Wetsche
The Wetsche ( Russian вече Veče , Polish wiec ) was an assembly of the population in Ruthenian and Polish cities and an organ of co-determination or self-administration. This institution is mentioned for the first time in a chronicle of 997 for the city of Belgorod , it had its peak in the 12th century when it appeared as a contractual partner of the respective regent in many Russian principalities.
In the Novgorod Republic and in Pskow the Veche experienced its most striking form, these were ruled by a Veche until the end of the 15th century. With the incorporation of the two cities into the Grand Duchy of Moscow in 1478 and 1510, the tradition of the Veche in Russia ended.
Russian historians of the 18th and 19th centuries see the Veche as the successor to the Slavic tribal assemblies and as an alternative to the Russian autocracy . In Polish, the word “wiec” is still used today in the sense of a public rally (e.g. during demonstrations).
literature
- Wetsche . In: Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона - Enziklopeditscheski slowar Brokgausa i Jefrona . tape 7 a [14]: Выговский – Гальбан. Brockhaus-Efron, Saint Petersburg 1892, p. 692–697 (Russian, full text [ Wikisource ] PDF ).
- Jonas Granberg: Veche in the chronicles of medieval Rus: a study of functions and terminology. Department of History Göteborg University, Göteborg 2004 (Diss. Engl.), ISBN 91-88614-49-2 .
- Klaus Zernack: The people's assemblies in the castle town of the East and West Slaves. Studies on the constitutional significance of the Vece. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1967 (= Eastern European Studies at the Universities of the State of Hesse. Series 1 = Giessen Treatises on Agricultural and Economic Research in Eastern Europe . 33). At the same time he did his habilitation thesis at the Philosophical Faculty in Giessen in 1965.