ABSTRACT
The Eastern Slavic tribes of the eighth and ninth centuries lived under a primitive tribal democracy. Varangian princes and their retainers brought the beginnings of state organization to Rus during the ninth and tenth centuries. The political structure of the principalities of ancient Rus was a unique combination of two principles: the monarchical principle, embodied in the prince, and the democratic principle, embodied in the veche, the popular assembly in older provincial centers. The political system of Lord Novgorod the Great, hub of the vast expanses of the north and of the north-eastern Russian plain, was unique. The rule of the Novgorod veche was all-encompassing. It decided all questions of internal administration and foreign policy. Another ancient Russian republic was Novgorod’s “little brother,” “Lord Pskov.” The social and economic system in the small, compact Pskov region was much more stable and the domestic conflicts less acute than in Novgorod.
