Russo-Polish War 1654-67

Started by The_Wrong_Khovanskiy, 02 March 2021, 02:46:38 PM

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The_Wrong_Khovanskiy

02 March 2021, 02:46:38 PM Last Edit: 02 March 2021, 03:24:03 PM by The_Wrong_Khovanskiy
Hello! Barely anyone ever does mid-17th century Eastern Europe, and when they do - it's either Poles or Turks. I'd like to bring attention to some other factions of this period and region which fascinate me: the Russians and the Zaporozhian Cossacks! I'll show off what I have and share the history that I know.

The Russian army is the one nearest to completion out of the two. I have still to do the artillery and commanders, or the lancers that arrived not too long ago. The Russian army of this period has recently underwent further reforms under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich after the initial ones done by his father, Mikhail Feodorovich in the 1630s. Tsar Alexei expanded the creation of regiments of foreign order, increasing the amount soldiers, reiters, dragoons and lancers that the Russian army had at its disposal.





On the left here we have a base of dragoons and a caracole of reiters. Because no-one actually makes Russians of this period, these are proxies. I used League of Augsburg allied dragoons and cuirassiers in helmet, respectively. They are the closest models I could find.



Reiters were particularly important as the cavalry was still the main striking force of Eastern Europe. With the constant conflicts of the late 16th and early 17th century, the Russian gentry and regional nobility that fought as horsemen became impoverished, often not affording adequate equipment to fight with. Reiters were supplied by the state with most or all of the equipment, so the Russian nobility that entered the ranks of the reiters were saved from both their material constraints and the indignity of serving in the infantry. Russians also lacked a good stock of horses that could be used for hard cavalry charges, unlike their neighbours, so they had to make do with mediocre little beasts, with some lancers even riding what were essentially almost ponies. Lacking adequate tradition and material conditions to train up and supply anything en masse to rival the Polish hussars, the Russians went for the cheaper massed firepower of the reiters instead. The dragoons were very important to support the reiters. They also had to do a lot of digging fortifications, I've heard even more so than the rest of Russian infantry. Their uniforms are modelled after the Novgorod Regiment, a regional-administrative unit rather than just a group of soldiers, led in many battles and skirmishes in Lithuania by the talented Ivan Andreyevich Khovanskiy.

Next we have the Russian infantry. At the back I have (what I think are) the Moscow streltsy of the fifth prikaz (regiment).


By this point of Russian history the streltsy were being trained up to fight in the manner of western infantry, though I have not really heard of them using pikes. In front of them are soldiers of foreign order, conscripts and volunteers taught to fight in western manner. These did use pikes in 1630s and rarely in the Russo-Polish War of 1654-67, depending on the commander in charge. They were still trained to use pikes, just in case. A big misconception about these guys as well as the streltsy is the use of the bardiche. At the start of the war, the standard issue close combat weapon was the rapier. In the mid-1650s the tsar ordered the manufacture and issue of bardiches according to government specifications. There is also no evidence they rested the muskets on the bardiche, but everyone poses them like that anyway so I had to make do. You might have noticed that I have cut off some of the bardiches off some of my figures, but it's just too bothersome to do it for all of them.

On the right we have some more dragoons and the pomest'ye cavalry.



The pomest'ye cavalry were landed gentry and nobility that served for life in exchange for land. I have mentioned their material troubles earlier, and while they did have problems, one must not forget that they were still dedicated and professional warriors that, along with the streltsy, were the most reliable troops the Russians could offer. Their equipment has also changed noticeably since the time of Ivan The Terrible, so I avoid outright calling them "traditional". At the border of the 16th and 17th century, due to financial problems, the proud Russian nobility had to pick up guns alongside or instead of bows. By the 1650s the pomest'ye cavalry were very similar to reiters in terms of weaponry (I'm not sure about the tactics though), use of bows became more of an old martial art and something of prestige among the nobility. When Russian entered the war with Poland, it were the Poles that had more bows in their armies. They also lacked body armour, at most wearing helmets and padded clothes.
Unfortunately the models do not reflect all that at all. These guys are a mix of Irregular miniatures and a few Pendraken ones (officers from the ECW range). A few have lances and shields and only the Pendraken ones have visible guns (no more shields back then and lances were pretty rare). So there's that.

Next are the Cossacks and their allies. Unfortunately, I know about them significantly less than about the Russians.



On the left we have mounted cossacks. Despite the unsheathed sabres, these guys fight dragoon-style (these are the closest models I could find). I decided to paint them grey-white because that is one one of the most widespread colours of cossack clothes, the clothes was either cheaply dyed or undyed. I have read that the oldest and most authoritative cossacks purposefully wore white to look humble. That's why I went for white to distinguish them as being more veteran and richer, being able to afford a horse.



Next we have the foot cossacks. At the back I have veterans, again, in white. In front of them I have cossackised peasant rabble in tan and dark grey coats (obviously cheap clothes). Both the veterans and the rabble use the exact same models, so I have to be creative in distinguishing them. The veterans have a semblance of order (they were not trained to march in order, they are irregular troops), while the rabble are all over the place. I remember that a Polish writer of the period described cossacks advancing as "looking more than cattle than people" (don't quote me on that quote).



Finally we have their allies (or enemies, depending what side the cossacks are on) - the Crimean Tatars. To be precise, these are Nogai Tatars, the nomadic tatars under the vassalage of the Crimean Khan. I have asked a historian on the colour scheme for them and it turned out to be rather simple, I painted them up faster than I originally expected. Nogai Tatars were ordinary steppe warriors, they wouldn't have worn anything fancy (their main priority was acquiring slaves for sale). They were allies of the cossacks in the Cossack rebellion that started in 1648, but switched sides to the Poles when Russia invaded the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1654. Tatars were an important component of the Cossack armies as the cossacks themselves lacked any adequate striking cavalry; it is one of the main reasons the previous cossack rebellions ended in failure. After the Tatar betrayal, they were replaced by the Russian cavalry.



I still have a fair bit of models to do. The afore-mentioned Russian lancers are a few. I have mixed the remaining mounted cossack and Tatar figures to make a banner of light cavalry. I have a big pack of Polish pancerni lying around too, as well as more cossack foot. My initial purpose of this was to have two armies in one, I could have cossacks fight against Russians if there is no-one else with an army around me (at one point of the war a bit less than a half of the cossacks joined Poland and fought against Russia), and I could combine them to play against someone with an army. Though I don't think anyone in the country, let alone city, really does this sort of thing, so it's going to be the former for a long, long while.

I hope this was interesting, I will upload more, eventually.

mmcv

This is fantastic, I always enjoy finding out about lesser known conflicts and regions so very much enjoyed reading through this and seeing all the figures. What rules are you planning to use with them?

The_Wrong_Khovanskiy

Quote from: mmcv on 02 March 2021, 02:58:39 PM
This is fantastic, I always enjoy finding out about lesser known conflicts and regions so very much enjoyed reading through this and seeing all the figures. What rules are you planning to use with them?

Thank you very much! I'm planning to use Twilight of Divine right for them. Nick Dorrel has kindly provided me with the prototype expansion of the rules for Eastern Europe, and it looks well enough for the job, though there are some questions. I'm just waiting for the lockdown to end to actually try them out.

steve_holmes_11

Superb post.
I will return to this and read it again.

When I was learning history at school, the impression was that time flowed differently for Russia.
No insult intended, but British history had a big focus on the French and German bits, with occasional cameos in America, Africa or India.

Once in a while Russia would appear in the European theatre, with a footnote that they had been "fighting the Turks" in the interim.
My school history paid little attention to developments; social, cultural or military between these appearances.

Thanks, once again, for the post.
I can see it starting me off on some new research of my own.


FierceKitty

02 March 2021, 04:22:31 PM #4 Last Edit: 02 March 2021, 04:28:22 PM by FierceKitty
I have both those, and I agree they're well worth having. In our current 1640s campaign, in fact, the Poles have been wiped out and the Turks are on the ropes; an uneasy Muscovite-Zaporozhian alliance is half holding together in the realisation that Sweden has picked up an awful lot of northern Europe.

By the way, Poland supplied the Cossacks with an awful lot of blue cloth as part of their wages, and a few Ukrainian paintings support written reports that they were fond of reds.

Irregular Miniatures have some 10mm figures that are useful supplements to the Pendraken ranges, and I use some Kallistra and TB as a major part of my Boyar forces. The older Pendraken Jpanese had a peasant musketeer who can easily convert to an excellent topless Cossack.
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The_Wrong_Khovanskiy

Quote from: steve_holmes_11 on 02 March 2021, 03:55:09 PM
Superb post.
I will return to this and read it again.

When I was learning history at school, the impression was that time flowed differently for Russia.
No insult intended, but British history had a big focus on the French and German bits, with occasional cameos in America, Africa or India.

Once in a while Russia would appear in the European theatre, with a footnote that they had been "fighting the Turks" in the interim.
My school history paid little attention to developments; social, cultural or military between these appearances.

Thanks, once again, for the post.
I can see it starting me off on some new research of my own.



Thank you very much! I'm happy if my writing has explained something new.
I see what you mean. Here in Ireland our history classes mention Russia only from its 1870s Russo-Turkish War and onwards, what happened before is pretty much unknown to most of the populace. Then again, the textbook I had barely explained Cromwell in a short paragraph anyway.
For me, Russia on the surface always looked very archaic, always "traditional" and virtually stagnant, but when looking under that veneer, development never stops. That is why I love this period in particular, the cultural shifts, the attempted reforms of society, the "East" soaking up some aspects of the "West", and so on.

The_Wrong_Khovanskiy

02 March 2021, 05:02:20 PM #6 Last Edit: 02 March 2021, 05:28:02 PM by The_Wrong_Khovanskiy
Quote from: FierceKitty on 02 March 2021, 04:22:31 PM
I have both those, and I agree they're well worth having. In our current 1640s campaign, in fact, the Poles have been wiped out and the Turks are on the ropes; an uneasy Muscovite-Zaporozhian alliance is half holding together in the realisation that Sweden has picked up an awful lot of northern Europe.

By the way, Poland supplied the Cossacks with an awful lot of blue cloth as part of their wages, and a few Ukrainian paintings support written reports that they were fond of reds.

Irregular Miniatures have some 10mm figures that are useful supplements to the Pendraken ranges, and I use some Kallistra and TB as a major part of my Boyar forces. The older Pendraken Jpanese had a peasant musketeer who can easily convert to an excellent topless Cossack.

Sounds like a nice campaign! May the dice be in your favour!

I have heard of the Polish authorities paying the registered Cossacks with cloth, but I have also read that those payments were, traditionally, few and far between. I have not heard of red being popular though, I'll need to look into that. When it comes to white, I have heard the gruesome yet poetic line from a contemporary Polish writer: "the field has whitened with cossack corpses" (I translated this from Russian, which was also translated from Polish), something like that. Considering the wide social make-up of the cossacks, many colours will do. But I'm lazy.

I originally did start out with Irregular miniatures, but their stuff is good enough only for Ivan The Terrible at best, unfortunately. Similarly with Kallistra and TB. The mid-17th century Russians look in some ways different in clothes and equipment from their previous century counterparts. The Japanese peasant musketeers would have been a nice addition to my cossack rabble, I really should have gotten them. It would have been easier to explain who's who on the battlefield to newbies.

mmcv

Quote from: The_Wrong_Khovanskiy on 02 March 2021, 03:15:29 PM
Thank you very much! I'm planning to use Twilight of Divine right for them. Nick Dorrel has kindly provided me with the prototype expansion of the rules for Eastern Europe, and it looks well enough for the job, though there are some questions. I'm just waiting for the lockdown to end to actually try them out.

Very good, I've gone a few solo test games with the Twilight rules recently and been enjoying them, hoping to get some of the scenario books soon and look at starting up a project in the near future.

Steve J

Thanks for posting this and as others have said, it's always nice to learn about periods and/or conflics that we often don't hear that much about :)

fred.

What a great write up, and great looking figures (lets not get into the table cloth, though!)

Thanks for taking the time to write up and share!

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I think there is a pretty reasonable film about this era - although it might be a bit earlier - all to do with a Polish invasion of Russia.
It might called '1644' or something like that. I need to have a trawl of my DVD collection.
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Glorfindel

>>I think there is a pretty reasonable film about this era - although it might be a bit earlier - all to do with a Polish invasion of Russia.
It might called '1644' or something like that. I need to have a trawl of my DVD collection.


I think the film is "1612".   Pretty good actually with some excellent battle scenes.


Phil

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That's a mighty fine looking army !
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