Novgorod Republic in the context of "Miroslav Gospel"

The Orthodox Church in Finland (Finnish: Suomen ortodoksinen kirkko, lit. 'Finnish orthodox church'; Swedish: Ortodoxa kyrkan i Finland, lit. 'Orthodox church in Finland') is an autonomous Eastern Orthodox archdiocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The church has a legal position as a national church in the country, along with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.

With its roots in the medieval Novgorodian missionary work in Karelia, the Orthodox Church of Finland was a part of the Russian Orthodox Church until 1923. Today the church has three dioceses and 54,895 members in Finland, accounting for almost one percent of the native population of Finland. The parish of Helsinki has the most adherents. There are also 2,700 members living abroad.

The Principality or, from 1253, Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, also known as the Kingdom of Ruthenia or Kingdom of Rus', was a medieval state in Eastern Europe which existed from 1199 to 1349. Its territory was predominantly located in modern-day Ukraine, with parts in Belarus, Poland, Romania, Moldova, and Lithuania. Along with Novgorod and Vladimir-Suzdal, it was one of the three most important powers to emerge from the collapse of Kievan Rus'.

Roman the Great united the principalities of Galicia and Volhynia at the turn of the 13th century. Following the destruction wreaked by the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus' (1239–1241), Prince Daniel of Galicia and the other princes of Rus' pledged allegiance to Batu Khan of the Golden Horde in 1246. The Polish conquest of the kingdom in 1349 led to it being fully absorbed by Catholic Poland. Upon annexing it in 1349, Polish king Casimir III the Great adopted the title of King of Poland and Ruthenia, and the territory was transformed into the Ruthenian Voivodeship (Latin: Palatinatus Russiae) in 1434.

Veliky Novgorod (/vəˈliːki ˈnɒvɡərɒd/ və-LEE-kee NOV-gə-rod; Russian: Великий Новгород, IPA: [vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət]; lit. 'Great Newtown'), also known simply as Novgorod (Новгород), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the oldest cities in Russia, being first mentioned in the 9th century. The city lies along the Volkhov River just downstream from its outflow from Lake Ilmen and is situated on the M10 federal highway connecting Moscow and Saint Petersburg. UNESCO recognized Novgorod as a World Heritage Site in 1992. The city has a population of 224,286 (2021 census).

At its peak during the 14th century, the city was the capital of the Novgorod Republic and was one of Europe's largest cities. The "Великий" (Veliky) part was added to the city's name in 1999.

The Pskov Republic (Russian: Псковская республика, romanized: Pskovskaya respublika) was a city-state in northwestern Russia. It is traditionally considered to have won its formal independence from the Novgorod Republic in 1348. Its capital city was Pskov and its territory was roughly equivalent to modern-day Pskov Oblast.

The Kola Peninsula (Russian: Ко́льский полуо́стров, romanized: Kolsky poluostrov; Kildin Sami: Куэлнэгк нёа̄ррк) is a peninsula in the extreme northwest of Russia, and one of the largest peninsulas of Europe. Constituting the bulk of the territory of Murmansk Oblast, it lies almost completely inside the Arctic Circle and is bordered by the Barents Sea to the north and by the White Sea to the east and southeast. The city of Murmansk, the most populous settlement on the peninsula, has a population of roughly 270,000 residents.

While humans had already settled in the north of the peninsula in the 7th–5th millennium BC, the rest of its territory remained uninhabited until the 3rd millennium BC, when various peoples started to arrive from the south. By the 1st millennium CE only the Sami people remained. This changed in the 12th century, when Russian Pomors discovered the peninsula's rich resources of game and fish. Soon after, the Pomors were followed by the tribute collectors from the Novgorod Republic, and the peninsula gradually became a part of the Novgorodian lands. However, the Novgorodians established no permanent settlements until the 15th century, and Russian migration continued in the following centuries.

Karelians (Karelian: karjalaižet, karjalazet, karjalaiset; Finnish: karjalaiset; Swedish: kareler, karelare; Russian: карелы, romanized: karely) are a Baltic Finnic ethnic group who are indigenous to the historical region of Karelia, which is today split between Finland and Russia. Karelians living in Russian Karelia are considered a distinct ethnic group closely related to Finnish Karelians, who are considered a subset of Finns. This distinction historically arose from Karelia having been fought over and eventually split between Sweden and Novgorod, resulting in Karelians being under different cultural spheres.

In Russia, Karelians mostly live in the Republic of Karelia, where they are the designated ethnic group, and in other adjacent north-western parts of the country. They traditionally speak the Karelian language and are Eastern Orthodox Christians. There are also significant Karelian enclaves in the Tver and Novgorod oblasts, as some Karelians migrated to those areas after the Russo-Swedish War of 1656–1658.

Rostislav Mikhailovich (Hungarian: Rosztyiszláv, Bulgarian and Ukrainian: Ростислав Михайлович) (after 1210 / c. 1225 – 1262) was a Rurikid prince and a dignitary in the Kingdom of Hungary.

He was prince of Novgorod (1230), of Halych (1236–1237, 1241–1242), of Lutsk (1240), and of Chernigov (1241–1242). When he could not strengthen his rule in Halych, he went to the court of King Béla IV of Hungary, and married the king's daughter, Anna.

Northwest Russia is the northern part of western Russia. It is bounded by Norway, Finland, the Arctic Ocean, the Ural Mountains and the east-flowing part of the Volga. The area is roughly coterminous with the Northwestern Federal District, which it is administered as part of.

Northwest Russia is the eastern part of Northern Europe and the northern part of Eastern Europe. In the Middle Ages, the core of this area formed the Novgorod and Pskov merchant republics. It includes the ethnocultural regions of the Russian North, Karelia, Ingria, as well as a substantial portion of former East Prussia.

The city of Novgorod was a major trade hub from the beginning of its history as part of Kievan Rus' through the years of the Novgorod Republic in the 12th–15th centuries. Novgorod benefitted from its location at the crossroads of several major trading routes, including the route from Scandinavia to the Byzantine Empire and the Volga route connecting Rus' to the Middle East. Novgorod had trade contact with inhabitants of the Baltic seaboard and was described as a "trade city" by Scandinavian merchants. Trade was eventually dominated by German cities united in the Hanseatic League, which had its easternmost office in Novgorod. Despite the thriving trade, Novgorod had numerous conflicts with the League. Moreover, its powerful commercial position also made it a prized target for Rus' princes of various competing branches, who sought to control Novgorod by attempted conquest, hindering its economy, or manipulating its politics.

The main exports of Novgorod were furs, honey, wax, leather and fish, while silver, cloth, wine, salt and herring were imported. Trade involved Novgorodians of different social status, including professional merchants, landowners, peasants and moneylenders. The center of trade in Novgorod was the Torg (Russian: торг, now archaic term for “marketplace”), located across the Volkhov from the Kremlin. The city's population grew from c. 10,000–15,000 in the early 11th century to c. 25,000 by the early 13th; a large city by that time's standards.