Lord Novgorod the Great elected princes until Moscow said stop
From the twelfth to fifteenth centuries, the Novgorod Republic—formally Lord Novgorod the Great—spanned Gulf of Finland to Urals. After deposing their prince in 1136, citizens used the veche to hire and fire princes, pick posadniks, and choose archbishops.
By the thirteenth century princely power was slight; mid-century the Vladimir grand princes, later Moscow's line, held the Novgorodian throne title. Moscow's rise ended autonomy: after the 1471 battle and treaty, independence drained away. The phrase Novgorod Republic is later; sixteenth-century writers already called it a republic.
Primary Chronicle lore of 859 Varangian tribute, expulsion, and recalled rule sits in the origin mythos of the north. The same chronicle has Oleg the Wise seizing Kiev in 882 and ordering Novgorod to send tribute to the Varangian princes there. From the 11th century the city pushed back against dependence on Kiev and built its own institutions, including an elected mayoralty.
Independence grew by steps. Chronicles say Novgorod was paying tribute to Kiev's grand prince by 1113, yet its nobles repeatedly refused princes sent from the south until, in 1136, they revolted and dismissed Vsevolod Mstislavich. They then balanced rivals by alternating invitations between Rostov-Suzdal and Kiev, wary that whoever held the Sheksna River could cut the grain supply and starve the city. By 1156 the veche chose its own bishop, raised to archbishop in 1165, giving the city an almost independent church. Novgorodians were also the first to reach the lands between the Arctic Ocean and Lake Onega. Not every venture worked: a 1228 campaign against the Tavastians in southern Finland collapsed when the troops fell out with Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich.
Source: Novgorod Republic
