Russia and the Baltic 1494–1558

• Published in: Slavic Review
• Main Author: Esper, Thomas
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1966
• Subjects: Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous); Cultural Studies; North Cape; Narva
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2492857; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0037677900152064

Historians have customarily treated two major periods of Russia's commercial relations with Western Europe (defined as Western Christendom) in the pre-Petrine period: (1) until 1494, the year in which Ivan III closed the Hanseatic establishment in Novgorod and which is generally viewed as the end of Hanseatic dominance in the Russian trade; and (2) from 1553, when the English first sailed around the North Cape to establish regular commercial relations with Russia via the northern route, or from 1558, when Ivan IV conquered the Baltic port of Narva (he then maintained direct trade with Western merchants there until he lost that port to the Swedes in 1581).