NOVGOROD (formerly known as Velikiy-Novgorod, Great Novgorod), a town of Russia, in the Leningrad area, in 58° 33' N., 31° 20' E., on the navigable Volkhov, 2 m. below the point where it issues from Lake Ilmen. Pop. (1926) 31,120. The town has saw-mills and manufactures boots and shoes, candles, bricks and tiles and has a brewery and a distillery.
The date at which the Slays first erected forts in the marshy region of the Volkhov near Lake Ilmen is unknown. That situated on a low terrace close by Lake Ilmen was soon abandoned, and Novgorod or "New-town" (in contradistinction to the Scandi navian Aldegjeborg or Ladoga) was founded by Scandinavian sea rovers as Holmgard on another terrace which extended a mile lower on both banks of the river. The older fort (Gorodishche) existed in the 13th century. Even in the 9th century the new city on the Volkhov exercised a kind of supremacy over the other towns of the lake region, when its inhabitants in 862 invited the Varangians, under the leadership of Rurik, to the defence of the Russian towns of the north. Down to the end of the loth century Novgorod to a certain extent depended on Kiev; yet in 997 its inhabitants obtained from their prince Yaroslav a charter which granted them self-government. For five centuries this charter was the bulwark of the independence of Novgorod. From the end of the loth century the princes of Novgorod, chosen either from the sons of the great princes of Kiev (until 1136) or from some other branch of the family of Rurik, were always elected by the vyeche; but they were only its military defenders, and their dele gates were merely assessors in the courts which levied taxes for the military force raised by the prince. The vyeche invariably ex pelled the princes as soon as they provoked discontent. Their election was often a subject of dispute between the wealthy and the poorer classes; and Novgorod, which was dependent for its corn supply upon the land of Suzdal, was sometimes compelled to accept a prince from the Suzdal branch instead of from that of Kiev. After 1270 the city often refused to have princes at all, and the elected mayor was the representative of the executive.
Novgorod in its transactions with other cities took the name of "Sovereign Great Novgorod" (Gospodin Velikiy Novgorod). The supreme power was vested in the vyeche. The city, with a popu lation of over 8o,000, was divided into wards, each ward consti tuting a distinct commune. The wards were subdivided into streets, which corresponded to the occupations of their inhabitants, each being quite independent with regard to its own affairs.
Trade was carried on by corporations. By the Volkhov and the Neva, Novgorod—then known also as Naugart and Novwerden had direct communication with the Hanseatic and Scandinavian cities, especially with Visby or Wisby on the island of Gotland. The Dnieper brought it into connection with the Bosporus, and it was an intermediary in the trade of Constantinople with north em Europe. The Novgorod traders penetrated to the White Sea shores, hunted on Novaya Zemlya in the i ith century, colonized the basins of the northern Dvina, descended the Volga, and as early as the 14th century extended their trading expeditions beyond the Urals into Siberia. Two great colonies, Vyatka and Vologda, organized on the same republican principles as the metropolis, favoured the further colonization of north-east Russia.
It is said that the population of Novgorod in the i4th century reached 400,00o, but the pestilences of 1467, 1508 and carried off no fewer than 134,000 persons. These figures seem to relate rather to the whole Ilmen region.
Invasions of Novgorod.—Novgorod's struggle against the Suzdal region (now the government of Vladimir) began in the 12th century. In the following century it had to contend with the Swedes and the Germans, who were animated not only by the desire of territorial acquisition, but also by the spirit of religious proselytism. Their advances were checked by battles at Ladoga and Pskov in 1240 and 1242 respectively. Protected by its marshes, Novgorod escaped the Mongol invasion of 1240-2, and repelled the attacks of the princes of Moscow by whom the Mon gols were supported. It also resisted the attacks of Tver.