PC: Novgorod Republic uniting Russia?

Is there any way that the Novgorod Republic could have managed to successfully unite the Russian states into a single, unified, Russian state? Without losing its nature as a Republic, or would it have to reform into a full monarchy?
 
From what I have heard it would likely be "Republic at home, dictatorship everywhere else". Though I think it might eventually reform into a more modern form.
 

MSZ

Banned
Difficult, seeing that OTL Nogorod Republic mostly held the barren wastes of northern Russia, while Muscovy held the fertile plains of eastern Europe. Plus, by the XV century it mostly hunted out, denying Novogorod its primary source of income. AND on top of that, if Novogorod was to survive, it would have to deal with the Swedish Empire, which would propably be too much for it to handle.

You would need a quite early POD, one which allows Novogorod to expand south early on, it's republican system attracting some local dukes and joining with it, rather than being annexed by Muscovy or any other central-russian power. Destroying Muscovy by the Mongols, and somehow keeping Poland and Lithuania out of the Rus would be the simplest way to go.
 
What if direct trade with England and Flanders via the North East passage could have started one or two hundred years earlier. More contact, money, and resources that dont have to trade hands a few times.

Would it be possible for the English to trade grain for furs and amber, lessening muscovys stranglehold on the Sovereign Republic?
 
Is there any way that the Novgorod Republic could have managed to successfully unite the Russian states into a single, unified, Russian state? Without losing its nature as a Republic, or would it have to reform into a full monarchy?

The city of Rome could carve out a nice empire for herself. I think the city of Novgorod could do something like that. Why not?

Novgorod was second important city of Rus for a long time. (Actually it was main city in the very beginning.)

Being far from the Tartars was a great advantage. The north was extremely rich (in furs especially) and it had a good potential to develop further east.

So, the political system might be something like in Netherlands after they got rid of The Habsburgs. As a matter of fact there were some 'republican' traditions in Russian life outside Novgorod area.

But if Novgorod chose the way of aggressive expansion the monarchical elements would inevitably develop. But I guess it would be kind of constitutional monarchy.
 
Novgorod as solely a fur depot is a Europa Universalis construct. Their primary economic activities were handcrafts, as well as salt. Most of Russia's salt came from Novgorodian or Galich lands. The third function was the market, which had access to goods from Central Asia, as well as naval supplies like rope and tar in bulk.

Beyond that they also had a decent enough farming base, and it was a very large city.

So technically, Novgorod could do it.

Novgorod's big problem was the inability to produce good military minds. Moscow, by comparison, was super-competent, both at actual fighting, but more importantly at luring in various warrior-nobles into the Muscovite service aristocracy, from Tatar lands, Lithuania and minor Russian principalities. Novgorod had no such mechanism in place and kept losing wars.
 
Novgorod as solely a fur depot is a Europa Universalis construct. Their primary economic activities were handcrafts, as well as salt. Most of Russia's salt came from Novgorodian or Galich lands. The third function was the market, which had access to goods from Central Asia, as well as naval supplies like rope and tar in bulk.

Beyond that they also had a decent enough farming base, and it was a very large city.

So technically, Novgorod could do it.

Novgorod's big problem was the inability to produce good military minds. Moscow, by comparison, was super-competent, both at actual fighting, but more importantly at luring in various warrior-nobles into the Muscovite service aristocracy, from Tatar lands, Lithuania and minor Russian principalities. Novgorod had no such mechanism in place and kept losing wars.

Yeah, I figured the Fur bit out, considering I've actually been playing as Novgorod lately on EU3 DW. Lots of fur. But hey, it makes me money :p

So basically, what Novgorod's real problem was simply a lack of competant military leaders? So all we really need is either a POD that allows Novgorod to gain such minds (preferably retaining its Republican traits in the process) or simply make it harder for Moscow to gain said minds...
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
Is there any way that the Novgorod Republic could have managed to successfully unite the Russian states into a single, unified, Russian state? Without losing its nature as a Republic, or would it have to reform into a full monarchy?
No, as Novgorod was not a republic in any meaningful sense of the term. It was most comparable to Venice's government, with a council of boyars having the most clout. Novgorod was a "republic" only so much as it was not a patrimony, unlike the rest of the Rus' lands. Contemporary Pskov and Ustyug were faaar more "republican" than Novgorod ever was.

As for Novgorod's potential to unite Rus', it had neither the ability nor desire.
 
As for Novgorod's potential to unite Rus', it had neither the ability nor desire.

...or, for that matter, the ideological underpinnings required to gather up the Rus lands. Novgorod's special status was exactly that, a special status granted de-facto by Yaroslav and his descendants as opposed to Rus-at-Large, and bitterly defended by the Novgorodian establishment.

Novgorod hung on to the exceptionalism and never developed a hegemonic ideology, except for other republican towns it regarded as its colonies (Pskov, Ustyug, etc.) and tributary nations (Karelians).
 
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