БЕЛАРУСКІ ГІСТАРЫЧНЫ АГЛЯД

At the beginning of the war against Moscow the armed forces of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were not numerous. The second seym in 1654 passed a bill which enabled an increase in the number of soldiers only to 15 thousand. However, as the conflict escalated and new ones arose, such as the war against Sweden, the number of soldiers gradually increased. Battle and non-battle losses were considerably significant, therefore new recruitment very often only fulfilled the losses. However, the number of Lithuanian soldiers was still gradually increasing until 1661. In 1658 it reached 18 thousand and two years later it was only one thousand higher. Need we also point out that number of soldiers in Moscow forces in this period was several times higher.

The author emphasized the role of Pawel Jan Sapieha, the commander of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania’s troops, whose efforts were aimed at both qualitative and quantitative improvement of his army. In 1661 a slow winding up of the army took place. Losses could not be fulfilled that quickly anymore and the lack of funds did not allow to draft new military units. During the whole war period of 1654-1667 the number of soldiers in the army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania fluctuated around 20 thousand, which meant that the mobilization efforts of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania reached about 1% of the whole population.