In 1471, the merchants who dominated the city of Novgorod in northwest Russia were in negotiations to sell their little republic out to the glamorous Kingdom of Poland. The plans were kept under wraps, but when their envoy to Moscow refused to declare the city-state’s loyalty to Moscow, Prince Ivan III guessed that something was up.

Despite gestures of loyalty towards the Church of Moscow, the Novgorod merchants’ intention to defect to Roman Catholic Poland was becoming clearer. Their schemes hung by a thread after Ivan led an army to Novgorod, and were crushed seven years later when, on his return, the citizens took matters in their own hands and chose Moscow.

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