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The Smolensk War (Polish-Muscovy War of 1632-1634) was a conflict fought in the years 1632-1634 between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Muscovy. After recovering to a certain extent from the Time of Troubles, Muscovy, expecting the Commonwealth to be weakened by the death of king Sigismund III Vasa, launched the war in an attempt to gain control of the key city of Smolensk which it ceded to the Commonwealth in 1618 at the Truce of Deulino, ending the Polish-Muscovite War (1605-1618) war. Smolensk was often contested and changed hands many times in the course of the 15th to 17th centuries.
A large, carefully prepared Russian army of 34,500 men under Mikhail Borisovich Shein reached Smolensk in October of 1632 and began a siege. The city held out for the following year while the Commonwealth, under its newly elected king Wladislaus IV, organised a relief force. This force, led personally by the king, finally arrived near Smolensk in September of 1633 and began immediate operations against the besieging forces.
In a series of fierce combats, the Muscovites were first forced to break their siege of Smolensk by October 3, and then by the end the month were themselves surrounded by forces of the Commonwealth. The surrounded Muscovites waited for relief but none arrived. Finally they surrendered on March 1, 1634. The war ended soon afterwards with the Treaty of Polanów signed in May of 1634. The peace treaty confirmed the pre-war status quo, with Russia paying a large war indemnity (20,000 rubles in gold), while Wladislaus IV agreed to surrender his claim to the Muscovite throne and return the royal insignia to Muscovy.
The treaty ended the almost unbroken series of wars between the Commonwealth and its neighbours which took place since the start of the 17th century. The 14 years of peace that followed were arguably the most prosperous in Commonwealth's history.
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