However, these invitations or dismissals were often based on who was the dominant prince in Rus' at the time, and not on any independent thinking on the part of Novgorod. In 1136, the Novgorodians dismissed Prince Vsevolod Mstislavich and over the next century and a half were able to invite in and dismiss a number of princes. The Novgorod boyars began to dominate the offices of posadnik and tysyatsky, which until about the mid-12th century had been appointed by the grand prince in Kiev. Novgorod Princes were appointed by the Grand Prince of Kiev (usually one of the elder sons). In 882, Prince Oleg founded the Kievan Rus', of which Novgorod was a part from then until 1019–1020. These cultural and ethnic Scandinavian imprint shaped later the society of Muscovite Rus' and whole Russia. Novgorodian Rus' and its inhabitants were much influenced by the Viking culture and people. The Novgorod First Chronicle, a collection of writings depicting the history of Novgorod from 1016 to 1471, states that these tribes wanted to 'Seek a prince who may rule over us and judge us according to law.' By transforming its governing institutions, Novgorod rejected its politically dependent relationship to Kiev.

However, these tribes came together during the beginning of the 9th century to try and form a negotiated settlement to end military aggression between each other. Novgorod was populated by various Slavic, Finnic and Baltic tribes that were constantly at war with one another for supremacy. There is a theory that in fact it was not Novgorod as misinterpreted by later chroniclers (as stated by dendrochronology, Novgorod was founded only in the middle of the 10th century), but Nevo Gardas – Viking settlements on Lake Ladoga, as in one of Nestor's chronicles from the 12th century he mentions a lake called 'the Great Nevo', a clear link to the Neva River and, possibly furthermore, to Finnish nevo 'sea' or neva 'bog, quagmire'. In the middle of the 9th century Nevogardas was a name used to describe Viking staging posts on the trade route from the Baltic Sea to the Byzantine Empire.

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