Siege of Pskov

Siege of Pskov
Part of the Livonian War
A Siege of Pskov, an etching by Boris Chorikov for "Picturesque Karamzin, the Russian history in pictures" published in 1836.
Date September 8, 1581 – February 4, 1582 Location Pskov, Russia 57°49′N 28°20′E / 57.817°N 28.333°E / 57.817; 28.333Coordinates: 57°49′N 28°20′E / 57.817°N 28.333°E / 57.817; 28.333 Result Russian victory Peace of Yam-Zapolsky
Belligerents
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Principality of Transylvania and foreign mercenaries	Tsardom of Russia
Commanders and leaders
King Stephen Báthory Jan Zamoyski	Prince Ivan Shuisky Prince Vasili Skopin-Shuisky
Strength
27,000 4,000 Cossacks (500 officially registered)	16,000

The Siege of Pskov, known as the Pskov Defense in Russia (Russian: оборона Пскова), took place between August 1581 and February 1582, when the army of the Polish king and Grand Duke of Lithuania Stephen Báthory laid an unsuccessful siege and successful blockade of the city of Pskov during the final stage of the Livonian War of 1558–1583.

The first detachments of the Polish–Lithuanian army, which in the previous two years captured Polotsk (1579) and Velikiye Luki (1580), appeared at the walls of Pskov on August 18, 1581. This action completely cut off Russian forces from the territory of Livonia. The main invading force (31,000 men, Polish, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Bohemian, Wallachian and German soldiers) laid siege to the city on August 24–26. Prince Vasili Skopin-Shuisky was nominally in charge of the defense of Pskov, but Prince Ivan Shuisky was the one to actually implement it. The latter had up to 4,000 dvoryane, streltsy and Cossacks and some 12,000 armed citizens of Pskov and its surroundings at his disposal.

After a two-day shelling of Pskov, the Polish army attacked for the first time on September 8. The Russians repelled the assault, which resulted in heavy Polish losses. Attempts to blow up the fortifications with mines and a general attack on November 2 also turned out to be fruitless. In November some Polish forces attacked the Pskovo-Pechorsky Monastery, but to no avail.

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