In 1217, Mstislav Mstislavich Udatny, having received news of the repeated occupation of Galich by the Hungarians, convened a veche in Novgorod, at which he announced his intention to “look for Galich,” resigned, despite the persuasions of the Novgorodians, the powers of the Novgorod prince and departed south. In his place, the Novgorodians preferred to see another representative of the clan of the Smolensk Rostislavichs, so the young prince Svyatoslav Mstislavich, the son of the Kiev prince Mstislav Romanovich, the old cousin Mstislav Udatny, was summoned to the Novgorod table.
Here it is necessary, perhaps, to make some deviation from the main story and say a few words about Novgorod.
In the first half of the XIII century. before the start of the Mongol invasion, it was the third largest and most populous city of the ancient Russian state. In terms of these indicators, it was second only to Kiev and Vladimir-on-Klyazma, far exceeding the rest of the cities. The city had a complex system of government, in which the Novgorod prince was by no means the most important role. Without disputes, the Novgorod prince was allowed in Novgorod to lead only his own squad in peacetime and the general Novgorod army during a military campaign, and even then under the supervision of authorized representatives from the Novgorod community. The right of the princely court, collection of feed, collection of duties, etc. always served as the subject of disputes between the princes and Novgorod, and these disputes could be resolved in one direction or another, depending on the political abilities of their participants, but never one side was completely satisfied with their results.
Novgorod possessed a huge territory, constantly expanding to the north and east, from which it collected tribute, mainly honey, wax, furs - goods that were in high demand in the markets of Europe and the East. The main source of income for the Novgorodians was trade - with the Arab East along the Volga route, and with Europe along the Baltic Sea. Due to the harsh climate, Novgorod could not sustainably provide itself with food, therefore it has always been dependent on food supplies from the "lower lands" of Russia - the territories located in the basin of the upper Volga and Dnieper. In most of the principalities of ancient Russia, the main surplus product was obtained from the land as a result of its cultivation, therefore, the so-called. "Land aristocracy" - large patrimonial landowners. In trading Novgorod, where the main income was obtained precisely from trade, the situation was different. Real money, and, therefore, power was not concentrated in the hands of landowners, or rather, not only landowners, but merchants and artisans united in guilds, in connection with which democratic institutions were highly developed in the city. The supreme governing body was the city council.
The political structure of ancient Novgorod was never homogeneous. Several political parties were constantly active in the city, which included the most wealthy and influential residents of the city - the boyars. The purpose of these parties was to impose their will on the veche so that the latter would make decisions that were beneficial to this particular party, be it the decision to organize a military campaign or to choose a prince. The struggle of these parties, sometimes reminiscent of a mouse fuss, sometimes pouring out into the streets of the city in pogroms and even real armed clashes, when the participants went out to sort things out with weapons and in armor, did not stop for a minute. The "lower" princes, of course, could not help but use this struggle in their own interests, establishing diplomatic and political contacts with one or another boyar group in order to lobby for their own interests in Novgorod.
However, by the beginning of the XIII century. the alignment of political forces in the Novgorod region began to change rapidly. New political forces appeared, which it was impossible not to reckon with, so actively they began to invade the political space of Novgorod. This refers to the crusading forces of Western Europe: German (primarily the Order of the Swordsmen), Danish and Swedish. And if the Swedes at the beginning of the XIII century. acted mainly on the periphery of Novgorod possessions - in western Finland, the lands of sumi and emi (tavastvs), then the Danes operated in the immediate vicinity of the borders of the Novgorod possessions proper - in northern Estonia, so that they were separated from the lands of the Vodskaya pyatina only by the river Narva, and the Order, pushed by the Archbishop of Riga, came close to Yuriev (Dorpat, Dorpat, present-day Tartu, Estonia) - an outpost of Novgorod in southern Estonia. All these independent, but acting in a unified direction, forces faced Novgorod influence in the zones of their new interests. Each of these forces, including the office of the Archbishop of Riga, subordinate directly to the Pope, actively began to look for allies in the region, including among the Novgorodians interested in uninterrupted trade with the West, thus joining in the internal political life of Novgorod along with the “lower princes.
The city of Yuryev should also be told in more detail.
It was founded by Yaroslav the Wise in 1030 on the site of an ancient Estonian settlement. The city had no military significance, being, to a greater extent, an administrative point and a trade and transshipment base on the winter route from Novgorod to Europe. The city was inhabited by a mixed Estonian-Russian population, mainly Estonian, it did not have serious fortifications and a permanent garrison. With the emergence and consolidation of the Order of the Swordsmen in Latgale (Latvia), the latter began to try to capture this point. In 1211, with their support, the tribes of the Latgalians attacked Yuriev, the city was burned. In 1215, the knight brothers themselves carried out the seizure of St. George's. Evaluating its favorable geographical position, which allows them to control the whole of southern Estonia, the knights, as usual, gave the city a new name (Dorpat) and built a fortified castle in it.
However, back to Novgorod. Since the time of Andrei Bogolyubsky and Vsevolod Bolshoye Gnezdo, one of the most influential parties in Novgorod was the party that supported the claims to the Novgorod reign of the Vladimir-Suzdal princes, or simply the "Suzdal party". It was on her that Yaroslav Vsevolodovich began to rely in the struggle for the Novgorod table.
This party was headed by the boyar Tverdislav Mikhalkich, a wise and far-sighted man. In the period from 1207 to 1220, Tverdislav was elected four times to the post of mayor with three breaks between posadnichestvo, each of which did not exceed a year. For the turbulent political life of Novgorod, this was a very, very good result, clearly demonstrating Tverdislav's outstanding political abilities. In 1217 he was serving his third posadnichestvo.
Tverdislav, like his father earlier, who was also elected posadnik, Mikhalko Stepanich, in his policy was firmly focused on cooperation with the Vladimir princes, therefore, the new Novgorod prince, Svyatoslav Mstislavich, chosen by the veche, faced in his face an intelligent adversary who was ready to take advantage of any mistake of the young prince. And such a mistake was not slow to appear.
In January 1218, the Novgorod guards, probably because of the commission of some kind of criminal offense, was detained, taken to Novgorod and the next day a certain Matvey Dushilovich was handed over to Prince Svyatoslav. For what reasons this happened, we do not know, it can be assumed that the crime for which he was detained was committed against a princely man. However, Novgorod could not tolerate such princely arbitrariness, rumors spread throughout the city that Matvey was given directly to the prince by the mayor Tverdislav. In the city, two parties were formed at once - on the Sofia side, in support of Tverdislav and on Torgovaya against him. The Tver annalistic collection speaks of these events as follows: “… and the onipolovichs (residents of the trans-riverine, that is to say, the Torgovaya side in Novgorod) and to the fellow (the detinets, located on the Sofia side) in the armor and helmets aky on the army, and the non-Revites did the same … and you quickly slaughtered at the city gates, and flew to onepol, and others to the end of the permetash bridge …”The following is a list of the dead and injured.
Supporters of Tverdislav won the battle, but the riots in Novgorod continued for another week. Finally, the nerves of Prince Svyatoslav could not stand it, and he sent his thousand to tell the people that he was displacing the mayor. To the reasonable question "for what fault?" the prince replied: "Without guilt." Tverdislav acted wisely, the chronicle quotes his words as follows: “I am glad for that, as I have no guilt; but you, brothers, are in posadnizstvo and princes naturally. " Novgorodians correctly understood his message and immediately made their decision, declaring to the prince: "We bow to you, and behold our mayor." As a result of this conflict, Prince Svyatoslav was forced to leave Novgorod, giving way to his younger brother Vsevolod.
Vsevolod Mstislavich, however, also did not last long on the Novgorod table. Having made one military campaign in the interests of the Novgorodians against the Order of the Swordsmen, which had thoroughly entrenched itself by that time on the territory of modern Latvia, but without achieving significant success, Vsevolod managed to quarrel first with Tverdislav Mikhalkich, and after he left the post of mayor for health and imminent death in 1220., with his successor and successor of his business as mayor, Ivanko Dmitrovich. Summing up the results of this conflict, the chronicler was forced to write literally the following: “The same summer, showed the way of Novgorod to Vsevolod Mstislavich, grandson of Romanov:“we don’t want you, go camo you want”and an idea to your father in Russia,“to your father in Russia”means to the prince Mstislav Romanovich the Old, who then occupied the great Kiev table.
When choosing a new prince, the Suzdal party triumphed and it was decided to turn to the Grand Duke of Vladimir Yuri Vsevolodovich for a new prince. Yuri Vsevolodovich, probably remembering that with Yaroslav near Novgorod all the pots were broken in 1215-1216, offered the Novgorodians as a prince his seven-year-old son Vsevolod. Vsevolod arrived in Novgorod at the beginning of 1221, and in the summer, together with his uncle Svyatoslav at the head of the Novgorod squad, he participated in another campaign against the Order. The squad of Svyatoslav and the Novgorodians again, as well as under Vsevolod Mstislavich the year before, but together with Lithuania, unsuccessfully besieged Kes (Pertuev, Venden, present-day Cesis in Latvia). The chronicler, however, notes that, in contrast to the first campaign, this time the Russians and Lithuanians "fought a lot," that is, the surroundings of Kesya were thoroughly plundered.
Returning from the campaign, Vsevolod Yuryevich spent some time in Novgorod, but then, for no apparent reason at night, secretly fled with his court and returned to his father. The Novgorodians were upset by this turn of events and soon sent a new embassy to Yuri, which was authorized to ask the Grand Duke for his brother Yaroslav Vsevolodovich for the Novgorod table. The choice of Novgorodians may seem strange only at first glance. The fact is that the last time, having arrived in Novgorod in 1215,to reign, Yaroslav began his reign with repressions against his political opponents, which caused the legitimate indignation of the Novgorodians. Of course, it was "legal" from the point of view of the Novgorodians themselves exclusively, Yaroslav, naturally, looked at the situation completely differently, he, as a prince, considered himself in the right to execute and have mercy, as he used to do in his Pereyaslavl-Zalessky. However, as a result of Yaroslav's repressions, only the party of his political opponents could suffer, and in 1221 the party of his supporters was in power in Novgorod, which did not suffer from repressions, and even, probably, received some political dividends from them. Further actions of Yaroslav in 1215 - 1216. (the interception of Novgorod trade, the detention of merchants and their subsequent beating) fit well into the model of behavior of any medieval ruler of that era and did not represent something extraordinary. Before the era of humanism and enlightenment, the conditional thousand people who died of hunger caused by the actions of Yaroslav were still far away, as well as a couple of hundred merchants who were tortured after the defeat at Lipitsa by Yaroslav in Pereyaslavl (as well as those who died in the battle itself and during the plundering of Pereyaslavl lands during the campaign of Mstislav Udatny with the troops from Rzhev to Yuryev-Polsky), were considered something like accidental, but inevitable victims of the conflict, who simply had such a fate. Moreover, all these victims were already avenged by the Novgorodians, and the losses were compensated. Yaroslav showed himself to be an energetic and warlike ruler, easy-going and greedy for glory, and it was such a prince that Novgorod needed. So, having once received a cruel lesson from the Novgorodians, Yaroslav could really seem to them an ideal candidate for the Novgorod reign.
So, in 1221, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, who was still in Pereyaslavl, where he had two sons by this time (in 1219 - Fedor, in 1220 - Alexander, the future Nevsky), for the second time became the Prince of Novgorod …
His first action, as a Novgorod prince, was a quick campaign for the Lithuanian detachment, which in 1222 ravaged the vicinity of Toropets. The chase, however, was unsuccessful, near Usvyat (the village of Usvyaty, Pskov region) Lithuania managed to break away from the persecution, but nevertheless, Yaroslav managed to demonstrate energy and determination. With age, these qualities of his will not change in any way, he will always be ready for any, the most unexpected and risky ventures.
In January 1223, an uprising of local tribes against the Germans and Danes broke out on the territory of modern Estonia. The rebels managed to capture several fortified points of the crusaders, including Velyan (German Fellin, present-day Viljandi, Estonia) and Yuryev. After several defeats inflicted by the rebellious brothers-knights, the council of elders of the Estonian tribes who participated in the uprising asked for help from Novgorod.
Already in July 1223, Yaroslav organized a military campaign in support of the insurgent Estonians. Yaroslav's army proceeded through Pskov, where it crossed the Velikaya River and, bypassing the system of the Peipsi and Pskov lakes from the south, approached Yuriev. Leaving in Yuryev a small garrison of 200 people headed by Prince Vyachko (presumably, Prince Vyacheslav Borisovich from the Polotsk branch of the Rurikovichs), Yaroslav moved deeper into Livonia, where he easily took possession of the Odenpe Order Castle (modern Otepää, Estonia), known to the Russian chronicles called Bear's Head. The castle was burned down, after which Yaroslav moved towards the besieged by the Germans Velyana (Viljandi), whose garrison consisted of Estonians and a small number of Russian soldiers, however, arriving there after August 15, he found the city already taken and burned with Russian soldiers hanged by the Germans. It turned out that the Estonians besieged in Veljana, together with the Russians, entered into negotiations with the Germans and surrendered the city in exchange for the right to free exit. The Russian part of the garrison was not included in this treaty, and after the capture of the city, all Russian warriors who were captured by the Germans were immediately and mercilessly executed. Having learned the circumstances of the capture of Velyan and the betrayal of the Estonians, Jaroslav became angry and utterly ruined the vicinity of Velyan, At Velyan, a detachment of Estonians from Ezel joined Yaroslav's army, where at that time the uprising of local residents against the Danes was successfully developing. The Ezelians offered Yaroslav to attack the Danish possessions in Estonia. Yaroslav turned north to Kolyvan (German: Revel, present-day Tallinn, Estonia), ruthlessly devastating the surroundings along the way. Having subjected northern Estonia to total devastation, having stood for four weeks near Kolyvan, and having lost several people during the storming of a fortified castle with a Danish garrison, Yaroslav, under the threat of a riot in the Novgorod army (having recruited a rich army did not want to continue fighting), was forced to take from the city ransom and return to Novgorod. Despite the fact that the Novgorodians recognized the campaign as successful, because the final production was very rich, which is noted by all the annals, and all the participants returned home safe and sound, Yaroslav was dissatisfied with his results, since they could not take his main goal - Kolyvan.
It would seem that a successful campaign, which brought fame and material benefits to its participants, should have strengthened the authority of the prince in Novgorod, but exactly the opposite happened. The success and luck of Yaroslav, already an experienced but not yet old prince (Yaroslav turned 33), as well as his energy and fighting spirit, probably seemed excessive to the Novgorodians. With such a prince it is impossible to live in peace with neighbors, and trade suffers greatly from the war. In addition, and this is perhaps the most important thing, Novgorod was alarmed by the fact that the princely garrison was stationed in Yuryev. And although the garrison was not too large, it allowed its commander, Prince Vyachko, to control the city and the surrounding area, while being in the service of the Grand Duke of Vladimir, and not the Lord of Veliky Novgorod itself. The placement by Yaroslav Vsevolodovich of his own garrison in Yuryev, which seemed a gesture of friendly, allied assistance to the Novgorodians, was perceived by the latter as the actual occupation of the primordial Novgorod lands.
In 1224, Yaroslav planned to make another big trip to the Baltic States - this time his goal was to see the capital of the Order of the Swordsmen - which was already the goal of the campaign of his brother Svyatoslav in 1221 and the Wenden castle mentioned in this article - for which he began to communicate with his brother Yuri, asking him for support. It was planned to strike at the very center of the "crusader aggression", but … Due to the above circumstances, the Novgorod nobility, and after it the entire community, refused to participate in this campaign. Yaroslav considered this refusal to be almost a personal insult, and together with his court, squad and family, despite the requests of the Novgorodians to stay, he left for his patrimony of Pereyaslavl, abandoning the Novgorod reign.
Some researchers believe that Yaroslav's refusal to reign in Novgorod at the peak of his popularity among ordinary Novgorodians was a kind of attempt at political blackmail, so to speak, a bluff aimed at bargaining for more favorable terms of reign. If this was the case, then the bluff failed. However, there may be another explanation for this act of Yaroslav. The fact is that some chronicles of that period casually and indistinctly mention the emergence of a certain conflict between Yuri Vsevolodovich and Novgorod. The reasons for this conflict are not indicated, but its consequence could be just the recall of Yaroslav by his brother from Novgorod.
One way or another, Yaroslav left for his fiefdom, leaving Novgorod without military leadership, which the Germans immediately took advantage of. Already in the spring of 1224 they laid siege to Yuryev, but then Prince Vyachko managed to repulse all the assaults. The second time the Germans approached Yuryev at the end of summer and after a two-week siege took the city by storm. During the assault, Prince Vyachko died (according to other sources, he was captured and, wounded and unarmed, killed by the Germans) and the entire Russian garrison. Orthodox churches in Yuryev were destroyed, like the entire Russian population. The only Russian, left alive by the Germans, was sent as a messenger to Vladimir to Prince Yuri (not to Novgorod!) To convey to him the news of the fall of Yuryev. Neither the Novgorod nor the Pskov army had time to help Yuryev, but rather did not want to be in time. The Novgorodians immediately agreed with the Germans on the "Yuryev tribute" (annual payments from the lands around Yuryev, it was they who later served as the reason for the start of the Livonian War in the 16th century) and made peace with them, thus giving the whole of Estonia under German control. The Germans on the western borders seemed to the Novgorodians to be more preferable neighbors than the Vladimir princes. They will have to repent of this choice more than once.
In modern Tartu, a monument to Prince Vyachko and the Estonian elder Meelis, who fought side by side and died during the siege of St. George's, still stands. Blessed memory of them …
The next time, Yuryev, already under the name of Dorpat, will return to Russia in the 18th century. as a result of the Northern War and the Nystadt Peace Treaty.
