How 4,000 Cossacks Set a Trap That Crushed Russia's Elite Cavalry

In the summer of 1659, Moscow sent some of its best cavalry after what looked like a beaten Cossack army. By the end of the day the bridge behind them was gone, the meadows around them were flooded, and thousands of Crimean Tatar riders were coming in from the rear. This is the story of the Battle of Konotop. A garrison of about 4,000 Cossacks held a wooden town for seventy days against a much larger Muscovite army. That bought Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky enough time to build a coalition with the Crimean Khan and lay one of the most effective traps of the century at the Sosnivka River. We also look at the part most videos skip. The casualty numbers have been argued over for 350 years, from the legendary 30,000 to the roughly 4,770 found in Moscow's own military records. And within three months of winning, Vyhovsky had lost everything. CHAPTERS 00:00 The trap at the river 01:11 Khmelnytsky's death and a divided Hetmanate 03:04 The Treaty of Hadiach 03:51 Trubetskoy marches on Konotop 04:48 The seventy-day siege 05:35 Vyhovsky and the Crimean Khan 06:28 The bait 07:56 The trap closes at the Sosnivka 09:49 Pozharsky and the Khan 10:19 How many really died? 11:16 Retreat and panic in Moscow 12:29 How the victory fell apart 14:30 The Ruin and the legacy of Konotop SOURCES AND FURTHER READING Sergei Solovyov, History of Russia from the Earliest Times, vol. 11 Igor Babulin, The Battle of Konotop (Bitva pod Konotopom), 2009 Serhii Plokhy, The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine If you've got a question about this period, or a battle you'd like to see covered next, leave it in the comments. I read them all. #Konotop #CossackHistory #MilitaryHistory