Veche (Russian: вече, Polish: wiec, Ukrainian: віче, Belarusian: веча, Old Church Slavonic: věšte) was a popular assembly in medieval Slavic countries.
In Novgorod, where the veche acquired the greatest prominence, the veche was broadly similar to the Norse thing or the Swiss Landsgemeinde.
The word is inherited from Proto-Slavic *větje , meaning 'council' or 'talk' (which is also represented in the word "soviet", both ultimately deriving from Proto-Slavic verbal stem of *větiti 'to talk, speak'). The semantic derivation that yields the meaning of the word under consideration is parallel to that of congregation. The contemporary words svedeniya (Russian: сведения) and svidchennya (Ukrainian: свідчення) both meaning "information" are cognates of this word.
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 Kievsky in 997, Novgorod the Great in 1016 and in Kiev in 1068. 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.
I am the king of nothing
The emperor of emptiness
I don't have a castle
And I don't wear a crown
I recall as a small child
The dreams that I once had
Yes, I recall as a small boy
Those dreams which drove me mad
'cause I once found myself a kingdom
It was not too far away
I once found myself a kingdom
But somehow I let it slip away
So I am the king of nothing
The emperor of emptiness
And I don't have a castle
And I don't have a crown
And I recall as a small child
Those dreams I once had
I recall as a small boy
Those dreams which drove me mad
I once found myself a kingdom
And I thought that it was here to stay
Yes, I once found myself a kingdom
But somehow I let it slip away
So I am the king of nothing
The emperor of emptiness
And I don't have a castle