Talk:Hrehory Chodkiewicz

Battle on the Czesnickie fields near the Ula River did not turn the tide of war in the Lithuanian favor, and Hrehory Chodkiewicz did not kill Pyotr Shuisky himself - primary source to this battle: Kronika Polska Marcina Bielskiego (1597 edition) is silent about this feat of martial prowess, whereas Bielskis are very precise about this battle (and so is Polish military historians Henryk Lulewicz and Leszek Podhorecki) . Hetman Radzwill was the commander of the Lithuanian army at the battle field and Hrehory commanded the choice Lithuanian cavalry banners that smashed into the Muscovite army. He became the grand hetman upon Radzwill death, but did not take to the field until the end of the hostilities in 1570. By the way why military biography of Hrehory was removed, true I had no time to add references - I am talking about Henryk Lulewicz, Grzegorz (Hrehory) Chodkiewicz, in 'Poczet Hetmanow Rzeczypospolitej, Hetmani Litewscy", Warsaw 2006, page 59-65 .

I put in the article summation of the Llulewicz research regarding Hrehory years as chief commanding officer, i.e. grand hetman - He was a very able administrator and commander of the Duchy army, and spent much time devoting to the logistics, planning, well being, battle training and equipping of the Lithuanian army, eg in 1566 he sent Filon Kmita Czarnobylski on his famous raid against the Muscovites. He spent considerable effort to conduct a muster rolll of the Duchy of Lithuania nobility and their preparedness for campaign. The so called Radoszowicka Expedition, that eventually would have ended in fiasco, found him equipping with own money his own 300 horse strong Polish hussar unit and 150 infantry unit in autumn of 1567. But GDofL was losing its war with the Muscovite Tsardom.

He was not a a grand hetman of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as such did not exist de jure until late 1569 and de facto until 1572, but a grand hetman of Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Why remove the part about the influence of Fyodorov printing of the Bible on the Belorusian and Ukrainian literatures?. Why remove that he was burried at the Suprasl monastery ? - certainly this part may require rewriting but not changing it completely as it is grounded in Henryk Lulewicz work on Hrehory and it is a succinct summary of this scientis research: He was a Ruthenian by origin and culture (being a member of Eastern Orthodox Church), while in his correspondence he used Cyrillic and Ruthenian language. At his palace in Zabłudów he maintained a very important center for the Ruthenian and Eastern Orthodox culture. He founded an Orthodox church there and also a hospital for the poor. There a fugitive from Ivan the Terrible's Muscowy named Ivan Fyodorov published newly translated into Ruthenian parts of Holy Bible in 1568/69, and this publication was instrumental in the development of the Ukrainian and Belorussian literature. He also supported with his donations the famous monastery at Supraśl that his father had founded and where Chodkiewicz was burried. What is the proof of his military writing mentioned in the article - surely such important work or works would have been studied by Polish historians ..

Let us work on this article :)DarioTW (talk) 11:44, 3 January 2011 (UTC) [reply ]

I started re-writing the article before I even saw your edit on Jan 1. The stuff got removed for two basic reasons: 1) bad English - sometimes I have trouble comprehending the meaning. I understand perfectly the perils of English as second language... a few years ago my English was not any better and still is far from perfect. 2) it was unreferenced (no in-line citations) and I could not find it in sources that I had.

It does not mean that the info is bad--just needs polishing up and referencing. Please feel free to edit the article. Renata (talk) 15:37, 3 January 2011 (UTC) [reply ]