Big Nest was nearing the end of his earthly existence. He had continued the task undertaken by his father and his brother to preserve and enlarge the principality of Vladimir. He had not worked for all Russia, though he had tried to hold a share in the Russia outside of Vladimir. During his rule, which was firm and at times even terrible, he not only preserved unimpaired, but extended and strengthened Vladimir. He established the beginning of a state in the North and fixed its central region. Earlier than Big Nest, not only in the time of his father, but also in that of Andrei, his brother, Rostoff and Suzdal were remembered as belonging to Novgorod. Men did not consider Vladimir or Moscow or any other place, as that Great Russia which they were to obey, and to which they must gravitate. Before Big Nest’s activity, Bailozersk and Galitch beyond the Volga, and other places, if not claimed by Novgorod altogether, were claimed at least partially. Now the Dvina country beyond the Volga had become so connected with Vladimir that all was reconstituted. That broad region looked on itself as Great Russia, and all men began to regard it in that light. Lord Novgorod itself was forced to count those lands as lost forever. Neither Rostoff nor Suzdal, from the time of Big Nest, dared to think of their earlier primacy, the memory of which became mingled with traditions of its ancient connection with Novgorod. After Big Nest there could be no talk of separation from Vladimir, for it became clear that not to Rostoff, or to Suzdal did that Great Russia gravitate, but to Vladimir. As his father had left Rostoff and Suzdal to his younger sons and Vladimir to the eldest, so Big Nest, almost on the eve of his death, gave Vladimir to his eldest son, Constantine, and left Rostoff to Yuri his second son.