Today propaganda says that Russians are organically incapable of democracy and European values. Meanwhile, for almost four centuries, the Novgorod Republic has proven the opposite. Novgorod had a complex, but democratic system of "checks and balances", which took into account even the voice of the common people.
The actual date of the founding of the Novgorod Republic can be considered 1136, when the Novgorodians arrested Prince Vsevolod Mstislavovich with his family and then expelled him from the city. At the same time, the veche decided to invite the princes only as hired military leaders, leaving behind them the highest judicial authority (together with the mayor) and collecting tribute from the conquered lands.
The supreme organ of power of the Lord of Veliky Novgorod, that is, the entire land stretching from the Baltic to the Urals and from the White Sea to Lake Seliger, was declared a people's assembly, or veche. It gathered on the Trade Side of Volkhov, on the square called "Yaroslav's Court" by Novgorodians. The chronicles did not leave us a detailed description of the order of creation, structure and rules of activity of the supreme legislative body of the Novgorod Republic, but judging by the size of the Yaroslav's court, the veche consisted of 300-400 people (Since Novgorod exhibited 3-5 thousand soldiers in the 13th century, its population was equal to 20-30 thousand people). At the same time, the main role in the political process was played by the Novgorod boyars - hereditary aristocrats who owned large land property - estates,including villages with peasants and forestry and having estates in the city - protected by a fence with a tower and outbuildings, that is, what in European cities were called "castles."
Novgorod boyars, like their European counterparts, united into tribal clans, the leading role among which was played by Ontsiferovichi, Misinichi, Miroshkinichi and some others. In total, there were 40-50 boyar families (clans) in the Novgorod Republic. It was the boyars who most often found themselves at the head of the groups vying for power.
Merchants played an important role in the political process, given the commercial nature of Novgorod. Novgorod merchants, along with European, primarily Hanseatic, merchants, served as the main organizing link in the commodity flow from forest northeastern Russia to Europe, supplying the Europeans with furs (mainly squirrel), wax, walrus bone, and in the oncoming flow from the rapidly developing Europe to Russia, supplying the boyars with luxury goods, weapons, metals, wine, supplying merchants and ordinary townspeople with cloth, products of European artisans.
In addition, Novgorod, located in the northern and swampy zone, has always needed grain supplies. This need was especially aggravated, given the high proportion of the urban population, in lean years. In such cases, the merchants dealt with the problem of bringing and providing the townspeople with bread (as a rule, from southern Russia), and the boyars and the prince dealt with the regulation of its value, preventing the "rise in prices".
Craftsmen were another significant social and influential political group in Novgorod society. On the other hand, in economic terms, artisans were dependent on merchants, who dictated prices and conditions for the sale of products of labor. Often, artisans accepted the boyars' invitations to move their workshops to boyar estates to ensure safety and a regular supply of raw materials.
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An important social group supplying the Novgorod export with furs was the ushkuyniki. Ushkuynye squads, as a rule, were formed from the surplus population, more often from the youth who did not find their place in the established social and political structure of the republic. Each Novgorod merchant and artisan determined in advance the son-heir of his business. The rest of the sons created armed detachments, acquired special, rather capacious vessels - ears, and went along rivers and portages to the North, to the Perm land, the Northern Urals, and even to the Trans-Urals to collect fur tribute from the conquered tribes.
The executive branch was represented by the government, which was headed by a mayor elected for one year. He was engaged in domestic and international affairs and, together with the prince, commanded the army and administered the court. The second most important place in the government was also occupied by the thousand elected at the veche. He was responsible for the collection of taxes, dealt with litigations of Russian and foreign merchants, participated in the embassies.
The archbishop played an important role in the system of political institutions in Novgorod. He was not sent by the metropolitan, as was done in relation to other Russian lands, but was elected by the Novgorodians themselves. First, the veche selected three candidates, and then a new archbishop was elected by lot, which was drawn by a blind man or a child. He possessed great spiritual and moral authority, disposed of the enormous wealth accumulated by the church tithe, and could provide assistance to the republic and citizens in difficult times. The archbishop monitored the standards of measures and weights, together with the mayor and the tysyatsky, he prepared and signed international treaties.
Political groupings and prototypes of modern parties played an important role in the democratization of the political process of the Novgorod Republic.
Each institution of the political system of Novgorod relied on its own political force, which in this sense was a political "party" that supported one or another official who performed political functions. In his activities, the prince relied most on his squad, and when the militia gathered, on the strength and authority of the entire army, but for this he needed to find a common language with the thousand. In peacetime, it was very important for the prince to find understanding with the veche. The squad alone was too weak a support in Novgorod politics (given that up to half of the townspeople - the basis of the militia - had weapons and were at least at the initial level trained in military affairs).
If the prince did not find support from the popular assembly, the Novgorodians drove him out. Gleb Svyatoslavovich was the first exiled prince who did not "fit" into the Novgorod political process, who failed to create his own stable grouping of Novgorodians who supported him.
The "party" of the prince was competed with the "party" of the mayor, who also sought support from the popular assembly that elected him, as well as from the militia, because its head - the tysyatskiy - was the mayor's subordinate. In this sense, that is, in the search for "power" support and popular support, the prince's group on the one hand and the mayor's and tysyatsky's group on the other, acted as political rivals. There was no complete understanding between the groups of the mayor and the tysyatsky. As a rule, a man was elected from representatives of the local aristocracy or local merchant nobility. Local boyar and merchant cliques competed for the election or re-election of one or another candidate for the post of mayor.
Tysyatsky was most often elected from among the commoners, from the "people". If the posadnik's grouping represented the boyar-merchant nobility in the government of the republic, then the thousand's grouping represented “black people”, the middle and lower strata of Novgorod society.
The archbishop's grouping relied on a powerful church organization that unites all parishioners of Novgorod and the Novgorod land. In addition, the head of the monastic, black clergy, the Novgorod archimandrite, who had a residence near the city, in the Yuryev Monastery, and extended his influence to all 17 monasteries of the Novgorod region, was always ready to provide support to the archbishop's grouping.
The systematic work of the veche, the election of the main state institutions, and a fairly broad system of citizen participation created other, more legitimate and legal opportunities than in other lands of Russia for the functioning of political groups. Despite the rivalry between the main officials and the "parties" supporting them, the center of political life, as it happens in the republics, was in the people's assembly. The Novgorod veche was organized on a territorial basis, so the veche groups also received a territorial character.
Firstly, this was facilitated by the division of Novgorod into two sides: Sofia and Torgovaya, which naturally formed two "parties" within the city limits. The "party" of the Sofia side expressed the interests of the aristocracy, administrative power (bureaucracy) and service people. The "party" of the Trade side spoke on behalf of artisans, retailers, wealthy merchants.
By the way, the term "party" itself was not known in medieval Russia, and what, according to the Latin tradition in Europe, was understood as a part (part) and had the meaning of fighting groups (in a meeting, court or in a street fight), in the Novgorod Republic was called " side". The interests of the Sofia and Trade sides often clashed at the veche meeting. Sometimes, if they could not be coordinated, the groupings were divided: residents of the Sofia side and their supporters from the suburbs gathered in the square in front of the Sofia Cathedral, and the inhabitants of the Torgovaya side with their supporters - in the Yaroslav Court. If it was not possible to come to an agreement, both groups converged on the border between the controlled territories, on a kind of neutral zone - on the bridge over the Volkhov, to resolve the conflict by force. Here a third force usually came into play: the "party" of the archimandrite,admonishing opposing factions and preventing or not preventing bloodshed.
Secondly, the Novgorod land was divided into five fives (administrative-territorial units), each of which began on one of the main five streets of the city - “ends”. Political groupings, which consisted of residents of all five regions, represented, as it were, a reduced copy of the entire territory of the state, and represented at the veche the interests of residents of all five territorial units of the republic.
These "five-piece parties" were a constant factor in veche differentiation. The "five parties" consisted of "Konchansk parties" representing the interests of the population of the ends - Novgorod's dead-end streets, which originated from squares and rested against the city wall. Sometimes the "party struggle" even assumed an armed character. So, in 1207, after the introduction of new taxes by the government of mayor Dmitry Miroshkinich, who represented the boyars and merchants of the Nerevsky end, the population of the city revolted, plundered the estates of the boyars of the "Nerevsky Konchan party" and elected a government from representatives of Lyudin of the end.
In approximately this state, the political system of Novgorod held out for almost four centuries, and then was destroyed by the Muscovites.