Veliky Novgorod is to the Russian traveler like Pushkin is to Russian literature. Our everything. The same variety of themes and genres. The same combination of worldwide responsiveness and national flavor… A walk around Novgorod can become an easy elegy, or it can drag you into a deep historical investigation. The city can be captivated by the legends of Sadko, or it can capture the history of the Hanseatic League. Novgorod is one of the most brilliant European capitals and a cozy corner of the Russian province.
Text: Marina Yardaeva; Photo: Alexander Buriy
Do I need to tell you how much I love Veliky Novgorod? I love it just like in a famous fairy tale — like salt. I need him. I visit him every year, sometimes more than once. And I am constantly amazed at how much it contains, how much it is able to give to a person. I start each walk in a different way. Sometimes I’ll skip the Novgorod Kremlin to find myself right on the Trading side and endlessly circle around the unusual, touching in its defenselessness, stripped to the red plinth of the church of Paraskeva Friday. And it happens if I arrive in the city on a transit flight and take the first bus I see, I approach the center through quiet alleys, inevitably taxiing to the wonderful Peter and Paul Cathedral in Kozhevniki. And, losing track of time, I get stuck there for an hour, two, three. Or I’m delirious as God wills, staring at the murals decorating the facades, eventually I find myself at the sculpture of the boy Onfim, and the memory of what is most dear to me in Novgorod pierces me. And now I’m on my way to the Kremlin, to the Likhudov Building, to the Museum of Writing.
“I AM WRITING TO YOU”
It is a well—known fact that Novgorod was one of the most developed cities in medieval Europe. The water supply was laid earlier than in Paris and London, and the streets were paved so neatly that a strict German would envy, and roses were grown before Dutch and overseas dishes, fabrics, jewelry and various fashionable gizmos, citizens had in abundance. Archaeologists have found everything here: from artistically decorated nail clippers to fragments of wooden and ceramic pipes used in water supply and sanitation systems. It is no secret that the city was distinguished not only by the landscaping and household arrangements of the inhabitants, but also by the tradition of law, which was very developed for the middle of the second millennium. However, what touches my heart the most is the value of education in Veliky Novgorod. In the Middle Ages, the population of the city on the Volkhov was perhaps the most literate not only in Russia, but also in Europe. We know this thanks to the many birch bark letters discovered dating back to the 11th–15th centuries. There are more than a thousand of them, and new ones are still being found. They were written by representatives of different strata of the ancient city’s population. And the funniest and most amazing of them are children’s ones. The same boy Onfim, frozen in bronze on Velikaya Street, in the very place where the very first message from the past was found.
The first children’s school in Novgorod was founded by Prince Yaroslav the Wise. He opened it in 1030 for the sons of priests and members of local government – Konchansky and Ulichansky elders. They taught here not only the simplest skills of reading, writing and counting. They taught foreign languages, because for the city, which was one of the hub centers on the legendary route “from the Varangians to the Greeks”, trading with Europe and the East, it was a necessity. They also taught accounting and record keeping. But the education of ancient Novgorod was not purely utilitarian either. The students mastered theology, philosophy and rhetoric, read and translated works by ancient authors, studied geographical and scientific treatises of contemporaries. Boys attended school, but it would be wrong to think that girls were not educated. They were also trained, but at home. Maybe there were fewer humanitarian courses in their program for general development, but they still tried to teach literacy, needlework, and piety in their families. Yes, of course, the higher the level of education among women, the more significant their social status was. Most birch bark letters written by women most likely belong to the pen (more precisely, it was called “wrote” or “stylus”) of noble persons. They often gave orders regarding the management of the household, making transactions with property – in general, the women of ancient Novgorod had quite broad rights. In boyar families, girls were given the basics of mathematics, the rudiments of philosophy, and, according to Byzantine chronographs, an idea of world history. But many commoners also possessed simple letters, simple crafts and good manners. They wrote letters, signed spinning wheels and other household items.
And even if parents didn’t particularly care about their children’s education, it still didn’t put an end to their future. On behalf of Yaroslav the Wise, an impressive library was created in St. Sophia Cathedral in the middle of the 11th century. And here’s what’s amazing: the collection of the book depository was accessible to representatives of all classes. Although, to a greater extent, the benefits of enlightenment in the cathedral library were enjoyed, of course, by representatives of the clergy, monks, scribes, and chroniclers. But the townspeople often attended specially organized readings. The Lives of the saints were particularly popular.
Literature is always a combination of intellectual and artistic. And in Novgorod during the republic, they even spent their leisure time usefully and beautifully, indulging in games and art. Most of all, the townspeople loved to spend hours playing chess and playing the harp. This is evidenced not only by archaeological finds of musical instruments and wooden queens and horses, but also by written sources. So, the famous Novgorod epic hero Sadko loved not only to sort the strings on the spring guselka, but also to rearrange the figures on the board.Individual birch bark letters are characterized by a special literary style. Take, for example, the retelling of the Sisinia legend, which turned into a prayer among the Slavs-a conspiracy against fever. “Saint Sisinius and Sychael were sitting on the mountains of Sinai, looking at the sea. And there was a noise from heaven, great and terrible. And I saw an angel flying from heaven, Saints Sisinius and Sihail, wearing ice handcuffs and holding flaming weapons in his hands. And then the sea was agitated, and seven bare-haired, cursed-looking wives came out; they were seized by the power of an invisible king.” The authors of love letters also took care of the beauty of the syllable. “[I sent] to you three times. What kind of grudge do you have against me that you haven’t come to see me this week? And I treated you like a brother! <…> And I see that you don’t like it. If you were in love, you would have escaped from under [human] eyes and rushed over. Maybe I offended you in my folly, if you start mocking me, then [you] will be judged. God and my thinness.” What’s not an excerpt from a novel? What is not the prototype of Tatiana Larina? And this is the 11th century!
But a separate kind of art is, I repeat, the letters created by children. Student letters written in the wrong hand, alphabetic characters written sequentially on birch bark – it’s so cute! But even more interesting are the naive drawings – evidence of distraction from lessons, because children are always children.
THE ARCHITECTURE IS UNLIKE ANYTHING ELSE
Of course, the special economic and geographical position of the city, as well as its socio–political structure, contributed to the spread of education among Novgorodians in the XI-XV centuries. Here you have democracy with all its advantages and disadvantages (the Novgorod veche could either summon the prince you liked or dismiss him. At the same time, the prince was seriously limited in his rights and could not even buy land in the Novgorod possessions, and his actions were controlled by the mayor and the archbishop. All this did not exclude political conspiracies and conflicts, which usually lead to bloody clashes and the dumping of losing opponents into the stormy waters of the Volkhov). Here you have an extensive network of international relations that defines cultural exchange between different countries. And the increase in education, in turn, further elevated Veliky Novgorod politically, economically, and culturally as a progressive European capital. The rapid development of the city filled it with a complex content: an increasingly diverse culture and philosophy. Perhaps this was most clearly reflected in the architecture of Novgorod.
There is probably no need to describe the most famous monuments of the city. Well, who doesn’t know about the magnificent St. Sophia Cathedral, which combines Byzantine traditions and the Slavic epic about heroes in its image and rises above the earth like an epic giant? And is it worth painting in colors how wonderful the ensemble of St. George’s Monastery is and what treasures its St. George’s Cathedral holds? This is the beginning of getting to know the city. Yes, the first impression is always very strong: it is impossible not to feel admiration, amazement, delight. And then you calm down a little, look around, get off the usual tourist routes – and some quiet but very deep feeling comes to replace the violent emotions: tenderness towards the less noticeable and modest, genuine interest in the non-glamorous side. That’s how love is born.
My love is the Church of Peter and Paul in Kozhevniki, the Cathedral of the Sign and the church of Paraskeva Friday at the Auction. The latter, however, is also located in the tourist epicenter. But it is small, unadorned, standing between the snow–white hulks of the Nikolo-Dvorishchensky Cathedral and the Church of St. John the Baptist – as if it happened to be there by accident. She even seems to be apologizing for what happened. Meanwhile, this shrine is very much in its place. Where else would a church built by Novgorod merchants and named after the patroness of trade be located, if not next to the Auction? The history of its construction seems to be very trivial, but when you look at the elegant church, you will admire it. According to the chronicles, the first wooden church of Paraskeva Friday was built here in 1156. And already in 1207 it was replaced by a stone one. For various reasons, the church was rebuilt at least 15 times. And yet one never tires of being amazed: what a subtle taste the Novgorod merchants of the XIII century possessed!
The Church of Peter and Paul in Kozhevniki is almost a twin brother of the church on the Trading Side. He is also strict, simple, devoid of veneer, but incredibly charming. And he also owes his “origin” not at all to representatives of the upper class. The church on Bredova-Zverina Street was built at the expense of artisan tanners in 1406 on the site of a burnt wooden one. A terrible fire occurred in 1384: apparently, peat bogs were burning. The chroniclers described the natural disaster as a multi-day blackout, when birds, suffocating, fell to the ground and into the water, and people were afraid to swim on rivers and lakes. Of course, on the site of the lost church, they wanted to build a new one, but better than the old one – solid, stone, and modestly, but subtly, meaningfully decorated. And so it turned out. The Church of Peter and Paul is amazing: small, restrainedly ochre, single-domed, growing on a green lawn in some natural way. It seems so organically integrated into the landscape that there are even doubts about its man-made nature.
Today, the monument is rated as one of the most mature examples of architecture from the period of the Novgorod Republic. The temple amazes many with its ornament – crosses of unusual shape. Others see these symbols as encrypted messages, and some associate them with the Slavic pagan heritage, others with the Celtic epic. However, most researchers attribute the atypical patterns to a special tradition that developed in medieval Novgorod, manifested in the creative reinterpretation of Byzantine patterns.
By the way, the Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior on Ilyina Street is of exactly the same interest to fans of all kinds of puzzles. On its walls, experts in paganism also see the waters of Mary, the stars of Veles and the signs of Makosha, then the Germanic runes. And they explain their statements in this way: either the members of the Hanseatic League had to be pleased, or Christianity was difficult to take root in the freedom-loving city, and these secret messages were a kind of form of protest. I think there is another explanation for the fact that the decoration of Novgorod temples causes so many different interpretations: probably, the authors of architectural masterpieces approached the matter too creatively, so the descendants of interpreters got their imagination running wild. In fact, the Church of the Savior on Ilyin is interesting not for the facade decoration, but for the interior decoration. This temple was painted by the famous Theophanes the Greek. And the frescoes, fortunately, have been preserved – if it’s not raining, then you can look at them.The Cathedral of the Sign is located not far from the Church of the Savior. This temple seems to stand out from the group mentioned earlier. He’s even from another era. The Novgorod Republic ceased to exist, and the city on the Volkhov long ago became part of the Moscow Empire. Architectural traditions have also changed, and northern originality has disappeared. In 1682, the cathedral was built on the site of the ancient church of the Sign of the Mother of God. And no matter how convincing the assurances of the researchers are that it was built in the traditions of the Yaroslavl school of architecture, and decorated with an eye to the fashion of Moscow and Kostroma, one feels that some important, though not material element has been preserved here from earlier times. The Cathedral of the Sign, which is pretty shabby and faded today, still leaves the feeling that you are being transported into a fairy tale. The gates themselves – intricate, painted, with semicircular ends, covered with figured roofs with bulbous domes on thin drums – promise something incredible. And indeed: when you enter the territory of the church, it’s as if you find yourself in a very special space – your heart feels so good and calm. It’s quiet here, and it even seems that the main visitors here are imperturbable cats. You can look at the monument, walk around it from all sides as much as your heart desires. After all, there is something to look at: the gallery here with tiled belts, and arches, and narrow windows, and a frieze decorated in the style of “peacock’s eye”, and shoulder blades, and curls. Frescoes used to be placed in zakomary, but the abandonment of the temple, war and nature erased the painting from the facade of the temple.But she was saved in the cathedral itself. Today there is a museum here, the main exhibit of which are the restored frescoes. You enter the temple, climb the long and wide stairs, look around and up into the vaults, and you can’t help but admire it – everything is so bright, contrasting, and huge! And inside, everything gets even bigger. There are paintings of the Last Judgment, the Apocalypse, the Annunciation, the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth, Zachariah and Joseph. The technique and composition are striking, but most of all, the color scheme. The combination of bright blue, saturated red-brown, yellow and green shades immerses the viewer in some kind of fairy-tale world, in a simple, naive childhood, in which there is a lot of frightening suspense, but more is still good, warm, joyful.
A RETURN TO THE ROOTS AND A NEW LIFE
However, Novgorod, as already mentioned, accommodates everything. There were some terrible chapters in his story. There were black streaks during the republic, when the princes who lost in the struggle for the Novgorod table staged grain blockades in the city. It was difficult in the XV century, when the Novgorod land was shaken by the devastating wars with Moscow in 1456, 1471, 1477-1478. Then, at the beginning of the 16th century, pestilence raged for three consecutive autumns, followed by fires in the city. In 1569-1570, Novgorod experienced the oprichnina pogrom of Ivan the Terrible. During the Troubles, the city was subjected to Swedish occupation. And after the founding of St. Petersburg and Russia’s victory in the Northern War, Novgorod lost its former importance, and this seemed to give the townspeople hope for a quiet, peaceful life. And so it was for the next couple of centuries. I was shocked by the revolution in 1917, but it was like that everywhere then. The most terrible disaster happened in Novgorod in 1941-1944.
The city was occupied, destroyed, burned, looted. Before the war, almost 50,000 people lived in Novgorod. After the Nazis came, civilians fled to villages and nearby towns that had not been captured by the enemy. It was impossible to stay here: people were shot, tortured, houses were blown up, the able-bodied were sent to German slavery. In May 1945, 162 residential buildings and four barracks remained in Novgorod, which were able to accommodate about 3 and a half thousand people. Another 3,279 returned Novgorodians settled in an uninhabited area: in dilapidated churches, dugouts, and Kremlin walls. It was in such conditions, with such a human reserve, that the almost disappeared ancient city had to be restored.
The restoration of cultural heritage began with the reconstruction of the monument “The Millennium of Russia”, a grand monument that can be read for hours like a book. The Germans dismantled it, but, fortunately, did not have time to take it to Germany. The monument was dismantled roughly, in a hurry, breaking fasteners and entire sculptural fragments – in order to reassemble it, more than 1,500 missing parts had to be made. It was necessary to restore the monument in the shortest possible time, it was a matter of restoring the morale of both orphaned Novgorodians and all Russian people. On November 2, 1944, the monument was inaugurated. In December of the same year, work began on the restoration of the Novgorod Kremlin, and then on the Trade Side.
The task of lifting the city from the ruins seemed impossible – the work dragged on for many years. And yet, step by step, brick by brick, most of the monuments were recreated. Scientific research and archaeological excavations continued during the large-scale construction. It is noteworthy that in July 1951, the first readable birch bark letter was discovered. Thus, not only the Novgorod as it was known at the beginning of the 20th century rose from the ashes, but also the one that was forgotten in all its details due to the antiquity of the years. Then the finds began to fall one after another. Everything has returned to its roots: Novgorod has once again become a monument encompassing everything, a center of attraction for people who care about everything, everything is interesting. Scientists, journalists, travelers and ordinary people came here. The latter actively moved to Novgorod for permanent residence, it became a province in which they wanted to stay, which they wanted to study, taking their time.
Today, Veliky Novgorod is both a historical and a modern city. He’s still developing, getting prettier. I know people who have moved here permanently from St. Petersburg. And they didn’t regret it. It has all the charms of a provincial corner: for example, you can live almost in the very center in a private house with a front garden, admiring the rose bushes from the window. But the ancient spirit of the capital has not disappeared here either. And it is not only in the monuments of antiquity, not only in the towers of the Kremlin – it is in the sedateness, the sense of dignity of both the city and the local society. And you won’t get bored in Novgorod, it’s big and very different. At the same time, he does not need to forcefully entertain a sophisticated traveler, the city is intelligent and self–sufficient – the tourist himself reaches out to him, looks at him himself, torments him with questions. Why is a frozen Sergei Rachmaninov meeting travelers near the Kremlin? And what does the bronze cabbage symbolize on Fedorovsky Creek? Was Gostomysl Rurik’s grandfather? And was there any sense at all? And what is better to read about Marfa Boretskaya? Are herring pies really delicious? Or maybe it would be better to take a hare in berries?
It’s good in Novgorod. There are theaters, philharmonic halls, and museums, both classical and modern and interactive. There are galleries and temporary exhibitions, parks with modern sculpture, sports and playgrounds, interesting sightseeing programs and walks around Volkhov and Ilmen, master classes in painting, restoration, patchwork and gingerbread making, unusual cafes, good hotels, excellent tourist navigation. There are a lot of things, everything is interesting, while there is no outright kitsch, splints – apparently, the complexity formed over the centuries obliges. The air is special here, and the sky is unique. No, really, no matter how many times I came to Novgorod – in clear weather, in rain, in the dank autumn cold – but on the Gorbaty Bridge (also known as the Great One) wonderful bright panoramas always open under the sky. When the sun is shining, everything glitters, and when it’s cloudy, the domes of Sofia and the dazzling whiteness of the belfry play the role of luminaries.