Open AccessMARFA BORETSKAYA AND THE JOINING OF NOVGOROD TO MOSCOW
Author(s) -
S.S. Pashin,
V.A. Yurshina
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
vestnik udmurtskogo universiteta. istoriâ i filologiâ
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2413-2454
pISSN - 2412-9534
DOI - 10.35634/2412-9534-2021-31-1-14-21
Subject(s) - lithuanian , opposition (politics) , politics , history , narrative , literature , ancient history , political science , law , art , philosophy , linguistics
The article is devoted to the study of the role of the boyarwoman Marfa Boretskaya in the events of the 1470s, which led to the joining of the Novgorod Republic to Moscow. Almost all Russian historians of the 19-20th centuries believed that Marfa was the leader of the anti-Moscow “Lithuanian” party in Novgorod. The authors of the article think that such opinion is based on a non-critical assessment of sources - the Russian chronicles. We highlight three variants of narrative sources with the mention of Marfa Boretskaya: Novgorod, Moscow and Sofian. The Novgorod chronicles keep silent about Marfa's participation in the political life of Novgorod in the 1470s. The official Moscow chroniclers (the second version) believed that Marfa, along with her sons and other oppositionists, helped to agitate against the Moscow prince for the Polish king. Only the literary monument “Slovesa izbranna… (The Selected Words)” in the composition of the Sofia's first and related chronicles depicts Marfa as the leader of the Novgorod opposition to the great prince Ivan III (the third option). Sources do not reveal the real role of Marfa Boretskaya in the events of the 1470s.