Veliky Novgorod

The city's own charter takes 859, its first mention in a late chronicle, as its founding year. Its forerunner was Gorodishche, a 9th-century settlement a short distance upriver, and the Primary Chronicle says the local tribes invited the Varangian chieftain Rurik to rule them in 862, which is why Russian tradition calls Novgorod a cradle of Russian statehood; Norse sagas knew it as Hólmgarðr. Under Kievan Rus' it was the second city of the realm, the seat of the heir to the throne. It received its first bishop in 989, Yaroslav the Wise ruled here from 1010 to 1019, and his son Vladimir built St Sophia Cathedral in 1045–1050.

In 1136 the townspeople dismissed their prince, and until 1478 Novgorod was the centre of a republic in which the veche, or assembly, elected the posadnik and shared power with the boyars and the archbishop. Its territory stretched from the Gulf of Finland to the Urals, and its furs and beeswax drew the Hanseatic League, which kept its easternmost trading post, the Peterhof, here. Some 1,000 birch-bark letters from the 11th to 15th centuries suggest that literacy was widespread among the townspeople. The city never fell to the Mongols, and its prince Alexander Nevsky defeated the Swedes in 1240 and the German crusaders in 1242. Ivan III of Moscow crushed the republic in 1478.

Ivan IV's oprichniki sacked the city in 1570, and Swedish forces occupied it from 1611 to 1617. Novgorod became a provincial capital under the empire, and German troops occupied it from August 1941 to January 1944; of 2,346 houses only 40 survived undamaged. Rebuilt to plans by Alexey Shchusev, it saw its monuments listed by UNESCO in 1992 and took the name Veliky Novgorod in 1999. Archaeological rescue work continues across the city.

For centuries Novgorod was one of the most important centres of Russian art. Around fifty medieval and early modern churches still stand in and around the city, from the austere stone walls and helmet domes of St Sophia to the small 13th-century churches and the frescoed 14th-century churches of the Trade Side; many were destroyed or badly damaged in the war and later restored. The archbishops' scriptorium produced some of the oldest Russian chronicles, and the Novgorod Codex, the oldest East Slavic book, was found here.

The birch-bark letters are a source of local pride, among them the notes and drawings of Onfim, a boy who scratched his homework into bark in the 13th century. The merchant Sadko, a hero of Russian folk tales, is a Novgorodian. In its later history the city's land became a stronghold of the Old Believers, and its craftsmen were known for silver filigree, called skan', and for painted chests used across Russia.

Novgorod belongs to the Silver Ring of historic towns of north-western Russia. The Millennium of Russia monument in the kremlin, unveiled in 1862, sets out the country's history in bronze, and the Malyi Theatre runs an international theatre festival, Tsar-Skazka, held every two years. Souvenir stalls sell wooden handicrafts and birch-bark paintings.

About 224,000 people lived in the city at the 2021 census, making it the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast. In the Middle Ages, at its peak, it had only 20,000 to 30,000 inhabitants. The modern city grew out of the post-war reconstruction, which followed Shchusev's plans only in part, and taller buildings later appeared in the centre.

Industry is the most stable sector of the economy, and the city accounts for more than half of the oblast's industrial production; electronics and other industries were created here in the decades after the war. After the war the city also became known as a centre of Soviet and international tourism. Yaroslav the Wise Novgorod State University is the main university.

Buses and trolleybuses link the riverside centre with the residential districts, and the railway and bus stations stand opposite each other west of the centre. Archaeological rescue work still continues across the city, and systematic research has gone on since 1932.

Novgorod's food is that of north-western Russia. The lakes and rivers of the Northwest supply fish, and the forests supply mushrooms, salted and pickled for winter, and berries — cloudberries, lingonberries, cranberries and blueberries — made into jams and mors fruit drinks. Soups such as shchi made from cabbage, pelmeni dumplings, kasha porridge and pirozhki buns are everyday food, and blini are eaten in great quantities at Maslenitsa before Lent.

Honey mead, medovukha, is a local favourite — a Slavic drink made by fermenting honey with water and sometimes flavoured with herbs or berries. Kvass, a cloudy, sweet-and-sour drink fermented from rye bread, and strong tea with jam are the everyday non-alcoholic drinks, and zakuski such as pickled cucumbers, herring and black bread open a proper meal, often with vodka and toasts.

Eating out centres on the cafés and restaurants around Sofiyskaya Square outside the kremlin, with cheap self-service canteens for everyday meals.