His envoys to Constantinople were also reported to return fascinated by the beauty of Orthodox churches and divine service. The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. Ever since, members have been prosecuted as criminals when their only action was to celebrate their faith. Vladimir the Great baptized his people in 988, converting the country to Orthodox Christianity. In exchange for military assistance for the beleaguered emperor, Vladimir received Basil’s sister in marriage. ( Log Out / “Christianity was a powerful spiritual unifying force . The Primary Chronicle probably has the story about halfway right: Vladimir was probably very impressed by Eastern Christianity's religious paraphernalia, but almost certainly not for religious reasons. This must be done.”.
The only condition for that was his conversion to Christianity.
At this time the reigning emperor in Constantinople, Basil II, was faced with a serious revolt in which an aristocratic rebel held most of Byzantine Anatolia, leaving Basil in a precarious position which was further weakened after suffering a major defeat from the Bulgars in 986. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Jehovah’s Witnesses should be labeled an extremist organization. ( Log Out / He subsequently imposed Christianity upon his subjects. The first group visited the Muslims in Volga Bulgharia, before investigating Latin Christianity amongst the Germans, and finally Byzantine Christianity in the empire to the south. But how did it all start? When a priest at the most Eastern Orthodox church in Russia, situated on the Commander Islands in the Bering Sea (almost 5,000 miles east of Moscow), starts to conduct his morning liturgy at 8 AM, the previous day isn’t even over in the capital. It’s not surprising: according to statistics, approximately 75% Russian citizens consider themselves Orthodox Christians. The next day, Vladimir organized a mass baptism in the Dnieper for his subjects, and he ordered a church to be built on the hill where his pantheon had previously stood. If using any of Russia Beyond's content, partly or in full, always provide an active hyperlink to the original material. A column or article in the Opinions section (in print, this is known as the Editorial Pages). No other religion is so widespread in Russia; almost every community, big or small, hosts its own Orthodox church. So sharing a religion would be useful for Vladimir. However, many Russians see their Christian identity as quite symbolic. Only when the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917 and tried to turn Russia into an Atheist state, was religion banned and the clergy destroyed (at least, at the beginning of their rule). Alternatively, some scholars have suggested that Vladimir already intended to convert to Byzantine Christianity and instead sent the embassies to show to Byzantium that he had other options available. We cannot exist without it” and immediately sent the man away. He took the step of converting to Christianity on behalf of all his people. If Vladimir was looking for a religion that would bring him victory on the battlefield, the lack of interest in the Khazars can only be explained in terms of the rapid decline of their polity in the aftermath of the expedition led against them by Sviatoslav, Vladimir’s father. Christianity team saw a beautiful church that convinced Vladimir it was the right religion. I have not violated any Russian law, and I have nothing to be ashamed of.”. However, aware of the sway that Constantinople might come to exercise over their state, the Rus’ were careful to remind the Byzantines of their effective independence.
Notably, the Jewish Khazars had originally sent a mission to Vladimir encouraging him to join their faith. According to the Primary Chronicle, how did Vladimir choose Byzantine Christianity? Russia’s Constitution of 1993 declared, Get the week's best stories straight to your inbox.
Before that, the Slavs worshipped Svarog, Perun, and other ancient gods for centuries - …
Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. This was probably instituted as part of a broader attempt to centralize the state around Kiev and to bring Vladimir the legitimacy that he lacked. While earlier in his reign Vladimir attempted to organize a pantheon of Baltic and Slavic gods, he appears to have had an interest in the monotheistic religions of some of its neighbors. On the other hand Christianity was not unknown to the Rus’: Vladimir’s grandmother, Ol’ga, was a convert and archaeological evidence of Christianity in Rus’ is known from before Vladimir’s conversion. Since this took place after the agreements, Vladimir may have attempted to force Basil to keep his word . The Muslim failed when he mentioned that Islam prohibits drinking. . Vladimir’s conversion to Christianity should be seen as a political event. sent three teams to look at Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Change ), οὐ γὰρ ἔχομεν ὧδε μένουσαν πόλιν, ἀλλὰ τὴν μέλλουσαν ἐπιζητοῦμεν, Sarah Bassett’s ‘The Urban Image of Late Antique Constantinople’, Vladimir the Great’s Christianization of the Kievan Rus’, A Reconstruction of a Late Roman River Boat in Regensburg, A very brief note on why I use AD and not CE, Parekbolai: An Electronic Journal of Byzantine Literature, Byzantine Studies Association of North America, Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies. We've got more than 1,8 million followers on Facebook. Perhaps dispirited by his failure to defeat the Volga Bulgars, Vladimir sent envoys to explore the faiths of neighbouring states. So this should be looked into. Nothing has been “looked into,” and the persecution continues. Historians mostly suppose that ambitious Vladimir didn’t care about Christ much – he wanted to unite his country under one rule and one church. ( Log Out / Russian law confers official status on Buddhism, Judaism and Islam, as well as Christianity. The rabbi also didn’t inspire the prince as he wondered: “Okay, so if Judaism is so great, where is your land?” The rabbi, confused, answered that the Holy Land of his people was occupied. The Post’s View: Does Russia’s constitution mean nothing to Putin?