Everything about Posadnik totally explained
Posadnik was the mayor in some
East Slavic cities or towns. Most notably, the posadnik (equivalent to a
stadtholder,
burgomeister, or
podesta in the medieval west) was the mayor of
Novgorod and
Pskov. The term comes from the Old Church Slavic "posaditi," meaning to put or place; they were so-called because the prince in Kiev originally placed them in the city to rule on his behalf. Beginning in the twelfth century, they were elected locally.
Novgorod
Despite legends of posadniks such as
Gostomysl that were set in the ninth century, the term
posadnik first appeared in the
Primary Chronicle under the year
997. The earliest Novgorodian posadniks include
Dobrynya (an uncle of
Vladimir the Great), his son
Konstantin Dobrynich and
Ostromir, who is famous for patronizing the
Ostromir Gospels, among the first books published in Russia (it is now housed in the
Russian National Library in St. Petersburg).
In the
Novgorod Republic, the city posadnik was elected from among the
boyars by the
veche (public assembly). The elections were held annually. Novgorod boyars differed from boyars in other Rus' lands in that the category wasn't castelike and that every rich merchant could reasonably hope to reach the rank of boyar.
Valentin Yanin, the Soviet "dean" of medieval Novgorodian history, has found that most posadniks held the office consecutively for sometimes a decade or more and then often passed the office on to their sons or another close relative, indicating that the office was held within boyar clans and that the elections were not really "free and fair." Yanin's theory challenged historians' understanding of the Novgorod Republic, showing it to be a boyar republic with little or no democratic elements. It also showed the land-owning boyarstvo to be more powerful than the merchant and artisan classes, which until that time were thought to play a significant role in the political life of the city. It also called into question the true nature of the veche, which up until that time had been considered democratic by most scholars. Yanin's interpretation of the Novgorod government as an hereditary
oligarchy isn't universally accepted, however.
Originally there was one posadnik, but gradually over time the office multiplied until, by the end of the Republic, there were something like 24 posadniks. There were also posadniks for each of
the city's boroughs (called ends - "kontsy", singular "konets" in Russian). The multiplication of the office dates to the
1350s, when Posadnik
Ontsifor Lukinich implemented a series of reforms. Retired posadniks took the title "old posadnik", or
старый посадник) and the current, serving posadnik was known as the "stepennyi" posadnik (
степенный посадник). In accordance with the reform of
1416-
1417, the number of posadniks was increased threefold and stepennyi posadniks were to be elected for a six-month period. In this manner, the various boyar clans could share power and one or another of them would neither monopolize power or be left out if they lost an election. It, however, diluted power in the boyarstvo. Some scholars have argued that the
Archbishop of Novgorod became the head of the Republic and stood above the fray of partisan politics that raged among the boyardom, but the archbishops seem to have shared power with the boyardom and the collective leadership tried to rule by consensus. The dilution of boyar power may, however, have weakened Novgorod in the fifteenth century, thus explaining the series of defeats it suffered at Moscow's hands and the
eventual fall of independent Novgorod.
The posadnikdom (mayoralty) was abolished along with the veche when Grand Prince
Ivan III of Moscow took the city in 1478. In fact, upon being asked by Archbishop Feofil (1470-1480) on behalf of the Novgorodians what type of government he wanted, Ivan (speaking through Prince Patrikeev) told them "there will be no veche bell in our patrimony of Novgorod;
there will be no posadnik, and we'll conduct our own government."
Pskov
There were 78 known posadniks in Pskov between
1308 and
1510. The posadnichestvo was abolished in Pskov in 1510 when Grand Prince
Vasily III took direct control of the city.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Posadnik'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://posadnik.totallyexplained.com">Posadnik Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
