Novgorod Land

originally, the area around Lake Il’men’ inhabited by the Il’men’ Slavs, whose chief settlement was Novgorod. Between the 12th and 15th centuries, the term referred to the Novgorod feudal republic, which was divided into five piatiny: Bezhetskaia, Vodskaia, Derevskaia, Obonezhskaia, and Shelonskaia. The Novgorod Land stretched north to the White Sea and south to the Urals. It was bounded by Tver’ on the south and by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and by Livonia on the west. Its geographical location facilitated the development of commercial ties with other Russian lands and with Western European countries.