Posadniki are the leaders of the city in Ancient Rus

Posadniki appear together with the state and cities in ancient Russia, their main purpose was to conduct such a policy in the city entrusted to them, which would exactly correspond to the interests of the Grand Duke, as well as the urban aristocracy.

The need for management functions

The ancient Russian state is born in the ninth century, as a result of successful and energetic actions of the Novgorod prince Oleg there is a single state - Kievan Rus. The territory of the state expanded, and there is a need for special people who would represent the prince in the cities of the country. From the end of the ninth century, Novgorod played a special role in the ancient Russian possessions, for a time acting even as a rival of Kiev in terms of the primacy in Russia. Unlike other urban settlements, he did not become the inheritance of any princely family, but he remained independent and stood apart from all the possessions of the great prince of Kiev. In order to control the city, the Kiev rulers sent their sons there, but it was not always so, not one of the great-grandchildren was able to establish a foothold there, and the most powerful power was received by the posadnik administration and the people's veche. It was in Novgorod and Pskov that these people enjoyed the greatest power and could even openly oppose the Grand Duke. Thus, the posadniki are, in modern language, the mayors of the cities of Ancient Rus.

Features of the Old Russian system of management

Why Novgorod had such power posadniki. This is due to a number of reasons. The first is that the city originally emerged as a trade and craft center, and this was due to its natural and geographical location. The huge forest lands gave a lot of goods in demand, the abundance of river routes made trade very profitable, and, among other things, Novgorod, from the time of calling the Varangians and Swedish-German crusaders, did not experience major external dangers, therefore the power of princes who acted as commanders and Supreme judges, was not a special necessity for Novgorodians. Therefore, rather early Novgorod posadnik began to be elected from among the local population, of course, from the most prosperous part of it at the people's meeting - the veche. The interests of the big boyars here were in the first place, and in the case of pressure from Kiev all Novgorodians acted as a consolidated front. Identical orders developed in other important centers of the Novgorod land.

Etymology of the term

In general, the term itself appeared at the end of the tenth century and occurs in The Tale of Bygone Years. The first princes of Kiev sent their representatives to the cities of special importance, and the word itself came from the verb "plant". Sometimes the term "planters", that is, "posadniks", is a distorted word that emphasizes the subordination of this person to a certain prince. For example, the landlord Yaropolkov - is referring to the head of the city appointed by the great Kiev prince Yaropolk Svyatoslavovich. If at the initial stage of the existence of Kievan Rus to Novgorod specially sent the grand prince's leaders, then later the sons of Russian rulers performed the role of the posadnik. But this was emphasized in the city on Volkhov, he was also called a posadnik, although by origin he was a prince, and all through to feudal fragmentation the city always showed its special status, and the Kiev rulers were forced to reckon with this.

Autonomy of the northwest of Russia and its liquidation

During the period of feudal fragmentation, Novgorod has become even more isolated, and from this period, with the exception of Alexander Nevsky's invitation to repel the German-Swedish invasion, Novgorod's posadniki are exclusively local nobility. Leading cities in Russia, from Kiev to Vladimir, from Vladimir to Moscow, changed, but Novgorod continued to maintain its fairly wide autonomy, and even the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars could not radically change this tradition. In the fifteenth century, instead of one posadnik, six were elected, each of whom was in charge of certain areas of the city economy, as well as the chief posadnik, who was engaged in the coordination and work of all subordinates, in fact, speaking in modern language, it was the mayoralty with all the resulting powers. Everything changes with the gradual rise of the Moscow principality, the unifying policy pursued by its princes could not bypass this outpost of medieval liberty. By the end of this century, the liberty of Novgorod was crushed by Ivan III, who did not want to have a self-governing unit in his state, the last posadnik Marfa Boretskaya was taken to Moscow with the veche bell, and from this period the position of the posadnik was abolished.

New historical realities

As for the other cities, the posadniki there were appointed by the central government and did not possess any significant autonomy in the conduct of business. Obligations of the posadnik were not very great, in particular, they included first and foremost the proper maintenance of the receipt of taxes, the trial and punishment of the local population, the observance of the rule of law in the territory entrusted to them, the protection of the city and its improvement. That's who such a posadnik in Ancient Russia. However, it should be noted that the use of this term is most applicable to Novgorod and its lands, in particular Pskov. With the strengthening of the central government, this post was liquidated throughout Russia, replaced by governors and governors.