Veche

Veche (véče; wiec; víče, ˈʋit͡ʃe; viéča, ˈvjɛt͡ʂa; věšte) was a popular assembly in medieval Slavic countries. In Novgorod and in Pskov, where the veche acquired great prominence, the veche was broadly similar to the Norse thing or the Swiss Landsgemeinde. The word is inherited from Proto-Slavonic *větje , meaning 'council', 'counsel' or 'talk' (which is also represented in the word "soviet", both ultimately deriving from Proto-Slavic verbal stem of *větiti 'to talk, speak'). There is a relation to "-vice" in "advice", and somewhat more distantly to Sanskrit "Veda", Germanic words like "wise" (English), "weten" (Dutch, "to know"), "witch" (Slavonic: věšt-ica) and many others, which however come from a different Indo-European root. Likewise, there exists misinformation claiming that the semantic derivation that yields the meaning of the word under consideration is parallel to that of congregation. The contemporary words svedeniya (сведения) and svidchennya (свідчення) both meaning "information" are cognates of this word. Procopius of Caesarea mentioned Slavic people gathering in popular assemblies already in the 6th century: But when the report was carried about and reached the entire nation, practically all the Antae assembled to discuss the situation, and they demanded that the matter be made a public one(...). For these nations, the Sclaveni and the Antae, are not ruled by one man, but they have lived from of old under a democracy, and consequently everything which involves their welfare, whether for good or ill, is referred to the people. The East Slavic veche is thought to have originated in tribal assemblies of Eastern Europe, thus predating the Rus' state. The earliest mentions of veche in East European chronicles refer to examples in Belgorod (now Bilhorod-Kyivskyi) in 997, Novgorod in 1016, in Kiev in 1068, in Pskov in 1123. The assemblies discussed matters of war and peace, adopted laws, and called for and expelled rulers. In Kiev, the veche was summoned in front of the Cathedral of St Sophia.