Shelon, Battle of the 1471

Shelon’, Battle of the (1471) 

the decisive battle on the Shelon’ River in the war between Moscow and Novgorod in 1471; the war had been provoked by the anti-Moscow policies of the boyar government of Novgorod and its violation of the conditions of the Iazhelbidy Treaty of 1456.

The battle took place on the morning of July 14 on the left bank of the Shelon’ River (between the mouth of the Shelon’ and the city of Sol’tsy, possibly near the village of Skirino) after an unexpected encounter between the Moscow troops led by Prince D. D. Kholmskii and the Novgorod army. Prince Kholmskii had about 5,000 men, and the Novgorodians had 20,000–40,000. The poorly organized Novgorodians were unable to withstand the forces of the Grand Principality of Moscow. The battle lasted about two hours and ended in victory for Kholmskii’s forces. More than 12,000 Novgorodians were killed and about 2,000 captured during the battle and subsequent pursuit. The outcome of the battle of the Shelon’ made it inevitable that the Novgorod Feudal Republic would lose its political independence.

REFERENCES

Cherepnin, L. V. Obrazovanie russkogo tsentralizovannogo gosudarstva XIV–XV vv. Moscow, 1960.
Bernadskii, V. N. Novgorod i Novgorodskaia zemlia v XV v. Moscow-Leningrad, 1961.