The Russian principalities and the struggle against invaders

By the end of the 11th century the Russian principalities were caught in internecine wars, and the Kipchaks sometimes sided with one prince against another. In 1097 Vladimir Monomakh called a congress of princes at Lyubech which resolved that “each shall hold his own land”. But the Kyiv prince’s standing fell and Rus entered a period of political fragmentation: there were 15 independent principalities in the mid-12th century and about 50 on the eve of Batu’s invasion. Novgorod became a large craft and trade centre in the 11th century; the influence of the local boyars grew and in 1136 the veche expelled Prince Vsevolod, after which Novgorod was a boyar republic: supreme power lay with the people’s assembly (the veche), an elected city governor, the city council and the bishop. In the north-east the Vladimir-Suzdal principality grew; Yuri Dolgorukiy, son of Vladimir Monomakh, governed lands between the Volga and the Oka with towns such as Rostov, Suzdal and Yaroslavl. Moscow is first mentioned in a chronicle of 1147 (traditionally linked with Yuri Dolgorukiy). From the 14th century Vladimir-Suzdal and Moscow became the basis for the union of the Russian lands.