Novgorod

Title

Novgorod

Description

Total view of the city Novgorod at the Volkhov river

ca. 1855

Artist

Lalaisse

Historical Description

The surroundings of Novgorod are characterized by many forests, lakes, swamps and marshes, which made the area almost impenetrable and the rivers the main traffic routes. Scandinavian Varangians also passed through this area on the trade routes to the Byzantine Empire since the 8th century. In the middle of the 9th century, one of their settlements was established on the eastern bank of the Volkhov River at the outlet of Lake Ilmen, two kilometers south of present-day Novgorod. The Varangian prince Ryurik established the center of his dominion here. Around 911 Kiev became the new center of Rus. Old Novgorod lost this function. In the High Middle Ages Novgorod was the only city in Europe, apart from Constantinople, where not only the nobility and the clergy, but also the common people could read and write. In 1136 a general uprising against the prince ended with a victory of the boyars. As a result, the prince was only an official of the boyar republic. Spared from the ravages of the Mongol raids, Novgorod was for a time, especially under Alexander Nevsky, the center of the Russian Principalities and the seat of the Grand Prince. The expansion of power based on this development enabled the city to militarily repel the expansion of the Swedes in 1240 and that of the Teutonic Order in 1242. In the late Middle Ages Novgorod was a city dominated by the noble merchant class, recruited mainly from the large landowners and profiting greatly from the collection of tribute. Novgorod had finally emerged as the main trade intermediary with the West in the 14th century. Since the transit trade of the Russian lands and also of the Tatars, who traded in spices and furs, with Western Europe through the Lithuanian territory was hampered by high customs duties and frequent encroachments, this position remained unchallenged in the following period. After the foundation of Lübeck, the Hanseatic merchants began to sail across the Baltic Sea to Gotland in the middle of the 12th century. The first contacts to Novgorod were mediated through the merchants there. The city of Novgorod, due to its strong trade relations with foreign merchants, was the starting point of the development of coinage in Russia. When the circulation of money increased at the beginning of the 15th century and all the Grand Princes began to mint money, Novgorod started to mint its own coins from 1420. For a long time Novgorod was in competition with the Grand Duchy of Moscow, Novgorod representing the oligarchic-city noble social order, Moscow the autocratic-princely one. Added to this opposition was the fight against Novgorod's river piracy (Ushkuiniki), which prompted Moscow to unleash an uprising against Novgorod's rule as early as 1397. Novgorod failed to break away from the suzerainty of the Moscow Metropolitan. In 1441 the city paid tribute to Moscow for the first time. During the Livonian War, the city was destroyed in 1570 by the troops of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, The city then experienced a revival, but after the founding of Saint Petersburg in 1703, its economic and strategic importance as Russia's outpost in the northwest declined. The city structure underwent a serious change after 1778, when the new general development plan prepared by Nikolai Chicherin was signed by Empress Catherine II. While the semi-circular city wall on the Sophia side was preserved, the plan otherwise provided for rectangular streets. For this purpose, the street structures that had grown over centuries were destroyed.