Filon Kmita
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Filon Kmita (1530–1587), also known as Kmita the Chernobylan, was a noble in the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...
and
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...
. Filon Kmita was notable for conducting counter-intelligence in the Muscovite wars and establishing a spy network in
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
, as well as successfully leading ambush attacks with considerably fewer soldiers than the enemy.


Biography


Early years and first position

Filon Kmita was born in 1530 in the
Kiev Voivodeship The Kiev Voivodeship (; ; ) was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1471 until 1569 and of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland from 1569 until 1793, as part of Lesser Poland Province of ...
to the Kmitów noble family as a son of Semion Kmita and Tatiana Kroszyńska. His father participated in battles between the
Ukrainian Cossacks The Zaporozhian Cossacks (in Latin ''Cossacorum Zaporoviensis''), also known as the Zaporozhian Cossack Army or the Zaporozhian Host (), were Cossacks who lived beyond (that is, downstream from) the Dnieper Rapids. Along with Registered Cossa ...
and Tatars, and Filon from a young age would be involved in various wars alongside him. Filon Kmita began his service in 1552 as the leader of a small border fortress on the
Oster Oster (, ; ) is a city in Chernihiv Raion, Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine. It is located where the Oster River flows into the Desna. Oster hosts the administration of Oster urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Its population is Today O ...
river. Here in 1562, he was noted for repelling a Muscovite regiment of 2,000 soldiers with just 300 horsemen. In the same year, he would gather a regiment of 1,400 soldiers and occupy
Chernigov Chernihiv (, ; , ) is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within the oblast. Chernihiv's population is The city was designated as a Hero City of Ukrain ...
, a Muscovite fortress that up until then had not been taken.


Skirmishes with the Muscovites

For his success in Chernigov, Filon Kmita would receive to govern the area of
Chernobyl Chernobyl, officially called Chornobyl, is a partially abandoned city in Vyshhorod Raion, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. It is located within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, to the north of Kyiv and to the southwest of Gomel in neighbouring Belarus. ...
(and as such would be called Kmita the Chernobylian). In 1566 he would become the ''
starost Starosta or starost (Cyrillic: ''старост/а'', Latin: ''capitaneus'', ) is a community elder in some Slavic lands. The Slavic root of "starost" translates as "senior". Since the Middle Ages, it has designated an official in a leadersh ...
'' of
Orsha Orsha (; , ; ) is a city in Vitebsk Region, Belarus. It is situated on the fork of the Dnieper, Dnieper River and Arshytsa River, and it serves as the administrative center of Orsha District. As of 2025, it has a population of 101,662. History ...
. Kmita would also be noted for his excellent organizational skills and fast attack into the Muscovite lands in the summer of 1579, at the same time as commander Krzysztof Radziwiłł almost captured the Russian ruler. In the same year, he became Voivode of Smolensk.


Final years

In 1580, Kmita was mistaken by a message of a double agent and attempted to take over the strongest Muscovite fortress –
Smolensk Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest cities in Russia. It has been a regional capital for most of ...
– with only 9,000 soldiers but failed. Despite the failure, Filon Kmita would continue to organize raids and various ambushes along the border. In 1582 Kmita also silently ambushed a Muscovite unit belonging to the Smolensk region. Filon Kmita would die in 1587, being a senator of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. His grave did not survive, but the epitaph did. It reads: "Manly, glorious senator of
Sarmatia Sarmatia was a geographic region defined in the ancient Graeco-Roman world that encompassed the western Eurasian steppe. It was inhabited by Sarmatians, an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people. Sarmatia was the name given by the Ro ...
, lord of Smolensk, clever in the field of battle, first among the first."


Methods during leadership


Unit

During the wars with the Muscovites, Filon Kmita was the head of a small unit of 200 hussars. It is believed that the unit consisted of battle-hardened and heavily armored 140 hussars and 60 Cossacks. Introduction to the unit was based on the skill of the soldier, rather than the soldier's ethnicity or religious beliefs. Kmita's unit consisted of not only Lithuanians but also Poles and
Ruthenians A ''Ruthenian'' and ''Ruthene'' are exonyms of Latin language, Latin origin, formerly used in Eastern and Central Europe as common Ethnonym, ethnonyms for East Slavs, particularly during the late medieval and early modern periods. The Latin term ...
.


Intelligence gathering

Once Kmita captured the city of Orsha, he made it the center of his intelligence operations, which he would use to receive information about the movement of
Tatar Tatar may refer to: Peoples * Tatars, an umbrella term for different Turkic ethnic groups bearing the name "Tatar" * Volga Tatars, a people from the Volga-Ural region of western Russia * Crimean Tatars, a people from the Crimea peninsula by the B ...
or Muscovite units. A part of the useful information Filon Kmita would receive, he would simply buy or receive it from deserters, merchants, or various others travelers. Such useful information via secret letter Filon Kmita would send back to the
Lithuanian Council of Lords The Lithuanian Council of Lords () was the main permanent institution of central government in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania active in its capital city of Vilnius. It had originated from the advisory Council of the Grand Duke, established by Vytau ...
as well as the rulers of Lithuania, Poland, and the most notable of nobles at the time. Since around 30 of these letters have survived, we know some names, or perhaps pseudonyms, of certain agents of his. Kmita's agents also assisted in the rescuing of certain Lithuanian soldiers to break free from the prison and get to Orsha. Kmita's network also developed a sophisticated messaging system. Operators on the border of the nation were instructed to periodically check an isolated singular spruce tree - if the second branch from the bottom was broken - it meant the Muscovites are organizing a war expedition against the nation. Likewise, if the branch was not broken, then the message was to remain calm for now. It is said that Kmita's unit created an unusual version of telling whether someone was telling the truth. The interrogated person would have their mouth filled with buckwheat flour, and if the flour remained dry, the person was supposedly lying. Some have theorized that it is thanks to Kmita's agents that the Muscovite dissident and duke
Andrey Kurbsky Prince Andrey Mikhailovich Kurbsky (1528?–1583) was a Russian political figure, military leader, and political philosopher, known as an intimate friend and then a leading political opponent of the Russian tsar Ivan the Terrible (). He defected ...
entered the Lithuanian side. Kmita himself wrote some letters to Tsar
Ivan the Terrible Ivan IV Vasilyevich (; – ), commonly known as Ivan the Terrible,; ; monastic name: Jonah. was Grand Prince of Moscow, Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1533 to 1547, and the first Tsar of all Russia, Tsar and Grand Prince of all R ...
dedicated to further incite paranoia among the enemy circle, which also according to the theory supposedly lead to the sack of Novgorod.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kmita, Filon 1530 births 1587 deaths Polish people of the Livonian campaign of Stephen Báthory Military personnel of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth 16th-century Polish nobility Voivodes of Smolensk