Italian communes and Russian city-states: features of political structure and patterns of republicanism evolution

• Published in: Исторический журнал: научные исследования no. 3; pp. 132 - 148
• Main Author: Berkutov, Stepan Maksimovich
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.03.2025
• ISSN: 2454-0609; 2454-0609
• DOI: 10.7256/2454-0609.2025.3.73782

The article is dedicated to identifying the common patterns of political system development in the city-states of medieval Italy and the urban republics of the Russian Northwest - Novgorod and Pskov. Alongside the Novgorod Republic, which existed from the 12th to the 15th centuries, trading city-states flourished in Northern Italy during nearly the same chronological period (from the late 11th century to approximately the mid-15th century). These included not only the well-known Venice or Genoa but also hundreds of larger and smaller republics, the history of which demonstrates similar processes to those occurring in the Russian popular governments, hundreds of kilometers away from them. Based on specific historical material, the evolution of these republics is examined, and comparisons are made with the well-known republic of Great Novgorod. The method of comparative historical analysis, utilizing a broad historical material, allows for conclusions to be drawn about the common laws of evolution in the political entities being examined. For the first time in the historiography of this problem, the method of comparative analysis is applied to a wide range of material, meaning that Great Novgorod is compared not exclusively with Venice or any other single Italian republic, but simultaneously with many of them, which allows for a broader view of the picture and helps to identify regularities in political development and understand the current place of the Novgorod Republic in European and world history. By examining the political evolution of the Novgorod Republic and a significant number of city-states in northern medieval Italy, a conclusion is made about the identical nature of changes in the power structures of Italian and Russian republics, based on which the commonality of the evolutionary path of medieval republicanism is asserted. Numerous differences in the political systems of Italian city-states and Great Novgorod do not allow for judgments about the backwardness or any other "defects" of the Novgorod polity.