Deluge (history)
The term Deluge (, ) denotes a series of mid-17th-century campaigns in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In a wider sense it applies to the period between the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648 and the Truce of Andrusovo in 1667, thus comprising the Polish theatres of the Russo-Polish and Second Northern Wars. In a stricter sense, the term refers to the Swedish invasion and occupation of the Commonwealth as a theatre of the Second Northern War (1655–1660) only; in Poland and Lithuania this period is called the Swedish Deluge (, ), or less commonly the Russo–Swedish Deluge () due to the simultaneous Russo-Polish War. The term "deluge" ("potop" in Polish) was popularized by Henryk Sienkiewicz in his novel "The Deluge" (1886).