This article is the first part of a work – ‘Novgorod at the political cross-roads before annexation to Moscow’ (1456–1478). The work deals with a situation of Novgorod’s choice of political dependence between Moscow and Lithuania during the last period of Novgorod’s independence.
In the article there is presented introductory part of the mentioned work – foreword and objectives of the work. The conception of Novgorod political development (1456–1478), ‘prehistory’ of the subject and the chronological period of 1456–1470 are also discussed.
From the second half of XIII c. to the middle of XV c., Novgorod belonged to political system of Vladimir Moscow Grand Duke practically without intermissions, and rejected rare attempts of involvement in a lithuanian political system.
During the period of 1456–1470, Novgorod made no attempts to leave the subordination of Vladimir Grand Duke. Lithuania also overtly didn’t try to include Novgorod to its own political system – lithuanian dukes in Novgorod had traditional status of ‘service dukes’. Conclusively, the situation of the choice of political dependence didn’t take place in the period.
|