Today is 500th anniversary of victory of Orsha

Today is the Belarusian Military Glory Day.

500 years ago, on September 8, 1514, the forces of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeated the army of the Duchy of Moscow that exceeded the Lithuanian forces three times.

The battle became a turning point in yet another war with the Duchy of Moscow, when Muscovite forces tried to occupy the territory of Belarus. One of the main heroes of the Orsha battle was Hetman Kanstantsin Astrozhski (Konstanty Ostrogski). He was in command of the 30,000 troops that defeated more than 80,000 troops of the Duchy of Moscow. By that time, Astrozhski had over 50 successful battles over the Crimean Tatars.

Jerzy Radziwill Hercules was in charge of the main forces of the cavalry. Duke of Slutsk Yury Olelkovich and Ivan Sapega were in charge of smaller cavalry squads.

The victory in the Battle of Orsha disrupted the plans of the Moscow Tsar and the Holy Roman Emperor on the first geopolitical partition of Eastern Europe. They wanted the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to be liquidated as an independent state and its lands to be given to Moscow.

Our country defended its independence in the Battle of Orsha. The aggression of the Duchy of Moscow was stopped for decades. The battle disrupted a alliance of the Holy Roman Empire, the Teutonic Order, the Crimean Tatars and the Duchy of Moscow. The German Emperor gave up his idea of the alliance with Moscow and entered into alliance with the Grand Duke of Lithuania and the Polish King.

It's only in the late 1980s that Belarusians began to celebrate September 8 as the Belarusian Military Glory Day. In 1992, on the anniversary of the great battle, Belarusian army officers solemnly took the oath of loyalty to the country and nation in Minsk's Independence Square. On September 8, 1992, 12 officers and 3,000 reserve soldiers took the oath in Minsk. Participants of the ceremony faced pressure from the authorities, but in a short time all military units took the oath of loyalty to Belarus.