Why Did Lord Novgorod the Great Fall? The Novgorod Republic and Its Neighbors in 1470–1471

Abstract This article is devoted to the last decades of the existence of the independent Novgorod Republic and its fall. The events of 1470–1471, namely, the attempts to call into service a prince from Lithuania, to conclude an alliance with Lithuania and with the Teutonic Order in Livonia, and the campaign of Ivan III and the military defeat of Lord Novgorod the Great, have been considered on a wide background of social and political development of Novgorod the Great throughout the fifteenth century, in the context of the history of its foreign relations and the position of its neighbors, the organization of its armed forces, with a comprehensive account of a variety of sources (not only chronicles but also charters, epistolary and literary sources, etc.) and a rich research literature. In contrast to the approaches widespread in historiography, emphasis has been placed on contemporary reliable sources rather than on later ideological interpretations. Analysis of the chronicles also involves textual criticism. The authors have come to the conclusion that the defeat of the Novgorod Republic was caused not only by social, particularly religious, conflicts that were emphasized by the Moscow side but rather by the complex international situation, which the military and political organization of Novgorod was no longer consistent with, and the inability of the opposing pro-Moscow and pro-Lithuanian parties to offer a convincing ideological line and, consequently, strategy of action in these circumstances.