Novgorod expels Prince Vsevolod Mstislavich
On 28 May 1136 the Novgorodians, joined by men from Pskov and Ladoga, deposed their prince Vsevolod Mstislavich, grandson of Vladimir Monomakh, held him under guard in the bishop’s court and on 15 July expelled him; a few days later Sviatoslav Olgovich came from Chernihiv to rule in his place. Thereafter the veche increasingly invited and dismissed princes, and historians traditionally date the beginning of the Novgorod Republic to 1136.
- Date
- 28 May – 15 July 1136exact date · duration: ≈ 2 monthsDate in the Julian calendar
- Place
- Novgorodtoday: Veliky Novgorod, Russia · Eastern Europe
- Participants
- Novgorod Republic, Vsevolod Mstislavich, Sviatoslav Olgovich
- Threads
- Rus (11th–12th c.)
- Also known as
- Novgorod uprising of 1136; Expulsion of Vsevolod Mstislavich; Battle of Zhdana Gora; Новгородское восстание 1136 года; Изгнание Всеволода Мстиславича; Сражение у Жданой горы
Vsevolod, son of Mstislav the Great, had ruled Novgorod since 1117. In 1132, after his father’s death, he left for Pereiaslav, although he had sworn to the Novgorodians that he wished to die among them; his uncles Yuri and Andrei, fearing that this would bring him to the throne of Kyiv, drove him out, and when he returned the townspeople, joined by men from Pskov and Ladoga, expelled him from the city before taking him back. In the winter of 1134–1135 he led the Novgorodians against Suzdal, and at Zhdana Gora on 26 January 1135 the posadnik Ivanko and many others fell.
Under 1136 the Novgorod First Chronicle relates that the Novgorodians called in the men of Pskov and Ladoga and resolved to expel their prince. On 28 May they confined Vsevolod with his wife, children and mother-in-law in the bishop’s court under an armed guard of thirty men a day, and on 15 July let him leave the city, keeping his son Vladimir. Among the charges were that he did not care for the smerds, the peasants; that he had wanted to sit in Pereiaslav; and that he had been the first to ride away from the battlefield. On Sunday, 19 July, Sviatoslav Olgovich arrived from Chernihiv to be their prince. When in 1137 Vsevolod, secretly invited by his supporters, came to Pskov to reclaim Novgorod, the city rose against him and plundered the houses of his friends; he remained in Pskov as its prince and died there in February 1138.
Historians traditionally date the beginning of the Novgorod Republic to 1136: princes now ruled at the invitation of the veche, which could also dismiss them, and by 1156 the city chose its own bishop. B. D. Grekov called the events a revolution; I. Ya. Froyanov doubted that they can even be called an uprising, and historians stress that republican institutions took shape long before and after 1136 — J. Fennell, for one, held that in the 12th and early 13th centuries Novgorod was still far from being a republic.
Connections
Related events
- The war of Vladimir’s sons (1015–1019) and the murder of Boris and Gleb15 July 1015 – 1019 · Eastern Europein 1018 the Novgorodians had kept Yaroslav from fleeing overseas and raised money for his Varangians; in 1136 they deposed their prince
- The Kyiv uprising of 1113 and the reign of Vladimir Monomakh17 April 1113 – 19 May 1125 · Eastern Europein 1118 Monomakh had summoned the Novgorod boyars to Kyiv to swear allegiance; in 1136 Novgorod expelled his grandson
- First mention of Moscow4 April 1147 · Eastern EuropeSviatoslav Olgovich, Yuri’s guest at Moscow, had been called to Novgorod after Vsevolod’s expulsion in 1136
Same participants
- Battle of Lipitsabetween 21 April and 22 April 1216 · Eastern Europevia Novgorod Republic
Same place
- Calling of the Varangians862 · Eastern Europe
- The Pravda of Yaroslav, the oldest part of the Russkaya Pravdabetween 1016 and 1039 · Eastern Europe
- Muscovite–Novgorodian War (1477–1478)9 October 1477 – 15 January 1478 · Eastern Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
Africa
- The Almohads: from Ibn Tumart's revolt to the conquest of Marrakesh1121–1147
- K2 (Bambandyanalo) and the rise of Mapungubwec. 1000 – c. 1220
- The Almoravids: from a desert reform movement to an empirebetween 1039 and 1046 – 1147
- Igbo-Ukwu: bronze casting in the West African forest800–899 – 1100–1199
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Suryavarman II builds Angkor Watbetween 1113 and 1122 – c. 1150
North America
- Drought and the end of the Chaco worldc. 1130 – c. 1180
- Classic Mimbres: the painted bowls of the Mogollonc. 1000 – between 1130 and 1150
- Pueblo II: stone pueblos and the Chaco worldc. 900 – c. 1150
Latin America
- Chimor: the Chimú kingdom and its capital Chan Chanc. 900 – c. 1470
- Collapse of Tiwanakuc. 1000 – c. 1150
- Tula and the Toltecs: the leading city of central Mexicoc. 900 – c. 1150
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Novgorod Republic
- Wikipedia (English): Vsevolod of Pskov
- Wikipedia (Russian): Новгородская республика
- Wikipedia (Russian): Всеволод Мстиславич (князь новгородский)
- Новгородская первая летопись старшего и младшего изводов / Под ред. А. Н. Насонова. — М.; Л.: Изд-во АН СССР, 1950.
- Фроянов И. Я. Мятежный Новгород: Очерки истории государственности, социальной и политической борьбы конца IX — начала XIII столетия. — СПб.: Изд-во СПбГУ, 1992.
- Fennell J. The Crisis of Medieval Russia, 1200–1304. — London; New York: Longman, 1983.