The coat of arms and flag of modern-day Novgorod feature, in the upper part, two bears flanking a throne adorned with two cross-bars and a three-armed candelabrum; in the lower part, blue water with four fish.

The state seal of Veliky Novgorod from the 15th century bears the inscription ‘Seal of Veliky Novgorod’ on the front and an eagle on the reverse.

The name ‘Novgorod’ (New Fortress) suggests that the city – which, according to archaeological evidence, dates from the mid-10th century – was founded as an offshoot of the nearby, originally Scandinavian fortification, established in the mid-9th century, (the ‘Rurik’ fort, likely identical to the Holmgardr mentioned in Scandinavian sources).^[1] The first reliable mention of Novgorod in the First Novgorod Chronicle, under the year 1044, refers to the fortified complex on the western bank of the Volkhov, where St Sophia’s Cathedral also stood. The city developed rapidly on both sides of the river, with the fortress and cathedral on the ‘St Sophia side’ on the left bank and the market on the ‘commercial side’ on the right bank. With a population of 25,000–30,000 in the 15th century, Novgorod was the second-largest city in ancient Rus’ in the late Middle Ages after Moscow/Moskva. It developed into the centre of a city-state which, with the Ilmen Lake basin as its heartland, dominated the entire north of present-day Russia as far as the Urals.

The city owes its rise as an international centre for long-distance and transit trade to its location at the junction of an east-west and a north-south trade route (Volga–Baltic Sea and Black Sea–Baltic Sea via the Dnieper [Ukrainian: Dnipro] and Volkhov). Given the limited transport capacity of the river and sea vessels of the time, trade was concentrated on luxury goods. From the Orient and Byzantium, Novgorod primarily sourced raw materials for precious jewellery, as well as ceramic, glass and copper vessels, wine and boxwood (for combs); until the mid-11th century, it also imported minted silver (Kufic dirhams). Western and north-western Europe supplied fine coloured cloths, Westphalian wrought iron goods, Rhineland ceramics, Lüneburg table salt, and later also French Bavarian salt, lead, amber, French wines and silver—either in coin form or as scrap. Novgorod, for its part, exported furs and raw hides from its own densely wooded hinterland, as well as wax and honey from the deciduous and mixed woodland areas further to the south and south-east. Novgorod thus primarily imported manufactured goods and exported raw materials. Initially, Volyn at the mouth of the Oder served as the main hub for Novgorod’s maritime trade; however, over the course of the 11th century, it was increasingly supplanted by the island of Gotland. By the end of the 11th century, Gotlandic merchants already had their own trading post in Novgorod, the Gotenhof, which included St Olaf’s Church. Conversely, the Novgorod merchants also had their own trading post in Visby on Gotland, featuring a St Nicholas Church. The oldest known trade agreement to date, dating from 1191/92, reaffirmed the right of the Novgorodians, on the one hand, and the Gotlanders and Germans, on the other, to the free movement of goods amongst themselves. In this context, a second German trading post, the St Peterhof, was established in Novgorod not far from the market. Until the 13th century, Novgorod merchants could also be found in German coastal towns, particularly in Lübeck. However, with the union of numerous towns to form the German Hanseatic League, the League – under Lübeck’s leadership – began to assume control of Baltic Sea trade from the 14th century onwards, driving both the Gotlanders and the people of Novgorod out of active maritime trade. From then on, Reval/Tallinn and Dorpat/Tartu became the most important ports of call for Novgorod’s trade with the West. Conversely, the Hanseatic League was unable to bypass Novgorod as a hub for trade with Russia, as the city blocked all Western attempts to conduct transit trade beyond Novgorod.

The two German trading posts in Novgorod enjoyed extraterritorial status and were governed by their own court law (Schra), which was initially based on the law of Visby and later on Lübeck law. As a rule, ‘summer’ and ‘winter’ traders, who came from around 30 different towns – primarily from Lübeck, Westphalia and Livonia – took turns staying at the trading post. On average, around 100 German merchants resided in Novgorod; in 1425 the figure was 150, and in 1439 it was even more than 200. However, quite a few Germans also lived as lodgers on Russian estates. Clashes between Russians and Germans (mostly as a result of frequent trade disputes) occurred time and again within the city, accompanied by sieges of the two German trading estates lasting weeks or even months. When Grand Prince Ivan III of Moscow had the trading posts closed down in 1494, only 45 Germans remained there, including eleven language students (mostly merchants’ sons) who were staying there to learn Russian. From 1494 onwards, Pskov and Narva took over from Novgorod as centres for Hanseatic trade. From 1512 to 1541, the Hanseatic trading post was permitted to reopen, and from 1603 to 1709 a Lübeck trading post existed at another location in the city. However, with the shift of European maritime trade to the world’s oceans following the discovery of the New World, the Baltic Sea began to lose its former economic significance more and more from the 16th century onwards.

This intensive trade left its mark on both sides, not only culturally,^[3] but also linguistically.^[4] Between 1433 and 1443, German master builders played a key role in the construction of the archbishop’s Faceted Palace (granovitaja palata) in the Novgorod Kremlin, with its striking late-Gothic ceremonial hall, as well as in the construction of a tower with a carillon and an hour bell – unique in Russia at the time. Romanesque and Gothic influences are evident in the exterior decoration of individual stone churches from the second half of the 14th century.^[5]

After 1494, there was no longer any significant German colony in Novgorod.

During the Second World War, the city – largely destroyed – remained a frontline town under German occupation from August 1941 to January 1944. The Volkhov Front, with Novgorod as its linchpin, was of crucial strategic importance for securing the German siege ring around St Petersburg/Leningrad and the link to the Finnish army, and for preventing a Soviet breakthrough to the Gulf of Finland. The most valuable art treasures had been successfully removed from the city in time, before the German conquest. In September 1943, the Germans evacuated almost the entire population of the city and its surrounding area from the frontline zone and deported them to Estonia; men fit for labour were rounded up in labour camps. Johannes Bobrowski (1917–1965), who was stationed there as a soldier, captured the sombre atmosphere of the half-destroyed Novgorod in 1943 in a series of poems.^[6]

According to the 2010 census, a total of 664 Germans (0.11 per cent of the population) lived in the entire administrative region of Novgorod.^[7]