ABSTRACT
From around 1200 the crusaders conquered the territory of present-day Estonia and Latvia, which in medieval context was referred to by the common name of Livonia. The formation of the conglomerate of feudal states in Livonia was accompanied by the war against the local political units, which were gradually subdued during the thirteenth century. Beside the war against the pagans there were also occasional clashes with the Orthodox Russians, who were equally interested in gaining or maintaining spheres of influence in parts of Livonia.1 Thirteenth-and fourteenth-century Livonia also saw the emergence of towns, in particular, Riga, Tallinn (German: Reval), and Tartu (German: Dorpat). During the first centuries of their existence, the commercial role of Livonian towns consisted in mediating merchandise from Russian territories, such as Novgorod, Pskov, Polotsk, Smolensk, to Western Europe and vice versa. The mercantile elite of immigrants from Germany played the leading role in Livonian towns, while the people of local descent had a lower social status. It is also known, that already in those centuries there were Russian communities in Livonian towns. They were partly composed of traders coming from Russia to reside in Livonia temporarily and partly of people living there permanently.
