- THE CHRONICLE OF NOVGOROD 1016-1471 TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN BY ROBERT ,MICHELL AND NEVILL FORBES, Ph.D. Reader in Russian in the University of Oxford WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY C. RAYMOND BEAZLEY, D.Litt. Professor of Modern History in the University of Birmingham AND AN ACCOUNT OF THE TEXT BY A. A. SHAKHMATOV Professor in the University of St. Petersburg CAMDEN’THIRD SERIES I VOL. xxv LONDON OFFICES OF THE SOCIETY 6 63 7 SOUTH SQUARE GRAY’S INN, W.C. 1914 _. -- . .-’ ._ . .e. ._ ‘- -v‘. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE General Introduction (and Notes to Introduction) . vii-xxxvi Account of the Text . xxx%-xli Lists of Titles, Technical terms, etc. xlii-xliii The Chronicle . I-zzo Appendix . 221 tJlxon the Bibliography . 223-4 . 225-37 GENERAL INTRODUCTION I. THE REPUBLIC OF NOVGOROD (‘ LORD NOVGOROD THE GREAT," Gospodin Velikii Novgorod, as it once called itself, is the starting-point of Russian history. It is also without a rival among the Russian city-states of the Middle Ages. Kiev and Moscow are greater in political importance, especially in the earliest and latest mediaeval times-before the Second Crusade and after the fall of Constantinople-but no Russian town of any age has the same individuality and self-sufficiency, the same sturdy republican independence, activity, and success. Who can stand against God and the Great Novgorod ?-Kto protiv Boga i Velikago Novgoroda .J-was the famous proverbial expression of this self-sufficiency and success. From the beginning of the Crusading Age to the fall of the Byzantine Empire Novgorod is unique among Russian cities, not only for its population, its commerce, and its citizen army (assuring it almost complete freedom from external domination even in the Mongol Age), but also as controlling an empire, or sphere of influence, extending over the far North from Lapland to the Urals and the Ob. The modern provinces of Novgorod, Olonets, and Archangel, with portions of Vologda, Perm, and Tobolsk, represent this empire.l The great Novgorod of the Middle Ages, the quiet, decayed cathe- dral town of to-day, lies on both sides of the deep and broad Vol- khov, on its way from Lake Ilmen to Ladoga and the Baltic. Here we are about one hundred miles south-east of St. Petersburg. As in the Middle Ages, the Side or Quarter of St. Sophia still lies on the left of the Volkhov, the Commercial Side on the right. The eleventh-century cathedral of the Holy Wisdom, “ Saint Sophia,” is still one of the historical monuments of Russia, while the walls of the Kremlin of Novgorod show how slender was the fourteenth- century Russian skill in fortification.2 But the mighty turbulent Republic is no more. The modern town, of some 26,000 people, has little more than a tenth, perhaps, . of its old numbers, when to Ghillibert de Lannoy, coming from the Low Countries in 1413, it appeared “ of prodigious greatness.‘ls The Hanseatic Market is a memory. The ancient earthern ramparts are in ruins, and of their stone towers only one, The White, still stands on the south of the city. Quite as ruinous is the Tower of Yaroslav, overlooking that Court of Yaroslav, which was once the . .*. ., .- _. _I ‘L I c.-- _. Vlll THE CHRONICLE OF NOVGOROD INTRODUCTION ix favourite meeting-place of the popular assemblies. The great bell The next prince reigns less than a year; his successor is driven out which summoned the citizens to these assemblies, or to riot, hangs after “ twenty-one months.” In 1141 the city “ sat without a there no longer. More than from Florence or from Ghent has the ” nine months, and the man next chosen is put in the Arch- old life departed, which made Novgorod a Slavonic counterpart of Enzrp7s Palace and “ let go ” after a few weeks. the city-states of Italy or of Flanders.* Again in 1154 Novgorod turns out its prince, and “ fetches in ” Novgorod, in the days of its power, is in name an elective Princi- another, who soon goes to reign at Kiev, leaving his son David in pality, in fact something like a democratic Republic. The ‘Veche or his place. David is “ shown the road ” before the close of this same General Assembly of the citizens, is the ultimate and irresistible year (1154). authority, though its ordinary activities are of course limited by In 1157 David’s successor, despite the support of the Commercial other forces, ecclesiastical, commercial, aristocratic, and princely. Quarter, has to fly under cover of night. The prince next appointed (i) The power of these Electoral Klzyuzes or Princes rests mainly on (in 1158) is shown the way to Ladoga in 116O-only to be restored, then- own personahty, and their capacity of maintaining popularity “ with his full liberty,” after “ a year less than a week,” when his and organizing support. In modern language, Novgorod is largely rival and supplanter is “ fetched away.” And in this way examples governed by the party system. While the Prince can command a might be tenfold multiplied.6 majority, or at least avoid open defeat, he is secure, except against There is another side to the picture. In the changeful line of surprise: as soon as his party is the weaker, the result is inevitable. Novgorod princes, we meet sometimes with men who rule. Yaro- In the language of the Chronicle, they ‘I show him the way out.” slav the Lawgiver, in the eleventh century, is such a sovereign; From the earliest times the citizens are noted for their “ free Alexander Nevsky, in the thirteenth, is another. From 1240, spirit.” At the beginning of Russian history’we have their tradi- when he gains his “ eponymous ” triumph upon the Neva, till his tional revolt against the very Rurik they had just called in to found death in 1263, Alexander dominates Novgorod. He even makes the new Slav-Scandinavian people of Rus-“ Our Land is great, the Republic diplomatic. After the intoxicating victories of the but there is no Order or Justice in it; come and rule over us.” Neva over the Swedes (1240), and of Lake Chudskoe over the Ger- A century later, Svyatoslav proposes to govern Novgorod by ordi- man Knights (1242), it was hard to submit to the Mongol tax- nary officials, but the city insists on a son of the Grand Prince gatherer (as in 1259). But Alexander realizes that to defy the “ We know how to find another Knyaz.” The menace is heeded Horde is to complete the desolation of Russia. The hero of Nov- (964-72). gorod at last persuades her of the humiliating truth. He rides out Yaroslav the Lawgiver (1016-54), one of the real statesmen of with the Mongol emissaries, whom he had guarded day and night Russian history, fully recognizes the power and value of Novgorod from mob violence, and under his protection “ the accursed ones 1: Above all his other favours, tradition singles out the Charters or go ‘I through the streets, writing down the houses of the Christrans. Privileges granted by him to the city-a Russian parallel to the To save the Russian remnant, Alexander journeys repeatedly to the “ Good Laws of Edward the Confessor,” or the German Town Western Tartar army (or Golden Horde) upon the Volga-once Charters of Charles the Great.6 at least to the Great Khan in Mongolia (1246-50). Death overtakes As the old Russian Federation, under the Grand Princes of Kiev him on his way home from the Golden Horde in 1263. The news falls to pieces in the twelfth century, Novgorod republicanism de: reaches Novgorod as the Eucharist is finishing; turning to the people, velops. The sovereignty is treated as purely elective, and depo- Archbishop Cyril tells the disaster-“ The sun of the Russian land sition becomes well-nigh parallel to election. A prince installed one has set, my children.” “ Grant, Merciful Lord,” exclaims the year may be “ shown out ” the next. Chronicler, “ that he may see Thy Face in the age to come, Pbr he Thus in 1136 (taking examples only from the time of Stephen has laboured for Novgorod, and for the whole Russian land.“l and Henry II of England) the men of Novgorod seize and imprison Yet even this hero of the North, fresh from the victory of the Prince Vsyevolod in the Archbishop’s palace “ with his wife and Neva, has for a time to leave Novgorod, “ with his mother and his children, and his mother-in-law,” and finally expel him. wife . having quarrelled ” with the citizens. Better thoughts ‘L .t. X THE CHRONICLE OF NOVGOROD INTRODUCTION xi come with reflection. At the beginning of the next year Alex- (iii) As everywhere in Old Russia, the Church in Novgorod is of the ander is recalled (1241).* first importance. Vast as is the sphere of the Latin Church in As time goes on, and Eastern and Western Christendom see the Western history, the Greek Church in Russia is. only less pro- growth of more powerful monarchical states, the Novgorod princedom minent because of the absence of Papalism, of religious war, and further declines, and at last we find the citizens doubting only whether (in comparison) of ecclesiastical encroachment. to become frankly Muscovite or disloyally Polish (1471).9 As early as 1034 Nestor mentions one of the VZadykas or Archbishops, whose succession is so carefully recorded, and in 1045 (ii) The crisis of 1471, ended by the victory of Moscow, brings into the historic Cathedral of the Holy Wisdom, the Hagia S?hza or relief the second person in the temporal polity of the Republic-in Sophiisky Sobor of Novgorod, is built by Yaroslav the Lawgiver and “ the accursed ” Posadnitsa Martha, wife of the Posadnik Gover- his son Vladimir.14 nor, or Burgomaster Simon Boretsky.