island of Gotland and with the ports of the Baltic coast line, but its merchandise also reached England, Flanders, and other distant lands. Many merchants, especially from Gotland and Germany, came to Novgorod, where they enjoyed autonomy and a privileged position. Yet, the Novgo-rodians themselves engaged for a long time in active trade - a point which some scholars failed to appreciate. They went to foreign lands and, on the basis of reciprocal treaties, established Novgorodian commercial communities abroad, as attested by the two Russian churches on the island of Gotland and other evidence. It was in the second half of the thirteenth century, with the beginnings of the Hanseatic commercial league of northern European cities and the growth of its special commercial ships vastly superior to the rather simple boats of the Novgorodians, that Novgorod gradually shifted to a strictly passive role in trade.
While merchants, especially prosperous merchants engaged in foreign trade, constituted a very important element in Novgorod, Soviet research emphasized the significance of landed wealth, together with the close links between the two upper-class groups. In any case, social differentiation in Novgorod increased with time, leading to political antagonisms, reminiscent again of Italian cities and their conflicts between the rich and the poor, the
At the time when social tensions inside Novgorod increased, the city also found it more difficult to hold its sprawling lands together. The huge Novgorodian territories fell roughly into two groups: the piatina area and the more distant semi-colonial possessions in the sparsely populated far
north and east. In line with Novgorodian political practice, piatina towns, with their surrounding countryside, received some self-government, although their posadniki and tysiatskie were appointed from Novgorod rather than elected. Gradually decentralization increased, Viatka, in fact, becoming independent in the late twelfth century and Pskov in the middle of the fourteenth. In addition, as has been noted, Novgorod had to struggle continuously for the security and allegiance of many of its territories against the princes of the northeast, who came to be ably represented by the powerful and successful Muscovite rulers.
Moscow finally destroyed Novgorod. The outcome of their conflict had been in a sense predetermined by the fact that Novgorod, in spite of its swollen size, had remained essentially a city-state. Not surprisingly, many historians consider the twelfth and the thirteenth centuries as the golden age of Novgorod, although the principality gained additional territory in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Devoted to its highly specific and particularistic interests, it flourished in the appanage period when it stood out because of its wealth and its strength and when it could utilize the rivalries of its neighbors. Furthermore, by controlling its prince it had escaped subdivision into new appanages. But it proved unable to compete with Moscow in uniting the Russian people. As Moscow gathered Russian lands and as its last serious rival, the Lithuanian state, came to be linked increasingly to Poland and Catholicism, Novgorod lost its freedom of maneuver. Moscow's absorption of the city and its huge holdings in northern Russia represented the same kind of historical logic - with much less bloodshed - that led to the incorporation of southern France into the French state. Social conflicts made their contribution to this end when class differences and antagonism grew in Novgorod. It seems that in the decisive struggle with Moscow the poor of Novgorod preferred Ivan III to their own oligarchical government with its Lithuanian orientation.
Novgorodian culture too developed in an impressive manner. The city had the good fortune to escape Mongol devastation. In contrast to other appanage principalities, it contained sufficient wealth to continue Kievan cultural traditions on a grand scale. And it benefited from its rich contacts with the West. While Russian culture in the appanage period will be discussed in a later chapter, it is appropriate to note here that Novgorod became famous for its church architecture and its icon-painting, as well as for its vigorous and varied literature.
Moreover, it was in Novgorod that a Soviet search uncovered some seven hundred so-called birchbark documents, usually succinct businesslike notes or messages, which suggest a considerable spread of literacy among the general population of that city and area. Novgorodian literature embraced the writings of such archbishops of the city as Moses and Basil, travelogues, in particular accounts of visits to the Holy Land, and extremely
useful chronicles, together with an oral tradition which included a special cycle of byliny. The oldest surviving Russian, that is, Church Slavonic, manuscript, the illuminated so-called
Specialists have cited certain characteristics of Novgorodian culture as reflecting the peculiar nature and history of that city-state. The
The heroes of Novgorodian literature also reflect the life of the city. The main protagonists of the Novgorodian cycle of byliny included the extraordinary businessman and traveler, merchant Sadko, and the irrepressible and irresponsible young giant Basil Buslaev, whose bloody forays against his neighbors could be checked only by his mother. Buslaev's death illustrates well his behavior: given the choice by a skull to jump in one direction and live or to jump in another and perish, he naturally chose the second and cracked his head. Buslaev has been cited as a genuine representative of the free adventurers of Novgorod, who did so much to spread the sway of their city over enormous lands populated both by Russians and by Finnic-speaking and other tribes.
The history of Novgorod, remarkable in itself, attracts further attention as one variant in the evolution of the lands of Kievan Russia after the decline of Kiev. While it is usual to emphasize the peculiar qualities of Novgorod, it is important to realize also that these qualities stemmed directly from the Kievan - and to some extent pre-Kievan - period and represented, sometimes in an accentuated manner, certain salient Kievan characteristics. The urban life and culture of Novgorod, the important position
of its middle class, its commerce, and its close contacts with the outside world all link Novgorod to the mainstream of Kievan history. The veche too, of course, had had a significant role in Kievan life and politics. In emphasizing further its authority and functions, the Novgorodians developed one element of the political synthesis of Kievan Russia, the democratic, at the expense of two others, the autocratic and the aristocratic, which, as we shall see, found a more fertile soil in other parts of the country.
The democratic political evolution characteristic of Novgorod occurred also in a few other places, especially in another northwestern Russian town, Pskov. Long subject to Novgorod, this extreme Russian outpost became in 1348 a small independent principality with a territory of some 250 by 75 miles. Pskov had a prince whose powers were even more restricted than those of the prince of Novgorod and a veche which in some ways exceeded that of the larger town in importance. Notably, the Pskovian veche, in addition to its other functions, acted as a court for serious crimes. The town had two elected posadniki as well as the elders of the kontsy, but no tysiatskii; and it was subdivided, much like Novgorod, into streets and kontsy. A council of elders also operated in Pskov.
Being much smaller than Novgorod, Pskov experienced less social differentiation and social tension. It has been generally described as more compact, democratic, and peaceful in its inner life than its 'big brother.' On the other hand, this 'little brother' - a title given to Pskov by Novgorod at one point - participated fully in the high development of urban life and culture typical of Novgorod. In fact, Pskovian architects obtained wide renown, while the legal code issued by the Pskovian veche, the celebrated
