Mikhail Shein

Despite his tactical skills and successful military career, he ended up losing his army in a failed attempt to besiege Smolensk and being executed for this defeat.

The new hostilities against Poland broke out in 1632, and Shein at once led the Russian army to wrestle Smolensk from the Polish control.

The new siege lasted for 10 months, and the victory seemed not a long way off, when king Wladyslaw IV with a small force fought off the Russians from the walls of Smolensk and captured their provisions in Dorogobuzh.

Shein's foreign subordinates feuded with each other, their troops being decimated by epidemics, while a large portion of Russian soldiers deserted to their home villages.

On February 15, 1634, he was constrained to surrender his army to the enemy, amid consternation from the tsar and boyars, who were astonished that the much-anticipated war was being lost.