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Battle of Orša is a landmark in Belarusians’ history, Cichanoŭskaja says
September 8, Pozirk. Belarusian nationalists today mark the 512th anniversary of the Battle of Orša as Combat Glory Day, a landmark not celebrated by the pro-Russian government in Belarus.
Pro-democracy leader Sviatłana Cichanoŭskaja described the victory of the army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland over the Grand Duchy of Moscow as the major military history event for the nation.
“We have been told for many years that Belarusian history started as recently as last century or something like that,” Cichanoŭskaja said. “They claimed that before the Soviet Union or the Russian Empire, we did not exist at all. But that is not true.”
According to her, the victory of the troops led by Kanstancin Astrožski is a shared one for the Belarusians, the Lithuanians, the Poles and the Ukrainians.
She recalled that after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, many Belarusians did their utmost to support Ukraine, sharing information about the movement of Russian military equipment and disrupting train services used to supply the Russian army. “And the bravest Belarusian volunteers took up arms to defend Ukraine, realizing that Ukraine’s victory would create a chance for Belarus as well,” she said.
On September 8, 1514, a 30,000 army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, led by Hetman Kanstancin Astrožski, defeated an 80,000-strong Muscovite force near Orša in what is now northern Belarus.
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