Mr. Great Novgorod. Martha the Mayor

With the story «Mr. Great Novgorod» (1967) began the literary career of philologist-Russianist, folklorist, and historian Dmitry Balashov — the author of the famous cycle of historical novels «Moscow Sovereigns». The first literary experience of the scholar paved the way for a more large-scale work — the novel «Martha the Mayor» (1972), also devoted to the dramatic episodes of the history of the Novgorod Republic.
The first literary works of Dmitry Balashov are characterized by the distinct features of his mature creative style: both the story and the subsequent novel portrayed the life of Novgorod society in those distant centuries with extraordinary conviction and authenticity, depicting both the everyday and spiritual lifestyle. By populating the ancient republic with expressive characters, partly historical and partly fictional, Balashov transformed not only the speech of his heroes but also the author's text into a masterful stylization of the language of ancient Russian literary monuments.
This collection includes both works of the «Novgorod cycle». The story «Mr. Great Novgorod» is dedicated to the heroic era of the Novgorod Republic and tells about the campaign to Livonia in 1268 and the grand victory in the Battle of Rakovor. The action of the novel «Martha the Mayor» takes the reader to the years 1471–1478, into the midst of the conflict between the Novgorod Republic and the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which ended in the demise of the veche system...