Why Novgorod was great

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

What I’ll tell you today is written in any history textbook. But all the same, it will be a discovery for you, simply because this information is scattered throughout history and you did not see the big picture.

And a map will help me with this: A MAP FOR EXPLANATION TO COMPOSITION ABOUT THE POSITION OF YUGORSK LAND. The map itself was drawn at the end of the 18th century, but it shows the position of the Russian principalities in 1462. Dotted lines are the borders of the provinces of the end of the 18th century, so that you don't get confused.

First, let's look at the principality of Moscow. It is quite small. Yaroslavl, Tver, Rzhev, Ryazan have not yet become part of it. As well as Novgorod.

I want to clarify right away that then it was more likely not a principality-state, but Igo. And in the truest sense of the word. In the old days, yoke meant a tribute, which was collected by the inhabitants of certain localities and then, with a chosen person, taken to Moscow. And so it was right up to the end of the 17th century. The rest of the land lived at its own discretion, often with complete local democracy, which we called Vechevoe right.

Interesting. At the top of the map, you can see the Yug River, which flows into the Sukhona. And the people who lived there are named accordingly, Southerners. At the same time, in the south, on this map, there was, on the territory of the present Chernigov region there was a principality, which was called the North, with the capital in Novgorod-Seversky. Neither one nor the other has anything to do with the present north and south. In ancient Russia, the north was called midnight lands and the south was noon. So you will see in the old chronicles that some kind of Moscow prince went to the North or South, then it is possible that in fact he went exactly to these lands.

Now let's look at the Novgorod lands, which were quite extensive.

BUT, in fact, this is only a small part of them. The entire north of this map is all the only lands under the protectorate of Novgorod. Karelia, the Murmansk region, most of the Arkhangelsk, the entire modern Republic of Komi, the north of the Kirov and Perm regions and everything up to the Ob and even further.

Now do you understand why Novgorod was called the Great? No, not because of greatness. Formerly in Russia, the Great is just great. In the Ukrainian language, which has preserved a lot of Old Russian, the great one is still great. And we ourselves often use phrases like - great pain or great need.

Here you also need to understand that in our Russian tradition, the lands were called by the name of the central city. Therefore, when they said - Novgorod the Great, they meant to a greater extent the territory belonging to him, without dividing the land and the city.

I repeat, this is all written in the history textbook. But until you see it with your own eyes on the map, you will not understand the scale of the greatness of Novgorod. And from all these territories, to one degree or another, Novgorod was paid tribute, although of course there were not so many people there as in the central regions of the Rus region. And this decided the fate of Novgorod. The more numerous and aggressive Moscow conquered these vast lands and became Great itself. In every sense of the word.