Several stark premises have long prevailed in our approach to Russian history. It was commonly assumed that Russia had always labored under a highly centralized and autocratic imperial state. The ...responsibility for this lamentable state of affairs was ultimately assigned to the profoundly agrarian character of Russian society. The countryside, home to the overwhelming majority of the nation's population, was considered a harsh world of cruel landowners and ignorant peasants, and a strong hand was required for such a crude society.A number of significant conclusions flowed from this understanding. Deep and abiding social divisions obstructed the evolution of modernity, as experienced "naturally" in other parts of Europe, so there was no Renaissance or Reformation; merely a derivative Enlightenment; and only a distorted capitalism. And since only despotism could contain these volatile social forces, it followed that the 1917 Revolution was an inevitable explosion resulting from these intolerable contradictions-and so too were the blood-soaked realities of the Soviet regime that came after. In short, the sheer immensity of its provincial backwardness could explain almost everything negative about the course of Russian history.This book undermines these preconceptions. Through her close study of the province of Nizhnii Novgorod in the nineteenth century, Catherine Evtuhov demonstrates how nearly everything we thought we knew about the dynamics of Russiansociety was wrong. Instead of peasants ground down by poverty and ignorance, we find skilled farmers, talented artisans and craftsmen, and enterprising tradespeople. Instead of an exclusively centrally administered state, we discover effective and participatory local government. Instead of pervasive ignorance, we are shown a lively cultural scene and an active middle class. Instead of a defining Russian exceptionalism, we find a world recognizable to any historian of nineteenth-century Europe.Drawing on a wide range of Russian social, environmental, economic, cultural, and intellectual history, and synthesizing it with deep archival research of the Nizhnii Novgorod province, Evtuhov overturns a simplistic view of the Russian past. Rooted in, but going well beyond, provincial affairs, her book challenges us with an entirely new perspective on Russia's historical trajectory.
This is the third book on material studies in this series on medieval Novgorod and its territory, and deals with a substantial body of animal bones that has been recovered over the last decade. The ...zooarchaeological evidence is discussed by the editor and a number of other British and Russian specialists looking at the remains of mammals, birds and fish. Topics discussed include diet, butchery practices, the exploitation of fur and skins, mortality patterns of mammals, and metrical analyses of a wide range of species. Detailed data sets are provided to enable the reader to make comparisons with their own research, but the book is also suitable for those with a more general interest in medieval Russian archaeology.
The Novgorod region of Russia is a sparsely populated area about the size of Ireland better known for its medieval archaeology and folklore than for anything else. Although Novgorod began the ...post-Soviet period with no unusual endowment of natural or human resources, it has attracted a large amount of foreign investment. Its dramatic economic success and political innovation have impressed observers. Local governments deliver benefits and services reliably, and the regional government responds quickly to citizens' needs and demands. Something noteworthy is happening in Novgorod that does not square with familiar headlines about contemporary Russia: oligarchs and oil, ethnic tensions and corruption.Nicolai N. Petro attempts to explain the Novgorod phenomenon by seeking answers at the regional level. Novgorod is, he finds, a model of effective democratic consolidation. Petro suggests that the region owes its unexpected recent success to its political elites, who have identified key cultural symbols and used those symbols to promote democratic development. Drawing on comparisons with other regions and countries, Petro finds that these cultural tactics often yield better results than do Western-style institutions and educational training programs. Current efforts to promote democracy focus too much on structural changes and not enough on the conditions needed to sustain them, Petro writes. For the rule of law, free markets, and free and fair elections to gain broad public support, they must first make sense within the local cultural tradition. The unexpected success of regional democratic development in a country not known for its democratic traditions suggests that local governments can transform the burden of the past into an ally of change, a finding with implications for democratic development initiatives in other areas of the world. The Novgorod region of Russia is a sparsely populated area about the size of Ireland better known for its medieval archaeology and folklore than for anything else. Although Novgorod began the post-Soviet period with no unusual endowment of natural or human resources, it has attracted a large amount of foreign investment. Its dramatic economic success and political innovation have impressed observers. Local governments deliver benefits and services reliably, and the regional government responds quickly to citizens' needs and demands. Something noteworthy is happening in Novgorod that does not square with familiar headlines about contemporary Russia: oligarchs and oil, ethnic tensions and corruption. Nicolai N. Petro attempts to explain the Novgorod phenomenon by seeking answers at the regional level. Novgorod is, he finds, a model of effective democratic consolidation. Petro suggests that the region owes its unexpected recent success to its political elites, who have identified key cultural symbols and used those symbols to promote democratic development. Drawing on comparisons with other regions and countries, Petro finds that these cultural tactics often yield better results than do Western-style institutions and educational training programs. Current efforts to promote democracy focus too much on structural changes and not enough on the conditions needed to sustain them, Petro writes. For the rule of law, free markets, and free and fair elections to gain broad public support, they must first make sense within the local cultural tradition. The unexpected success of regional democratic development in a country not known for its democratic traditions suggests that local governments can transform the burden of the past into an ally of change, a finding with implications for democratic development initiatives in other areas of the world.
For generations the city-state of Novgorod and later Novgorod Republic were perceived as one of the most successful democratic experiments on Russian soil ever. In recent decades, however, this ...interpretation has been questioned several times. It could therefore be tempting to completely ignore this fact. However, it will hardly be reasonable partly because the idea of the democratic Novgorod has played a major role in Russian history, and partly because the results of modern research have emerged in opposition to the previously common view. The notions of the democratic Novgorod are based on an image of the city as a quite enterprising business city with peasants, artisans and merchants. Also to this must be added a class of rich boyars. All were they free men who took an active part in the political and social life of the city. This article analyses and studies the socio-political structure of Novgorod and later Novgorod Republic; conclusions are drawn why this structure is questioned in modern history science.
This book highlights the main features and trends of Russian
"political" thought in an era when sovereignty, state, and
politics, as understood in Western Christendom, were non-existent
in Russia, or ...were only beginning to be articulated. It
concentrates on enigmatic authors and sources that shaped official
perception of rulership, or marked certain changes of importance of
this perception. Special emphasis is given to those written and
visual sources that point towards depersonalization and
secularization of rulership in Russia. A comparison with Western
Christendom frames the argument throughout the book, both in terms
of ideas and the practical aspects of state-building, allowing the
reader to ponder Russia's differentia specifica .
Novgorod is one of the most intensively and continuously studied urban sites in northern Europe. The excellent preservation of organic and inorganic material in its anaerobic soils, including the ...structural remains of streets, properties and buildings, has made it possible to study entire quarters of the town as well as the activities of its inhabitants. With deposits up to 8 m deep in places and with well-dated sequences from the early to mid-10th century, its importance to the study of both medieval Russia and the development of Europe cannot be over emphasised. This publication series presents some of the recent results obtained from international, multidisciplinary projects into the origins and development of the medieval town and its hinterland. Previous volumes have concerned the pottery (2006) and wood use (2007); a forthcoming volume will publish research into animals. The Archaeology of Medieval Novgorod in Context includes papers on aspects of the environmental and technological context of the relationship between urban centre and rural hinterland. It begins by examining the environmental context for the settlement pattern that developed from the 9th to 15th centuries and examining the role that various natural resources had in contributing to that pattern. After a general paper on the natural environment based on a recent palynological study, it presents data from three study areas (the first in the Byeloozero area to the northeast of Novgorod; the second in the immediate hinterland of Novgorod and the third within Novgorod itself). It considers what, where and how certain natural resources were exploited during the medieval period in these areas. Where possible, it also attempts to explain the processes by which these resources were produced as commodities (via craft production, centralised workshops, household production, specialised settlements, etc.) and place the evidence from the three other volumes on ceramics, wood use and zooarchaeology into a wider context, concentrating on the exploitation, manufacture and consumption of these and other materials. Whilst not definitive, the collection aims to be a starting point for attempting to put Novgorod into a wider context of the medieval world.
The present work aims to demonstrate that St. Jonas, Archbishop of Novgorod (1458–1470)—the last independent Archbishop of Veliky Novgorod—was a supporter of the Lithuanian party, and not at all an ...adherent of Moscow, as hagiographic tradition claims and is commonly thought. In particular, he wanted his successor to be consecrated not in Moscow, but in Kiev (i.e., in Lithuanian Rus’). In this connection, In this connection we consider the question: whether Jonas promised not to recognize Gregory the Bulgarian, who was appointed in Rome to the metropolitan see of Kiev.
This book highlights the main features and trends of Russian
"political" thought in an era when sovereignty, state, and
politics, as understood in Western Christendom, were non-existent
in Russia, or ...were only beginning to be articulated. It
concentrates on enigmatic authors and sources that shaped official
perception of rulership, or marked certain changes of importance of
this perception. Special emphasis is given to those written and
visual sources that point towards depersonalization and
secularization of rulership in Russia. A comparison with Western
Christendom frames the argument throughout the book, both in terms
of ideas and the practical aspects of state-building, allowing the
reader to ponder Russia's differentia specifica .
Over a long period of archaeological study of Novgorod, a rich collection of medieval antiquities was accumulated, which reflects all areas of activity of its inhabitants in the Middle Ages. In ...particular, household items are widely represented, among which a small group of agricultural implements stands out, which makes it possible to trace the history of the development of agricultural technology for the territory of Novgorod. The article provides a detailed description of the collection of agricultural implements, and the necessary research has been carried out to systematize them based on classifications developed by domestic archaeologists. The chronological framework of the work covers the period from the mid-10th to the 15th centuries, which is due to the peculiarities of the preservation of the cultural layer on the territory of Novgorod. Written, visual and ethnographic materials were also analyzed as part of this study.
In the debatable issue about the meaning of the phrase ryti rѣku, used in the inscription on the Sterzhensky cross in 1133, the author supports the traditional point of view, according to which it ...means the work to deepen the riverbed of the Volga in its up-per reaches. This interpretation is based on a number of precedents already cited in literature. An alternative version, which assumes that the inscription reflects the ritual of plowing the river ― a magical means of causing rain ― is considered unlikely for historical and linguistic reasons. The work on the Upper Volga in 1133 is put in connection with the aridity of this year, which is supported by the dendrochronology. Special importance is given to the construction of a new bridge over the Volkhov in Novgorod in the same year 1133: two events are interpreted as coordinated acts that used favorable hydrological conditions for construction. The synchronicity of these acts is considered in connection with the political situation of this period: for Prince Vsevolod Mstislavich, the construction of the bridge could be a means to strengthen his position in Novgorod, which was shaken after the events of 1132. At the same time, hereditary building ambitions are visible in the actions of Ivanko Pavlovich ― following the model of his father, the Ladoga posadnik Pavel, who laid the stone fortress in Ladoga in 1116 ― simultaneously with the laying of a new fortress in Novgorod by Mstislav Vladimirovich. It has been suggested that the so-called “Wonderful Cross”, which stood at the entrance to the Great Bridge over the Volkhov, was, like the Sterzhensky Cross, erected to commemorate the construction of the bridge.
