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The Pskov Republic () was a city-state in northwestern Russia. It is traditionally considered to have won its formal independence from the Novgorod Republic in 1348. Its capital city was Pskov and its territory was roughly equivalent to modern-day Pskov Oblast.
Prince Aleksandr of Tver was granted sanctuary by the Pskovites in 1327 after he had fled Tver following an anti-Tatar uprising that was subsequently crushed by a punitive force dispatched by the khan of the Golden Horde. Aleksandr was appointed as the prince of Pskov and an agreement was reached in which the Pskovites promised to "not to hand him over to the Russian princes". At the behest of Ivan I of Moscow, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church excommunicated Aleksandr as well as the people of Pskov. Aleksandr then fled to Lithuania and, after a treaty was signed between Pskov and the head of the church, the ban was lifted. Aleksandr later returned to Pskov in 1331 and he once again served as their prince until he went to the Horde in 1337 to recover the principality of Tver.
In August 1348, Magnus IV of Sweden captured the key fortress of Oreshek Fortress located at the eastern end of the Neva. The Pskovites sent a small detachment and took advantage of the situation by only agreeing to accompany the Novgorodian army on the condition that Pskov would be formally granted its independence. Novgorod sent an allied force to lay siege to the fortress and signed the Treaty of Bolotovo on the way to Orekhov. As per the terms of the treaty, the posadniki of Novgorod no longer had any administrative or judicial function in Pskov and the law-courts of the archbishop of Novgorod would only be run by representatives chosen by the Pskovites. In return, Pskov pledged to aid Novgorod in the event that it was attacked. Despite this, the Pskovites refused to aid Novgorod in its siege of Orekhov and the detachment left.
The signing of the Treaty of Bolotovo has traditionally been regarded as the date when Pskov's independence was sealed; however, some modern historians have argued that the treaty was concluded earlier or that there is little evidence of Pskov's dependence on Novgorod in the 12th and 13th centuries. Scholars have variously dated the treaty between 1329 and 1342. Valentin Yanin argued that the treaty was concluded in 1329, only confirming previous agreements. According to Yanin, Pskov was independent as early as 1137 and relations between the two cities were based on contracts. Despite this, there is no trace of the Pskov magistrates' activities or legislation until the 14th century. Sergei Beletzkiy has shown that Pskov's original seals appeared in the 14th century and that their design followed that of Novgorod's seals.
For most of the second half of the 14th century, Pskov was in the sphere of influence of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the city continued to invite Lithuanian princes. This changed after Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania signed the Treaty of Salynas with the Teutonic Knights in 1398, in which he promised to help them conquer Pskov, while the Teutons promised to help Lithuania conquer Novgorod. That same year, Vytautas sheltered Tokhtamysh in exchange for military assistance. Vyatautas was promised aid in conquering Moscow and he joined Tokhtamysh in his war against Temür Qutlugh, but they were decisively defeated at the Battle of the Vorskla River in 1399. After Prince Ivan Andreyevich left the city, Pskov sent emissaries to Grand Prince Vasily I of Moscow requesting a prince, and from then on, the prince of Pskov was a governor or viceroy ( namestnik) under the overlordship of the grand prince. The same year, Moscow signed an agreement with the prince of Tver, which consolidated cooperation between the two principalities.
In the first half of the 15th century, the recognition of the suzerainty of the Muscovite grand prince was voluntary. The city was also able to conclude treaties with other countries. The 1417 peace treaty with the Livonian Order states: "We have been sent", declared the Pskov ambassadors, "by our authorities, the mayor and all Pskov ( posadnik pskovskii i ves' Pskov), from the patrimony of our Lord, Russian prince ( iz otchiny nashego gospodina, russkogo kniazia)..." Although the grand prince was recognized as the suzerain ( gospodin), and Pskov as his "patrimony" ( otchina), the Pskovites did not need his approval for the treaty. The status of Pskov until the mid-15th century has been compared to that of the free cities of the Holy Roman Empire. Pskov did not pay regular taxes to the suzerain, nor was it dependent on him for judicial matters. However, the Muscovite court adopted the title of sovereign ( gosudar) in the mid-15th century to reflect the grand prince's claim to hold supreme power over the Russian lands.
In 1462, Grand Prince Vasily II appointed the prince Vladimir Andreyevich as his governor without requesting permission from Pskov first. After his death the same year, the Pskovites dismissed Vladimir, and Grand Prince Ivan III reached an agreement with the city in which he promised to not appoint a new governor without the permission of Pskov, while the Pskovites promised not to dismiss a governor without the permission of the grand prince. Five years later, Ivan appointed Fyodor Yuryevich as his governor and demanded that Pskov grant his governor the right to appoint representatives in all twelve boroughs, rather than the seven he had been allowed up to that point. Pskov was forced to accept the demand, and some scholars view the enactment of the Pskov Judicial Charter the same year as an attempt to define the distribution of judicial authority between the city and the grand prince.
Starting in the 1460s, Pskov's foreign policy gradually fell under the control of the grand prince. It is likely that the grand prince approved the terms of treaties with neighboring countries, while Pskov's authorities continued to handle minor trade disputes. For instance, in a letter dating to 1463–1465 and addressed to the authorities in Riga, the prince, posadniki, boyars, merchants and "all Pskov" protested against the offenses faced by two Pskovite merchants in the city, without any reference to the grand prince's decision. However, treaties between Moscow and other countries show that Pskov was no longer an active participant in international affairs. In his 1494 peace treaty with Lithuania, Ivan III called Pskov his patrimony and guaranteed maintaining trade and justice in the city. Although Pskov is indicated to have already lost its independence in the second half of the 15th century, its local administration and legal system remained intact.
Upon becoming the grand prince, Vasily III continued his father's policy of annexing the other remaining Russian states. In the autumn of 1509, he visited Novgorod, where he received complaints from the Pskov veche against the Muscovite governor of the city. At first, Vasily encouraged complaints against the governor, yet soon after, he demanded that the city abolish its traditional institutions, including the removal of the veche bell. From that point on, Pskov was to be ruled exclusively by his governors and officials, and on 13 January 1510, the veche bell was removed and transported to Moscow.
During an official visit to Pskov, Vasily held a large reception that was attended by city officials, merchants and representatives of other classes. At the height of the reception, he had them arrested. In total, around 300 families were deported and replaced with loyalists, as Vasily sought to remove any potential opposition to his direct rule. Following its incorporation into the centralized Russian state, the city of Pskov and the lands around it continued to prosper, preserving some of its economic and cultural traditions that may have even spread to Moscow. At the time of its incorporation, the city numbered 6,500 households, or about 30,000 people, according to the chronicle of Pskov.
The rural population was deprived of political rights as landowners were concentrated in towns. As late as the 1480s, Pskovian peasants were referred to as smerdy, even though the term had disappeared from documents in other parts of Russia, reflecting the social polarization. Representatives of the zemtsy (private landowners) held the positions of hundredmen and vicar of the archbishop, while merchants held the positions of merchant and trader elders. The lower classes ( chyornyye lyudi) selected street ( ulichanskiye) elders.
Although considered to be a republic, the head of state remained the prince; however, power was shared with the local authorities, and so a particular prince could be dismissed. The best documented duties of the prince include him commanding the army and his judicial office. As Pskov did not have its own princely dynasty, the prince was invited from Lithuania and then Moscow and other Russian principalities. The prince of Pskov was more dependent on the grand prince compared to the prince of Novgorod, and so princes were often recruited from the ranks of service princes who had been accepted into the service of the grand prince, especially after 1399. The role of the prince in Pskov has been compared to that of a podestà or condottiero in Italian cities. The prince was a military leader, accompanied by his retainers, but he also fulfilled judicial and police functions.
The legal code of Pskov, known as the Pskov Judicial Charter, was enacted by its veche in 1397, with redactions until 1467. The preamble says it was approved "by all Pskov at the assembly meeting" ( vsem Pskovom na vechi). Among medieval Russian cities, only Pskov and Novgorod had their own law codes. Pskov's legal code is regarded as a monument of Russian law. The principal subjects of the code included commercial law, criminal law, debts, evidence, inheritance, the law of procedure, the legal position of certain peasant classes, as well as the rights of certain officials. The Charter of Pskov was an important source for the Sudebnik of 1497 under Ivan III, the first collection of laws of the newly unified state.
The Pskov Judicial Charter describes the legislative procedure: "If some line in the customary charter is missing, the mayors should report to Lord Pskov at the assembly meeting ( dolozhit' gospodina Pskova na vechi) and write this line down into. And if some line does not please Lord Pskov, it can be freely removed from the Charter". Historians have compared the legislative procedure to those of medieval German towns. The power of the prince was limited but – in contrast to the Novgorod Republic – he still retained important administrative and judicial functions, the latter carried out jointly with the posadnik.Lawrence Langer, "The Posadnichestvo of Pskov: Some Aspects of Urban Administration in Medieval Russia.” Slavic Review 43, no. 1 (1984): 46–62. The Pskov Judicial Charter required both officials to jointly preside over all trials. It also prohibited legal meetings at the veche, specifying that all trials were to be conducted in the entrance hall of the prince's residence. Both officials were expected to administer trials justly, according with their oath.
The veche had legislative powers; it could appoint military commanders and hear ambassadors' reports. It also approved expenses such as grants to princes and payments to builders of walls, towers and bridges. The veche gathered at the Trinity Cathedral, which held the archives of the veche and important private papers and state documents. The veche assembly included posadniki, as well as "middle" and common people. Historians differ on the extent to which the veche was dominated by elites, with some saying that real power was in the hands of boyars, while others consider the veche to have been a democratic institution. Conflicts were common and the confrontation between the veche and the posadniki in 1483–1484 led to the execution of one posadnik and to the confiscation of property of three other posadniki who fled to Moscow.
The Pskovites are recorded to have unsuccessfully tried to obtain their own bishop several times. The Novgorodians conceded the right to have court cases regarding ecclesiastical affairs held in Pskov. The last attempt to establish a separate eparchy was in 1464, when the Pskovites petitioned Grand Prince Ivan III, requesting him to order the metropolitan to consecrate a bishop for Pskov. However, this petition was declined on the grounds that a bishopric had never existed in Pskov.
Unlike Novgorod, where the archbishop played an important role in political life, the church had a limited role in Pskov's politics as none of the local clergyman had been trusted to take part in the decision-making process or to represent the city. A religious sect, whose followers were known as the strigolniki, was active in the city from the second half of the 14th century. Metropolitan Dionisy was instructed by Patriarch Nilus to investigate the heresy in 1382. Due to persecution by the authorities in Novgorod and Pskov, along with internal disagreements among the strigolniki, the sect had disappeared by the early 15th century, only to be soon replaced with another sect, the Judaizers.
Already in the 13th century, German merchants were present in the Zapskovye area of Pskov and the Hanseatic League had a trade route in the same area in the first half of the 16th century which moved to Zavelichye after a fire in 1562.Аракчеев владимир Анатольевич, Псков и Ганза в эпоху средневековья, ООО "Дизайн экспресс", 2012 Pskov's main trade partners were Riga, Tallinn and Tartu. The wars with the Livonian Order, Poland–Lithuania, and Sweden interrupted trade but it was maintained until the 17th century, with Swedish merchants gaining the upper hand eventually.
Pskov did not have a kontor like Novgorod; instead, the city had special "German" districts where foreign merchants could rent housing, while Pskov merchants resided in "Russian" districts in Dorpat. After Grand Prince Ivan III closed Novgorod's Hanseatic office in 1494, leading to a trade blockade, the cities of Livonia continued their trade through Pskov and explained to Lübeck that Pskov was not formally part of the Grand Principality of Moscow. From 1510, when grand princely customs were introduced in the city, the regulation of trade was decided by the local tsarist administration, and the governor of Pskov documented the entry and exit of all foreign merchants.
The downfall of Pskov is recounted in the Story of the Taking of Pskov (1510), which was lauded by D. S. Mirsky as "one of the most beautiful short stories of Old Russia. The history of the Muscovites' leisurely perseverance is told with admirable simplicity and art. An atmosphere of descending gloom pervades the whole narrative: all is useless, and whatever the Pskovites can do, the Muscovite cat will take its time and eat the mouse when and how it pleases".
Unlike Novgorod, where the prince was represented by a deputy and did not always hold a princely title, the prince of Pskov was enthroned in the Trinity Cathedral. From 1467 onward, the prince, who was a deputy of the grand prince of Moscow, gained the authority to appoint his own deputies in all 12 boroughs.
| Andrei of Polotsk | 1342–1349 | of the Gediminids clan |
| Eustaphy Feodorovich | 1349–1360 | also Prince of Izborsk |
| Alexander of Polotsk | 1360–1369 | |
| Matvei | 1375–1377 | |
| Andrei of Polotsk | 1377–1399 | second time |
| Ivan Andreyevich | 1386–1394 | |
| viceroys of the Grand Prince of Moscow | 1399–1510 |
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