What happened to Novgorod?

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Those of us that played the Medieval games remember Novgorod as being the center of the Russian empire, but in Empire it's only mention is a small town in the Moscow province. So what became of the city of Novgorod in the time leading up to the Empire time period? Did this large Russian city just fade into obscurity, or is there a more interesting story to tell?

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The city's downfall was a result of its inability to feed its large population, making it dependent on the Vladimir-Suzdal region for grain. The main cities in this area, Moscow and Tver, used this dependence to gain control over Novgorod. Eventually Ivan III annexed the city to Grand Duchy of Moscow in 1478. Novgorod remained the third largest Russian city (with 5300 homesteads and 25-30 thousand inhabitants in 1550s[10]), however, until the famine of 1560s and Ivan the Terrible sacking the city and slaughtering thousands of its inhabitants in 1570. The city's merchant elite and nobility were deported to Moscow, Yaroslavl, and elsewhere.

During the Time of Troubles, Novgorodians eagerly submitted to Swedish troops led by Jacob De la Gardie in summer of 1611. The city was restituted to Russia only six years later, by the Treaty of Stolbovo and regained a measure of its former prosperity by the end of the century, when such ambitious buildings as the Cathedral of the Sign and the Vyazhischi Monastery were constructed. The most famous of Russian patriarchs, Nikon, occupied the metropolian see of Novgorod between 1648 and 1652.
In 1727, Novgorod was made an administrative centre of the Novgorod Governorate of the Russian Empire, which was detached from Saint Petersburg Governorate (see Administrative divisions of Russia in 1727-1728). This administrative division existed until 1927. Between 1927 and 1944 the city was a part of Leningrad Oblast, and then became an administrative center of the newly formed Novgorod Oblast.

From wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novgorod