For example, in the north, the ancient city of Novgorod was drawn into
the commercial network that a league of north-German cities, later called
the Hansa, organized along the Baltic shores. While Kiev's trade declined,
Novgorod's boomed and its orientation became increasingly north European.
Like many other trading cities, Novgorod developed a republican-like form
of government in which the merchant elite, not the prince or boyars, predominated.
Another case of regional differentiation evolved in the northeast. In
that vast, sparsely populated 'land beyond the forest," the heartland of the
Great Russians, principalities such as Rostov, Suzdal, Vladimir, and Moscow
were founded by junior members of the Riurikid dynasty. Perhaps because
these northeastern princes established themselves in these originally Finnic
areas before many of the East Slavic colonists arrived, they were in an advantageous
position to dictate exacting terms of overlordship to the newcomers.
The epitome of the growing absolutist tendency of the northeastern princes
was Andrei Bogoliubsky of Suzdal. Dissatisfied with the growing opposition
from the local elite in Suzdal, he moved to Vladimir because it had no wellentrenched
aristocracy that could thwart him. And, in 1169, ne destroyed
Kiev so that it would not rival his new capital. This single-minded pursuit
of absolute power was inherited by Bogoliubsky's descendants, the rulers
of Moscow (originally a minor outpost, Moscow was first mentioned in the
chronicles only in 1147), and it helps to explain their future political success.