Battle of Chudnov The Battle of Chudniv ( Chudnov , Cudnów ) took place from 14 October to 2 November 1660 , between the forces of the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth , allied with the Crimean Tatars , and the Tsardom of Russia , allied with the Cossaks . It ended with a decisive Polish victory , and the truce of Chudniv ( ) . The entire Russian army , including its commander , was taken into jasyr slavery by the Tatars . The battle was the largest and most important Polish victory over the Russian forces until the battle of Warsaw in 1920 . Background . In July 1660 , tsar Alexis I of Russia ordered Vasily Sheremetev to resume the sporadic Russo - Polish War ( 1654 – 1667 ) , and push the Poles west , taking Lwów ( Lviv ) and securing disputed Ukrainian territories for Russia . In September 1660 , the commander of the Russian army , Sheremetev – acting on misleading information greatly underestimating the numerical strength of the Polish army – decided to seek out and destroy the Polish forces with what he believed would be overwhelming strength ( 15 , 000 Russian soldiers and 15 , 000 – 35 , 000 of his Cossack allies ) . Sheremetev ' s major tactical error was to advance relying on outdated and sparse intelligence reports , and without adequate scouting ; he expected only a weak army of 10 , 000 ( in fact , it numbered only about 7 , 000 ) under Great Crown Hetman Stanisław " Rewera " Potocki , and was unaware it was soon to be reinforced by about 12 , 000 men under Field Crown Hetman Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski who had recently defeated Russian army in Lithuania . The Polish commanders — hetman s Potocki and Lubomirski — had much better intelligence ( they were also aided by Ivan Vyhovsky ' s spy network ) , and became quickly aware of Sheremetev ' s error . Polish historian Łossowski notes that " while Shermetev ' s advanced blindly , Polish hetmans knew almost everything about his army and moves " . The Poles decided to engage Shermetev ' s forces before he in turn would be reinforced by his Cossack allies . A portion of the Cossacks ( about 15 , 000 under Timofey Tsetsura ( Polish : " Tymofiej Cieciura " ) were to stay with Sheremetev ' s corps , and another part ( about 20 , 000 under Yurii Khmelnytsky ) , according to Sheremetev ' s plan , were to intercept and defeat the 12 , 000 - strong Tatars from the Crimean Khanate under nuradyn - sultan Safer Giray ( of whose coming to Polish aid Sheremetev was aware ) – but Khmelnytsky failed to do so , with most of the Tatar forces slipping past them around middle of August . Further , Cossack ' s leader , Yurii Khmelnytsky , was increasingly at odds with Sheremetev ( who favored Tsetsura over Khmelnytsky , and who refused to promise Khmelnytsky any loot from the upcoming battles ) , and was in no hurry to execute his orders or stick to his plan . The Tatars met Potocki ' s forces on 1 September , and they in turn met with Lubomirski on 7 September , while Khmelnytsky were still far from Shermetev ' s army . The combined Polish army ( not counting 12 , 000 Tatars and 1 , 500 Cossaks under Vyhovsky ) numbered about 27 , 000 ( including about 700 Winged Hussars , 8 , 000 pancerni , 3 , 500 light cavalry , 1 , 500 raitar s , 5 , 000 dragoon s , and 10 , 000 infantry ) . Sheremetev troops ( not counting Cossacks ) numbered 18 , 000 ( including 4 , 500 Russian traditional cavalry , 5 , 500 raitars , 3 , 500 dragoons , 3 , 000 foreign infantry and 1 , 000 streltsy ) . The Russian army was surprised near Lubar on 14 September . Shermetev ' s front guard was wiped out , and Sheremetev — who until then had failed to send a single scouting party and suddenly realized what was to be an easy victory was a death trap — decided to take defensive positions in a fortified camp . Numerical superiority of the Polish forces , lack of supplies and several minor defeats convinced him to break away on 26 September . The plan succeeded at first but Polish forces caught the Russian army during its crossing of the Iber River , and captured or destroyed a significant portion of the remaining Russian artillery and supplies . The Polish forces caught up again with the Russians on 27 September , near Chudniv . At that point , the Russian and Cossack armies had lost about 1 , 000 troops , and the Poles about 100 ( not counting the wounded ) . Sheremetev also received a minor reinforcement by attaching Chudniv ' s garrison ( about 1 , 000 troops ) to his main army . Battle . Sheremetev decided to stop the Poles by repeating his previous tactics . He burned the town on the side the Poles were approaching from , and created a new camp on the other side of the river . The Poles took the other bank , including the local fort , which Sheremetev abandoned , and which provided them with a useful stronghold and observation point . The Tatars drove the Russians foraging parties into their main camp , but for now no major encounters took place . The Poles were however able to surround the Russian camp , and started engineering works designed to flood their camp . The Poles learned that a Cossack army under Khmelnytsky numbering over 20 , 000 was approaching the area . To prevent it from combining forces with the Russians , the Poles split a 8 , 000 - strong force under Lubomirski , which stopped the Cossacks near Slobodyshche ( Polish : " Słobodyszcze " ) . The battle of Slobodyshche took place around 7 October and 8 October ; however , some historians speculate that there was never any battle of Slobodyshche , and it was a misidentification created by Khmelnytsky and Polish commanders ( Khmelnytsky did not want to aid Sheremetev , and Poles were able to concentrate on that task ) ; there is however no consensus on that variant . On 8 October , facing hunger , flooding and low morale , Sheremetev tried to break out of the camp but was defeated . Another attempt on 14 October , initially more successful , proved to be also futile and only succeeded in moving the camp to a non - flooded area . In the meantime , Khmelnytsky ( also suffering from heavy desertions ) decided to enter negotiations with the Poles . The Treaty of Cudnów was signed on 17 October , and mostly repeated the 1657 Treaty of Hadiach ( although the creation of Duchy of Ruthenia had to be confirmed by the Polish king ) and pledged Cossaks allegiance to the Poles . Having learned that Khmelnytsky signed the treaty with the Poles , Tsetsura decided to defect , and did so on 21 October ( his Cossacks were however ambushed by the Tatars and suffered heavy casualties ) . The Cossacks were no longer allied with the Russians . One Russian army was defeated in the north , and another one tied up in Kiev , where they suspected a Polish - Cossack uprising may occur . Russian commander Boriatyński in Kiev was able to muster only about 5 , 000 - strong army , but retreated to Kiev having learned that Polish reinforcements ( numbering about few thousands and led by Stefan Czarniecki and Jakub Potocki ) were approaching . Abandoned by his allies , and failing to break through the Polish lines on 22 October , Sheremetev decided to enter negotiations on 23 October ; he capitulated on 4 November . The Russians were allowed to retreat but had to leave their weapons , abandon Kiev , Pereiaslav - Khmelnytskyi and Chernihiv and pay 300 , 000 talar s . Sheremetev and several of his officers were to remain Polish prisoners . The remaining Cossacks ( numbering around 8 , 000 ) , abandoned by Tsetsura and Khmelnytsky , left the Russian camp on 3 November , but were ambushed by the Tatars ; surrounded and with no help from their former Russian allies , nearly all were taken captive ( see jasyr ) . The Tatars were however unhappy with the little loot they had captured , but even more with the capitulation – they wanted the Poles , Cossaks and the Russians to fight among themselves as much as possible ( since they were all Christian enemies of Islam ) ; and attacked the Russian camp after they surrendered , on the night of 4 November and 5 November . After a short skirmish with the Poles the latter decided to allow the Tatars to take what they wanted ; and even Sheremetev himself was transferred by Poles to the Tatars ( he never returned to Russia , and died in 1682 still their captive , although a Cossack army managed to intercept part of the Tatars and take back several thousand captives later ) . Aftermath . The battle was a major victory for the Poles , who succeeded in eliminating most of Russian forces , weakened the Cossacks and kept their alliance with the Crimean Tatars . The Poles , however , were unable to capitalize on that victory ; their army retreated in poor order ( there was little aid for the wounded , which accounted for hundreds of deaths after the battle ) . Furthermore , the country had failed to provide wages for most of the army , which resulted in mutinies in 1661 . This prevented the Poles from taking initiative and allowed the Russians time to rebuild their armies . Boryatynski who commanded the Russian garrison in Kiev refused to follow Sheremetev ' s agreement with the Poles and leave the city , saying his famous phrase " I obey only His Majesty , not Sheremetev . There are many Sheremetev s in Moscow ! " The Poles did not risk attacking the city which thus remained in Russian hands . A similar development took place in Pereyaslav whose inhabitants led by Yakym Somko swore " to die for the great Tsar , for God ' s churches and Orthodox faith " . Notes . a . Numerical estimates are based on 1995 work of Łukasz Ossoliński ; in particular his Chapter 3 dedicated to estimating strength of opposing forces . He notes that older historiography often overestimated numbers for that battle ( for example , a common mistake in Polish historiography was to estimate Russian forces at 50 , 000 ) .