russian-polish war, and of course smolensk defended itself for 20 months, but nevertheless, the troops of sigismunded the city and are in the power of the polish-lithuanian commonwealth it was there for about 40 years, it was already returned back under tsar alexei mikhailovich, and so initially it was near this fortress wall. there were 38 towers, but, unfortunately, not all of them survived, now only 17 remain, five of them were destroyed in 1812 by napoleon’s troops, well and after the great patriotic war, smolensk was destroyed by 94%, it is worth noting that during the great patriotic war , yuri alekseevich gagarin, our first cosmonaut, was on the territory of the smolensk region. there is even a portrait of him, and there is still a dugout, near the village of klushino, where he was born, in this dugout he lived with his parents, with his brother, the four of them were in a small dugout, and his older brother, his older sister yuri alekseevich was sent to germany, but well it is worth noting that after the great patriotic war, the most famous cathedral survived in smolensk, the holy dormition