Izborsk

Izborsk (Russian: Избо́рск; Estonian: Irboska; Seto: Irbosk, Irbuska) is a rural locality (village) in Pechorsky District of Pskov Oblast, Russia. It contains one of the most ancient and impressive fortresses of Western Russia. The village lies 30 kilometers (19 mi) to the west of Pskov and just to the east of the Russian-Estonian border.

The first fortified settlement was founded around the late 8th century.

According to the Russian Primary Chronicle, the town was the seat of Rurik's brother Truvor from 862 to 864. Russian historian Valentin Yanin (2008) agreed that the "existence of the "Rurik brothers" seems doubtful" based on a linguistic argument, adding: "... In Izborsk, it is customary to display a stone cross, supposedly standing on the grave of Truvor, in complete oblivion of the fact that Truvor, if he lived, then one and a half centuries before the establishment of Christianity in Eastern Europe. The most significant thing is that neither in Izborsk nor in Beloozero have archaeological excavations found any traces of Scandinavian presence in the 9th century." Although Truvor's burial mound is still shown to occasional tourists, archaeological excavations of long barrows abounding in the vicinity did not reveal the presence of the Varangian settlement at the site, which indicates that Izborsk was an important centre of the early Krivichs.

A stone fortress was built in the second half of the 11th century and Izborsk became the main settlement in the western frontier of the Novgorod Republic. In 1233, the fortress was captured by the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, along with their ally Yaroslav of Pskov, who attempted to regain control of the Pskov principality, but they were soon forced to withdraw. In 1240, Izborsk was captured by the Livonian Knights and it was freed two years later. It was burned down by the Livonians in 1269. In 1330, the posadnik of Pskov, Sheloga, constructed a new fortress on higher ground, at the top of Zheravya hill, which allowed it to withstand several sieges.

In 1348, the Pskov Republic, which included Izborsk, separated from the Novgorod Republic. In 1399, it became a viceroyalty of the Grand Principality of Moscow.

In the late 16th century, Izborsk was one of the smaller but strategically-important fortresses that protected the northwestern borders of Russia from invasion. The fortress was supposed to be impregnable and so the seizure of it in 1569 by a small Lithuanian regiment came as such a shock to Ivan the Terrible. The relative ease and the suspicious circumstances of the seizure of the fortress deeply troubled the already-paranoid Ivan. In the dead of night, Teterin, a Russian turncoat disguised as an oprichnik, ordered the gates of the town be opened in the name of the oprichnina, which allowed the enemy regiment to enter and overtake the fortress (the town of Izborsk, however, was never listed as territory in which oprichnina governance applied).

Though Ivan managed to retake the city with little difficulty, the treachery and the conspiracy involved in the original seizure led him to order the executions of the assistant crown secretaries of Izborsk, as well as the secretaries of the surrounding fortresses. With rumours of disaffection and growing discontent throughout the country on the rise, Ivan feared that other cities would soon follow the treasonous example of Izborsk. The proximity of the town to the cities of Novgorod and Pskov, coupled with the questionable implication of Novgorod's chancery administration in Teterin's plot, threw suspicion of treachery and defection onto the already-distrusted city.

During the Siege of Pskov (1581), Izborsk was captured by the Lithuanian troops, but after the Truce of Yam-Zapolsky (1582), it was handed over to Russia.