1. Filon Kmita was notable for conducting counter-intelligence in the Muscovite wars and establishing a spy network in the Grand Duchy of Muscovy, as well as successfully leading ambush attacks with considerably fewer soldiers than the enemy.
13 Facts About Filon Kmita
1. 2.
Filon Kmita was born in 1530 in the Kyiv Voivodeship to the Kmitow noble family as a son of Semion Kmita and Tatiana Kroszynska.
3.
Filon Kmita's father participated in battles between the Ukrainian Cossacks and Tatars, and Filon from a young age would be involved in various wars alongside him.
4.
Filon Kmita began his service in 1552 as the leader of a small border fortress on the Oster river.
5.
In 1580, Filon Kmita was mistaken by a message of a double agent and attempted to take over the strongest Muscovite fortress - Smolensk - with only 9,000 soldiers but failed.
6.
In 1582 Filon Kmita silently ambushed a Muscovite unit belonging to the Smolensk region.
7.
Filon Kmita would die in 1587, being a senator of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
8.
Filon Kmita's grave did not survive, but the epitaph did.
9.
Filon Kmita's unit consisted of not only Lithuanians but Poles and Ruthenians.
10.
Once Filon Kmita captured the city of Orsha, he made it the center of his intelligence operations, which he would use to receive information about the movement of Tatar or Muscovite units.
11.
Such useful information via secret letter Filon Kmita would send back to the Lithuanian Council of Lords as well as the rulers of Lithuania, Poland, and the most notable of nobles at the time.
12.
Filon Kmita's agents assisted in the rescuing of certain Lithuanian soldiers to break free from the prison and get to Orsha.
13.
Filon Kmita himself wrote some letters to tsar Ivan the Terrible dedicated to further incite paranoia among the enemy circle, which according to the theory supposedly lead to the sack of Novgorod.