They had a democratic assembly called the veche, and were members of the Hanseatic League, an influential medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in central and northern Europe (founded 1356). Novgorod was especially known for its merchants, craftsmen, fishermen, sailors, and minstrels (skomorokhs). While much of Russia was devastated by the Tatar invasion during the middle of the 13th century, the northwest (including Novgorod) remained largely untouched. Novgorod belonged to a different cultural zone than the southern city of Kiev and shared many ethnographic features with nearby Scandinavia and with local Finnish groups. They colonized much of the Russian North & western Siberia. “Lord Great Novgorod” carried on trade through river passages with the Baltic region in the west and the Caspian region in the east.
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