Per Wikipedia, the Battle of Shelon was a battle between the forces of the Duchy of Moscow under Ivan III (r. 1462–1505) and the army of the Novgorod Republic, which took place on the Shelon River on 14 July 1471 in which Novgorod suffered a major defeat. Allegedly, the reason for the attack was that Novgorod violated a Treaty that had been signed 15 years ago that limited Novgorod’s ability to conduct its own foreign affairs. By all means, the 1471 attack was a punitive operation with an aim to subdue a prosperous trading city, so why did Moscow decide to use such a wording about “Unity” at that Memorial we see in the picture? For the Novgorodians that was not the battle for “unity” for sure, but rather the battle for survival. The question may be much more important than it appears at first glance. First, it is vital to realize that it was Muscovy that attacked the Novgorodian Republic, and Muscovy of that time was already a replica of the Golden Horde. You can read a Harvard Professor’s insights in the previous article about the topic. Starting approximately the time of Ivan III, Muscovy started looking to appropriate the legacy of Kyiv Rus. How could it be done? Usually, when an impostor wants to steal someone else’s inheritance, he tries to take the place of a rightful heir and that was the trick Muscovy tried to pull. But Ivan III did not quite finish the job and Novgorod managed to revive its indeoendent spirit. That was the reason why almost exactly a century after the Shelon Battle, in 1570, another Muscovite ruler, Ivan IV, would literally obliterate Novgorod – and we have another example of “unity” and “succession” according to Moscow’s perverted logic. That kind of logic is reminiscent of the famous Orwellian ‘War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Ignorance Is Strength’. Slaverish, autocratic Muscovy claiming to be the same as the democratic Novgorodian Republic is the first example of the first Orwellian oxymoron. Waging wars of extinction for ‘peace’ is another. But ignorant people still believing Moscow’s lies even in our days are truly Moscow’s strength. What is important to realize is that speaking in modern-day terms, Novgorod was a Ukrainian city whose foundation history Moscow forged. As the new facts reveal, Novgorod was founded by Kyiv rulers! And Kyiv rulers were the ones who gave Novgorod its freedoms that brought prosperity. (For details, check the “Gardariki, Ukraine” e-book.) By the way, can we see some parallels in the current war Russia wages against Ukraine with the wording on the Shelon Memorial? It is again about a democratic state wishing to be prosperous and independent. And it is again genocide for the ‘Unity”, is it not?
< Ivan IV was not a Tsar :::::::::::::::::::::::: How Moscovy and Novgorod Republic looked at the time >
