Życie codzienne wojska Rzeczpospolitej Obojga Narodów podczas kampanii moskiewskich w latach 1579 – 1582
The daily life of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth army during Moscow campaigns in years 1579 – 1582

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the daily life of soldiers during lasting three years war with the Grand Duchy of Moscow. For legal and military matters, during each war campaign, legal acts called military articles were issued. The main military command consisted of crown and Lithuanian hetmans. Each expedition was attended by a large number of army in the range of 40 – 50 thousands soldiers, and their combat value was at a satisfactory level. The morale of the army depended on many factors, among which we can mention: financial issues, weather, road quality, diseases or spiritual matters. High costs of the war resulted that in theneed to finance the expeditions, in addition to tax collection, funds from the loans were also needed. Mercenary soldiers were obtained mainly from German states and Hungary. Duringthe march, the army was divided into two groups in order to, among other things, reduce the problem of food. The main disadvantage of the route of the march was a thick forest, whichhas been deliberately planted on the orders of Ivan IV. Soldiers during all three campaigns were badly provisioned, which was particularly evident during the Pskov campaign.

• Details
• Contents