Early Russia: from Pagans to Christians
Russia, the largest country in the world, may have not even existed at all if it were not for one man who is responsible for shaping Russia into the country it is today. That man was Vladimir, the Grand Duke of Kiev, who through a gruesome civil war succeeded his grandmother Olga, “the only female ruler of Russia until the 17th century.” (Florinsky, 10) The civil war began because “Svyatoslav, Vladimir’s father, was killed by Pechenegs in 972” after returning from a failed invasion of Byzantine owned lands. (Pechenegs) The invasion may have even been the cause of his death because “The Byzantine Empire formed alliances with Pechenegs and used them to keep Rus at bay.”(Pechenegs) After Svyatoslav’s death, his son Yaropolk gained control of Kiev and killed his younger brother Oleg for opposing him. Vladimir was sent into exile to the Nordic tribes. He gathered an army from the Nordic tribes and returned to Russia later to gain control of the Kievan city states... (Vladimir I) “In 978 Yaropolk was murdered by his half-brother Vladimir I, who became the prince of Kiev.” (Florinsky, 10) Soon after becoming the leader, he sent out missionaries to find a religion for his newly formed country. (Kort, 4) Due to the reports from his missionaries and the fact that “Vladimir’s grandmother [had] been baptized,” he chose Orthodox Christianity. (Farrington, 120) Vladimir’s decision to switch his country’s religion from Paganism to Orthodox Christianity ultimately resulted in a change is his country’s culture, trade, economy and politics.
The change to Orthodox Christianity quickly changed all of Early Russia. No longer did they have to pray and sacrifice to Perun, the god of war, Dazhbog and Khrors, the sun gods or Mokosh the Mother Earth. (Schultze, 23) The country was finally united religiously. That was a major change because earlier, when “Russia was initially pagan,” the country was divided into city-states that worshipped different gods. (Rus) Also, due to the change, the first Russian alphabet was finally created by a Saint known as Cyril, a Greek missionary from the Byzantine Empire. (Vladimir I) If Russia never converted to Christianity, Cyril may not have created an alphabet for them. The conversion also inspired a new version of Eastern Orthodox Church to emerge. (Kort, 5) Unlike many cultures before them, instead of fully converting to Christianity and changing their whole belief system, they took their current beliefs and combined them with the Christian ones producing an interesting twist on Christianity. (Schultze, 23) Art and literature were also greatly affected by the conversion. The Russians began to compose masterpieces of literature incorporating the pagan and Christian beliefs into their stories. A whole new line of art called icons was created. “Icons were a source of great national pride,” because no icons could ever compare to them. (Schultze, 24) “Russia’s icons carved by Andrey Rublev are debatably the finest icons that were ever made.” (Schultze, 24) Without the sudden change of faith, Early Russia would have never evolved culturally past the barbaric influences of the Norsemen who first created the city-state Russia. (Florinsky, 6)
Russia’s trade and economy also was deeply influenced by the conversion. “In
988 Russia was completely converted from paganism to Christianity” because of the way
Vladimir performed it. (Florinsky, 1) “He ordered everyone to come down to the river to be baptized or risk his displeasure,” something that nobody dared to risk. (Schultze, 24) “But Vladimir’s motives were not just only to advance his race spiritually.” (Farrington, 120) His main reason for conversion was the long awaited for alliance with the Byzantine Empire through marriage to Anna, the emperor’s sister which “he could only marry if he was Christian.” (Vladimir I) Right after the conversion and the marriage, Russia became allies with Byzantine Empire, “the most advanced Christian civilization of it’s time.” (Kort, 4) Through the alliance a whole new world of trade opportunities was open for the Russians. The “trade relations with Byzantium were quite important,” (Florinsky, 7) because of the country’s perfect location on all of the major routes. They also became a stop on the trade route known as “from Varangians to the Greeks.” (Florinsky, 6) Suddenly, “Kiev was an important city from the economic standpoint due to it’s location along main water routes in the upper west of Russia.” (Vladimir I) But the economical dependency on Byzantium became a major problem because “both countries began to fall economically when the Muslims lost grip on the Mediterranean Sea.” (Kort, 6) After the crusades, Russia took another economic blow by “losing all of their trade partners in Europe because they were Orthodox Christians and not Roman Catholic.” (Kort, 5)
Early Russian politics were greatly affected by Vladimir’s choice of religion. Wars with the West became a thing of the past and “Her [Russia’s] only enemies were the still savage nomadic tribes from the deep south.” (Almidingen, Page 6) Those tribes were mostly of Pecheneg origin- pagan tribes of Turkic origin who lived and controlled most of what is now southeast Russia. (Pechenegs) Russia entered the time of peace and prosperity. “Scholars crowded into Kiev, where schools and libraries were founded and architects from Italy and Greece directed the building of many churches.” (Almidingen, 5-6) But soon the choice of Greek Orthodox began to quickly backfire. “During the 13th century, Europe had attacked Russia twice, in attempt to convert it to Latin Christianity.”(Eliade, 48 cool One of these attacks was led by the German Order of Teutonic Knights ordered by the pope to convert Eastern Europe to Roman Catholic Christianity. Russians were persecuted and killed by the knights because they were not Latin Christians and did not obey the pope. But in the end, the Latin Church knights were massacred and Russian Orthodox Church survived. (Alexander Nevsky)
Vladimir, due to his own selfish needs changed Russia’s religion, thus forever changing the country and setting it on its way to become what it is today. The change has influenced Russia so much; nobody can even to begin to speculate what Russia would be without it. Because of it, such accomplishments as creation of Russian Orthodox Church, Russian alphabet, and unification of Russia were made possible. The change also helped to expand the country by expanding its trade. It went from being an unknown small country to one of the largest countries on the trade routes. Russian began to prosper and grow even after being cut off from Europe for nearly half of its existence after they were excommunicated by the Catholic pope. The change of religion from Paganism to Orthodox Christianity is the sole reason why the Early Russia went from being a city-state civilization to a large and prosperous country that we know today.
Works Cited
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Almidingen, Edith M. Land of Muscovy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1971. Eliade, Mircea. The Encyclopedia of Religion: Proc-Saic. New York: Macmillan, 1987.
Farrington, Karen, ed. Historical Atlas of Religions. New York: Checkmark Books, 2002.
Florinsky, Michael T. Russia: A Short History. Vol. 2. New York: Macmillan Company,
1964
Kort, Michael. Russia. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2004.
"Pechenegs." World History: Ancient & Medieval. 2007. ABC-CLIO. 8 May 2007
"Rus." World History: Ancient & Medieval. 2007. ABC-CLIO. 8 May 2007
Schultze, Sydney. Culture and Customs of Russia. Westport: Greenwood P, 2000.
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