The old heritage is divided into several cycles. One - "Kiev", the one that about heroes and military exploits. Another - "Novgorod" - the one that lives, merchants and wealth. But if Ilya Muromets perishes in a battle with the Mongols on the Kalka River, Sadko will not be left with a chance by the Moscow merchant, writes observer Pavel Kazarin for the Crimea. Realities.

The Novgorod Republic lasted almost three and a half centuries. It stretched from the White Sea to the Volga, from the Baltic Sea to the Ural Mountains. One of the few lands that managed to avoid ruin by the Mongol-Tatars. It was here that the veche was a real form of medieval democracy, when all key posts were elected and not appointed.

Capital was the basis of power, not vice versa. At some point this led to the emergence of proto-oligarchs, who lobbied their creatures to the main posts. But at the same time Novgorod was deprived of patrimonial spots of absolutism: power was a complex system of checks and balances between the elected prince, archbishop, posadnik, tysyatskim and elders. Veche solved the issues of war and peace, the fate of laws, the amount of taxes and determined who will lead the republic.

Novgorod was a real trading "window to Europe", cut long before Peter. It was here that the fourth East Slavic identity could appear: along with modern Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

If it were not for Moscow.

The reason for the first Moscow-Novgorod war was the attempt of Novgorod to seek a bishop from Kiev, who at that time in the church question was confined to Constantinople. As a result, Ivan the Third accused the Novgorodians of treachery, in 1471, defeated their militia in the battle on the river Shelon and captured the city.

The next seven years, Novgorod's independence was cut down by Moscow. Judicial functions migrated to the conquerors, part of the land was torn away in favor of the invaders. In 1478, a part of Novgorod's elite declared Ivan the Third the lord of the city, giving him an excuse for a new aggressive campaign. In the same year, independent Novgorod fell.

The bell was taken to Moscow. The Veche is abolished. Supporters of independence - relocated, sent to monasteries or killed. The city became part of the Moscow Principality. However, 90 years later - in 1570 - the suspicions of Ivan the Terrible in the "pro-Polish" mood of the city became a pretext for another campaign against Novgorod. As a result, the city was robbed for six weeks.

"Then followed the executions that lasted until February 15. According to the Russian story of the defeat of Novgorod, Ivan ordered to pour the Novgorodians incendiary mixture and then, burned and still alive, dumped in the Volkhov. Priests and monks after various harassment were packed with cudgels and dropped into the same place. Contemporaries report that Volkhov was filled with corpses; a living tradition of this was preserved in the XIX century. The Novgorod chronicler says that there were days when the number of the dead reached one and a half thousand; The days in which 500-600 people were beaten were considered happy ".

In Russian history textbooks, these processes are called "affiliation". Novgorod disappeared. Today this is a small regional center.

No ambitions. No identity. From past greatness there were only walls.

Historical parallels are conditional, but evident. Appetites of empires always grow. Any borderland - in the risk zone. The change of orbit is perceived as a threat. Claim for independence as an excuse for war. Disadvantages of democracy - the continuation of its merits. Closed structures are able to use the weaknesses of open. Some wars are lost forever.

Does not it look like anything?.