>>Anyway, Moscow was an insignificant outpost during Mongol invasion and Grand Duchy of Moscow is what eventually became Tsardom of Russia, not Novgorod. >It i

>>Anyway, Moscow was an insignificant outpost during Mongol invasion and Grand Duchy of Moscow is what eventually became Tsardom of Russia, not Novgorod. >It is the first time i see somebody excludes Novgorod from Russian history. Surprised to say the least it took me a bit of pondering... Excluding Novgorod from Russian history the way you did is just like excluding Massachusetts from the history of US on the basis that Washington, DC was just a swamp at the time.