The First Smolensk battle (1609-1611) | A Lesson Russia Forgot (PART 1) скачать в хорошем качестве

The First Smolensk battle (1609-1611) | A Lesson Russia Forgot (PART 1)

The First Smolensk battle (1609-1611) | A Lesson Russia Forgot (PART 1) === The First Smolensk battle (1609-1611) | A Lesson Russia Forgot (PART 1). Smolensk. Just saying the name conjures images of a fortress carved from stone and stubborn will—a sentinel standing between empires, caught in the grinding gears of history’s relentless machine. It was here, in the bitter years of the early 17th century, that the fate of nations twisted like smoke in a storm. The First Smolensk battle (1609-1611) | A Lesson Russia Forgot (PART 1). The year was 1609. The great Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, under the ambitious and unyielding King Sigismund III, had set its sights eastward. Their prize: the city of Smolensk, a linchpin of Russian defense and a jewel of strategic significance. This was not just a battle for land or a patch on the map—it was a brutal, drawn-out contest for influence, for the soul of a region that had long been a crossroads of power. The First Smolensk battle (1609-1611) | A Lesson Russia Forgot (PART 1). Commanding the siege was Crown Field Hetman Stanislav Zholkevsky, a man known for his sharp mind and cold resolve. Opposite him, holding the city like a last bastion against the encroaching tide, was Voivode Mikhail Shein, a Russian commander whose loyalty and courage would soon be etched into legend. From September 1609 to June 1611—nearly two years—this brutal siege would stretch, testing endurance far beyond mere armies. It was a crucible of human spirit. Imagine the daily torment inside Smolensk’s walls: starvation gnawing at bones, the ceaseless thunder of cannon fire shaking earth and stone, and the dark certainty that relief might never come. Shein’s garrison, cut off and encircled, fought not just for survival but for the very identity of their homeland. Every breath was borrowed time. The Polish-Lithuanian forces, meanwhile, threw wave after wave of men and siege engines against those walls, methodical, unrelenting, their own resolve forged in the fires of ambition. === #greathistoryen #greathistoryenchannel #battlehistory #battleof #smolensk #russia