Veche ( rus, вече, véče, ˈvʲet͡ɕe; pl, wiec; uk, ві́че, víče, ; be, ве́ча, viéča, ; cu,
вѣще, věšte) was a
popular assembly
A popular assembly (or people's assembly) is a gathering called to address issues of importance to participants. Assemblies tend to be freely open to participation and operate by direct democracy. Some assemblies are of people from a location ...
in
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...
Slavic countries.
In
Novgorod
Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the ol ...
and in
Pskov
Pskov ( rus, Псков, a=pskov-ru.ogg, p=pskof; see also names in other languages) is a city in northwestern Russia and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, located about east of the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population ...
, where the veche acquired great prominence, the veche was broadly similar to the
Norse ''thing'' or the
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
Landsgemeinde
The ''Landsgemeinde'' ("cantonal assembly"; , plural ''Landsgemeinden'') is a public, non-secret ballot voting system operating by majority rule, which constitutes one of the oldest forms of direct democracy. Still at use – in a few places ...
.
Etymology
The word is inherited from
Proto-Slavonic
Proto-Slavic (abbreviated PSl., PS.; also called Common Slavic or Common Slavonic) is the unattested, reconstructed proto-language of all Slavic languages. It represents Slavic speech approximately from the 2nd millennium B.C. through the 6th ...
*''větje '', meaning 'council', 'counsel' or 'talk' (which is also represented in the word "
soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
", both ultimately deriving from Proto-Slavic verbal stem of *větiti 'to talk, speak'). There is a relation to "-vice" in "advice", and somewhat more distantly to Sanskrit "Veda", Germanic words like "wise" (English), "weten" (Dutch, "to know"), "witch" (Slavonic: ''věšt-ica'') and many others, which however come from a different Indo-European root. Likewise, there exists misinformation claiming that the
semantic
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...
derivation
Derivation may refer to:
Language
* Morphological derivation, a word-formation process
* Parse tree or concrete syntax tree, representing a string's syntax in formal grammars
Law
* Derivative work, in copyright law
* Derivation proceeding, a proc ...
that yields the meaning of the word under consideration is parallel to that of ''
congregation
A congregation is a large gathering of people, often for the purpose of worship.
Congregation may also refer to:
*Church (congregation), a Christian organization meeting in a particular place for worship
*Congregation (Roman Curia), an administra ...
''. The contemporary words ''svedeniya'' (russian: сведения) and ''svidchennya'' ( uk, свідчення) both meaning "information" are cognates of this word.
Early Slavs
Procopius of Caesarea
Procopius of Caesarea ( grc-gre, Προκόπιος ὁ Καισαρεύς ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; la, Procopius Caesariensis; – after 565) was a prominent late antique Greek scholar from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman gener ...
mentioned Slavic people gathering in popular assemblies already in the 6th century:
''But when the report was carried about and reached the entire nation, practically all the Antae assembled to discuss the situation, and they demanded that the matter be made a public one(...). For these nations, the Sclaveni and the Antae, are not ruled by one man, but they have lived from of old under a democracy, and consequently everything which involves their welfare, whether for good or ill, is referred to the people.''
Rus'
The
East Slavic veche is thought to have originated in tribal assemblies of
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...
, thus predating the
Rus' state.
The earliest mentions of ''veche'' in East European chronicles refer to examples in
Belgorod
Belgorod ( rus, Белгород, p=ˈbʲeɫɡərət) is a city and the administrative center of Belgorod Oblast, Russia, located on the Seversky Donets River north of the border with Ukraine. Population: Demographics
The population of Be ...
(now Bilhorod-Kyivskyi) in 997,
Novgorod
Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the ol ...
in 1016, in
Kiev
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
in 1068, in
Pskov
Pskov ( rus, Псков, a=pskov-ru.ogg, p=pskof; see also names in other languages) is a city in northwestern Russia and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, located about east of the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population ...
in 1123. The assemblies discussed matters of war and peace, adopted laws, and called for and expelled rulers. In Kiev, the veche was summoned in front of the
Cathedral of St Sophia.
In Ukraine, the town ''viche'' was simply a gathering of community members to inform everybody of important events (''vich-na-vich'' - eye-to-eye) and come up with a collective planning for the near future.
Novgorod Republic
![Kolokol_uvoz](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Kolokol_uvoz.jpg)
The veche was the highest
legislative
A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government.
Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known as p ...
and
judicial authority in the
Novgorod Republic
The Novgorod Republic was a medieval state that existed from the 12th to 15th centuries, stretching from the Gulf of Finland in the west to the northern Ural Mountains in the east, including the city of Novgorod and the Lake Ladoga regions of m ...
until 1478, after the conquest of Novgorod by Grand Prince
Ivan III
Ivan III Vasilyevich (russian: Иван III Васильевич; 22 January 1440 – 27 October 1505), also known as Ivan the Great, was a Grand Prince of Moscow and Grand Prince of all Rus'. Ivan served as the co-ruler and regent for his blin ...
.
The traditional scholarship goes on to argue that a series of reforms in 1410 transformed the veche into something similar to
the public assembly of
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...
; it became the
Commons
The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons ...
or lower chamber of the parliament. An upper
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
-like
Council of Lords
The Lithuanian Council of Lords ( be, Паны-Рада, lt, Ponų taryba) was the main permanent institution of central government in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania active in its capital city of Vilnius.
It had originated from the advisory Council ...
(''sovet gospod'') was also created, with title membership for all former city magistrates (''
posadnik
Posadnik (Cyrillic: посадник, (literally: по-садник - ''pre-sident'') was the mayor in some East Slavic cities or towns. Most notably, the posadnik (equivalent to a stadtholder, burgomeister, or podestà in the medieval west) was ...
s'' and ''
tysyatsky
A tysyatsky ( rus, тысяцкий, p=ˈtɨsʲɪt͡skʲɪj, " thousandman"), sometimes translated ''dux'' or ''herzog'', was a military leader in ancient Rus' who commanded a people's volunteer army called a ''thousand'' ( rus, тысяча, tysy ...
s''). Some sources indicate that veche membership may have become full-time, and parliament deputies were now called ''vechniks''. Some of the more recent scholars call this interpretation into question.
The Novgorod assembly could be presumably summoned by anyone who rang the veche
bell
A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inter ...
, although it is more likely that the common procedure was more complex. The whole population of the city—boyars, merchants, and common citizens—then gathered at
Yaroslav's Court
Yaroslav's Court (russian: Ярославово Дворище, ''Yaroslavovo Dvorishche'') was the princely compound in the city of Novgorod the Great. Today it is roughly the area around the Trade Mart, the St. Nicholas Cathedral, the Church of ...
or in front of the
Cathedral of Holy Wisdom (the latter called a ''Vladychnoe veche'' – "An Archbishop's Veche," since it was called in front of the cathedral). The veche bell was a symbol of republican sovereignty and independence and for this reason, Ivan III carted it off to
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
when he took control of the city, to show that the old way of doing things was at an end.
Separate assemblies could be held in the
kontsy
Кontsy ( rus, концы, p=kɐnˈtsɨ, plural of конец, "ends") were the five boroughs into which medieval Veliky Novgorod was divided. They were based on the three original settlements that combined to form the city toward the end of the ...
(boroughs or "ends") of Novgorod.
Of all other towns of
Novgorod Land
Novgorodian Land (russian: Новгородская земля) was one of the largest historical territorial–state formations in Russia, covering its Northwest Russia, northwest and Russian North, north. Novgorod Land, centered in Veliky Novgo ...
, the chronicles only mention a veche in
Torzhok
Torzhok (russian: Торжо́к) is a town in Tver Oblast, Russia, located on the Tvertsa River along the federal highway M10 and a branch of the Oktyabrskaya Railway division of the Russian Railways. The town is famous for its folk craft of g ...
, however possibly they existed in all other towns as well.
Pskov Republic
The veche of
Pskov Republic
Pskov ( la, Plescoviae), known at various times as the Principality of Pskov (russian: Псковское княжество, ) or the Pskov Republic (russian: Псковская Республика, ), was a medieval state on the south shore of ...
had legislative powers, it could appoint military commanders and hear ambassadors' reports. It also approved expenses such as grants to princes and payments to builders of walls, towers and bridges. Veche gathered in the court of the
Trinity Cathedral, which held the archives of the veche and important private papers and state documents. The veche assembly included ''posadniks'' (mayors), "middle" and common people. The historians differ on the extent to which the veche was dominated by the elites, with some saying that the real power was in the hands of boyars and others considering veche a democratic institution. Conflicts were common and the confrontation between the veche and the posadniks in 1483-1484 led to the execution of one posadnik and to the confiscation of the property of three other posadniks who fled to Moscow.
The veche functioned until 1510, when that city was taken over by Grand Prince
Vasili III
Vasili III Ivanovich (russian: Василий III Иванович, 25 March 14793 December 1533) was the Grand Prince of Moscow from 1505 to 1533. He was the son of Ivan III Vasiliyevich and Sophia Paleologue and was christened with the name ...
(1505–1533).
Poland
Veches, known in Poland as wiece, were convened even before the beginning of the Polish statehood in the
Kingdom of Poland
The Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Królestwo Polskie; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a state in Central Europe. It may refer to:
Historical political entities
*Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom existing from 1025 to 1031
*Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom exist ...
.
Issues were first debated by the elders and leaders, and later presented to all the free men for a wider discussion.
One of the major types of wiec was the one convened to choose a new ruler.
There are legends of a 9th-century
election
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...
of the legendary founder of the
Piast dynasty
The House of Piast was the first historical ruling dynasty of Poland. The first documented Polish monarch was Duke Mieszko I (c. 930–992). The Piasts' royal rule in Poland ended in 1370 with the death of king Casimir III the Great.
Branch ...
,
Piast the Wheelwright
Piast the Wheelwright ( 740/741? – 861 AD; Latin: ''Past Ckosisconis'', ''Pazt filius Chosisconisu''; Polish: ''Piast Chościskowic'', ''Piast Kołodziej'' , ''Piast Oracz'' or ''Piast'') was a semi-legendary figure in medieval Poland (9th cent ...
, and a similar election of his son,
Siemowit
Siemowit (Polish pronunciation: ɛˈmɔvit also Ziemowit ɛˈmɔvit was, according to the chronicles of Gallus Anonymus, the son of Piast the Wheelwright and Rzepicha. He is considered to be the first ruler of the Piast dynasty.K. Jasiński, Ro ...
, but sources for that time come from the later centuries and their validity is disputed by scholars.
The election privilege was usually limited to the elites,
which in the later times took the form of the most powerful nobles (
magnates
The magnate term, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders, or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...
,
prince
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...
s) or officials, and was heavily influenced by local traditions and strength of the ruler.
By the 12th or 13th century, the ''wiec'' institution likewise limited its participation to high ranking nobles and officials.
The nationwide gatherings of ''wiec'' officials in 1306 and 1310 can be seen as precursors of the Polish parliament (the
General Sejm
A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED O ...
).
See also
*
Zemsky Sobor
The Zemsky Sobor ( rus, зе́мский собо́р, p=ˈzʲemskʲɪj sɐˈbor, t=assembly of the land) was a parliament of the Tsardom of Russia's estates of the realm active during the 16th and 17th centuries.
The assembly represented Russi ...
(Russian parliament from the
early modern period)
*
Duma
A duma (russian: дума) is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions.
The term ''boyar duma'' is used to refer to advisory councils in Russia from the 10th to 17th centuries. Starting in the 18th century, city dumas were for ...
*
Ting
Ting may refer to:
Politics and government
* Thing (assembly) or ting, a historical Scandinavian governing assembly
* Ting (administrative unit) (亭), an administrative unit in China during the Qin and Han Dynasties
* Ting (廳,厅), an administr ...
in Scandinavia,
Sejm
The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland.
The Sejm has been the highest governing body of t ...
in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
,
Seimas
The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas), or simply the Seimas (), is the unicameral parliament of Lithuania. The Seimas constitutes the legislative branch of government in Lithuania, enacting laws and amendmen ...
in
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
,
Saeima
The Saeima () is the parliament of the Latvia, Republic of Latvia. It is a unicameral parliament consisting of 100 members who are elected by proportional representation, with seats allocated to political parties which gain at least 5% of the po ...
in
Latvia
Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
*
Rada
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Senat ...
(later kind of popular assembly, then the parliament of
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
)
Notes
# See the
Slavic etymology
Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...
of the word and the corresponding references in the following entries of the
Max Vasmer
Max Julius Friedrich Vasmer (; russian: Максимилиан Романович Фа́смер, translit=Maksimilian Romanovič Fásmer; 28 February 1886 – 30 November 1962) was a Russo-German linguist. He studied problems of etymology in In ...
's Etymological dictionary:
#* of the particular word
вече/veche' ,
#* of the basic root
вѣт-' ,
:and the possible further
Indo-European
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch ...
etymology of this root in the entry
:*
*wAit- (-th-)',
:all of them presented online in the etymological databases o
References
Further reading
* Michael C. Paul, "The Iaroslavichi and the Novgorodian Veche: A Case Study on Princely Relations with the Veche," ''Russian History'' (2004).
{{authority control
Historical legislatures
Popular assemblies
Novgorod Republic
Slavic culture
Society of Kievan Rus'
History of Poland during the Piast dynasty
History of Ruthenia