page_title: Polish–Muscovite War (1605–1618)
section_title: Polish victories (1609–1610)
hierarchical_section_title: Polish–Muscovite War (1605–1618) / Polish–Muscovite War (1609–1618) / Polish victories (1609–1610)
caption_attribution_description: Siege of Smolensk during Polish-Russian war 1609-1618
context_page_description: The Polish–Muscovite War, also known as the Polish–Russian War of 1605–1618 or the Dimitriads, was a conflict fought between the Tsardom of Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1605 to 1618.
  Russia had been experiencing the Time of Troubles since the death of Tsar Feodor I in 1598, causing political instability and a violent succession crisis upon the extinction of the Rurik dynasty, and was ravaged by the major famine of 1601 to 1603. Poland exploited Russia's civil wars when members of the Polish szlachta aristocracy began influencing Russian boyars and supporting False Dmitris for the title of Tsar of Russia against the crowned Boris Godunov and Vasili IV Shuysky. In 1605, King Sigismund III Vasa informally invaded Russia until the death of False Dmitry I in 1606, and invaded again in 1607 until Russia formed a military alliance with Sweden in 1609. Sigismund formally declared war on Russia in response, aiming to gain territorial concessions and weaken Sweden's ally, winning many early victories such as the Battle of Klushino. In 1610, Polish forces entered Moscow and Sweden withdrew from the military alliance with Russia, instead triggering the Ingrian War.
context_section_description: In 1609 the Zebrzydowski Rebellion ended when Tsar Vasili signed a military alliance with Charles IX of Sweden (on 28 February 1609). The Commonwealth king Sigismund III, whose primary goal was to regain the Swedish throne, got permission from the Polish Sejm (Parliament) to declare war on Russia. He viewed it as an excellent opportunity to expand the Commonwealth's territory and sphere of influence, with hopes that the eventual outcome of the war would Catholicize Orthodox Russia (in this he was strongly supported by the Pope) and enable him to defeat Sweden. This plan also allowed him to give a purpose to the numerous restless former supporters of Zebrzydowski, luring them with promises of wealth and fame awaiting members of the campaign beyond the Commonwealth's eastern border. A book published that year by the well-travelled Polish Silesian nobleman, courtier and political activist Paweł Palczowski of Palczowic, Kolęda moskiewska (The Muscovite Carol), compared Russia to the Indian empires of the New World, full of golden cities and easy to conquer. The treatise was written to promote Polish colonialism and persuade delegates of the Sejm in January 1609 to support Sigismund III's expedition to Muscovy. Palczowski himself participated in and perished during Sigismund's Muscovy expedition. Some Russian boyars assured Sigismund of their support by offering the throne to his son, Prince Władysław. Previously, Sigismund had been unwilling to commit the majority of Polish forces or his time to the internal conflict in Russia, but in 1609 those factors made him re-evaluate and drastically change his policy.
  Although many Polish nobles and soldiers were fighting for the second False Dmitry at the time, Sigismund III and the troops under his command did not support Dimitriy for the throne – Sigismund wanted Russia himself. The entry of Sigismund into Russia caused the majority of the Polish supporters of False Dmitry II to desert him and contributed to his defeat. A series of subsequent disasters induced False Dmitry II to flee his camp disguised as a peasant and to go to Kostroma together with Marina. Dmitry made another unsuccessful attack on Moscow, and, supported by the Don Cossacks, recovered a hold over all of south-eastern Russia. He was killed, however, while half drunk, on 11 December 1610 by a Qasim Tatar princeling Pyotr Urusov, whom Dimitriy had flogged on a previous occasion.
  A Commonwealth army under the command of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski, who was generally opposed to this conflict but could not disobey king's orders, crossed the border and on 29 September 1609 laid siege to Smolensk, an important city Russia had captured from Lithuania in 1514. Smolensk was manned by fewer than 1,000 Russian men commanded by the voivod Mikhail Shein, while Żółkiewski commanded 12,000 troops. However, Smolensk had one major advantage: the previous Tsar, Boris Godunov, had sponsored the fortification of the city with a massive fortress completed in 1602. The Poles found it impenetrable; they settled into a long siege, firing artillery into the city, attempting to tunnel under the moat, and building earthen ramparts, remnants of which can still be seen today. The siege lasted 20 months before the Poles advised by the runaway traitor succeeded in taking the fortress.
  Not all of the Commonwealth attacks were successful. An early attack, led by Hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz with 2,000 men, ended in defeat when the unpaid Commonwealth army mutinied and compelled their leader to retreat through the heart of Russia and back to Smolensk. Not until the crown prince, Władysław, arrived with tardy reinforcements did the war assume a different character. In the meantime, Lisowczycy took and plundered Pskov in 1610 and clashed with the Swedes operating in Russia during the Ingrian War.
  Several different visions of the campaign and political goals clashed in the Polish camp. Some of the former members of the Zebrzydowski Rebellion, opponents of Sigismund, actually advanced proposals to have Sigismund dethroned and Dmitriy, or even Shuyski, 
caption: Siege of Smolensk (1609–1611) by the Polish army, by an anonymous author, possibly a witness of the siege
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