The bell hums mournfully.

Why does he convene Novgorod?

Are the posadniks being changed again?

Doesn't Chud the recalcitrant worry?

Did the Swedes break in or the knights?

Isn't it time to call the hunters

Take by force or will from Ugoria

Are silver and furs precious?

Did the Hanseatic goods come,

Ali again high-ranking ambassadors

From the Grand Duke of Moscow

Have you come for a rich tribute?

Not! The bell hums sadly...

Sings a feast for freedom sad,

Sings a farewell song with the fatherland...
"Forgive me, dear Novgorod!

Do not call you to the veche to me,

Do not buzz me still:

Who is on God? Who is in Novgorod?

Forgive me, temples of God,

My oak towers!

I sing for you for the last time

I'm giving you a farewell bell.

Come on, you terrible storm,

Tear out my cast-iron tongue,

You break the edges of my copper,

So as not to sing in Moscow, far from me,

Is it about my bitter grief,

Is it about my tearful fate,

So as not to amuse with a sad song

I have Tsar Ivan in the tower.

Forgive me, my named brother, my exuberant Volkhov, forgive me!
Without me you celebrate joy, without me you are sad.
This time has flown by... not to return it to us,
Like joy, and grief, we shared in half!
How many times you muffled my sad ringing with waves,
As more than once you danced to my roar, my exuberant Volkhov.
I remember how you made noise under the boats of Yaroslav,
Like a farewell prayer, I buzzed your waves.
I remember how Bogolyubsky ran from our walls,
How we thundered with you: "Death to you, Suzdalians, or captivity!"
I remember: you saw off Alexander to Izhora;
I met the winner with my laudatory ringing.
I thundered, it used to be sonorous, - well done gathered,
And foreign merchants trembled for goods,
The Germans in Riga turned pale, and, hearing me,
Lithuanian drove a wild swift horse.
And I am a city, and I am free with a sonorous voice
Now to the Germans, then to the Swedes, then to Chud, then to Lithuania!
Yes, the holy time has passed: the time of troubles has come!
If I could, I would melt into rivers of copper tears, no!
I'm not you, my violent Volkhov! I don't cry, I sing!
Will anyone exchange tears for a song - for mine?
Listen... today, my old friend, I'll swim on you,
Tsar Ivan is taking me to hostile Moscow.
Gather all the waves, all the boulders, all the jets -
Smash into fragments, into chips you are Moscow boats,
And hide me at the bottom of your sandy blue waters
And call me more often with a silvery wave:
Maybe from the deep waters you suddenly heard my voice,
And for liberty and for the veche, our native city will rise.
Over the river, over the foamy Volkhov,

On the wide Vadimova Square,

The bell hums mournfully;

Volkhov splashes and beats and foams

O sharp-chested boats of the Muscovites,

And on pure azure, in the skies,

Heads of the temples of saints, white stone

Glowing with golden tears.

On the wide Vadimova Square,
The bell hums mournfully.
Why does he convene Novgorod?
Are the posadniks being changed again?
Doesn't Chud the recalcitrant worry?
Did the Swedes break in or the knights?
Isn't it time to call the hunters
Take by force or will from Ugoria
Are silver and furs precious?
Did the Hanseatic goods come,
Ali again high-ranking ambassadors
From the Grand Duke of Moscow
Have you come for a rich tribute?
Not! The bell hums sadly...
Sings a feast for freedom sad,
Sings a farewell song with the fatherland...

"Forgive me, dear Novgorod!
Do not call you to the veche to me,
Do not buzz me still:
Who is on God? Who is in Novgorod?
Forgive me, temples of God,
My oak towers!
I sing for you for the last time
I'm giving you a farewell bell.
Come on, you terrible storm,
Tear out my cast-iron tongue,
You break the edges of my copper,
So as not to sing in Moscow, far from me,
Is it about my bitter grief,
Is it about my tearful fate,
So as not to amuse with a sad song
I have Tsar Ivan in the tower.

Forgive me, my named brother, my exuberant Volkhov, forgive me!
Without me you celebrate joy, without me you are sad.
This time has flown by... not to return it to us,
Like joy, and grief, we shared in half!
How many times you muffled my sad ringing with waves,
As more than once you danced to my roar, my exuberant Volkhov.
I remember how you made noise under the boats of Yaroslav,
Like a farewell prayer, I buzzed your waves.
I remember how Bogolyubsky ran from our walls,
How we thundered with you: "Death to you, Suzdalians, or captivity!"
I remember: you saw off Alexander to Izhora;
I met the winner with my laudatory ringing.
I thundered, it used to be sonorous, - well done gathered,
And foreign merchants trembled for goods,
The Germans in Riga turned pale, and, hearing me,
Lithuanian drove a wild swift horse.
And I am a city, and I am free with a sonorous voice
Now to the Germans, then to the Swedes, then to Chud, then to Lithuania!
Yes, the holy time has passed: the time of troubles has come!
If I could, I would melt into rivers of copper tears, no!
I'm not you, my violent Volkhov! I don't cry, I sing!
Will anyone exchange tears for a song - for mine?
Listen... today, my old friend, I'll swim on you,
Tsar Ivan is taking me to hostile Moscow.
Gather all the waves, all the boulders, all the jets -
Smash into fragments, into chips you are Moscow boats,
And hide me at the bottom of your sandy blue waters
And call me more often with a silvery wave:
Maybe from the deep waters you suddenly heard my voice,
And for liberty and for the veche, our native city will rise.

Over the river, over the foamy Volkhov,
On the wide Vadimova Square,
The bell hums mournfully;
Volkhov splashes and beats and foams
O sharp-chested boats of the Muscovites,
And on pure azure, in the skies,
Heads of the temples of saints, white stone
Glowing with golden tears.

Ivan III« collector of Russian lands» , the first of the Moscow rulers began to call himself« sovereign of all Russia» , and he had good reason for this: a year after accession to the throne, he bought the possessions of the Yaroslavl princes, then made a campaign against Novgorod and Pskov, as a result of which the Moscow principality seized part of the Novgorod lands, then undertook a second campaign against Novgorod, and the local« freemen» recognized the power of Moscow; in 1485, Tver was annexed, four years later - Vyatka, and a year later - part of the principality of Smolensk.

The Power Book tells about the results of the second campaign against Novgorod.

The wise pious zealot, the praiseworthy adversary winner and gatherer of the primordial fatherland granted to him by God, Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of Vladimir and Novogradsky and autocrat of all Russia returned to Moscow with a great victory, so did all his brethren, and princes and boyars, and all governors, and all their army with much self-interest ... The Grand Duke came to his glorious city of Moscow, having defeated his adversaries, executed those who resisted him and did not want to obey him, the hard-nosed apostates of the Novogradskys, he brought them all to his will with the help of God, and received much wealth, and acquired great fame... When the Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of All Russia the Great Novograd completely brought his will to his full, then... the honest relics of the great wonderworker Peter the Metropolitan were transferred... When they were transferred, his white dove was visible above the coffin , soaring high, after covering the relics of the saint and so invisible became ... And the Church of the Annunciation of the Prechi was set up and consecrated stand the Virgin in the courtyard of the Grand Duke.<...>

In confirmation« humility» Novgorod, Ivan Vasilievich deprived the city of its symbol - the veche bell, which was transported to Moscow.

And ordered (Grand Duke. - Red.) lower the eternal bell and ruin the veche ... Neither the posadniks, nor the thousands, nor the veche will be in Novgorod, and the veche bell was removed from the valley and taken to Moscow ... And it was brought (the bell) to Moscow, and raised it to the bell tower in the square, with other bells to ring.<...>

With the transportation of this bell, which went quite well, there is a legend about the origin of the Valdai arch bells. As if« captive bell» he never made it to Moscow: on the slope of the Valdai Hills, the sleigh on which he was being carried rolled down, the bell fell off and shattered. However, a miracle happened - small fragments began to turn into bells, which the locals picked up and began to cast their own in their likeness. Another version of the legend mentions specific names - the Valdai blacksmith Thomas and the wanderer John. Veche bell, having fallen from the mountain, broke into small pieces. Foma, having collected a handful of fragments, cast a ringing bell out of them. The wanderer John begged this bell from the blacksmith, put it on his neck and, sitting on his staff, flew around all of Russia, spreading the news about the freemen of Novgorod and glorifying the Valdai masters.

Poet K. A. Sluchevsky retold the legend in verse:

Yes, there were executions of the people ...

Already six weeks burning ends!

Back to Moscow on your trip

The royal archers gathered.

Make people laugh

Ivan sent a bishop

So that, sitting on a white filly,

He beat tambourines and amused.

And the Novgorodians, without saying a word,

They looked at the pale crowd,

Like a brass bell from their evening

By the will of the king removed down!

The prickly forest shines with spears,

The royal wagon is being driven;

Behind her a melodious bell

The bending ones are carried on poles.

Hills and swamps! Wilderness forest!

And that blurred ... How can I be here?

And the king, having reached Valdai,

The order was given: to break the bell.

They broke the bell, they broke it!

Valdai raked copper rubbish

And the bells were cast

And they're still pouring...

And an old prophetic story,

In the silence of the steppes, in the wilderness of the forest,

That bell, languishing,

Buzzing and beating under the arc.

In fact, later the Novgorod veche bell was placed on the belfry of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, and in 1673, as the legend says, it was poured into« flashy» , otherwise« alarm» a bell that was rung to warn of a fire. Eight years later, this bell was exiled to the Nikolo-Karelsky Monastery - because its ringing in the night scared Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich.

Veche Novgorod bell

There are many legends about the fate of the veche bell. In his fate, in addition to the obviously fictional, fantasy or strongly rethought over the centuries, there is a lot of real, historically justified. In 1478, wanting to deprive Novgorod of its independence and seeking to annex its vast possessions to Moscow, Ivan III approached the Lord Veliky Novgorod with an army and laid siege to it. At the same time, the Moscow prince raised the question of the veche system with all severity: “I’ll keep the bell ... don’t be, the posadnik won’t be, but keep the state for us” ... And if the “black people” stood up for the veche system, then the boyars tried to come as “complaintants” to the king. As N.M. Karamzin wrote: “The boyars did not stand for either the veche bell or the posadnik, but they stood for their estates.”

The events of this time in the annals are described literally by the day.

On December 14, as the Sophia Second Chronicle reports, “Novgorod ambassadors taught to beat with their foreheads, and the bell was put aside so that the sovereign would lay down his heart and give up dislike, and would not teach a conclusion, and would not stumble into their estates in the lands and waters and in their stomachs them".

The chronicler also indicates the price that the Novgorod boyars demanded for the refusal of the veche bell - the inviolability of the estates, the refusal to "withdraw" from the Novgorod land, and the release from the border service.

On January 10, 1478, accepting this “salary,” Ivan III demanded that the Novgorodians liberate Yaroslav's Court, where the veche and veche institutions were located.

On January 18, the leaders were browing about serving the Moscow sovereign, and a document confirming this is no longer adopted at the veche, but at the council of the lords, at the Vladychny Court. The chronicler remarks: "On that day, there would be no eternity in Novgorod."

“On March 5, the great prince came to Moscow ... And after himself the prince commanded great from Novgorod and bring their eternal bell to Moscow, and he was quickly brought and lifted it to the bell tower in the square with other bells to ring.”

But with such a decision of the fate of the most free bell of Russia, popular rumor did not want to agree. And a legend was born (or rather, a lot of legends) that the Novgorod eternal, sent to Moscow, did not appear there, contrary to the sovereign will - crashed on the slopes of Valdai and gave life to the famous Valdai bells, which from the moment of their miraculous birth are destined to wander forever along the long Russian roads, to sing about freedom, now, disturbing the souls of people, now, consoling, and wait until the time comes for them to return to Novgorod (and they will return only when freedom does not come to Russia), in order to merge again, into a veche bell. Then a free ringing will float over Russia, and all our troubles and troubles will end.

What is the legendary veche bell?

The miniature from the Illuminated Chronicle shows a veche bell tied with ropes (like a prisoner), loaded on a sleigh and prepared for shipment to Moscow. And above - a panorama of Novgorod with St. Sophia Cathedral and St. Sophia Belfry, the bells of which are overshadowed by the head with a cross. Nearby is a belfry with a single bell - the veche Sofiysky, above which there is no cross, since it was civil, secular, and not church. The miniature depicts two veche bells. And there is nothing strange in this, because in Novgorod there were two vechas: on Yaroslav's court and on the Sofia side.

On another image from the Ancient Chronicler of the Illuminated Chronicle, one can see the simultaneous convening of two veche meetings, at each of which its own veche bell sounds. For all the conventions of the picture, the peculiarity of ringing in a swinging, chape bell is still visible. Both Veche Novgorod bells were swinging.

In principle, little outwardly distinguished these two bells. True, the court bell was, apparently, the earlier and most popular - chronicles about it are found constantly from the 12th to the 15th centuries. and much more often than about Sofia.

Researchers of the 19th century called the veche bell “the Korsun bell”, thus emphasizing not only that it was cast by a European master, but also that the ringing techniques were the same as in Europe. And the very tradition of using civil bells along with church bells is European. Gradually, it weakened in Russia in connection with the destruction of the system of veche government, the strengthening of a single centralized state power and the special role of the Orthodox Church in it, but most importantly, in connection with the development of its own peculiar view of the nature of the bell.