Korsun, Battle of

Korsun, Battle of [Корсунська битва; Korsuns'ka bytva]. One of the major battles of the Cossack-Polish War of 1648–57, which took place in 1648 near the town of Korsun (now Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi, Cherkasy oblast). The battle followed the defeat of the Poles at the Battle of Zhovti Vody on 16 May. The Polish hetmans Mikołaj Potocki and Marcin Kalinowski led an army of 20,000 men against 15,000 Cossacks led by Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky and 4,000 Tatars under the Crimean khan Tuhai-Bei. On 26 May the Polish forces were routed and more than 8,700 prisoners were taken, including Potocki and Kalinowski. The Cossack victory at Korsun helped launch a national uprising against Polish domination. The battle is described in detail by I. Storozhenko in his 1996 monograph about Khmelnytsky’s military campaigns.

[This article was updated in 2005.]