Mr. Veliky Novgorod played a key role in the geopolitics of Ancient Rus. Our first "window to Europe", a city with a national government, which preserved its independence until it was pacified by Ivan the Terrible …
When was it created?
The official date of the appearance of Novgorod is 859. This date was proposed by the Soviet historian Mikhail Tikhomirov at a scientific conference on the eve of 1959, which made it possible to mark the 1100th anniversary of Novgorod.
This date is based on the Nikon Chronicle, which indicates that Gostomysl died this year, but it does not say that Novgorod was founded this year.
According to archaeological data, it is known that the lands of Priilmenye were inhabited as early as the 5th century. The original population of the Novgorod land was the Finno-Ugrians, as evidenced by the place names. In the VI century, the tribes of the Slavs-Krivichi came to these lands, in the VIII century - the Slovenian.
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Russian chronicles do not clarify the issue. Rather the opposite. According to the "Tale of Bygone Years," Novgorod already existed by the time of the arrival of Rurik in 862 and was founded by the Ilmen Slovenes. According to Ipatievskaya: "The Slovenian sodosha near Lake Ilmera and was nicknamed by its name and made a city and narekosha and Novgorod."
The problem with dating the time of the city's emergence is that the practically crowded renewal of the settlement near Ilmen could be mistaken for the birth of a “new city”.
According to dendrochronological data, the earliest Novgorod pavements date back to the 930s. The cultural layer of the 9th-early 10th centuries has not yet been discovered here.
In foreign sources, the earliest mention of Novgorod (Nemogard, Νεμογαρδάς) is contained in the 949 composition of the Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus "On the administration of the empire." According to T. N. Jackson and E. A. Rydzevskaya, Novgorod in the Scandinavian sagas is called Holmgard (Holmgarðr) - the capital of Gardariki.
Was there treason?
The turning point in the history of Novgorod was the Novgorod campaign of Ivan the Terrible in 1570, when the Moscow tsar carried out a punitive operation, suspecting the Novgorodians of collusion with the Lithuanian prince Sigismund.
Was there a conspiracy? Modern historians trying to answer this question are faced with the problem of a lack of reliable information.
The main sources of the pogrom are the very dubious "The Tale of the Defeat of Veliky Novgorod", created during the Swedish occupation of the city (1611-1617), the memoirs of a certain Albert Schlichting, who assured that he served as an oprichnik, and the adventurer Heinrich Staden, the author of "Moscow memoirs", which he wrote in Holland. He also insisted that he was an oprichnik.
No documents have been preserved about Staden or Schlichting in Russia.
In principle, betrayal was more than likely. The Novgorodian trade was not profitable from the policy of Grozny, who sought to break through to the Baltic. In addition, they were unhappy with the Anglophilia of the Moscow prince, who gave England good preferences. England opened a new trade route Kholmogory-Vologda-Moscow. The logical decision was the entry of Novgorod into the Union of Lublin, created in 1569 by the unification of Lithuania and Poland.
The basis for the campaign was a letter confirming the collusion, signed by Archbishop Pimen and noble Novgorodians. Many historians doubt the authenticity of the signatures, but no one could prove that they were falsified.
Was there a democracy in Novgorod?
Today, when they talk about examples of a democratic system, they like to remember the Novgorod Republic. Indeed, after the expulsion of Prince Vsevolod Mstislavovich in 1136, a popular veche began to rule in Novgorod. Formally, all free adult men could participate in it, but in fact, more than 300-500 people could not fit on the veche square.
Veche chose the Novgorod bishop, the mayor, the thousand-man, at will, invited and expelled the prince. The idea was good. Perhaps, initially the veche had a national character, but during the heyday of the Novgorod Republic, there were 30-40 most noble families who lobbied for the decisions of the veche and forced the townspeople to vote in their own interests. They are called "300 golden belts".
It was impossible to get into their ranks from the outside, the "golden belts" jealously guarded their status and prosperity, and not only with the help of the people's assembly.
Since the veche met irregularly, a permanent governing body was needed. It was oligarchic in its essence (that is, consisting of the same richest citizens) Council of Lords, the number of members of which reached 50. The Council formally did not have a vote at the veche, but it was the Novgorod aristocrats who made decisions, and voting at the veche only gave them legality in the eyes of citizens.
Was it a Hanseatic city?
Novgorod was one of the main partners of the Hanseatic League. Through it, goods were exported from all over the Russian land: honey and wax, resin and leather, grain and furs.
At the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries, Dutch merchants founded their trading post in Novgorod. It gets the name "Gothic Court". On the island of Gotland, in turn, there was a trading post of Novgorod merchants with an Orthodox church, the ruins of which have survived to this day.
In the second half of the 12th century, German merchants founded Petershof - the Compound of St. Peter in Novgorod. With the formation of the Hanseatic League, all trading posts were united under common management. They were "states within a state". The trading posts had their own management, independent of the city, the Novgorod authorities did not interfere in the affairs of foreign merchants.
Each trading post was surrounded by a palisade and a tyn. They did not have a permanent population, "Germans" - foreigners came there twice a year - in winter and summer. They came and brought non-ferrous metals, expensive fabrics, French wines, and Dutch herring to Russia.
Novgorod merchants did not lag behind their Western partners. To protect their interests, they founded the Merchant Hundreds - associations of merchants who traded the same goods.
Novgorod merchants entered into trade agreements with their foreign colleagues, the most important point of which was the provision of a "clean path", that is, a safe road along the Baltic and Novgorod land.
One of the proofs that Novgorod was a Hanseatic city can be found in the recently studied trade documents in Low German.
According to historian Catherine Squires, in the 14th century, Low German language of the Hansa already functioned as an international language of trade and diplomacy throughout Northern Europe, from Novgorod and Pskov to England and Scotland, including Scandinavia and the Baltic States. Preserved documents on it and in Novgorod.
Where did the Novgorod clans disappear to?
The confrontation of boyar families, stubborn, fierce, right up to clashes and bloodshed, is an integral part of the history of Veliky Novgorod. Gyuryatinichi versus Zavidichi, Mikulchichi versus Ivankovichi, Zakharyinichi versus Yakunichi, Mikhalchichi versus Nezdinichi, and so on - the struggle continued for six centuries, until the defeat of Novgorod by Ivan the Terrible.
Where did these clans go then? Some of them were destroyed during the massacres, but many eventually turned into noble ones. So, the family of noblemen Avinovs traces its lineage from the Novgorod boyars.
They were in the party of Martha Boretskaya, actively participated in the consolidation with Lithuania, and, as a result, the two Avinov brothers, the posadniks Zakhary and Kuzma, were killed by an angry mob.
After the annexation of Novgorod to Moscow and especially after the defeat of the Novgorodians by Ivan the Terrible, they moved to the Ryazan province.
The riddle of the coat of arms
The modern coat of arms of the city actually repeats the coat of arms of Veliky Novgorod, approved in 1781 by the Decree of Empress Catherine II, but it was created even earlier. The Novgorod coat of arms is based on the seal of the Novgorod governor, made in 1565 by order of Ivan the Terrible.
But there was only one bear on the seal, which was intended to seal the letter of truce between Novgorod and the Swedish king. The second animal was never identified: some believe it is a dog, others a lynx.
The central place on the emblem was occupied by the veche's degree (a tribune for a speech, for example, a mayor) in the form of a three-tiered building with arched openings. The staff is put on the degree. Two fish can be seen under the degree. Around the circle there is an inscription: "Seal of the governor of Veliky Novgorod".
There are many interpretations of this symbolism. As a rule, scholars agree that the veche degree symbolizes the old republican form of government, and the staff is a symbol of the power of the royal governor, who, as it were, abolishes the veche. More difficult with animals and fish.
In the Novgorod seals of the pre-Moscow period, there are five images: Savior the Almighty, a foot warrior with a spear (probably Andrew the First-Called), a horseman, a seated bird and the so-called "fierce beast", which is usually associated with a lion. There are no fish, no dogs, no bears there.
It must be said that there was no bear "cult" in independent Novgorod. As, however, and dogs. But in the "symbolism" of Ivan the Terrible, these animals occupied a special place. Hounding by dogs and bears was one of the most favorite forms of execution among the Moscow sovereign.
So, according to the Russian book tradition, of which Ivan Vasilyevich was an expert, it was believed that a bear could attack a person and eat him only with the permission of God. As a punishment for a committed sin. Therefore, the clubfoot in Russia was used as a kind of "disinterested judge": if he does not touch him, he is sinless, if he breaks, he is guilty.
Dogs had a similar story. In Russia, as in many other traditions, they were considered infernal animals, guides of demons. The people believed that the one who died from the teeth of a dog is doomed to eternal afterlife suffering. It is no coincidence that the "dog" symbols were actively used by the guardsmen.
Coat of arms of Veliky Novgorod
The appearance of these rather ambiguous symbols on the seal of Veliky Novgorod in 1565 can be viewed either as a manifestation of Ivan the Terrible's peculiar sense of humor, or as a threat clothed in symbols.
The threat that Ivan IV brought to life five years later, in 1570, after the seal was approved - during the campaign against Veliky Novgorod. Then Novgorodians were poisoned with bears and dogs, burned on fire, drowned in the river. It is not excluded that the last execution was symbolized on the seal, "granted" to Grozny Novgorod, by two fish. Which, for unclear reasons, became four under Catherine the Great …
Why is it divided into five ends?
Ancient Novgorod stretches on both banks of the Volkhov River. On the right bank there was the Sophia side, named after the white-stone church of St. Sophia, and on the left - Torgovaya, which got its name from the "bargaining" - the market square and shopping arcades.
The Sofia side was divided into three districts - the "end", in addition, the Novgorod Kremlin was located there. The trading side consisted of two "ends".
Thus, "Mr. Veliky Novgorod" was composed of five "ends". Each of them in the past was an independent settlement.
When the ends merged into a single city (called "New"), they retained relative independence. Residents of each went to their church, formed a separate detachment of the people's militia and decided the most important issues at their veche.
The Novgorod ends were called Zagorodsky, Nerevsky, Lyudin, Slavensky and Plotnitsky. All the lands of the Novgorod Republic were also divided into five parts - "pyatins". The Vodskaya pyatina stretches along Lake Nevo (Lake Ladoga), the Obonezhskaya pyatina stretches to the White Sea, Bezhitskaya to the Msta River, Derevskaya to Lovati and Shelonskaya from Lovati to Luga.
The origin of the unusual five-point division is not completely clear. Information about him has not been preserved in the annals. The historian and ethnographer Konstantin Alekseevich Nevolin believed that the five-point division comes from the division of Novgorod into five ends, and appeared long before the annexation of the Novgorod Republic to the territory of the Old Russian state.