History: Science or Fiction? Lord Novgorod the Great, who are you? Film 6 of 24

Chronicle Veliky Novgorod (Great Newtown) has always occupied a special place among other ancient Russian cities. Throughout Russian history until the beginning of the 17th century, it competed on equal terms first with Kyiv, and then with Moscow for the right to be called the capital of Russia. We know all this from school textbooks. But the excavations that have been going on for many years in modern Veliky Novgorod give reason to assert that Novgorod on the river Volkhov has never really been a major state and commercial center. In addition, the analysis of ancient annals and chronicles, carried out by Russian scientists, showed that many entries in these texts contradict the generally accepted view of the Russian history in general and the history of Veliky Novgorod in particular. What do we know about it? Is the city on the river Volkhov really the famous Novgorod the Great, the splendor and glory of all Russia? And if this is not so, then which of the ancient Russian cities was the very chronicle Veliky Novgorod? Or maybe Veliky Novgorod is something more than just a city?