Marfa Boretskaya

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Martha the Mayoress at the Destruction of the Novgorod Veche, by Klavdiy Lebedev

Martha the Mayoress Escorted to Moscow, by Aleksey Kivshenko.

Marfa Boretskaya, also known as Martha the Mayoress (Russian: Марфа Посадница), was the wife of Isak Boretsky, Novgorod's posadnik. She led the republic's struggle against Muscovy between her husband's death and the city's eventual annexation by Ivan III of Russia.

In 1471 Marfa and her son, as the last representatives of the anti-Muscovite Boretsky family, attempted to negotiate with Casimir IV the terms of the city's surrender to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, provided that the city's ancient privileges and rights will be retained. On hearing about Marfa's manoeuvres, Ivan III advanced against Novgorod and defeated the Novgorodian volunteer army in the Battle of Shelon. In the wake of this disaster, Marfa's son was beheaded.

Although she continued to rely on Lithuania's support and intrigue against Moscow, Ivan III finally subjugated Novgorod seven years later. Marfa and her grandsons were then taken into custody and escorted to Moscow. After her lands were confiscated, Marfa was forced to take the veil in Nizhny Novgorod. The circumstances of her death are unknown, as is the date.

Marfa's tragic career and struggle for the republican government won her a good deal of sympathy and attention from Russian writers and historians, especially those with a romantic streak. She was fictionalized in Nikolai Karamzin's short novel Martha the Mayoress, or the Fall of Novgorod and fascinated Pushkin who dedicated his 1830 essay to her career. Marfa's statue is part of the Millennium of Russia Monument in Novgorod.