Qualla: Siege of Novgorod (1170) https://qualla.com/siege-of-novgorod-1170 en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:35 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/u/d/q/j/siege-of-novgorod-1170-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Siege of Novgorod (1170) https://qualla.com/siege-of-novgorod-1170 Siege of Novgorod (1170): Introduction https://qualla.com/siege-of-novgorod-1170/ Photo credit anonymous, Public domain. An icon called the Sign of the Theotokos hangs today in the Cathedral of Saint Sophia in Veliky Novgorod, and the legend attached to it dates from the winter of 1170. As the Suzdalian army of Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky pressed against the wooden walls of the city, an arrow from the besiegers is said to have struck the icon as a priest carried it along the ramparts. Tears flowed from the painted eyes. The Suzdalians, blinded and confused, turned on each other in the snow, and Novgorod was delivered. Whether or not anything like that happened, the Novgorodian republic did defeat a far larger army that February, on a frozen plain north of the lake. What the people of the city could not see was that they had won the smaller fight and lost the larger one already.

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]]> Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/d/q/j/siege-of-novgorod-1170-wp/udqj-siege-of-novgorod-1170-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Siege of Novgorod (1170): A Republic in a Princely World https://qualla.com/siege-of-novgorod-1170/ Photo credit anonymous, Public domain. Veliky Novgorod sat 58 degrees north on the Volkhov River, where it carried the trade of Scandinavia and the Hanseatic ports south to Kievan Rus and on to Constantinople. Its veche, a public assembly that met in the marketplace, hired and fired its princes by acclaim. In a Russia...

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]]> Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/d/q/j/siege-of-novgorod-1170-wp/udqj-siege-of-novgorod-1170-a-republic-in-a-princely-world.mp3 0:06 2 full Siege of Novgorod (1170): The Battle in the Snow https://qualla.com/siege-of-novgorod-1170/ Photo credit anonymous, Public domain. The Suzdalian army that approached Novgorod through the winter of 1169–1170 was, by every account, the larger force. The Novgorodians, fighting at home and on familiar ground, met them outside the walls and broke them. The Suzdalian losses were severe enough that the chronicles s...

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]]> Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/d/q/j/siege-of-novgorod-1170-wp/udqj-siege-of-novgorod-1170-the-battle-in-the-snow.mp3 0:06 3 full Siege of Novgorod (1170): Winning and Losing https://qualla.com/siege-of-novgorod-1170/ Photo credit anonymous, Public domain. Andrei Bogolyubsky did not need to take Novgorod by storm. He needed only to cut off the grain that came up from the south. The Suzdalian principalities controlled the river routes, and within a year of their tactical defeat in the snow, they applied an economic blockade that the...

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]]> Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/d/q/j/siege-of-novgorod-1170-wp/udqj-siege-of-novgorod-1170-winning-and-losing.mp3 0:06 4 full Siege of Novgorod (1170): The City Today https://qualla.com/siege-of-novgorod-1170/ Photo credit anonymous, Public domain. Veliky Novgorod is one of the oldest cities in Russia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site whose Detinets, the kremlin on the Volkhov's left bank, still encloses the eleventh-century Saint Sophia Cathedral. Inside, the icon at the center of the legend has been venerated for more than ei...

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]]> Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/d/q/j/siege-of-novgorod-1170-wp/udqj-siege-of-novgorod-1170-the-city-today.mp3 0:06 5 full