers was higher. Despite the defeats and hunger, the Russian soldiers were united by their cause. Meanwhile, a large portion of the Lithuanian army were mercenaries. This opinion was challenged by other historians, though, who pointed out that the Russians were far from a single united force. There were disagreements among their upper ranks on the future of the rebellion and how the Lithuanians should be approached and fought.
Anyway, Basatin, despite putting a lot of effort into deducting the army sizes present in the Battle of Sychyovka, does not write anything about the composition of both forces - this field was covered by different historians, though. It is a good guess that the Russians, mostly composed of city militia, had little, if any, cavalry and artillery. The weather of the battle put a thorn in using both, too. A large portion of the Russians were organized into so-called kosiniery (scythe-bearer) regiments - that is, improvised pike regiments armed with straightened scythes and similar weaponized farming tools. The war scythe has been a symbol of peasant insurrection since ancient times, but it's effectiveness in comparison to pikes and spears should not be downplayed. There were also mixed regiments of pikes and muskets. The Russian forces were not organized in any standard fashion, but rather divided into city leveè ("opolcheniye"). The Tver, Novgorod and Yaroslavl Opolcheniye were on the right flank, Vladimir, Ryazan and Rostov Opolcheniye were on the left.
The Lithuanians, meanwhile, were all equipped with muskets, arquebuses or pikes, and brought a sizable amount of artillery to the field. While they also had a large cavalry force, the weather and location of the battle did not favour them, so most of the cavaliers fought dismounted. The Lithuanian Regiment was in the center of the royalist ranks, bolstered in the flanks by Swedish, Livonian, Bohemian and German mercenary units. Radvila's camp was behind the troops. Unlike the Russians, whose troops were spread out with wide flanks, the Lithuanians were standing much more tightly, creating the illusion of a smaller force than they actually are.
Muscovite militia in the Tver Opolcheniya
Kęstutis Mykolas Radvila, Grand Hetman of Lithuania
From the very start, the future did not look bright for the Russians, but Kratkov was as determined as always. If not now, then never. If not now, then never.
If not now, then never...
The battle began at noon of January 15th, 1574, with a Lithuanian assault in the center. Because of the large snow cover, the Lithuanians marched slowly, unwilling to charge forward and attack the Russians in melee. Instead, they positioned themselves in the opening and opened musket fire on the Russians. Cannons roared one after another! The Russian forces responded with their own volley, but their was less effective - besides a few muskets, arquebuses and bowmen units, they had little ranged capacity... While the center skirmish was taking place, the Russians advanced in the flanks. Here, the first close quarters clashes begun - a Swedish halberdier regiment of about 800 men against the Yaroslavl Opolcheniya, 3000 men. Trees and snow lowered the intensity of the fight, and the Lithuanian left flank (right for the Russians) roared into action as more and more units entered the fray.
Kęstutis was unable to support the flank with the troops at the center, and thus, to take the focus off his left, he ordered the right flank to charge forward. 4000 Lithuanian, German and Bohemian soldiers attacked the Ryazan and Rostov Opolcheniye. Boris of Vyazma, leading the Russian left flank, ordered his troops to organize into squares to stave off an assault through the snow, which stopped the pike attack, but left the soldiers vulnerable to cannon and musket fire.
In the center, the Lithuanians were slowly advancing forward towards the Russians, and while they were dealing heavy damage on the enemy ranks, this was quite a risky move, since this meant that they could not support the battle in the flanks. If the Russians were to break through the Lithuanian flanks, they would be able to attack the artillery that was left behind, take it down and finally surround and destroy the center. It's still not sure whether Kratkov was aware of this opportunity or whether this was just a lucky coincidence.
However, the flanks held. Despite numerous attempts to take down the Lithuanian left, the mercenaries held. Straightened scythes were more numerous, but their short range was ineffective against Lithuanian pikes and halberds. The inexperience of the Russian militias also showed - Lithuanian units employed more advanced tactics like pike and shot, and pike squares, while the rebels had little to counter them with. In the center, the Russians began to run out of ammunition, both bullets and arrows, and slowly started to retreat to avoid opponent shots and cannon strikes.
There wasn't much left. Lithuanians marched through hundreds of Russian corpses in the snow, keeping two lines of musketeers in the front line to continue harassing the Russians. Ivan Kratkov still tried to rally his troops for a charge - after all, from his point of view the musketeers would be weak against a close quarters attack - but as soon as a few units tried to move forward, the linemen behind the two lines moved to the front for protection.
Much like most of Europe, Lithuanians learned from the experiences in the Flammantian Wars, even if they had little to do with that conflict. Any Russian attacks were pushed back with great losses on the rebels. In the flanks, the defeat in the center made a final blow in the Russian morale. A mass retreat begun. Ivan Kratkov still tried to get his troops to turn around, but no more rallying could help.
Now the only thing on their mind was Tver. This horrid cold and darkness of Suchyovka... no more... no more of that...
Kęstutis Radvila ordered his troops to stop and let the Russians flee. A blizzard was approaching. It was already evening. Chasing the Russians would only result in weariness and deaths.
And for the Russians themselves, well... fleeing across lands raided for years, with nothing left to eat, in one of the harshest winters of the century... many wounded, starving, with punctured and blood soaked clothes in extreme cold... having lost a lot of supplies due to abandoning the camp to flee...
Well, not a good sight, but there's a lot more to say about it.
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