veliky novgorod (russian: вели́кий но́вгород) is a city in the european part of russia. it is the administrative center of novgorod oblast. it is about from st. petersburg. in 2007 about 217,000 people lived there. "novgorod" is the russian word for "new city" and "veliky" means "the great". the city is actually one of the most historic in russia. its past can be traced to the 9th century. yaroslav the wise ruled there in the 11th century. it was the only russian province that was "not" captured by the golden horde.