Zborov, Battle of 1649

a battle fought on August 5–6 (15–16) near the town of Zborov (present-day Ternopol’ Oblast, Ukrainian SSR) between the Ukrainian and Polish armies during the Ukrainian people’s war of liberation (1648–54).

In the spring of 1649 Bogdan Khmel’nitskii’s troops and the Crimean Tatars of Khan Islam-Girei III beseiged the fortress of Zbarazh. The king of Poland, Jan Kazimierz, advanced to aid the beseiged fortress with an army of 30,000. Khmel’nitskii moved with his main forces and the Tatars to meet the Poles, attacking from the front and rear on August 5 and surrounding them, while the Poles were fording the Strypa River. On August 6 the Cossacks broke into the Poles’ fortified camp, and only betrayal by the khan, who had been bribed by the Poles, saved the Polish army from total destruction. On August 8 (18) Khmel’nitskii was obliged to conclude the Treaty of Zborov of 1649.