The Trubeckoj Massacre in Mscislaŭ – Centuries Later

Abstract

The article is devoted to an episode in the 1654–1667 war between Muscovy and the ­Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: the capture of Mscislaŭ by the Tsarist army, accompanied by the mass murder of its defenders and inhabitants. On the basis of published sources and literature on the subject, the author has tried to trace the functioning of the tragic events in the memory of the local population, as well as show how the Trubeckoj Massacre is represented in the historiography of Belarus and Russia. The author disagrees with the thesis of some Russian historians regarding the complete conformity of the massacre with the “laws of war” that were generally accepted in early modern Europe and believes that in Russian interpretations of the events one can see the desire to justify the Tsar’s policy and the unwillingness to admit inconvenient facts.