The siege of Dyneburg by the Russian Army under Tsar

Alexei Mikhailovich Aleksey Mikhaylovich ( rus, Алексе́й Миха́йлович, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsʲej mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ; – ) was the Tsar of Russia from 1645 until his death in 1676. While finding success in foreign affairs, his reign saw several wars ...

was one of the first events of the

Russo-Swedish War (1656–1658) The Russo-Swedish War of 1656–1658 was fought by Russia and Sweden as a theater of the Second Northern War. It took place during a pause in the contemporary Russo-Polish War (1654–1667) as a consequence of the Truce of Vilna. Despite i ...

, a theater of the Second Northern War. The siege began on 18 July 1656. One night in early August, the Russian bombardment caused a fire in the grain reserves of the stronghold. Consequently, some of the garrison had to leave the defences to begin putting it down. The Russians took advantage by immediately storming the fortifications and after a two hour fight, secured a victory. The commandant of the fort, Johan Willichman, took the Swedish flag with him and jumped into the fire. Rest of the defenders as well as all males present in the stronghold were slaughtered. After capturing Dyneburg (Dünaburg, Daugavpils), Tsar

ordered the building of an

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops vi ...

and the renaming of the city as ''Borisoglebsk''. The capture of Dynaburg was followed by the capture of Kokenhusen.

References

Bibliography

* Николай Шефов. Битвы России. Военно-историческая библиотека. М., 2002 Second Northern War Sieges involving Russia Sieges involving Sweden Conflicts in 1656 1656 in Europe History of Daugavpils Russians in Latvia {{military-history-stub