of its middle class, its commerce, and its close contacts with the outside world all link Novgorod to the mainstream of Kievan history. The veche too, of course, had had a significant role in Kievan life and politics. In emphasizing further its authority and functions, the Novgorodians developed one element of the political synthesis of Kievan Russia, the democratic, at the expense of two others, the autocratic and the aristocratic, which, as we shall see, found a more fertile soil in other parts of the country.
Pskov
The democratic political evolution characteristic of Novgorod occurred also in a few other places, especially in another northwestern Russian town, Pskov. Long subject to Novgorod, this extreme Russian outpost became in 1348 a small independent principality with a territory of some 250 by 75 miles. Pskov had a prince whose powers were even more restricted than those of the prince of Novgorod and a veche which in some ways exceeded that of the larger town in importance. Notably, the Pskovian veche, in addition to its other functions, acted as a court for serious crimes. The town had two elected posadniki as well as the elders of the kontsy, but no tysiatskii; and it was subdivided, much like Novgorod, into streets and kontsy. A council of elders also operated in Pskov.
Being much smaller than Novgorod, Pskov experienced less social differentiation and social tension. It has been generally described as more compact, democratic, and peaceful in its inner life than its "big brother." On the other hand, this "little brother" - a title given to Pskov by Novgorod at one point - participated fully in the high development of urban life and culture typical of Novgorod. In fact, Pskovian architects obtained wide renown, while the legal code issued by the Pskovian veche, the celebrated Sudebnik of 1397, with supplements until about 1467 - mentioned earlier in contrasting the Russians and the Mongols - represents a most impressive compendium of highly developed Russian medieval law.
Pskov's relations with Moscow differed from those of Novgorod. Never a rival of the Muscovite state, Pskov, on the contrary, constantly needed its help against attacks from the west. Thus it fell naturally and rather peacefully under the influence of Moscow. Yet when the Muscovite state finally incorporated Pskov around 1511, the town, after suffering deportations, lost its special institutions, all of its independence, and in the face of Muscovite taxes and regulations, its commercial and middle-class way of life.
In spite of brilliance and many successes, the historical development of Novgorod and Pskov proved to be, in the long run, abortive.
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At the end of the twelfth century the Russian land has no effective political unity; on the contrary, it possesses several important centers, the evolutions of which, up to a certain point, follow different directions and assume diverse appearances.
While the history of Novgorod represented one important variation on the Kievan theme, two others were provided by the evolutions of the southwestern and the northeastern Russian lands. As in the case of Novgorod, these areas formed parts of Kievan Russia and participated fully in its life and culture. In fact, the southwest played an especially important role in maintaining close links between the Russians of the Kievan period and the inhabitants of eastern and central Europe; whereas the northeast gradually replaced Kiev itself as the political and economic center of the Russian state and also made major contributions to culture, for instance, through its brilliant school of architecture which we discussed earlier. With the collapse of the Kievan state and the breakdown of unity among the Russians, the two areas went their separate ways. Like the development of Novgorod, their independent evolutions stressed certain elements in the Kievan heritage and minimized others to produce strikingly different, yet intrinsically related, societies.
The Southwest
The territory inhabited by the Russians directly west and southwest of the Kiev area was divided into Volynia and Galicia. The larger land, Volynia, sweeps in a broad belt, west of Kiev, from the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains into White Russia. The smaller, Galicia, which is located along the northern slopes of the Carpathians, irrigated by such rivers as the Prut and the Dniester, and bordered by Hungary and Poland, represented the furthest southwestern extension of the Kievan state. During the Kievan period the Russian southwest attracted attention by its international trade, its cities, such as Vladimir-in-Volynia and Galich, as well as many others, and in general by its active participation in the life and culture of the times. Vladimir-in-Volynia, it may be remembered, ranked high as a princely seat, while the entire area was considered among the more desirable sections of the state. The culture of Volynia and Galicia formed
an integral part of Kievan culture, but it experienced particularly strong foreign, especially Western, influences. The two lands played their part in the warfare of the period; Galicia became repeatedly a battleground for the Russians and the Poles.
As Kiev declined, the southwest and several other areas rose in importance. In the second half of the twelfth century Galicia had one of its ablest and most famous rulers, prince Iaroslav Osmomysl, whose obscure appellation has been taken by some scholars to mean "of eight minds" and to denote his wisdom, and whose power was treated with great respect in the Lay of the Host of Igor. After Iaroslav Osmomysl's death in 1187, Andrew, king of Hungary, made an abortive effort to reign in the principality, which was followed by the rule of Iaroslav's son Vladimir who died in 1197. After Vladimir, Galicia obtained a strong and celebrated prince, Roman of Volynia, who united the two southwestern Russian lands and also extended his sway to Kiev itself. Roman campaigned successfully against the Hungarians, the Poles, the Lithuanians, and the Polovtsy. Byzantium sought his alliance, while Pope Innocent III offered him a royal crown, which Roman declined. The chronicle of Galicia and Volynia, a work of high literary merit noted for its vivid language, pictured Roman as follows: "he threw himself against the pagans like a lion, he raged like
a lynx, he brought destruction like a crocodile, and he swept over their land like an eagle, brave he was like an aurochs." Roman died in a Polish ambush in 1205, leaving behind two small sons, the elder, Daniel, aged four.
After Roman's death, Galicia experienced extremely troubled times marked by a rapid succession of rulers, by civil wars, and by Hungarian and Polish intervention. In contrast, Volynia had a more fortunate history, and from 1221 to 1264 it was ruled by Roman's able son Daniel. Following his complete victory in Volynia, which required a number of years, Daniel turned to Galicia and, by about 1238, brought it under his own and his brother's jurisdiction. Daniel also achieved fame as a creator of cities, such as Lvov, which to an extent replaced Kiev as an emporium of East-West trade, a patron of learning and the arts, and in general as a builder and organizer of the Russian southwest. His rule witnessed, in a sense, the culmination of the rapprochement between Russia and the West. In 1253 Daniel accepted a king's crown from the pope - the only such instance in Russian history - while his son Roman married into the Austrian reigning house. Daniel's work, however, received a shattering blow from the Mongol invasion. The Mongols laid waste Galicia and Volynia, and the Russians of the southwest, together with their compatriots elsewhere, had to submit to the overlordship of the khan.