O wojskowości tatarskiej w epoce nowożytnej i oddziaływaniu koczowników na osiadłe społeczności Rzeczypospolitej

ENThe articles addresses the issue of the Tatar art of war in the early modern period in terms of its impact on the civilian population of the southeastern territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The issue is presented in three aspects - economic, demographic and cultural. In the discussion regarding the socio-economic impact of the Tatar raids on the southeastern territories of the Commonwealth, the author attempts to go beyond the reductionist framework approach that only considers an economic side, which has been used to analyze the topic in the past. In this perspective it is important to take notice of the determinants, which arise from the former dependence of the Ruthenian duchies from the Golden Horde, hence the constant claims of the Crimean Khans to receive so called customary gifts from the Polish authorities. Ever)’ lack of compliance by the Polish kings, was an opportunity for the Giray dynasty to establish sanctions and send military expeditions into the Polish-Lithuanian territory. During their well planned plundering missions the Tatars exploited a specific military methods and strategies by using asymmetric warfare. This kind of warfare refers to such methods and solutions that would be considered as non-standard from the opponent’s perspective, as well as organizing and acting contrary to what the command of enemy forces may expect, in order to counteract the weaknesses of one’s own potential and, as finally result, to gain advantage over the enemy troops. It is worth noticing that Tatar warfare was characterized by double asymmetry, referring not only to fundamental disproportions in the military potential, but also to the nature and choice of the primary targets of military operations, i.e. concentrating the operational effort in the civilian space.The cultural scope of Tatar hordes on sedentary communities in the southeastern areas of the Commonwealth had a very wide spectrum. However, a common feature of these agricultural interferences resulting from frequent contact of the nomadic or semi-nomadic invaders with the sedentary peasant communities was the widespread fear of the latter. The fears were rooted in the obvious differences of the Tatars in terms not only of warfare but also civilization, religion and mentality. The fear was a direct result of rapid in- tercultural interactions due in part to the differences of military approach and practices, such as setting fires in order to communicate with other military detachments, but also exerting psychological pressure to set forth fear and panic among the targeted lands and their inhabitants. That feeling of fear and uncertainty often accompanied the local civilians for a lifetime, and left a mark in their material as well a multi-dimensional impact on the cultural heritage.