What was a Veche Republic

[daibido1123]

Hi all, so I have another historical question that despite my research, seems to be an ill defined topic.
Namely what was a Veche Republic? What was the structure of government of such a system, who had what powers in such a system, what was the organization of such a systems up build and delineation of authority.

Most information I could find is sadly just a repeat of what I find on wikipedia, which said it was a Mixed system Merchant republic, which honestly tells me as much about what it was as a dowsing rod tells me where water is. That or papers written based on a marxist perspective from the former Soviet Union or people copying from such papers.

So I have come here where in the past my question on what was the structure of The is the structure of The Dutch Republic, and what was a historical example of a real world Bureaucratic Despotism, were able to tap the wellspring of collective knowledge of the people here.

Thanks all for your time.

 

[D Inqu]

Veche is a bit a "generalising" term. The structure of the Novgorod government changed a lot over the times. The namesake, Veche, means "assembly" and the closest equivalent would the the "Thing" in the Norse realms. Basically in its original form it was supposed a gathering of every willing citizen to agree on the leaders of the city, laws, war, once in a few years:

The Starostas: local representatives: the city was divided into 5 districts, which were in turn divided into "streets"
Posadnik: the administrative leader of the elected council
The Knyaz: unlike the rest of the Russian princedoms, primarily a military leader on a fixed term


By late stages of the republic, the wealthy families became so influential, that the role of the Veche became to merely formalise decisions made in advance and the struggles were between the leding families. "Gifts" to loyal followers and hired to deal with opponents.