Don Cossacks, who were besieged by the Turks in Azov, came to Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich. And the painting was brought to their seat:

In the summer of June 7149 (1640) on June 24, the Turkish Sultan sent a mighty army under the command of his Pasha, in order to bury us alive and cover us with high mountains. And there was no number of that ratification, and even the Crimean Khan came, and German hired people, masters of attacks and knowing wisdom.

And now the Basurman army came - where the steppe was clean, then at one o'clock they began to look like impenetrable, dark forests. The whole earth caved in from many people, from the Don River waves flowed ashore, as in spring flood. They set up the Turkish tents, went musket and cannon fire. And hung over us like a terrible thunderstorm, when the thunder comes from the Lord of heaven. From the fire and smoke, even the sun faded, turned into blood, the darkness came dark. We were in awe, but it was also wonderful to see their slender Basurmanish parish: no one in our lifetime had seen such a great rati in one place collected from us.

On the same day, an ambassador and interpreters were sent. And the ambassador said: “Oh, the Don and Volga Cossacks, ferocious! Our neighbors are neighbors! Sly killers, brigands merciless! You angered the king of Turkey, took his beloved patrimony, the glorious Azov city, closed the blue sea, do not allow the ships to pass through the sea. Clear the city of Azov on this night, without delay. Take your silver-gold and go to your comrades. Until the morning, if you stay, we will give you the cruel and formidable torment. We will crush all your flesh into fractional crumbs. And if you want to serve the Sultan, the Emperor will forgive your Cossack rudeness. ”

Here is the answer from the Cossacks of Azov: “We know, we know, often because on the sea or on a dry path we meet with you. And where did your sultan go? He lowered the entire treasury, hired from so many lands wise German soldiers and diggers. But no one took our Cossack’s zipuns for nothing. We have hope in God and Mother of the Virgin, and our sovereign is our Tsar of Moscow. Our eternal nickname is the great Cossacks, the great Don fearless. ” Having received the answer, the ambassadors drove away, but the soldiers sorted their regiments, were built all night until morning.

At first, German diggers came under the walls, followed by the Janissary army; and then the whole horde rushed to the fortress with infantry. Walls and towers began to split with axes. And many climbed the ladder by the walls. All our undercover tunnels, which we have prepared ahead of time from the city far into the field, have collapsed from an infinite number of forces. But it was not in vain that we made them, they perished thousands in the landslides, and undermines themselves began to explode, they were filled with gunpowder and shot. And twenty-two thousand died in the first attack of the Turks. The next day, as it began to grow light, they again sent ambassadors and asked the dead to collect. And for each Janissary leader they were given a gold dime each, and for a colonel, a hundred thalers. But we replied to them: “We never sell the corpse of the dead, the road to us is eternal glory!” There was no battle that day. They collected the dead until night. They dug a deep moat, piled all and killed, putting down pillars with the inscription.

On the third day they began to lead to us an earthen rampart, a high mountain, much higher than the city of Azov. They wanted to cover us with that mountain. They brought her to us in three days; when we saw her, we realized that our death was from her, we ask God for help, said goodbye to each other with the last goodbye and went into direct battle, exclaiming all with one voice: “God is with us!”. Hearing that cry, not one of them stood against us face to face, they all fled from that destructive mountain. They took 16 banners and 28 barrels of gunpowder from that exit. With the same gunpowder, digging up a high mountain, they scattered the whole mountain. Then they began to build a new mountain and, having put all the guns on that loose mountain, began to strike at Azov day and night. For an hour, sixteen days and sixteen nights, the guns did not stop. From the shooting of that cannon, all the Azov fortresses scattered - walls, towers, the church of Baptist, houses - everything was razed to the ground. In the whole city, only the Church of St. Nicholas survived, which stood on the descent to the sea, downhill. We all sat in the pits from the fire, they didn’t let us look out of the pits. Then we began to dig in the ground, under their ramparts, secret yards to ourselves, and from those secret yards we conducted twenty-eight digs under their camps. We went out at night to the Janissary infantry and beat it. Those attacks made them great damage and caught up with the fear of the great. They also began to dig in order to go into our undermining and crush us with the number-set. But we guarded their digs and scattered gunpowder.

And there were all attacks for us under the city of Azov, twenty-four, but there wasn’t as many as on the first day. They began to send every day an attack of new people. Some fight one day, at night before the light others replace them, in order to overpower us by force. And from such evil and contrivance, from sleeplessness and grievous wounds, from the spirit of the stench of a cadaverous one we were weary and exhausted by fierce diseases. Only God was hoped for. We’ll run, poor ones, to the Forerunner’s face, we will cry with bitter tears to him and Nicolas: “How did we anger you? They conquered us with insomnia, days and nights we are constantly tormented with them. Our legs are already bent, our hands are already dead, they are not serving us, we cannot hold any weapons. ” The miraculous icons - Predtechevu and Nikolina - were lifted up and went on a sortie. And they beat, having suddenly come out, six thousand. They, seeing that God's mercy was above us, stopped sending people to seizures.

Then they began to throw labels on the arrows, write that they are asking for an empty seat of Azov’s, and for every young man who leaves, he will buy 300 thalers of pure silver and 200 thalers of red gold each. "Leave with your silver and gold to your comrades, leave us an empty, Azov place." And we write: “Your dog's gold is not dear to us, but the road to us is eternal glory! Know now what it takes to embark on a Russian Cossack. We’ll put Azov on your bones better than ever! ” And all of our sitting under siege was 93 days and 93 nights. On September 26, at night, they suddenly took off from their camp and fled, they were not persecuted by anyone. As soon as they saw that they were leaving, our thousand went on camps, took many languages. They learned from them that they had a terrible vision at night, and therefore they fled. They said the languages ​​that were beaten under Azov, 96 thousand of them.

“But we who remained intact, all were wounded, and we don’t have a whole man who didn’t spill blood. And we ask Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich to take Azov-city from the hands of the serfs. We ourselves are not fighters now, but elders crippled; our only desire is to get a haircut at the Forerunner’s monastery: we made such a promise before his image under siege if we survive. ”

The present year, 7150, at the request of the Turkish Sultan Ibrahim, the Tsar and Grand Duke Mikhail Fedorovich ordered the Don atamans and Cossacks to leave Azov grad.