My thoughts on Ukraine

Against the odds

If you dig into the history of human conflicts, sooner or later you will find cases of battles or indeed entire campaigns lost by large armies to dramatically or even ridiculously smaller forces. The reasons vary – from cunning tactics, superior skills, strong determination, convictions and high morale on one side to disregard, arrogance and haughtiness on the other.

Below I give you an account of one such case which you probably have never heard of.

In the middle of the seventeenth century The PolishLithuanian Commonwealth, the largest country in the mainland Europe at the time found itself in perilous position. Attacked by Russian forces from the east and by Tatars from the south-east, it was also invaded from the north by the Swedish king Charles X Gustav. While fighting off the first two enemies made the defence very difficult, there were just not enough resources to fight the Swedes. Sweden, by the way, had a well equipped and battle hardened army, possibly the strongest and among the best in Europe.

The Polish-Lithuanian king John II Casimir escaped to the Czechs and Charles Gustav, presented by his supporters as the only possible protector and saviour of the Commonwealth, overran the country. High ranked officials, military units, cities and towns were surrendering to the Swedish King one by one. It all looked bleak to say the least.

Jasna Góra (which loosely translates as The Bright Mountain or perhaps better as Luminous Mountain) is a small monastery near Czȩstochowa (a village back then, a small town today) surrounded by a defensive wall which seemed to be symbolic rather than anything else. You can visit it today and you will be surprised by its size. Jasna Góra was (and still is) holding a beautiful icon-like painting of the Holy Mary holding baby Jesus in her arms. The painting, known as the Black Madonna is of unknown origin and the earliest mention of it in chronicles go back to about 1085. It has been highly venerated and Jasna Góra remains a destination of pilgrimages since the Middle Ages.

King Charles Gustav was advised by his ministers not to touch Jasna Góra, but since technically at least it was a fortress, the king and his generals wanted to remove the small Polish garrison there and replace it with Swedish troops. But Sweden was Protestant and for the Prior Augustine Kordecki allowing Protestants to enter the most holy place in Poland was inconceivable. And this is how the siege began.

Few attempts at a negotiated solution quickly failed and in the winter of 1655 Swedish general Burchard Müller arrived with perhaps not a huge army of about 2250 men but his forces outnumbered the defenders by the factor of one hundred. He brought with them some artillery and a few siege towers. He was an experienced general with victorious battles and sieges on his account. As the defenders looked on from the walls at the Swedish army spreading around and surrounding them from all sides it seemed Jasna Góra was doomed.

General Müller and his officers thought they were in for a quick victory in a matter of days or weeks (which – by the way - is what Putin was aiming at when his army crossed the Ukrainian border on February 24th last year).

The ensuing siege lasted about a month with an exchange of fierce fire from both sides, interrupted by short breaks when general Müller was attempting diplomatic solutions by either showing compassion and mercy, or at other times threatening defenders with terrible deaths and the complete erasure of Jasna Góra.

The more time went by the higher the stakes grew. General‘s Müller‘s reputation was on one side, and seemingly hopeless but prevailing Jasna Góra was on the other. Hopeless, because it was practically the only place that refused to surrender to the Swedish King. Frustrated Müller brought in more and bigger guns but they made no difference. The largest one exploded within days by a well aimed artillery shot from Jasna Góra. Guns, persuasion, promises, threats, and terror failed. In the end the Swedish King ordered Müller to abandon the siege. This had a most unusual effect –news of Jasna Góra fighting the Swedes spread like a wildfire. Poles were rising against King Gustav‘s army everywhere. Jasna Góra and her patron – the Holy Mary gained unsurpassed glory and a place in history.

Successful defence was very much due to a single man, the prior Augustine Kordecki and it appears he was not doing so because of sheer patriotism, which would be glorious thing to do of course, but for other reasons. Prior Kordecki no doubt understood he had no chance to save Poland overrun by the Swedish King. The Polish king, as mentioned before, was out of the country in hiding and in his absence politicians actually signed documents giving Poland to the Swedish king. By not letting the Swedes inside his fortress Kordecki was actually breaking the signed documents and consequently the law. His reason for which he would not open the gates and let the Swedes in was that Jasna Góra was considered the centre of Polish Catholicism and also contained the revered painting. For Kordecki and his monks it was unthinkable to let the Protestants even touch it. He was also afraid his monastery would be plundered by the Swedes as they were known to rob churches of anything valuable. So you could say it was a religious war to him even though it was not declared as such.

Consequences were extraordinary. The victory galvanized Poles who turned on Swedes with vengeance much faster than they initially surrendered. As we say today the Swedes were out at no time.

We are witnessing a similar situation in Ukraine. Russians invaded it out of greed and the ill ambition of the Russian government which we could say is nothing but shallow reasoning to say the least. They seemed to be successful in the first weeks, disregarding Ukrainians and having them in low regard. It seemed it was only a matter of time before Ukraine would collapse. Ukrainians on the other hand are defending their country fighting for their freedom. It is a fight for their very survival and existence which obviously makes their fight right and just.

This terrible war will be soon full one year old and today just like on the very first day I absolutely detest what the Russians are doing. I have Ukraine on my mind and in my heart every single day, I wish for Ukrainians to prevail and to chase the nasty aggressors away from their entire country. I hope you are with me.

Wojtek Migdalski