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Novgorod Elite Groups in the Second Half of the 15th Century: Proposographical Research

Student: Kocheriagina Elena

Supervisor: Adrian A. Selin

Faculty: Saint-Petersburg School of Social Sciences

Educational Programme: History (Bachelor)

Year of Graduation: 2016

In 1478 Novgorod was annexed by the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Lands of the huge part of Novgorodians were confiscated and landowners were resettled in other regions of Muscovy. Ivan III lavishly gave out pomestia on confiscated lands. Such a huge political event is circumstantially described in different kinds of sources. Analysis of these sources allows to restore information about Novgorod elite groups right before the annexation. It is very important because in the second half of the 15th century Novgorod elite was represented by a certain group of people (boyars), who had exclusive political rights and were involved in the management of the city. The main purpose of the research paper is to examine economic and social features of the elite groups in Novgorod in the second half of the 15th century. To achieve this it is required to conduct prosopographical research. The method involves the investigation of common characteristics of a group of people by means of a collective study of their lives. It is supposed that creation of a collective portrait of the ruling elite would allow to asses social possibilities of the boyars. Thus, main goals are to collect all possible information about the representatives of Novgorod elite and to analyze their biographies. The research paper combines empirical work and theoretical approaches. The analysis of data received from chronicles, acts and census books allows to find out economic and social opportunities of the Novgorod elite in the last period of the independent existence of Novgorod.

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