Hero of “quiet gallantry”

Prince Kostiantyn Ostrozky (1460 —August 11, 1530), a key figure in Ukraine’s past and one of the most outstanding Ukrainian military leaders and politicians, is, unfortunately, not very well known to the general public. When I was preparing to write this article, I was surprised to find just five lines about Ostrozky in the 12-volume Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia published in 1982. The initiative of the National University of Ostroh Academy and the newspaper Den/The Day – proclaiming 2010 the Year of Prince Kostiantyn Ivanovych Ostrozky, can be seen as the beginning of a search for a solution of this problem.

I was mostly interested in the military aspect of this extraordinary personality’s life story, which led me to engage in a more in-depth study of this historic figure. The Ostrozky-led army successfully fought its enemies when Ukrainian lands faced grave danger. It should be emphasized that the prince saw his mission not in conquering others but in defending the national territory and its populace by means of the available military force. This is very important because, in my view, this is the ultimate goal of his military endeavors and one must appraise the latter from this very angle.

Obviously, it is always a sacred duty to defend one’s territory and people. Ihor Pasichnyk, Rector of the National University of Ostroh Academy, rightly notes in the book Extract 150: “He carved out a dashing military career. His contemporaries characterized him as an outstanding military leader. He mostly had to fight against the Tatars who had been incessantly sacking Ukrainian lands since the late 15th century. These forays posed a major problem for the local population because of the wide-scale destruction and human losses they caused. Kostiantyn Ostrozky – the Braclav, Vinnytsia, and Zvenyhorod starosta – had to continuously defend Ukrainian lands from Tatar attacks. In 1497 the prince assumed the office of grand Lithuanian hetman, in recognition of his military merits. The prince attached great importance to building defensive structures. As a matter of fact, when Ostrozky was granted large estates in south-eastern Volhynia for his military exploits, he built a defense system of castles, consisting of Dubno, a greatly reinforced Ostroh, Rivne, Dorohobuzh, Polonne, Zviahel, Chudniv, et al. The prince also made a major effort to thwart a Muscovite aggression against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He had to engage the Russians more than once” (Ihor Pasichnyk, “The Return of an Aristocrat” // Extract 150, Part 1. Kyiv, Ukrainska pres-grupa, 2009, pp. 875-876 – in Ukrainian).

It is clear from this long quotation that Ostrozky was not just a talented military commander but a true leader in times of hardship. It is very important for any leader to remain calm in the face of a danger and be able to muster the strength required to overcome a critical situation and to find a rational way out. This shows what a great responsibility leading troops is. I would concisely characterize our hero as follows: Prince Ostrozky possessed “calm gallantry” in the hardships of war and a lucid mind in crisis, which military experts call “cold head.” There are endless facts to prove this.

Ostrozky was unrivaled in battles with Crimean Tatars and Muscovite invaders. Defending Ukrainian lands, he led about 50 successful battles against the numerically superior Tatar forces. Suffice it to recall his army’s victories in the battles on the Lopushnianske field near Vyshivets (April 28, 1512) and near the river Olshanytsia, Kyiv region (February 6, 1527), which caused quite a stir at the time. Anecdotal evidence says that 20,000-strong Tatar hordes were routed in both cases – and in both cases the enemy greatly outnumbered the army that Ostrozky commanded. Historians think that Ostrozky took part in almost 70 battles. According to his tombstone inscription, the hetman won 63 of them. This alone testifies to a great military talent of the prince. Another noteworthy thing, in this regard, is that he was one of the first commanders to use field artillery in battles.

The Ostrozky-led army won a brilliant victory in the famous Battle of Orsha, which deserves to be inscribed with golden letters into the book of history. In my view, this battle, which occurred on September 8, 1512, deserves serious attention. One must first explain, at least in brief, what extremely negative circumstances preceded it. Here is what a well-known Ukrainian researcher, Petro Kraliuk, wrote: “The year 1512 saw the outbreak of a new Muscovite-Lithuanian war. The situation was critical. The Muscovite troops strongly outnumbered the Grand Duchy of Lithuania’s army. Ostrozky, as grand hetman, was granted extraordinary, in fact dictatorial, powers. He was even authorized to mete out capital punishment. Taking the field and being uncertain of whether he would survive, Ostrozky drew up a testament” (Petro Kraliuk, “A Bright Prince from ‘Dark Ages’” // Den, Nos. 19-20, Feb. 5-6, 2010). This clearly shows what burden and responsibility Ostrozky and his warriors shouldered at the time.

It seemed impossible to resist the fast-moving Muscovite troops. They took Smolensk. They had every possibility to defeat the numerically inferior troops of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and occupy this country. Had this happened, the lands of Belarus, Lithuania, and partly Ukraine would have become part of Muscovy. Needless to say, this would have cost them quite a price.

It is Kostiantyn Ostrozky who saved the situation. Just imagine a picturesque riverside nook. The summer has just ended, the weather is balmy. An 80,000-strong Muscovite army is marching towards the river Kropyvna. Sergei Solovyov’s History of Russia from the Earliest Times written in 1851-79, is an important source of information on the matter. In this 29-volume fundamental work, the prominent Russian historian gave a generally true description of the Battle of Orsha. He says, among other things:

“Keeping a 4,000-stong army with himself in Barysaw, King Sigismund put the rest under the command of Prince Konstantin Ostrozky to engage the Muscovite voivodes who had, according to foreign sources, 80,000 men, whereas there were not more than 30,000 at Ostrozky’s disposal. After a few minor clashes in late August, Chelyadin [Muscovite voivode. – Author] passed to the Dnieper’s left bank near Orsha and decided to wait for the enemy there, without impeding them from crossing the river so that his victory looked more convincing. The battle occurred on September 8, 1514: the Russians began to attack and the two sides fought a long time with varying success until the Lithuanians pretended to flee and thus put the Russians under their cannon fire: a terrible salvo smashed and confused the pursuers. The confusion soon embraced the entire Muscovite army which suffered a crushing defeat: all the voivodes were taken prisoner, not to mention a huge number of the killed soldiers: the river Kropyvna (between Orsha and Dubrovna) was full of the bodies of the Muscovites who ran and plunged into it from steep banks” (Sergei Solovyov, History of Russia from the Earliest Times in 18 Books. Book 3, Vol. 5 and 6. Moscow, Mysl, 1989, pp. 238-239, in Russian).

It is, after all, a proven fact that the number of corpses left on the Orsha battlefield was really mind-boggling. To confirm this conclusion, let us turn again to Solovyov’s abovementioned works. The author goes on to say: “Reporting to the Livonian Master on the Orsha victory, Sigismund wrote that the Muscovites’ death toll was 30,000 out of the 80,000; eight superior voivodes, 37 lesser-rank officers and 1,500 noblemen were taken prisoner. While a Lithuanian detailed account says that only 611 were captured in the Battle of Orsha and in other places, Moscow sources agree with Lithuanian ones about the terrible consequences of the Orsha defeat” (Ibid, p. 239). As we see, one of the leading Russian historians had to admit an undeniable success of the army commanded by Kostiantyn Ostrozky in the battle against Muscovite troops. With due emphasis on this, we should also take into account that, while doing this thorough research, the scholar widely used various printed matter, manuscripts, and other archival documentary sources pertaining to the history of Russia. This further confirms the high quality of his work.

In our opinion, the researchers of Prince Ostrozky’s military activities should pay attention to some of Prof. Solovyov’s essential conclusions that characterize the professional level of ertswhile Muscovite army and especially those who commanded it. Although the scholar’s assessments are tinged with a certain ideological bias, he took an otherwise impartial, honest and very critical approach to dealing with this issue. According to Solovyov, “…it was easy to notice a higher degree of military art among the Lithuanian troops or, to be more exact, among the Lithuanian leaders, not to mention the Swedes, than among the Muscovite troops and voivodes: it follows from the fact that almost in all high-profile encounters with Western enemies in an open field, Muscovite troops have suffered a defeat: this happened in the battles of Orsha, Ula, Loda, Wenden… It would be strange to speak about the art of Muscovite voivodes who were appointed on the basis of the place they occupied at the Duma rather than on the basis of their military skills: a high-placed boyar could be a voivode at the same time, although he did not have the slightest talent…” (Ibid, pp. 629-630). It is a frank admission indeed.

Speaking of the Battle of Orsha, one should also remember that it saved the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from defeat and occupation by Russian troops. This is an important aspect of Ostrozky as an outstanding historical figure. Ostrozky remained hetman of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania until the end of his life. He was even authorized to affix a red wax seal, a prerogative of self-sufficient rulers. This also confirms that Prince Ostrozky was highly valued for his merits.

Naturally, like all humans, the prince had some weaknesses and flaws. Den/The Day’s articles dedicated to the Year of Kostiantyn Ostrozky will help, at least partially, to find this great personality a proper place in the history of Ukraine, understand the situation in which he had to act, and appraise his successes and failures. It is doubtless that only by thoroughly and impartially analyzing the conditions in which Prince Ostrozky lived, his views, persuasions and aspirations, without distorting what really took place, can we duly appraise his important role and place in the history of our nation.

Yurii Kylymnyk is a Kyiv-based Candidate of Sciences (Philosophy)