Chapter 9 the Skra of Novgorod

Chapter 9 The Skra of Novgorod: Legal Contacts Between Russia and Western Europe in the Middle Ages 1. Introduction For many centuries, the medieval Russian city of Novgorod housed within its walls an independent community of Hanseatic merchants. They had their own code of law, called the Skra,1 which regulated the most important aspects of their daily life, their commercial activities, their organization and self-government. The Skra has been studied by historians, both Ger- man and Russian, as a source for the history of the Hanseatic League, of German-Russian relations, of life in medieval Novgorod, etc. As a legal document, the Skra has usually been viewed by German legal historians as an offshoot and a geographically remote representative of the family of North German city laws.2 This chapter will consider the Skra in particular against the back- ground of contemporary Russian law. In order to acquire a general perspective of the historical context and geographical surroundings in which the Skra functioned, some at- tention must first be paid to Novgorod, its place in Russian history, its system of government and its laws, and then to Novgorod’s relations with the cities of the Hanseatic League. These introductory sections will be followed by a discussion of the Skra itself, its sources, and its relations with Russian law. 1 The term Skra (scra, schra, schrage) itself is of German origin and occurs in medieval German law to denote a more or less statutory enactment of a city. On its etymology, see F. Frensdorff, “Das statutarische Recht der deutschen Kaufleute in Nowgorod”, Abhandlungen der kön. Ges. der Wiss. zu Göttingen, Vol.33 (1886), 1-35 (at 2-5) and Vol.34 (1887), 1-55. The most complete edition of the text of the Skra is by W. Schlüter, Die Nowgoroder Schra in sieben Fassungen vom XIII. bis XVII. Jahrhundert, Dorpat, 1911. (The same author published a small booklet in the same year Die Nowgoroder Schra in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung vom 13. bis zum 17. Jh., the text of a lecture held in 1910.) 2 Frensdorff, Vol.1, 25-26. 262 Law in Medieval Russia 2. Novgorod the Great3 Novgorod is situated in the North-West of European Russia on a trade route from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, which goes back to prehistoric times and is already described in detail in the Primary Chronicle. The route runs from the Black Sea up the Dniepr, then through a portage to the river Lovat’, which flows into Lake Ilmen. Novgorod lies at the northern end of this lake. From Novgorod, the river Volkhov flows north into Lake Ladoga, which then is connected through the river Neva with the Baltic Sea. During the earliest period of Russian history, Novgorod appears as the most important city in the North of the country. In those days, the Slavic tribes inhabiting the region of Kiev were called Russians, while the population of the Novgorod region was known as Slovenes. These names were still used in the oldest part of the Russkaia Pravda, dating from the beginning of the 11th century. The principal chronicles covering the earliest period of Russian history, the Primary Chronicle and the First Novgorod Chronicle (see the chapter on “Sources”), clearly demonstrate the tensions which existed between the two cities.4 More than once, the prince of Novgorod succeeded in taking the throne of the grand prince in Kiev. According to dynastic custom in the Kievan realm, the brothers and other important male relatives of the grand prince of Kiev would usually each receive a principality. Upon the death of the grand prince or a local ruling prince, the eldest son would not normally succeed; instead, the principalities were redistributed among the leading members of the ruling house, the descendants of Rurik (see the chapters on “The Elder Brother in Russia” and “The Treaties of Medieval Russia”). In this way, several of the most famous grand princes of Kiev—notably St.Vladimir, who converted to Christianity in 988, and his son Iaroslav the Wise, the legislator of the oldest part of the Russkaia Pravda—came to the Kievan throne through Novgorod. Novgorod’s geographical position in the North-West of the country proved to be a great advantage in the 13th century when the Mongols conquered and devastated most of the former Kievan empire. At that time, the union achieved under earlier grand princes of Kiev had already broken down and the country was fragmented into a number of almost 3 Convenient surveys of the medieval history of Novgorod in Kliuchevskii, Vol.2, 54-104; M.N. Tikhomirov, “Velikii Novgorod v istorii mirovoi kul’tury”, M.N. Tikhomirov (ed.), Novgorod k 1100-letiiu goroda, Moskva, 1964, 23-37; K. Onasch, Gross-Nowgorod. Aufstieg und Niedergang einer russischen Stadtrepublik, Wien, 1969. 4 See, also, P.P. Tolochko, “Kiev i Novgorod XII–nachala XIII vv. v novgorodskom letopisanii”, A.A. Gippius, E.N. Nosov & A.S. Khoroshev (eds.), Velikii Novgorod v istorii srednevekovoi Evropy [Ianin Festschrift], Moskva, 1999, 171-179..

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