This treaty was a significant setback for Novgorod, which would culminate, almost quarter of a century later, in the city being brought under the direct control of the Muscovite Grand Prince in 1478.
In 1456, the Novgorodians sustained a crushing defeat at the hands of the Muscovite forces at the end of a long succession struggle in which Grand Prince Vasily II triumphed over his cousin, Prince Dmitry Shemyaka; Shemyaka himself had been poisoned in Novgorod in 1453 probably at the hands of grand princely agents, although some scholars suggest that Archbishop Evfimy II (1429–1458) had him poisoned as a liability to Novgorodian interests.
Following the defeat, the citizens of Novgorod convened a veche and, according to the sources, turned to Archbishop Evfimy II with a request that he travel to the grand prince’s headquarters in Yazhelbitsy and ask what his peace terms were.
According to the end of the Dubrovskii Redaction of the Novgorodian Fourth Chronicle, the archbishop headed the delegation himself,[1] and he blesses the treaty in the preamble of the Novgorodian version; however, he is not mentioned among the delegates in the Muscovite version of the treaty, so it is not clear if he himself took part in the negotiations or merely blessed the undertaking.
Vasili II (and later his successor Ivan III), in turn violated the articles of the treaty regarding territorial integrity of the republic, adjudicating cases in favor of Muscovite boyars who were seizing Novgorodian estates.