Novgorod Land was one of the largest historical territorial–state formations in Russia, covering its northwest and north. Novgorod Land, centered in Veliky Novgorod, was the cradle of Old Russian statehood under the rule of the Rurikovich dynasty and one of the most important princely thrones of the era of Kievan Rus'. During the collapse of Kievan Rus' and in subsequent centuries, Novgorod Land developed as an autonomous Russian state with republican forms of government under the suzerainty of the great princes of Vladimir (later – Moscow).[1][2] During the period of greatest development, it reached the North to the White Sea, and in the east it spread beyond the Ural Mountains.