According to the traditional scholarship, the veche

Veche

Veche was a popular assembly in medieval Slavic countries.In Novgorod, where the veche acquired the greatest prominence, the veche was broadly similar to the Norse thing or the Swiss Landsgemeinde.-Etymology:...

(Russian: вече) was the highest legislature and judicial authority in the Republic of Novgorod

Novgorod Republic

The Novgorod Republic was a large medieval Russian state which stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Ural Mountains between the 12th and 15th centuries, centred on the city of Novgorod...

 until 1478, when Novgorod the Great was brought under the direct control of Grand Prince Ivan III (1462-1505).

The origin of the veche is obscure; it is thought to have originated in tribal assemblies in the region, thus predating the Rus' state. After the Novgorod Revolution of 1136 that ousted the ruling prince

Prince of Novgorod

The Prince of Novgorod was the chief executive of Novgorod the Great. The office was originally an appointed one until the late eleventh or early twelfth century, then became something of an elective one until the fourteenth century, after which the Prince of Vladimir was almost invariably the...

, the veche became the supreme state authority, although princely power was relatively limited in Novgorod from the start since no hereditary dynasty had been established there.

The traditional scholarship lists among the powers of the veche the election of the town officials such as the posadnik

Posadnik

Posadnik was the mayor in some East Slavic cities or towns. Most notably, the posadnik was the mayor of Novgorod and Pskov...

, tysyatsky

Tysyatsky

Tysyatsky was a military leader in Ancient Rus, who commanded a people's volunteer army called тысяча...

, and even the archbishop

Archbishop of Novgorod

The Archbishop of Novgorod is the head of the eparchy of Novgorod the Great and is one of the oldest offices in the Russian Orthodox Church. The archbishops have, in fact, been among the most important figures in medieval Russian history and culture and their successors continued to play...

 (he was then sent to the metropolitan for consecration); it also invited in and dismissed the princes. While it is certainly true that the local officials were elected and some princes elected and dismissed, the sources are rather vague on precisely who was behind some of this, saying merely "they called in..." or "they gave the posadnikship to..." and the like.

The traditional scholarship goes on to argue that a series of reforms in 1410 transformed the veche into something similar to the public assembly of Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

; it became the Commons or lower chamber of the parliament. Аn upper Senate

Senate

A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a legislature or parliament. There have been many such bodies in history, since senate means the assembly of the eldest and wiser members of the society and ruling class...

-like Council of Lords

Sovet gospod

The Council of Lords or Sovet Gospod was, according to the traditional scholarship, the executive organ of the Novgorodian and Pskovian veches.-The Council of Lords in Novgorod the Great:...

 (sovet gospod) was also created, with title membership for all former city magistrates (posadniks and tysyatskys). Some sources indicate that veche membership may have become full-time, and parliament deputies were now called vechniks.

Conflicting interpretations

Some of the more recent scholars call this interpretation into question. The difficulty in understanding the veche is that the term was used to mean any sort of assemblage of people, from a formal legislature or judicial entity to a mob or riot. Valentin Yanin

Valentin Yanin

Valentin Lavrentievich Yanin is a leading Russian historian who has authored 700 books and articles. He has also edited a number of important journals and primary sources, including works on medieval Russian law, sphragistics and epigraphy, archaeology and history...

's scholarship calls into question the democratic nature of the veche; he argues that the boyars ran the city and the veche was a "sham democracy" that allowed the common people a sense that they were participating in decision-making when decisions had, in fact, already been decided by the Council of Lords made up of the boyars and the archbishop.

Add to this the fact that Novgorod had a series of judicial entities: the prince's court, the archbishop's court, and the tysyatsky

Tysyatsky

Tysyatsky was a military leader in Ancient Rus, who commanded a people's volunteer army called тысяча...

's court, and it is difficult to say where the veche fit in as a judicial body. Several "executions" in the veche seem to be the result of mob violence rather than the carrying out of judicial sentences. Jonas Granberg has called into question the very existence of the Council of Lords (sovet gospod), saying it is an interpolation or interpretation of modern historians of very scanty evidence. Michael C. Paul has argued that the veche, at least in the thirteenth century, was used as a consensus-building tool rather than becoming a formally-institutionalized parliament.

Procedure

The Novgorod assembly could be presumably summoned by anyone who rung the veche bell

Bell (instrument)

A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually a hollow, cup-shaped object, which resonates upon being struck...

, although it is more likely that the common procedure was more complex. This bell was a symbol of republican sovereignty and independence and for this reason, Ivan III carted it off to Moscow when he took control of the city, to show that the old way of doing things was at an end. The whole population of the city - boyars, merchants, and common citizens - then gathered at Yaroslav's Court

Yaroslav's Court

Yaroslav's Court was the princely compound in the city of Novgorod the Great. Today it is roughly the area around the Trade Mart, the Church of St. Nicholas, the Church of St. Procopius, and the Church of the Myrrh-bearing Women. The Trade Mart renovated and heavily modified in the sixteenth and...

 or in front of the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom

Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod

The Cathedral of St. Sophia in the Kremlin in Veliky Novgorod is the cathedral church of the Archbishop of Novgorod and the mother church of the Novgorodian Eparchy.-History:...

 (the latter called a Vladychnoe veche - "An Archbishop's Veche," since it was called in front of the cathedral). Separate assemblies could be held in the boroughs or "Ends"

Kontsy

Кontsy literally "ends", were the five boroughs into which medieval Novgorod the Great was divided. They were based on the three original settlements that combined to form the city toward the end of the tenth century: the Nerev End, the Liudin End , and the Slavno End; two later additions -...

of Novgorod.