Many trials fell to the lot of the Russian soldier, and in numerous wars in which the Russian army had to take part, besides glorious victories, there were setbacks and high-profile defeats. But the main thing is that the corresponding conclusions were drawn in time and the mistakes were corrected, and Russia is now a strong independent state. Thousands of books and scientific works have been written about numerous victories, but today we will move away from patriotic patterns and consider the defeats of the Russian army.
We will not depart from traditions, and begin the narrative in chronological sequence, starting from the era of the Old Russian state to military operations of the Second World War.
The largest defeats of the Russian army:
1
Russo-Byzantine War (941–944)
According to a few reports of historical documents, it is already difficult to restore the true backstory of the hostilities between Russia and Byzantium.
In fact, it was not a war, but two unsuccessful campaigns of the Kiev prince Igor Rurikovich to Constantinople. The first campaign, which took place in 941, ended with the Russian fleet being completely defeated at the entrance to the Bosphorus, where the Greeks first used Greek fire, burning the ships of the Russians.
Gathering the army again, Igor in 943 made a new attempt to take Constantinople. But the clash never happened. After lengthy negotiations, Russia concluded an unprofitable peace treaty with the Byzantine emperor.
2
The war with Byzantium and the death of Svyatoslav (972)
The painting of Heinrich Ippolitovich Semiradsky “The Trizina of Svyatoslav's combatants after the battle near Dorostol in 971”
In 969, Svyatoslav captured part of Bulgaria, which caused extreme discontent among Byzantium. In 970, 120 kilometers from Constantinople, the main forces of the Rus were defeated by the army of Byzantium.
Svyatoslav, forced to start negotiations, agreed to return to Kiev, and abandon territorial claims. Passing with a small detachment of the Dnieper rapids, Prince Svyatoslav was ambushed by the Pechenegs.
In an unequal battle, the Russian detachment was defeated, and Svyatoslav himself was killed. According to legend, the Pecheneg prince Kurya, in deference to the Kiev prince, made a cup from his skull, and drank from it at feasts. Among the Turkic peoples it was believed that, in this way, the power and courage of the defeated enemy was transferred to the owner of the cup.
3
The Batu invasion (1237–1340)
The Russian princes could not overcome personal differences, and Russia broke up into specific princedoms. The tragic consequence of political fragmentation was the inability to organize resistance to the Tatar-Mongol invasion.
The princes suffered their first major defeat at the Battle of Kalka on May 31, 1223. Then, starting in 1237, in a short period, practically all Russian principalities were captured, many cities were burned, and Russia itself became politically and economically dependent on the Golden Horde.
For more than three hundred years, Russian rulers have been forced to pay tribute to the Horde khans, and some undergo the humiliating procedure of obtaining a label on the right to reign in their own lands.
4
The burning of Moscow (1382)
After the victory in the Kulikovo field, Russia had a chance to get rid of the Mongol yoke, but the sudden campaign of Khan Tokhtamysh postponed this glorious event for 100 years.
Having overthrown Mamai, Tokhtamysh began to prepare for a campaign in the northeastern lands of Russia. Having reached Kazan, the khan killed all the Russian ambassadors and merchants, so that the news of the campaign did not reach Moscow.
After the Battle of Kulikovo, Prince Dmitry could not assemble a large and efficient army. Dmitry went to Kostroma for help, where the news of the capture and burning of Moscow by the Mongol Tatars caught him.
Power over the Russian state was restored, and along the way the khan burned Vladimir, Pereslavl, Yuryev, Mozhaysk and Zvenigorod.
5
Livonian war (1558-1583 years)
For almost 50 years, the Russian kingdom waged a grueling war on its northwestern borders. Trying to gain a foothold on the Baltic coast, Ivan IV began military operations with an attack on Livonia.
At the last stage of the war, Sweden entered it, and Russian troops began to lose. By the end of 1581, the Swedish army occupied the entire coast of the Gulf of Finland, and Russia lost cities such as Koporye, Ivangorod, Korela.
The results of the war for Russia were deplorable. The loss of territories that returned only under Fedor Ivanovich, the northwestern lands were practically depopulated, the economic development of the Russian kingdom was undermined.
6
Battle of Klushino (June 24, 1610)
The battle between the Commonwealth and the combined Russian-Swedish forces took place in the Smolensk region. The troops of Stanislav Zholkevsky, numbering no more than 7 thousand soldiers, defeated the 30 thousandth Russian-Swedish detachment.
The Swedish command and foreign mercenaries conspired with the Poles and betrayed, as a result of which the Russian army was in a difficult position.
Unable to withstand the pressure of the Polish cavalry and heavy infantry, the Russians fled. The sad outcome of the defeat was the strengthening of Polish influence on the political life of the Moscow state, and the Moscow boyars swore allegiance to the Prince of Poland, Vladislav.
7
Battle of Konotop (June 28, 1659)
Having taken the Zaporizhzhya Army (which was then officially called Ukraine) under his loyal hand, the Russian tsar was forced to start a war against the Commonwealth.
In the city of Konotop, the Russian army under the command of Alexei Trubetskoy was opposed by a coalition of Poland, the Crimean Khanate, the Cossacks of the hetman Vygovsky and foreign mercenaries of European countries.
After encircling Pozharsky’s detachment, Trubetskoy’s camp defended about 28 thousand people against the 40 thousandth coalition army. As a result of the battle, Trubetskoy gave the order to retreat. Russian losses amounted to about 5 thousand soldiers of regular troops and 2 thousand Cossacks. The loss of the enemy amounted to about 10 thousand Crimean Tatars and Cossacks.
8
Battle of Narva (November 30, 1700)
In the very first battle of the Northern War, Russian Tsar Peter I and his army suffered a brutal defeat from the Swedish troops.
The battle was preceded by a large and lengthy preparation, and as subsequent events showed, the Russians were unable to arrange the provision of the army with ammunition and food.
In the early morning of November 30, Swedish troops secretly approached the positions of the Russians and began shelling. A direct clash began at 2 p.m. The Swedes at the same time striking the center and flanks of the Russian army forced her to capitulate.
9
Austerlitz (November 20, 1805)
The battle of the “three emperors” during the Napoleonic forces can also be included in the defeat of the Russian army, although it fought in battle shoulder to shoulder with the Austrian soldiers.
This battle went down in history as a standard of victory over superior enemy forces. The main mistake of Russia was that in fact the army was commanded not by Kutuzov, but by Emperor Alexander I. He completely accepted the erroneous plan of the Austrians, and the coalition was defeated.
Napoleon lost from 11 to 12 thousand of his soldiers, out of 27 thousand losses of the Allies, 21 thousand were Russians. Since the days of Narva, Russia has not been defeated, and Austerlitz has responded hard in the hearts of the people of the Russian Empire.
10
The battle on the Black River (1855)
This battle, which took place near the Chernaya River in Crimea, became one of the episodes of the Crimean War. On August 4, 1855, Russian troops were defeated by the combined Franco-Sardinian forces.
The decision to launch an offensive in order to lift the siege from the port of Sevastopol was made personally by the commander of the Russian troops Mikhail Gorchakov. Everyone understood that he was rushing from the capital, and the army was completely unprepared for decisive offensive actions.
As a result of the battle, Russia's losses amounted to over 8 thousand people. The siege from Sevastopol was not lifted, and the French further strengthened their positions and began a massive bombardment of the city.
11
Tsushima battle (1905)
The black page is not only in the history of the Russian fleet, but also throughout the Russian Empire. On May 14, the 2nd squadron of the Pacific Fleet under the command of Zinovy Rozhdestvensky and the ships of the Imperial Fleet of Japan converged on the island of Tsushima.
The forces of the parties were approximately equal, but during the artillery duel, the Russian fleet lost most of the new ships, and the remaining ones were outdated. The confrontation between cruisers and armadillos in the afternoon of May 15 also remained with the Japanese, and Russian ships began to hang flags about surrender.
In total, Russia lost 21 ships, Japanese losses amounted to only two destroyers, the remaining ships, although they received damage, were subject to repair. The defeat greatly accelerated the signing of a peace treaty, according to which the Russian Empire was losing significant territories in the Far East and international authority in this region of the planet.
12
Battle of Tannenberg (August 1914)
This battle was a key episode of the East Prussian operation of the First World War. It went down in history under various names, but everyone agreed that this was a disaster for the Russian army.
The commander of the 2nd Army, General Samsonov, objectively assessed the strategic situation and began to advance deep into East Prussia, and the 1st Army of Rennenkampf, as a result of poor interaction between the two Russian armies, was unable to provide support in time.
As a result of the main battle on August 30, part of the Russian 2nd Army was surrounded. Realizing his mistake, General Samsonov shot himself. Russian losses amounted to 6 thousand killed, about 50 thousand were taken prisoner.
But the Germans as a result of heavy fighting in East Prussia suffered heavy losses, amounting to 30 thousand people killed and wounded.
13
Battle of Warsaw (August 1920)
This confrontation during the Soviet-Polish war is also called the “miracle on the Vistula,” during which the Polish forces of Pilsudski, with the support of parts of the UPR, defeated the Western Front of the Red Army under the command of Tukhachevsky.
On August 12, Tukhachevsky’s troops launched an attack on Warsaw, but already on the 16th were stopped, and Poland went on the offensive. By the end of the battle on August 25, Polish troops occupied Brest, Bialystok.
About 25 thousand soldiers of the Red Army died on the battlefields, 65 thousand were captured. In fact, this was the first major military defeat of the young Red Army, and Poland retained independence as a result of the victory.
14
Tank battle near Dubno (June 23-30, 1941)
On the second day of World War II, the largest tank battle in the history of all world wars took place. Yes, yes, it is this battle that is the largest tank battle, not the Kursk battle of 1943. TheBiggest is very negative about myths that try to exaggerate the victorious pages of history, forgetting about terrible defeats.
On the Dubno-Lutsk-Brody-Rivne line, 3 128 Soviet tanks and 728 tanks of the four South German army divisions converged in a tank battle. Later, to repel the counterattack of the Red Army, the Germans introduced another 71 assault guns into the battle. The Soviet tankers did not have, like German, combat experience, the coordination between the formations was weak, which was one of the reasons for the defeat of the mechanized corps of the Red Army.
The losses of the Red Army were colossal. It was disabled 2 648 combat vehicles against 260 tanks and guns from the Germans.
15
Kiev defensive operation (July-September 1941)
The largest strategic confrontation between the Red Army and the German Wehrmacht during the Great Patriotic War.
During the fighting, the Red Army was forced on September 19 to leave Kiev and most of the territories of the Ukrainian SSR. 665 thousand Soviet soldiers were surrounded, more than 700 thousand fell on the battlefields.
The retreat of the Southwestern Front changed the strategic situation in favor of the Nazis. As a result of the victory near Kiev, the army of the Germans opened the way to the Donbass, a significant part of the Soviet troops was surrounded in the Sea of Azov, a month later the Wehrmacht occupied Kharkov.
But the heroic defense of Soviet soldiers and the people's militia significantly delayed the advancement of the Germans and their allies.
16
Kharkov operation (May 1942)
The attempt of a strategic offensive of the Red Army in May 1942 went down in history as the Second Battle of Kharkov, and became a real disaster for the Soviet troops.
On May 12, the Soviet offensive began, and in some sectors the units of the Red Army even managed to develop strategic success and supplant the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht.
But already on May 17, the Germans launched a counterattack, and on May 23, most of the Soviet troops were encircled. Attempts to break free were unsuccessful. The total losses of the Red Army amounted to 20 thousand people. According to the Germans, 240 thousand Soviet soldiers and officers were captured.
Conclusions
Summing up, we can conclude that not many states in their history have victories over the Russian army. If you look objectively, then the confrontation between the USSR and the USA during the Cold War can also be recorded in defeat.
Be that as it may, history does not know the subjunctive mood "if, then ...". Everything that happens on the world stage is quite natural. The main thing is not to embellish and not try to rewrite the pages of history for the sake of the political conjuncture, be it the glorious pages of victories and great achievements or the tragic moments of failures and bitter defeats.
TheBiggest editors ask you to write in the comments what other defeats of the Russian army you would add to our list.
Article author: Valery Skiba