Klushino

Klushino 

the village near which a battle between Russian and Polish forces took place on June 24 (July 4), 1610. Situated on the road between Smolensk and Moscow, the village today lies within Gagarin Raion, Smolensk Oblast.

During the Polish and Swedish intervention in the early 17th century, Polish troops besieged Smolensk. Subsequently part of the troops under the command of the hetmán, S. Zółkiewski, advanced on Moscow and besieged Tsarevo Zaimishche, which lay in their path. A Russian force headed by D. Shuiskii and a Swedish-German detachment set out from Moscow, approaching Klushino on the evening of June 23 and making camp for the night. Early on the morning of June 24 the Poles suddenly attacked the Russians and defeated them. The foreign mercenaries went over to the Polish side, and Shuiskii fled to Moscow. The Russian troops defending Tsarevo Zaimishche (8,000 men, led by the voevodas Eletskii and Valuev) were forced to surrender, and the Polish troops advanced unchecked on Moscow. The defeat of the Russian troops at Klushino hastened the downfall of Tsar Vasilii Ivanovich Shuiskii.

Klushino is the birthplace of the first cosmonaut, Iu. A. Gagarin.