Yazhelbitsy

Yazhelbitsy lies on the road through the Valdai Hills between Novgorod and Moscow. The village gave its name to a treaty that marked a major step in Moscow’s advance against Novgorod’s independence. Its position on the route between the two powers made it a meeting place as well as a passage for armies.

In 1456 Grand Prince Vasily II’s forces defeated the Novgorodians near Rusa. The peace concluded at Yazhelbitsy required Novgorod to pay an indemnity and make territorial and political concessions, including a promise not to shelter the grand prince’s enemies. The republic survived, but its room for independent action narrowed in the years that followed. In 1654 Yazhelbitsy was among the estates granted to Patriarch Nikon’s newly founded Iversky monastery on Lake Valday.