Talk:Siege of Zbarazh

A fact from Siege of Zbarazh appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 10 January 2013 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that during the Siege of Zbarazh the Polish-Lithuanian army withstood the assaults of the Cossack and Tatar army about twenty times its own size?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2013/January. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Siege of Zbarazh.

Wikipedia

Military history: European / Polish / Early Modern

This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.Military historyWikipedia:WikiProject Military historyTemplate:WikiProject Military historymilitary history articles

This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-class status:
Referencing and citation: criterion met Coverage and accuracy: criterion met Structure: criterion met Grammar and style: criterion met Supporting materials: criterion met

Associated task forces:
/
	European military history task force
	Polish military history task force
	Early Modern warfare task force (c. 1500 – c. 1800)

Poland Mid‑importance

	Poland portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Poland, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Poland on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PolandWikipedia:WikiProject PolandTemplate:WikiProject PolandPoland articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

B-class[edit]

Passed for WPPOLAND per milhist assessment. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 22:50, 28 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Size of armies involved[edit]

Do we really have to take the period sources at face value? 300,000 Cossacks/Tartars besieging a single town is a ridiculous number for the time, and no doubt would have starved to death in short order had they actually been able to assemble.

Compare to, say, the Siege of Vienna - the entire Ottoman Empire geared logistically towards supplying its force mustered up an army of 120,000. 300,000 is just ridiculous in comparison. 66.180.191.190 (talk) 17:24, 10 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Dubious numbers[edit]

The sources obviously need to be divesified and balanced. Who is Widacki, a Polish historian, a publicist or a playwright? --178.10.15.223 (talk) 21:08, 10 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

See Jan Widacki.--_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 22:39, 10 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

So he has no degree in history? --178.10.15.223 (talk) 23:08, 10 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

And what if he does not? --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 11:05, 11 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The source appears to be reliable and unless there's some serious evidence to the contrary the "dubious" tag is not justified. Having said that, the article DOES over rely on a single source.Volunteer Marek 23:36, 10 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

On second thought, I'm going to put back the tag back in. I think there's a valid concern here. One, the article just relies on a single source - it should be cross referenced. Second, the above IP is right, pre-industrial armies of this size were almost unheard off, the logistics were prohibitive.Volunteer Marek 20:05, 12 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

While this is a good point, we do need more sources to see if others have proposed different numbers. Please note that Widacki discusses and critiques a smaller number of 70,000. (and yes, I double checked and the numbers cited in text are correct, source-wise). --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 12:45, 13 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]