Novgorod is the foremost historic city of North-Western Russia.
Ancient history
Novgorod is the most ancient Slavic city recorded in Russia. The chronicle first mentions it in 859, when it was already a major station on the trade route from the Baltics to Byzantium.
In 882 Oleg of Novgorod captured Kiev and founded the state of Kievan Rus. In that state Novgorod was the second city in importance. According to a custom, the elder son and heir of the ruling Kievan monarch was sent to rule Novgorod even as a minor.
By the mid-10th century Novgorod had become a fully developed medieval city.
Of all their princes, Novgorodians cherished most the memory of Yaroslav the Wise, who promulgated the first written code of and sponsored construction of the great St Sophia Cathedral, standing to this day.
Medieval Republic
In 1136, Novgorod merchants and boyars seceded from Kiev, banished their prince and proclaimed the Novgorod Republic. The powerful city state controlled most of Europe's North-East, from today's Estonia to the Ural Mountains. In the 13th century, the city joined the Hanseatic League.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the city thrived culturally. Most of the population was literate and used birch bark letters for communication. It was in Novgorod that the oldest Slavic book written north of Bulgaria and the oldest inscription in a Finnic language were unearthed. When Paris and London were drowning in mud, Novgorod was praised by foreigners for its paved embankments and clean streets. Some of the most ancient Russian chronicles were written in the city.
Modern History
The city's downfall was a result of its inability to feed its large population, making it dependent on the Vladimir-Suzdal region for grain. The main cities in this area, Moscow and Tver, used this dependence to gain control over Novgorod. Eventually Ivan III annexed the city to Muscovy in 1478. Novgorod remained the third largest Russian city, however, until Ivan the Terrible sacked the city and slaughtered thousands of its inhabitants in 1570. The city's merchant elite and nobility were deported to Moscow, Yaroslavl, and elsewhere.
The city regained a measure of its former prosperity by the end of the 17th century, when such ambitious buildings as the Cathedral of the Sign and the Vyazhischi Monastery were constructed. The most famous of Russian patriarchs, Nikon, occupied the metropolian see of Novgorod between 1648 and 1652.
In 1727, Novgorod was made an administrative centre of the Novgorod Governorate of the Russian Empire, which was detached from Saint Petersburg Governorate. This administrative division has existed until 1927.
20th century
During the Second World War, on August 15, 1941 the city was occupied by the Nazi army. Its historic monuments were systematically annihilated. When the Red Army liberated the city on January 19, 1944, out of 2536 stone buildings less than 40 were still standing. After the WWII, the downtown has been gradually restored. Its chief monuments are declared the World Heritage Site. In 1998, the city was officially renamed Velikiy Novgorod, thus partly reverting to its medieval title "Lord Novgorod the Great".
Sights
No other Russian city can compete with Novgorod in the variety and age of its medieval monuments. The foremost among these is the St Sophia Cathedral, built in the 1040s at the behest of Yaroslav the Wise. It is the best preserved of 11th century churches, and the first one to represent original features of Russian architecture (austere stone walls, five helmet-like cupolas). Its frescoes were painted in the 12th century and renovated in the 1860s. The cathedral features famous bronze gates, made in Magdeburg in 1156 and reportedly snatched by Novgorodians from the Swedish capital Sigtuna in 1187.
Novgorod kremlin, traditionally known as Detinets, also contains the oldest palace in Russia (the so-called Chamber of the Facets, 1433), the oldest Russian bell tower (mid-15th cent.), and the oldest Russian clock tower (1673). Among later structures, the most remarkable are the Royal Palace (1771) and a bronze monument to the Millennium of Russia, representing the most important figures from the country's history (unveiled in 1862).
In the village of Vitoslavlitsy, on the road from Novgorod to the Yuriev Monastery, a museum of ancient wooden art was established. Many wooden churches, houses and mills, some of the dating to the 14th century, were transported there from all around the Novgorod region.
