KYIV — The introduction of Christianity in Kyivan Rus’ by Prince Volodymyr the Great was without a doubt an event of the utmost importance for both Kyiv, the Kyivan Rus’ state, and neighboring countries. It signified the victory of feudal relations over the decaying tribal system and played a positive role in the development of the ancient Rus’ culture by raising its prestige among most countries where Christianity had been adopted earlier. It was, however, some time before Volodymyr dared to make this decisive and very risky move in pagan Rus’, where the “old religion” had taken root and become more powerful with the rise to power of Riuryk and the first successors to his legacy, namely the Kyivan princes Oleh, Ihor, and the valorous warrior Prince Sviatoslav.
After becoming the sole prince of Kyivan Rus’, Volodymyr Sviatoslavych set about carrying out the first religious reform in 980 A.D. It was aimed at transforming Kyiv into the religious center of all the Eastern Slavs. Up to that time, every pagan region of Rus’ worshipped its own, rather numerous, local deities. In the hands of the exponents of separatism this was a strong ideological weapon against the centralization of power in the hands of a single prince of Kyivan Rus’. Thus, a pagan tabernacle, a pantheon dedicated to the chief heathen gods led by Perun, the god of thunder and lightning, was built in the center of the Dytynets fortification in Kyiv.
Volodymyr considered Perun his personal protector and that of his armed force, as did his father, Prince Sviatoslav of Kyiv. Entrenched in a peace treaty between Sviatoslav and the Byzantine Empire in 971 were these words: “Should we fail to honor any of the aforesaid, may I and those who are with me and under me be cursed by the god in whom we believe — Perun, and Veles, the god of cattle, and may we turn yellow as gold and may we be flayed by our own weapons.”
Volodymyr had a wooden statue of Perun with a silver head and gold moustache installed on a hillock in the courtyard of his palace. The gods Khors and Dazhboh personified the sun, although they were of different origins. Dazhboh is a purely Slavic deity, whereas Khors originated from Iran. Stryboh was the Slavic god of the wind, and Symarhl — of fertility and the underground kingdom (also of Iranian origin). Mokosh, the goddess of fertility and households, was of Finnish origin, inasmuch as some Finnish tribes were part of Kyivan Rus’ at the time. In Novgorod, where Volodymyr installed his Uncle Dobrynia as prince, the latter also erected a statue of Perun on the banks of the Volkhov River. By proclaiming Perun the chief deity of the pagan pantheon of gods, Volodymyr Sviatoslavych sanctified the entire feudal system of Rus’.
Starting in 980, Volodymyr proceeded to strengthen the military power of his state, including the southern borders by the Black Sea, in order to protect it from the destructive raids of the Pechenegs. On his orders, fortified cities were built on the banks of the rivers Oster, Desna, Supa, Struhon, Irpin, and Trubizh to block the Pechenegs’ route of approach to Kyiv. Volodymyr also began to expand the territory of Rus’ in the west, where in 981 a Rus’ host set off on a campaign in the direction of the Buh River. He annexed the so-called Cherven cities of Cherven and Hrubeshiv, and seized Peremyshl, which action triggered a war with Poland. In 981 he conquered the Viatichians and imposed the plow tax on them. In 983 Volodymyr raided the Yatvingians, an ancient Lithuanian tribe, and annexed their land.
In 984 Volodymyr Sviatoslavych’s troops launched a campaign against the Radimichians and made them subjects of the prince of Kyiv. In 985, in an alliance with the Torks he led his troops to Volga Bulgaria. After the Bulgarians were defeated, Volodymyr decided not to demand a contribution from them but to establish lasting peaceful relations. The Primary Chronicle reads, “Volodymyr made peace with the Bulgarians and the Bulgarians resolved, ‘Our peace will be breached when stones begin floating and hops begin sinking.” Kyivan Rus’ also made peace with Western countries.
According to Nestor the Chronicler, Volodymyr began to live in peace and accord with Boleslaus of Poland, Stefan of Hungary, and Udalrich of Bohemia. Boleslaus the Brave gave his daughter in marriage to Volodymyr’s son Sviatopolk.
It was during this period that the lengthy process of forming the territory of Kyivan Rus’ was completed. Its designated borders were bounded by the Dnister River, the Carpathian Mountains, and the Western Buh, Neman, and Western Dvina in the west; in the north, by Lake Peipus (Chudske ozero), the Gulf of Finland, and lakes Ladoga and Onega; in the east, the upper reaches of the rivers Oka and Volga; and in the northeast, along the rivers Sula, Don, Ros, and the Southern Buh. Kyivan Rus’ included the Tmutorokan principality and Pryazovia (Sea of Azov region) on the Taman Peninsula with the cities of Tmutorokan, Sarkel, and Korchev (Kerch).
To complete his administrative reform, which was aimed at consolidating all the East Slavic lands, Volodymyr replaced the princes of local dynasties with his sons. The chronicler writes: “He installed Vysheslav in Novgorod, Iziaslav in Polotsk, Sviatopolk in Turiv, and Yaroslav in Rostov. After the aging Vysheslav died in Novgorod, he installed Yaroslav in Novgorod, Borys in Rostov, Hlib in Murom, Sviatoslav in the Derevlianian land, Vsevolod in Volodymyr, and Mstyslav in Tmutorokan.”
Volodymyr Sviatoslavych appointed his closest associates as officials to less important cities. His administrative reform thus liquidated the rule of local princes, who were closely connected with their lands by origin and interests. In 987 Prince Volodymyr of Kyiv entered into an alliance with Byzantine Emperor Basil II and undertook to assist him in his struggle for the throne against the impostor Bardas Phokas.
In 986 representatives of various religions and beliefs began to visit Volodymyr in Kyiv, seeking to convince him to adopt one of them. Volodymyr heeded his wise boyars and elders, who had visited other countries, and chose the Greek religion — Byzantine Christianity. His choice was facilitated by the current political situation, primarily the enduring and strong ties between Kyivan Rus’ and the Byzantine Empire, and certain positions of the Byzantine church in Rus’, beginning in the 9th century.
Volodymyr did not rush to adopt the Greek faith so as not to be forced to ask for it from the Greeks, because he knew that they would begin treating him arrogantly. He led a large host to the Greek land and besieged Korsun (Chersonesos), announcing to its residents that unless they surrendered, he would remain there for three years if need be. The people of Korsun were dying of thirst and they surrendered. Volodymyr and his troops then entered the city. The prince sent messages to the Greek emperors, the brothers Basil and Constantine, telling them he wanted to marry their sister, named Anna, and that unless they gave her in marriage to him, he would deal with Constantinople the way he had dealt with Korsun.
For a long time Anna resisted the marriage, which regarded as servitude, preferring to die rather than marry. However, after much persuasion from her brothers she agreed, bade a mournful farewell to her family, and set out on her journey. Before her departure the Greek emperors demanded that Volodymyr first adopt the Greek faith because Christians never gave their daughters in marriage to heathens. Volodymyr was forced to agree.
Anna sailed to Constantinople and Korsun across the Black Sea to join Volodymyr Sviatoslavych. The chronicler writes: “...Volodymyr was suffering at that moment from a disease of the eyes and could see nothing, being in great distress. The princess declared to him that if he desired to be relieved of this disease, he should be baptized with all speed; otherwise it could not be cured... The bishop of Kherson, together with the princess’s priests... baptized Volodymyr, and as the bishop laid his hand upon him, he instantly received his sight...When his followers beheld this miracle, many of them were also baptized.”
Volodymyr was baptized in the Church of St. Basil, which stood on a square in the center of Korsun, where the local residents traded. As a sign of gratitude for his Greek wife, Volodymyr returned Korsun to the Greek emperors. After returning to Kyiv, Volodymyr had all his sons baptized and ordered the pantheon of wooden pagan gods in Kyiv chopped into pieces. The formidable idol Perun was tied to a horse’s tail and cast into the Dnipro. “Thereafter Volodymyr sent heralds throughout the whole city to proclaim that if any inhabitant, rich or poor, did not betake himself to the river, he would risk the prince’s displeasure. When the people heard these words, they wept for joy and exclaimed in their enthusiasm, ‘If this were not good, the prince and his boyars would not have accepted it.’”
In the summer of 988 “the prince went forth to the Dnipro with the priests of the princess and those from Kherson, and a countless multitude assembled. They all went into the water: some stood up to their necks, others to their breasts, the younger near the bank, some of them holding children in their arms, while the adults waded farther out. The priests stood by and offered prayers. There was joy in heaven and upon earth to behold so many souls saved...When the people were baptized, they returned each to his own abode. Volodymyr...ordained that churches should be built and established where pagan idols had previously stood. He thus founded the Church of St. Basil on the hill where the idol of Perun and the other images had been set, and where the prince and the people had offered their sacrifices. He began to found churches and assign priests throughout the cities, and to invite the people to accept baptism in all the cities and towns. He took the children of the best families and sent them to schools for instruction in book learning.”
In 989 Volodymyr commissioned Byzantine masters to build a cathedral dedicated to the Mother of God and allocated one-tenth of his revenues for its construction and maintenance after its completion in 996. This is the derivation of the name of the Church of the Tithes. Volodymyr embellished it with icons, vessels, and crosses that he had brought from Korsun, and appointed Korsun priests to conduct divine services there. In 991 Volodymyr founded the city of Bilhorod and sent many people to live there because he was very fond of it.
In conclusion, it should be noted that after the official Christianization of Rus’ wooden and stone churches, monasteries, and convents began to appear everywhere. Kyivan Rus’ was becoming a metropolis of the eparchy of Constantinople. The patriarch of Constantinople appointed a metropolitan for Kyiv, and the Rus’ metropoly was divided into eparchies headed by bishops. The eparchies, in turn, were divided into parishes headed by parish priests. Relations between the church and the state were governed by special church statutes enacted by the grand prince. Bolstered by its own judicial and legal system, the church sought to use them to influence society, above all its spiritual life. As mentioned earlier, in the 10th and 11th centuries the church subsisted on funds in the form of one-tenth of all tributes, court fines, and customs duties exacted by the state.
The general conclusion is, therefore, that the introduction of Christianity in Kyivan Rus’ by Volodymyr the Great in 988 played an extremely important role in strengthening the unity of the ancient Rus’ state, a goal to which Prince Volodymyr aspired in carrying out his administrative reform. In addition, the Christian church protected every family, combated the heathen tradition of vendetta, and facilitated the development of literacy, literature, art, and monumental construction.
