THE BATTLE OF KONOTOP IN 1659
It will not be an exaggeration to say that for contemporary Ukraine the battle of Konotop in 1659 has been a symbol of the victory over the power against which we have been fighting for several centuries.
Tatar archer
It has been a landmark giving confidence to many generations of Ukrainians. Russian historian S. Solovyov perhaps gave, with bitter regret, the most accurate description of the Moscow army defeat near Konotop,
"The elite of Moscow cavalry that had happily survived the campaigns of 1654 and 1655 were killed within a single day, and Moscow tsar was never able to take such a brilliant army to a battlefield any more. Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich came out to the people in the mourning clothing and the terror embraced Moscow —"
How did all that begin
