The political system of medieval Novgorod – the possibilities of comparative analysis

Аннотация

The article analyses a successful comparison of political institutions of the two medieval city communes conducted in Pavel Lukin’s book “Novgorod and Venice”. Acknowledging the heuristic character of Lukin’s observations on the institutional weakness of the veche system revealed in a constant political instability, the reviewer also pays attention to some lacunae (e.g., the lack of a comparative survey of the military organization of both Novgorod and Venice) and controversial points of the book under review.