The Battle of Orsha, was fought on 8 September 1514, between the allied forces of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, under the command of Lithuanian Grand Hetman Konstanty Ostrogski; and the army of the Grand Duchy of Moscow under Konyushy Ivan Chelyadnin and Kniaz Mikhail Bulgakov-Golitsa. The Battle of Orsha was part of a long series of Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars conducted by Muscovite rulers striving to gather all the former Kievan Rus' lands under their rule.
Battle of Orsha painting attributed to Hans Krell
Russo-Polish war, image from Jacob Piso Die Schlacht von dem Kunig von Poln und mit dem Moscowiter, 1514
Russian campaign against the Lithuanians (oil on canvas by Sergey Ivanov, 1903).
Hussars during the Battle of Orsha (1514)
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 partitions of Poland–Lithuania. The state was founded by Lithuanians, who were at the time a polytheistic nation of several united Baltic tribes from Aukštaitija, which by 1440, became the largest European state controlling an area from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south.
Columns of Gediminas
Gediminas' Tower and other remnants of the Upper Castle in Vilnius
Lubart's Castle in Ukraine, built by the son of Gediminas' Liubartas in the mid-14th century, is famous for the Congress of Lutsk which took place in 1429
Trakai Island Castle, built by Grand Duke Vytautas, which served as a residence of Lithuanian Grand Dukes