Battle of Orsha, 1514 ⚔️ Russian army bested by the stubborn Hussars ⚔️ DOCUMENTARY 

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He ordered his cavalry to cross an entire battle front , through arrow fire, to attack a group on the opposite side of his deployment. A Total War move if ever i've seen one!

Never thought that I would ever see a documentary about this battle on a major RU-vid history channel, I got to admit, I have almost teared up. A big thank you from a Belarusian here.

Russians: It's over Hussars, we have you surrounded Polish Hussars: All we're surronded by is fear and dead men!

The Polish - Lithuanian Army formed in its classic formatiom , The Old Polish Order ! In the year 1514 ! Im so proud to be Polish .

Its worth noting that at this time the Polish and Lithuanian hussars were light cavalry, only being converted to heavy after the reforms of Stefan Batory in the 1570's. At this time the heavy cavalry were lancers largely indistinguishable from French Gendarmes and the like (the real difference being less companies used armoured horses and so called Gothic armour remained popular for longer).

An interesting fact: one of the engineers who made a significant contribution to the construction of bridges was named Jan Baszta, he came from a small town of Żywiec.

Extremely interesting as always. And congratulate you a beautiful pronunciation of difficult Slavic names. Very rare.

The polish Lithuanian commander took a page out of Alexander’s playbook at the battle of the Hydaspes. A well executed deceptive maneuver to cross the river.

Perfect video for me today! :D Currently playing Poland in a boardgame of Europa Universalis! Its been rough but I've vassalized Lithuania, annexed Prussia and smashed a Swedish occupation of Livonia! 💪😎💪

The history videos you make are amazing. So so much better than any detailed long documentaries that are not even available for free.

I forgot to add, the Battle of Kircholm 1605 deserves similar attention, it is also the "away performances" of the Polish hussars. This battle is, by the way, still taught at West Point today as the art of battle tactics "The descendants of the century will be more surprised at this victory than they will believe it" - Jakub Sobieski, father of Jan III Sobieski, later the king of Poland, victor of Vienna in 1683.

As a Lithuanian i am so excited of this stories! Thank you! So proud of your work and keep going!

What a masterfully played battle given the conditions! Crossing river, ruse, man disadvantage, long march toward enemy position, enemy choose ground but was still surprised. Minimal losses. Perfect result. Decisive victiory.

Thanks for this one! Cheers from land of Hussars!

Thanks for PLC history. It is not very heavily explored in English speaking internet and it's good that you are changing that. Great job!

My Polish ancestors were Winged Hussars at Vienna 1683. My father has one of their szabla (saber). I reenact a WH. The thing to remember is their Kopia's ( lances) were 14-18 feet long. Way longer than pikeman's pike. Hussars were armed with 3 swords, 2 pistols, war hammer or axe, dagger, and some even had bows. When the kopias broke. They would transition to the Koncerz. Which is a long 4 edged straight thrusting sword. The last sword was the Palasz. This was a 5 lbs hacking broadsword. These 2 weapons were in scabbards running along the side of the saddle, under the legs of the hussars. These 3 weapons were to enable the hussar to fight his way back through the enemy line to reack his retainer with replacement kopias. They were armed to the teeth. Their armor was proof tested against firearms. They wore a predatory animal pelt (cheetah, tiger etc) to unnerve opposing cavalry horses. Even the pennant at the end of the kopia was to distract the opposing horse.

I'm always amazed by the numbers of cavalry involved in eatern Europe battles

Hussars is bad ass ! I love hearing about Hussars.

Regarding many comments and video description: this was NOT a battle of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Back then, Poland and Lithuania were two independent states under one king/Grand Duke(Sigismund I the Old at the time of battle). PLC was formally brought to life by his son Sigismund II Augustus in 1569. It's like calling England under Henry VIII the UK.

Witam :) Jestem pod wrazem wierności przekazania historycznych wydarzeń . Pozdrawiam i gratuluje .

The Battle of Orsha was a battle fought on 8 September 1514, a VICTORY of the allied forces of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Ruthenia and the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland (with an army of 30,000) over the Grand Duchy of Moscow (with an army of 80,000). The war between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Ruthenia and the Grand Duchy of Moscow lasted until 1522. 1st Lithuanian-Muscovite War (1368-1372) 2nd Lithuanian-Muscovite War (1487-1494) 3rd Lithuanian-Muscovite War (1500-1503) 4th Lithuanian-Muscovite War (1507-1508) 5th Lithuanian-Muscovite War (1512-1522) 6th Lithuanian-Muscovite War (1534-1537) ... In 1395, Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania took Smolens'k and installed his governor there. in 1514, the Grand Principality of Moscow under Vasili III captured Smolens'k. Final result of Lithuanian-Muscovite War (1512-1522) was Smolens'k under Muscovite rule.

Thank you for covering a battle I had never heard of before! Great work as usual. Keep it up!

Sabaton is waiting to enter the chat…. But then…. THE WINGED HUSSARS ARRIVED

Interesting battle. The poles sure were good fighters in this period.

One of the more intense videos you've done, nice work

Nice to see a video on a battle from the Muscovite-Lithuanian Wars. They really don't get much attention. Wouldn't mind seeing more documentaries on them. Say for example the Battle of Vedrosha, 1500

It is great that you differentiate Ruthenian and Russian people

I'm polish, i love history, but i hear about this battle first time, thanks HistoryMarche

I can tell by the music at the beggining that Hannibal is in charge of this army, I'm excited to see how he handles 16th century forces!

I know that many already asked you BUT when you think you can do the rest of Hannibal's story? You've done such a detailed work, with so many infos (obviously there is nothing left out) that pulled me from ep.1 and cant wait for more. Ofc, we must say that war is horrible thing... Learning about so many bloody battles, with tens of thousands dying on a single day, makes you realize the dread nature of humans! I study war history in general and im really shocked on how much evil humans are capable of, either out of personal ego, greed, hollow ambition, etc.

Great work! Please keep up the videos. They are one of the small things that brings me enjoyment.

Thank you and appreciate the historical background which put the battle in context.

Later, for 150 years, no one was equal to the Polish cavalry

Wonderful telling of complex and exciting history. Thanks.

Very nice video! Thank you 🥳

That was so good :D Please do the Battle of Vienna!

Thanks for sharing this knowledge! I am from Poland and didn't know that, shame on me. Lucky we got You!

Please remember that hussars werent winged yet. At this time they were Also rather light cavlry

Your work never disappoints!

Thank you for this!

Great video as always.

Suggestion: something that might help is flashing some art near the start of each episode so we have an idea how each side was equipped. I only have a vague idea what "Polish light cavalry" would mean for this period. Nothing fancy as Osprey color plates, but anything to give a accurate visual idea of how each side was equipped.

Thanks for your work!

Love the back round sound n music, excellent!

One of the best channels on RU-vid Bravo Zulu HistoryMarche

HM I wasn’t as big on your style as say kings and generals early on but after a couple years of watching the content you make, I’ve come to favor your stuff over the rest.

This was quite awesome. Great stuff

Great job with putting this video together

Sorry, HistoryMarche - but you're wrong. Russians couldn't have 60 or 50 thousands of troops in early 16 century, as well as Lithuanians. Tsar Ivan 4th the Terrible only after military reforms near 1550 finally summooned 50 thousandands for taking Kasan - moskovite feudals ("pomeschiki"), kossacks, tatars and streltsy (russian musketeers). In early 16th russian rulers (Vasilii III) had 20-30 thousands in ALL armies, east and west parts of their country. Battle of Orsha was big and great - but had less troops on the battlefield.

great watch as always👍👍

Poland defenders of Europe ! Good bless them..

Thank you! As for me, your channel now is Nr. 1 of Historical channels. Cuz Kings ang Generals are now сompromised.

What about a playlist with Polish and Lithuanian wars with Russia/Sweden/Turkey etc? Currently we see the Central Europe emerge as a significant player, which if everything goes right, could be understood as the rebirth of the Commonwealth but in different political system(s). A playlist like that would, ekhm, refer to nowadays challenges let's say.

Oh my, yes. Thank you for this.

As others have said, the Hussars at the time were light cavalry, nothing alike the later winged hussars. The thumbnail could be quite missleading imo, I would replace it. It's also interesting to point out that according to Tomas Baranauskas, the infantry on the polish side were the (or most of the) bohemian mercenaries, some 3000 men, both light and heavy. There's a very nice painting of the battle that depicts equipment that could have been used by both infantry and cavalry, even if it dates around 1530-35, the style of the arms and armor looks the part.

Fantastic video! Really interesting tactics being used. Always love an underdog victory

Relaxing.) We all know how the war between the Russians and the Poles ended,) the Partitions of Poland.)

Great job!

great review of the battle

The claim of 500 dead is not unrealistic considering that Hussars themselves have lost 4% of their forces in their worst cases. The loses in horses though, were sometimes reaching even 50%.

Look a bit like battle at Cannae? 🤔 Love sooooo much your videos. Greetings from Croatia ✌️

Reminds me of Alexander the Great's battle of Hydaspes at first

As always, spectacular video

Awesome as always

Thanks!

Amazing victory of Polish forces! 😮

Very interesting! Ty!

Brilliant work

very good video also the polish wing hussars are MY PERSONAL FAV OF ALL THE CLAVARY UNITS IN THE WORLD

HIstoryMarche, there are videos I can't wait to watch such as: Rise of Augustus Caesar (Part 6) Prince Eugene of Savoy (episode 3) Basil II, the Bulgar slayer (part 2) First War of Scottish Independence, (Part 4) Third Samnite War (Part 3) Hannibal, Second Punic War (Part 19)

Great content!

Excellent episode. Please add in a mile/kilometer scale to the battle maps to gain more insight into the situation. Thank you.

5:32 Shame you didn't show Dvina and Dnieper rivers to better visualize the importance of Smoleńsk and the Smoleńsk Gate. The land bridge of Smoleńsk Gate between Dvina nad Dnepr would be self-explanatory

Interesting material, I learned about it long time ago, but not in such details. Refreshing.

great video!

With this video, you just got a new suscriber, amazing one.

This is great example how powerful is coordination between Ukrainians, Poles, Belarusians and Lithuanians. Love your channel.

Classical battle from the Renaissance. The winning strategy was to confront the enemy army with the right armored, weapened and operating soldiers. Russian light cavalry attack on the right was countered by heavy cavalry, Russian light cavalry attack on the left was defended effective with pike and guns. The Russian centre was advancing too slow and late, surrounded and butchered. The account of the 500 death Poles seems right (without wounded).

I wish the videos were longer, I love these videos

Awesome video! Makes me want to play more civ v!

Polish Hussars were the Elite of Army at that time, so I wouldn't question the 1:26 loss ratio. This battle could resemble, for example, a clash between US Marines and Iraqis during a Desert Storm operation ...

I need more videos. Please make more. Thank you

Thx for video

Very informative❤

You made so many videos about Polish military history, which I am grateful of. But did you plan to make a series about the beginning of Kingdom of Poland? Great struggle between Mieszko I and Bolesław the Brave against German Emperors?

Greetings from Stockholm 👍

Fascinating stuff!

Great visuals!

Great video as always HM!

Cleverly done corrective editing I love your channel.

Best video thanks

Thanks for that! When 4K on the channel?

Impressive! Great animation, awesome voice. As for the text&sentences structure, all hats off! Again, quite a pleasure on all levels, thanks a lot! Such quality keeps me humble&curious.

Amazing history video & clearly explained shared by excellent historical coverages channel ( History Marche)....allot thanks

Great video

Well done. I subscribed

Another excellent video HM!

According to Webster's the word hussar stems from the Hungarian huszár, which in turn originates from the Serbian хусар (Husar, or гусар, Gusar) meaning pirate, from the Medieval Latin cursarius (cf. the English word corsair).[19] A variant of this theory is offered by Byzantinist scholars, who argue the term originated in Roman military practice, and the cursarii (singular cursarius).[20] Through Byzantine Army operations in the Balkans in the 10th and 11th centuries when Chosarioi/Chonsarioi were recruited with especially Serbs,[21] the word was subsequently reintroduced to Western European military practice after its original usage had been lost with the collapse of Rome in the west.[22] The hussars reportedly originated in bands of mostly Serbian warriors [23] crossing into Kingdom of Hungary after the Ottoman invasion of medieval Serbian state at the end of the 14th century. The Governor of Hungary, Hunyadi János - John Hunyadi, created mounted units inspired by his enemy the Ottoman Turks. His son, Hunyadi Mátyás Matthias Corvinus, later king of Hungary, is unanimously accepted as the creator of these troops. Initially they fought in small bands, but were reorganised into larger, trained, formations during the reign of King Matthias Corvinus.[24][25] Initially the first units of Polish hussars in the Kingdom of Poland were formed in 1500, which consisted of Serbian mercenaries.[26]

I think the winged Hussars is one of, if not the coolest military unit in history!