The first detachments of the Polish–Lithuanian army, which in the previous two years captured Polotsk (1579) and Velikiye Luki (1580), appeared at the walls of Pskov on August 18, 1581.

The main invading force (31,000 men,[1] Polish, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Bohemian, Wallachian, and German soldiers[2]) laid siege to the city on August 24-26.

On December 1 the king left the siege together with most of the Lithuanian army, volunteers, and German, Hungarian, Romanian, Bohemian and Scottish mercenaries.

Báthory and Ivan IV finally signed the Treaty of Jam Zapolski on January 15; Russia renounced its claims to Livonia and Polotsk and in exchange the Commonwealth returned Russian territories its armies had captured.

The siege ended in a Russian victory,[5][6][7] (According to other sources, only tactical) both sides were exhausted from long battles, Ivan the Terrible realized that he did not have the strength to unblock the city,[8] and the Poles compared it to Paris, believing that they would never take it.