Diplomacy:
To: The Merchant Empire of Riccio, the Kingdom of Norway, the Commonwealth of Great Britain, the Roman Empire
From: The Free Republic of Novgorod
The High Prince of Novgorod, High Prince Sergei I, with the full approval and support of the entirety of the Novgorodian Soviet, hereby offers pacts of non-aggression, as well as favored trade agreements to your fine nations, in the interest of developing and furthering peace in Europe and advancing stability and society as a whole.
To: The Russian Empire
From: The Free Republic of Novgorod
Uhh. Hey, what's up.
A Brief History on the Formation and Development of Novgorodian Power and its Free Republic
On the day of January 1st, 1800, tensions in the Russian Imperial province of Novgorod snapped. Now, it should be noted here that prior to this date, Novgorod was historically one of the richest, but least content provinces of the Russian Tsardom. Ever since the Muscovite annexation of Novgorod in the 15th century, up until the New Year’s Revolution, Novgorod contributed a massive amount of wealth, and headaches, to Muscovite and Russian Tsars along the way. Even after the fall of the Hansa from Baltic dominance, the Novgorodian economic lifeline in the form of a trade league, Novgorod’s powerful supply of wealth to Moscow did not lessen a single bit. Germans, Balts, Swedes, Danes, and Russians alike continued to trade and move in and to the great Lord City. By the turn of the 17th century, Novgorod had grown to be the third largest city in the Russian Tsardom, and was christened to be the Third of the Big Three: Moscow, Kiev, and Novgorod. During a majority of the 17th century, both trade and manufacturing flourished in Novgorod as it never could or would in Moscow or Kiev. With the advent of massive Siberian colonization occurring during this time period, and the rich amounts of raw metals, furs, and timber being uncovered in the previously thought as barren lands of Siberia, huge amounts of craftsmen and merchants capitalized on massive influxes of raw material flowing from east to west from Siberia through Novgorod, to great cities like Stettin, Copenhagen, Lübeck, Hamburg, Danzig, Stockholm, and many more. This Golden Age of Novgorod, with massively heightened wealth and production, the development of a uniquely bizarre Novgorodian culture melded from standard Russian, Swedish, and German cultures, and the increased building and ‘proto-industrialization’ of Novgorod [proper industrialization would not come for a few centuries yet; this form of ‘industrialization’ refers only to the massive amounts of workshops and mills that arose in ‘Novgorodian’ lands]. This period of rising and empowering of Novgorod, however, would not last very long.
During the 18th century, growing Russian influence on Poland-Lithuania and the construction of the city of Saint Petersburg were two factors that sparked the decay of Novgorod as a fundamental trade city in Russia. Saint Petersburg, founded in 1703, was founded with the express purpose of being, in essence, Russia’s port-gateway to the west. With a western name, a warm water port, and massive assets diverted from Novgorod’s coffers into its construction, the city of Saint Petersburg was the primary killer to Novgorodian greatness. While incoming western trade still had to go through Novgorod to access Moscow, Kiev, the Caucasus, and Astrakhan, westbound trade from Siberia was diverted from Novgorod directly to Saint Petersburg, causing a dry-up of raw materials in the area and the subsequent deserting of several of the old ‘industrial’ buildings in Novgorod and the surrounding territories. Siberian timber and metals, instead of being put to use to advance and build on Novgorod, were now used to create a wasteful, powerful, and overall gargantuan Russian navy, which was one of the Tsar’s greatest goals. The Novgorodians, never really happy under Muscovite rule, chafed and grumbled at the construction of Saint Petersburg as well as the subsequent stagnation of the Novgorodian economy. That was not all. Novgorod’s sole remaining trade routes were with interior Russia: Kiev, Tver, and Moscow in particular. However, with the acceptance of Poland-Lithuania as an official Russian protectorate in 1768, even these once-solid trade routes were put in peril. Trade through Poland, whether through Danzig, Elbing, Poznan, or Krakow, was still, with completely open trade between Poland and Russia, more efficient than trade through Novgorod, despite the formerly tense relations between the two states. While the rest of Russian modernized and prospered [in Russian terms, at least], Novgorod stagnated, rotted, and collapsed. It would not be long until revolution.
Sergei Markov was born in the year 1754 in the town of Kholm. Historically, the Markov family had been one of the most prominent families in Novgorod and its territories, controlling a gigantic portion of Novgorodian lands throughout a majority of its time in power. But with the construction of Saint Petersburg, the Markovs became but one of the many formerly prominent Novgorodian families who fell from power and wealth, eventually retreating to the small towns and farms around Novgorod to do actual hard labor in order to continue their existences. The Markovs were one of the luckier families in this ordeal. They continued to operate one of the barley farms from their glory days, and held many workers with them as well. Nonetheless, their new status as farmowners was a huge difference from their original status as virtual merchant monarchs. Sergei, however was not content with his family’s position. In the year of 1777, at the age of 23, Markov began writing virulent and verbose discourse on the failures of the Moscow regime. Due to other arguably more pressing issues farther east, in Siberia, Empress Catherine II took little heed to Markov’s rhetoric, as well as a few other relatively insignificant dissenters at the time. As it turned out, this would prove to be the single greatest mistake in the history of the Russian Empire. On February 18, 1784, the Siberia and Kazan Governates declared a war of rebellion against Moscow. Two months later, under the leadership of a council of speakers including Markov, a union between the Saint-Petersburg and Archangelgorod Governates also declared a war of rebellion against the Russian Empire. While the Siberian Revolt was crushed with overwhelming power, the massive population and industrial capacity of the henceforth Republic of Novgorod-Archangelsk allowed it to hold on until more and more areas of Russia would fall into chaos, anarchy, and rebellion. Collapse was imminent for the Moscow regime. By 1789, Azow, Kiev, and Smolensk all started minor revolutions of their own. By 1796, the Moscow regime lost all control over the former Russian Empire. The old dynasty was ousted by Muscovite nobles to the far eastern province known as Alyeska. However, despite the ousting of the tyrannical Muscovite regime, not all was well. Russia had been carved into crudely shaped constantly shifting borders between massive, distrusting, and self-interested regimes. Novgorod-Archangelsk was the first to collapse, Archangelsk declaring war on and subsequently occupying much of Novgorod before it succumbed to the Siberian Republic, which also collapsed soon after. What remained of Novgorod was quickly reorganized by Markov, who took advantage of the opportunity and crowned himself High Prince Sergei I, with the support of mainly his personal friends and family members. Nonetheless, Markov had gained control of the army via his close childhood friend Anton Kandinsky, a well-respected general in what remained of Novgorod’s army. As such, while war raged in eastern Novgorod, and as Archangelsk was treacherously attacked, Markov upheld massive and occasionally radical reforms in Novgorod, including creating the Novgorodian Soviet and pledging the rebuilding of Novgorodian industrial capacity, which had mainly been destroyed in the Great Revolution. On January 1st, 1800, High Prince Sergei, after gaining back the entirety of Novgorod region, as well as a portion of Archangelsk after partitioning it with Siberia, officially signed the Soviet-drafted constitution of what would become the Free Republic of Novgorod, sparking a new era in the turbulent history of Russia. Further south, Moscow, Kiev, and Smolensk fought several massive wars to establish dominance in western Russia before they all collapsed, peasant rebellions and republican sentiment destroying them from the inside and massive armies destroying them from the outside. The Duchy of Azow remained relatively isolated, sustaining proper trade with the outside world for the longest time. Despite the reorganization of Novgorod as the largest and most powerful state in Russia proper, Azow remains the most stable and most wealthy region of Russia. Nowadays, Russia proper continues to be a turbulent, violent, and constantly changing territory spotted with battlefields and factories. Nonetheless, with the expanding power of Novgorod to the north, and the resurgence of the Russian Tsardom in Alyeska beginning to conquer some old Imperial East Siberian territories, it looks as though Russian hegemony and dominance in Europe may soon be reclaimed.
