Prince Vladimir: Baptist of Rus' or a libertine? Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir the Great.

I continue the series of publications about the great historical figures of our Motherland! Today I would like to talk about
Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich (or Vladimir the Red Sun - as the people affectionately called him and glorified him in epics). And you can read my article about Princess Olga.

So let's get started!

The life of Prince Vladimir is divided into two periods - before and after baptism. The first period was very short (up to 25 years of age). This time Vladimir lived like a pagan. But he quickly matured spiritually. In the second period (until old age), he, like a father, takes care of the spiritual and material welfare of his fatherland.

Vladimir, the grandson of Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Olga, was born around 962. His father was Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich - the grandson of Rurik (but he was the illegitimate son of Svyatoslav). The mother was Malusha Malkovna, the daughter of Malk Lubechanin, whom historians identify with Mal, Prince of Drevlyansky. Bringing the rebellious Drevlyans into submission and taking possession of their cities, Princess Olga ordered the execution of Prince Mal, for whom they tried to woo her after the murder of Igor, and took his children, Dobrynya and Malusha, with her. Dobrynya grew up as a brave and skillful warrior, possessed a state mind, and later was a good assistant to his nephew Vladimir in matters of military and state administration.

Dobrynya Nikitich and Malusha - concubine of Svyatoslav Igorevich, mother of the future Prince Vladimir (Baptist of Rus')

Malusha, a Christian who, however, retained in herself the mysterious twilight of the pagan Drevlyane forests, fell in love with the stern warrior Svyatoslav. She became the housekeeper of Princess Olga, i.e. keeper of furs, silver, coins and other valuables. Chronicles say that, angry with her slave, Olga exiled her to a remote village Bududina all. There a boy was born, named by the Russian pagan name Vladimir - who owns the world, who owns a special gift of the world. Soon Vladimir was taken away from his mother.

Sergei Efoshkin. Mother with son. Malusha says goodbye to Vladimir

He was brought up in Kyiv, at the court of his grandmother, Princess Olga. But for a long time the contemptuous nickname "robichich", that is, "the son of a slave", will haunt him.

In 970, Svyatoslav, setting off on a campaign from which he was not destined to return, divided the Russian land between his three sons. Yaropolk reigned in Kyiv, Oleg reigned in Ovruch, the center of the Drevlyansk land, and Vladimir reigned in Novgorod.

After the death of Svyatoslav, civil strife began between his children. Sixteen-year-old Yaropolk in 975 set off on a campaign against his brother Oleg and Oleg died in a battle near the city of Ovruch. Then Yaropolk moved to Novgorod. It is clear that he wanted to reign alone, without competitors. Vladimir at that time was only 12 years old, and Dobrynya took him "over the sea" (to present-day Sweden). Three years later he returned to Novgorod with a foreign army.

Thus began the war between Vladimir and his brother Yaropolk. He led the campaign, in which all pagan Rus' sympathizes with him, against the Christian Yaropolk, or, in any case, according to the chronicle, "who gave great will to Christians." In addition, the enmity between the brothers escalated due to the fact that the daughter of the Polotsk prince Rogned, whose hand Vladimir asked for, refused him with the following words: reproaching him with the baseness of his maternal origin, and was going to marry Yaropolk. Insulted, Vladimir captured Polotsk, dishonored Rogneda in front of her father and mother, and then killed both parents. Following this, in the summer of 978, he laid siege to Kyiv. Yaropolk locks himself in the town of Rodnya. After almost two years of siege, hunger forced Yaropolk to surrender to the mercy of his brother. But when Yaropolk entered the chambers of Vladimir, two Varangians, standing at the door, raised him on swords "under his bosom."

Sergei Efoshkin. Prince Vladimir and Prince Yaropolk

With this villainous murder, the sovereign reign of Vladimir in Rus' begins, which lasted for a long 37 years.

The chroniclers deliberately do not spare black colors, depicting Vladimir before he adopted Christianity, in order to more clearly indicate the miraculous effect of the grace of baptism, presenting the same prince in the brightest form. He was cruel, vindictive and generally endowed with a variety of vices, among which, first of all, exorbitant voluptuousness is called. Vladimir of that time had five wives. One of them is Princess Rogneda of Polotsk (mother of Yaroslav the Wise).

Vladimir and Rogneda with their son. ROGNEDA of Polotsk (c. 960 - c. 1000) - daughter of Prince Rogvolod from the city of Polotsk. She was very beautiful. She was going to marry Yaropolk Svyatoslavovich. She refused Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich and insulted him, calling him the son of a slave. In 979, Vladimir captured Polotsk, killed her relatives, and made her his wife. In 981 she gave birth to a son, Izyaslav. Around 987, she made an attempt on her husband. For this, Vladimir ordered her to dress smartly and wait in the room. She realized what was threatening her, called her son and hid him. When the prince entered with a sword in his hand, little Izyaslav stood up for his mother. Vladimir did not kill Rogneda. He sent her with her son to the city of Svisloch (Izyaslavl). Now it is the city of Zaslavl near Minsk. In total, she gave birth to Vladimir 4 sons (among them Yaroslav the Wise) and 3 daughters. In 1000, shortly before her death, she became a monk under the name of Anastasia.

Another wife of Vladimir was the widow of Yaropolk, who was killed by him, a certain Greek woman, who was formerly a nun and brought to Kyiv by Prince Svyatoslav, struck by her beauty. From her, by the way, later was born Svyatopolk the Accursed - the murderer of the holy brothers Boris and Gleb. In addition to legal wives, the prince had hundreds of concubines. “He was insatiable in fornication, bringing married wives and corrupt maidens to himself,” the chronicler wrote about Vladimir with condemnation. As they say, "lived to the fullest."

Temple by the lake

In addition, Vladimir was at first a convinced pagan and an ardent opponent of Christianity. Soon after entering Kiev, he built a real pagan pantheon on a hill near his palace - he set up statues of pagan gods: Perun, Khors, Dazhbog, Stribog, Simragl and Mokosh.

“And people worshiped them, calling them gods, and brought their sons and daughters, and sacrificed to demons ... And the Russian land and that hill were defiled with blood,” says the chronicle.

Boris Olshansky. Oath of Svarozhich

Statues of Perun, who, by the will of Vladimir, became the main deity of ancient Rus', were also installed in other ancient Russian cities. In 983, after one of the campaigns of Vladimir, it was decided to arrange human sacrifices on the "Perun Hill". The lot fell on the court of a certain Christian Varangian, and the Kyiv pagans demanded that his son be sacrificed. The Varangian did not obey them and did not give his son to be slaughtered by demons. In retaliation, the people of Kiev swept away his entire yard and cut down the canopy on which he stood with his son, and so they killed them. These Varangian Christians (later church tradition calls their names: Theodore and his son John) became the first martyrs for the faith in the Russian land.

Sergei Efoshkin. The first Russian martyrs Theodore and John before their death

The introduction of a single state cult of Perun for the whole country was supposed to personify the unity of the Old Russian state, the supremacy of Kyiv and the Kyiv prince.

Pagan temple. The ceremony is held in the temple. In the center of the temple 4 heads Svetovit

For all that, Vladimir during these years shows every concern for strengthening the state. He makes several successful campaigns to the west and east (against the Poles, Yotvingians, Volga Bulgarians, Khazars), subjugates a number of East Slavic tribes (Radimichi, Vyatichi) to Kiev, annexes the so-called. Cherven cities (Volyn). Various regions of the Russian state are held together by stronger bonds than before. He "pasted his land with truth, courage and reason", as a kind and zealous master, if necessary, expanded and defended its borders by force of arms, and returning from a campaign, arranged generous and cheerful feasts for the squad and for all of Kiev.

Vasnetsov. Vladimir the Pagan

However, the pagan reform, which changed only the outward appearance of the old gods, could not satisfy Vladimir. Personal search for faith coincided with the requirements of the time. Rus' finally lost the features of the former military federation of separate tribes, turned into a single state, which played an increasing role in European and world politics. All this required changes in the sphere of ideology.

Filatov. Choice of Faith by Prince Vladimir

Vladimir did not immediately come to his faith. The chronicle tells that at first the prince received ambassadors from the Volga Bulgarians (Muslims), Latins and Khazar Jews, who offered him to accept their law. Prince Vladimir listened attentively to everyone and asked questions.

In Islam, Vladimir seemed to like the possibility of polygamy both in this life and in the next. It was no coincidence that the Mohammedans rested precisely on this point of their doctrine: they clearly tried to adapt to the mores of Vladimir the pagan. But they did not know that Vladimir had already turned away from paganism in the depths of his soul. In addition, he could “indulge in all fornication” without converting to another faith ...
But Vladimir after a conversation with the "Greek philosopher" settled on Orthodoxy.

Choice of Faith

According to the chronicle, Prince Vladimir, called by the Providence of God to be the baptizer of Rus', was already ready to accept the Orthodox faith from the Greeks, but, being a wise leader, he prepared the people for baptism through frequent conversations about faith in the princely court, by testing faiths and sending an embassy to other countries . And it was decided to send ambassadors and test each faith on the spot, and for this they chose ten men, "good and intelligent." Sending an embassy, ​​he introduced the Russians to the faith, the state of trade, the army, life, and the life of peoples.

And these ambassadors in Bulgaria watched how Muslims pray in the mosque: “Standing there without a belt, making a bow, (a person) will sit down and look here and there, like crazy, and there is no fun in them, only sadness and a great stench. Their law is not good." The Germans "saw various services in churches, but they did not see any beauty." In Byzantium, in the Constantinople church in the name of Sophia the Wisdom of God, they contemplated the festive patriarchal service in the full light of chandeliers, with the singing of cathedral choirs.

The ambassadors of the Kyiv prince were stunned by what they saw

“We didn’t know whether we were in heaven or on earth,” the ambassadors said upon returning to Kiev, “for there is no such sight and beauty on earth, and we don’t know how to tell about it, we only know that God is there with people, and their service is better than in all other countries. We cannot forget that beauty, for every person, if he tastes the sweet, will not take the bitter later, so we can no longer dwell here in paganism. After listening to them, the boyars told Prince Vladimir: “If the Greek law was bad, then your grandmother Olga would not have accepted it, and she was the wisest of all people.”

In 987, at the council of the boyars, Vladimir decided to be baptized "according to Greek law."

According to legend, in exchange for this decision, he was even promised the hand of the sister of the ruling Byzantine Emperor Basil II Anna, who by this time was already 26 years old. But the promise was not kept, and therefore Vladimir I had to seek Anna's hand by military force.

According to the chronicle, in the next 988, Prince Vladimir captured Korsun (Chersonese in the Crimea, which then belonged to Byzantium) with a 6,000-strong army and demanded the Byzantine princess Anna as his wife, threatening otherwise to go to Constantinople. Emperor Vasily II was forced to agree, demanding in turn the baptism of the prince, so that his sister would marry a fellow believer. Having received Vladimir's consent to accept holy baptism, the Byzantines sent Anna to Korsun with priests. But having achieved his goal, Vladimir forgot his promise. And then something happened to him that turned his whole life upside down. He suddenly went blind! Vladimir walked and moaned for several days. The prince's cries were terrible when he realized that he could remain an invalid forever. Princess Anna then recalled his promise and advised him to quickly receive holy baptism. In fear of the Christian God, Vladimir, together with his retinue, underwent a rite of baptism. In baptism, Vladimir took the name Basil, in honor of the reigning Byzantine emperor Basil II, according to the practice of political baptisms of that time. The miracle of the return of vision happened after baptism. The world has changed for him.

Sergei Efoshkin. Prince Vladimir. Baptism

Prince Vladimir had a striking change in his own life, his spiritual and moral state. From a passionate, proud pagan, he was reborn into a chaste, meek, unusually merciful and kind person. He even seriously set out to introduce an innovation hitherto unheard of in human history - to abolish the death penalty for robbers, fearing sin.

Before the adoption of Christianity in Rus', polygamy was common. Prince Vladimir of Kyiv had 5 legal wives. Orthodox sources claim that after baptism, the prince freed all former pagan wives from marital duties. He offered Rogneda to choose a husband, but she refused and took monastic vows.

Vladimir himself, after baptism, was married according to the Christian rite with the Byzantine princess Anna (+1011). By this marriage, Vladimir achieved that Rus' ceased to be considered a barbarian people in Byzantium. The dynastic prestige of the Kyiv princes also increased. In the future, Anna actively participated in the spread of Orthodoxy in Rus', "having built many churches." Her tomb was located in the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos in Kyiv, next to the tomb of St. Vladimir the Baptist.

The baptism in Korsun (Chersonese) of Prince Vladimir with the boyars and his retinue was the beginning of the baptism of the entire Russian land! Accompanied by a squad, boyars, clergy, Prince Vladimir moved to Kyiv. Crosses, icons, holy relics were carried ahead.

Upon his return to Kyiv, Prince Vladimir gathered his 12 sons and, having prepared them for the adoption of the holy faith of Christ, baptized them in a spring that was forever called Khreshchatyk. Together with them, his whole house was baptized, and some of the boyars, probably from those who were not in Chersonesos.

Perov V.G. Baptism of Rus'.

Then Vladimir ordered to start a mass baptism. The baptism of the people of Kiev took place in the waters of the Dnieper by Korsun priests. In Kyiv, the baptism of the people passed relatively peacefully, while in Novgorod, where Dobrynya led the baptism, it was accompanied by uprisings of the people and their suppression by force. In the Rostov-Suzdal land, where the local Slavic and Finno-Ugric tribes retained a certain autonomy due to remoteness, Christians remained a minority even after Vladimir (until the 13th century, paganism dominated the Vyatichi).

Prince Vladimir ordered pagan idols to be crushed everywhere: some were burned, others were cut to pieces. And the main idol of Perun with a silver head and a golden mustache was ordered to be tied to the tail of a horse, dragged to the Dnieper, thrashing with sticks for public reproach, and then escorted to the thresholds so that no one could pull it out and take it. There the idol was tied with a stone around his neck and drowned. Russian paganism has sunk into the water...

His alms to the poor knew no limits. The Russian people nicknamed Vladimir "Red Sun". The famous feasts of St. Vladimir were also a means of Christian preaching; on Sundays and a major church holiday after the liturgy, plentiful festive tables were set out for the people of Kiev, bells rang, choirs praised, even, according to legend, he ordered to deliver food and drink on carts for the weak and sick.

Prince Vladimir

At the same time, the prince continued to be a victorious commander, a courageous warrior, a wise head and builder of the state. Under the holy Prince Vladimir, Kievan Rus flourished and its influence spread far beyond its borders.

Under Vladimir, large-scale stone construction in Rus' begins. The cities of Vladimir (990), Belgorod (991), Pereyaslavl (992) and many others were founded.

Vladimir began to build God's temples. From the first centuries of Christianity, there has been a custom of erecting churches on the ruins of pagan sanctuaries or on the blood of holy martyrs. Following this rule, St. Vladimir built the church of St. Basil the Great on the hill where the altar of Perun was located, and laid the stone church of the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos (Church of the Tithes) on the site of the martyrdom of the holy Varangian martyrs.

Sergei Efoshkin. At the Church of the Tithes

The church was built by masters from Byzantium. The tithe church was built, most likely, on the model of the Pharos church at the Great Imperial Palace in Constantinople, where Anna liked to go to prayers. And although neither the Pharos nor the Church of the Tithes survived, archaeologists managed to recreate their appearance. The church, 27 meters long and 18 meters wide, was crowned with five large domes. It was decorated with frescoes and mosaics made of multi-colored glass, as well as jaspers. Because of the abundance of marble on the floor and the towering columns with carved capitals, contemporaries called the Church of the Tithes "marble". The parapets at the choir, the altar barrier and the cornices at the main windows were trimmed with marble. The floor of the altar, in addition to multi-colored marble tiles, was laid out of tiled tiles. The building itself was made of flat, thin bricks smeared with white plaster.

In 1007 Saint Vladimir transferred the relics of Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Olga to the Church of the Tithes. And four years later, in 1011, his wife, an associate of many of his undertakings, the blessed Empress Anna, was buried there.

The times of Vladimir were marked by the beginning of the spread of literacy in Rus' - which is connected with Baptism. Like many other progressive reforms in the Russian land, it was carried out by force. The first teachers in Rus' were both Byzantines and Bulgarians, including those who studied on Mount Athos.

The last years of Vladimir Svyatoslavich's life were overshadowed by enmity with his elder sons. In 1013, the conspiracy of Svyatopolk the Accursed against Vladimir, his adoptive father, was uncovered. Svyatopolk and his wife and their accomplice, a Polish bishop, were arrested and taken into custody. In 1014, another son of Vladimir, Yaroslav of Novgorod, rebelled, refusing to pay tribute to Kyiv. Then Prince Vladimir announced a campaign against Novgorod, but fell seriously ill and died on July 15, 1015. He ruled the Russian state for 37 years (978-1015), of which he spent 28 years in holy baptism.

The holy relics of Vladimir were placed in a marble reliquary placed in the Clement's chapel of the Tithe Assumption Church next to the same marble reliquary of Queen Anna.

During the Mongol-Tatar invasion, the honest remains of the Holy Prince Vladimir were buried under the ruins of the Church of the Tithes. In 1635 they were found, the honest head of the Holy Prince Vladimir rested in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, small particles of holy relics - in different places. In the second half of the 19th century, a temple was built in Kyiv in the name of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, which is currently a cathedral. And in 1853 a monument was erected.

The name and work of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir is connected with the entire subsequent history of the Russian Church. “By him we were deified, and we came to know Christ, the True Life,” testified St. Hilarion. His feat was continued by his sons, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, who owned the Russian land for almost six centuries: from Yaroslav the Wise, who took the first step towards the independent existence of the Russian Church, to the last Rurikovich, Tsar Theodore Ioannovich, under whom in 1589 the Russian Orthodox Church became the fifth independent patriarchy.

The celebration of St. Vladimir Equal-to-the-Apostles was established by St. Alexander Nevsky after on May 15, 1240, with the help and intercession of St. Vladimir, he won the famous Neva victory over the Swedish crusaders.

New world. 1988. No. 6. pp. 249-258.

In Soviet historical science devoted to ancient Rus', there is no more significant and at the same time least studied issue than the question of the spread of Christianity in the first centuries of baptism.

At the beginning of the 20th century, several extremely important works appeared at once, posing and resolving the issue of accepting Christianity in different ways. These are the works of E. E. Golubinsky, Academician A. A. Shakhmatov, M. D. Priselkov, V. A. Parkhomenko, V. I. Lamansky, N. K. Nikolsky, P. A. Lavrov, N. D. Polonskaya and many others. However, after 1913, this topic ceased to seem significant. She simply disappeared from the pages of the scientific press.

Therefore, the task of my article is not to complete, but to begin posing some of the problems associated with the adoption of Christianity, to disagree, and perhaps to contradict conventional views, especially since the established points of view often do not have a solid foundation, but are the result of certain unspoken and largely mythical “settings”.

One of these delusions, stuck in the general courses of the history of the USSR and other semi-official publications, is the idea that Orthodoxy has always been the same, has not changed, has always played a reactionary role. There were even claims that paganism was better (“folk religion”!), more fun and “more materialistic”…

But the fact is that the defenders of Christianity often succumbed to certain prejudices and their judgments were to a large extent “prejudices”.

Let us dwell in our article on only one problem - the state significance of the adoption of Christianity. I do not dare to pass off my views as precisely established, especially since the most basic, initial data for the emergence of any reliable concept are generally unclear.

First of all, one should understand what paganism was like as a “state religion”. Paganism was not a religion in the modern sense - like Christianity, Islam, Buddhism. It was a rather chaotic collection of various beliefs, cults, but not a teaching. This is a combination of religious rites and a whole heap of objects of religious veneration. Therefore, the unification of people of different tribes, which the Eastern Slavs so needed in the 10th-12th centuries, could not be carried out by paganism. And in paganism itself there were relatively few specific national features that were characteristic of only one people. At best, on the basis of a common cult, individual tribes, the population of individual localities, united. Meanwhile, the desire to escape from the oppressive influence of loneliness among sparsely populated forests, swamps and steppes, the fear of abandonment, the fear of formidable natural phenomena forced people to seek associations. There were “Germans” all around, that is, people who did not speak an understandable language, enemies who came to Rus' “from a bride”, and the steppe strip bordering Russia is an “unknown country” ...

The desire to overcome space is noticeable in folk art. People erected their buildings on the high banks of rivers and lakes in order to be visible from afar, held noisy festivities, and performed cult prayers. Folk songs were designed to be performed in wide spaces. Bright colors were required to be seen from afar. People strove to be hospitable, treated with respect the merchant guests, for they were messengers of a distant world, storytellers, witnesses of the existence of other lands. Hence the delight before rapid movements in space. Hence the monumental nature of art.

People built mounds to remember the dead, but the graves and tombstones did not yet testify to the sense of history as a process extended over time. The past was, as it were, a single, antiquity in general, not divided into epochs and not ordered chronologically. Time constituted a recurring annual circle, with which it was necessary to conform in their economic work. Time as history did not yet exist.

Time and events demanded knowledge of the world and history on a large scale. It is worthy of special attention that this desire for a broader understanding of the world than that given by paganism was felt primarily along the trade and military roads of Rus', where, first of all, where the first state formations grew. The desire for statehood was not, of course, brought from outside, from Greece or Scandinavia, otherwise it would not have had such a phenomenal success in Rus', which marked the 10th century of the history of Rus'.

Baptism of Rus'. New empire builder

The true creator of the vast empire of Rus' - Prince Vladimir I Svyatoslavich in 980 makes the first attempt to unite paganism throughout the entire territory from the eastern slopes of the Carpathians to the Oka and Volga, from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, which included East Slavic, Finno-Ugric and Turkic tribes. The chronicle reports: “And the beginning of the prince Volodimer in Kiev is one, and put idols on the hill outside the courtyard of the tower”: Perun (Finno-Ugric Perkun), Khors (god of the Turkic tribes), Dazhbog, Stribog (Slavic gods), Simargl, Mokosh (goddess Mokosh tribe).

The seriousness of Vladimir’s intentions is evidenced by the fact that after the creation of the pantheon of gods in Kiev, he sent his uncle Dobrynya to Novgorod and he “put an idol over the Volkhov River, and feed him the people of nobility like a god.” As always in Russian history, Vladimir gave preference to a foreign tribe - the Finno-Ugric tribe. This main idol in Novgorod, which Dobrynya set up, was the idol of the Finnish Perkun, although, apparently, the cult of the Slavic god Beles, or otherwise Volos, was most widespread in Novgorod.

However, the interests of the country called Rus' to a more developed and more universal religion. This call was clearly heard where people of different tribes and peoples most of all communicated with each other. This call had a great past behind it, it echoed throughout Russian history.

The great European trade route, known in the Russian chronicles as the route from the Varangians to the Greeks”, that is, from Scandinavia to Byzantium and back, was the most important in Europe until the 12th century, when European trade between south and north moved west. This path not only connected Scandinavia with Byzantium, but also had branches, the most significant of which was the path to the Caspian along the Volga. The main part of all these roads ran through the lands of the Eastern Slavs and was used by them in the first place, but also through the lands of the Finno-Ugric peoples who took part in trade, in the processes of state formation, in military campaigns against Byzantium (no wonder Kiev is one of the most famous places was Chudin yard, that is, the farmstead of merchants of the Chud tribe - the ancestors of today's Estonians).

Numerous data indicate that Christianity began to spread in Rus' even before the official baptism of Rus' under Vladimir I Svyatoslavich in 988 (there are, however, other alleged dates of baptism, the consideration of which is beyond the scope of this article). And all these testimonies speak of the appearance of Christianity, first of all, in the centers of communication between people of different nationalities, even if this communication was far from peaceful. This again and again indicates that people needed a universal, world religion. The latter was supposed to serve as a kind of introduction of Rus' to world culture. And it is no coincidence that this entry into the world arena was organically connected with the appearance in Rus' of a highly organized literary language, which would consolidate this initiation in texts, primarily translated ones. Writing made it possible to communicate not only with modern Russian cultures, but also with past cultures. It made it possible to write one's own history, a philosophical generalization of one's own national experience and literature.

Already the first legend of the Primary Russian Chronicle about Christianity in Rus' tells about the journey of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called from Sinopia and Korsun (Chersonesos) along the great path “from the Greeks to the Varangians” - along the Dnieper, Lovat and Volkhov to the Baltic Sea, and then around Europe to Rome.

Christianity already in this legend acts as a uniting country, including Rus' in Europe. Of course, this journey of the Apostle Andrew is a pure legend, if only because in the 1st century the Eastern Slavs did not yet exist - they did not form into a single people. However, the appearance of Christianity on the northern shores of the Black Sea at a very early time was also recorded by non-Russian sources. The Apostle Andrew preached on his way through the Caucasus to the Bosporus (Kerch), Feodosia and Chersonese. The spread of Christianity by the Apostle Andrew in Scythia is mentioned, in particular, by Eusebius of Caesarea (died about 340). The Life of Clement, Pope of Rome, tells of Clement's stay in Chersonese, where he died under Emperor Trajan (98-117). Under the same emperor Trajan, the Jerusalem Patriarch Hermon sent several bishops one after another to Chersonesus, where they were martyred. The last bishop sent by Hermon died at the mouth of the Dnieper. Under Emperor Constantine the Great, Bishop Kapiton appeared in Chersonesos, who also died a martyr. Christianity in the Crimea, which needed a bishop, was authentically recorded as early as the 3rd century.

The first ecumenical council in Nicaea (325) was attended by representatives from the Bosporus, Chersonesus and Metropolitan Gotfil. located outside the Crimea, to which, however, the Tauride Episcopacy was subordinated. The presence of these representatives is established on the basis of their signatures under conciliar resolutions. The Church Fathers - Tertullian, Athanasius of Alexandria, John Chrysostom, Blessed Jerome - also speak about Christianity of a part of the Scythians.

The Christian Goths who lived in the Crimea constituted a strong state that exerted a serious influence not only on the Slavs, but on the Lithuanians and Finns - at least on their languages.

Communications with the Northern Black Sea region were then hampered by the great migration of nomadic peoples in the second half of the 4th century. However, trade routes still continued to exist, and the influence of Christianity from south to north undoubtedly took place. Christianity continued to spread under Emperor Justinian the Great, covering the Crimea, the North Caucasus, as well as the eastern shore of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov among the Goths-meals, who, according to Procopius, “revered the Christian faith with simplicity and great calmness” (VI century).

With the spread of the Turko-Khazar horde from the Urals and the Caspian to the Carpathians and the Crimean coast, a special cultural situation arose. In the Khazar state, not only Islam and Judaism were widespread, but also Christianity, especially due to the fact that the Roman emperors Justinian II and Constantine V were married to Khazar princesses, and Greek builders erected fortresses in Khazaria. In addition, Christians from Georgia, fleeing from the Muslims, fled to the north, that is, to Khazaria. In the Crimea and the North Caucasus within the limits of Khazaria, the number of Christian bishops naturally grows, especially in the middle of the 8th century. At this time, there were eight bishops in Khazaria. It is possible that with the spread of Christianity in Khazaria and the establishment of friendly Byzantine-Khazar relations, a favorable environment is created for religious disputes between the three dominant religions in Khazaria: Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Each of these religions strove for spiritual predominance, as Jewish-Khazar and Arab sources speak of. In particular, in the middle of the 9th century, as evidenced by the “Pannonian Life” of Cyril-Constantine and Methodius, the enlighteners of the Slavs, the Khazars invited theologians from Byzantium for religious disputes with Jews and Muslims. This confirms the possibility of the choice of faith described by the Russian chronicler Vladimir - through polls and disputes.

Baptism of Rus'. Epoch of Christianity

It seems natural that Christianity in Rus' also appeared as a result of the realization of the situation that developed in the 10th century, when the presence of states with a Christian population as the main neighbors of Russia was especially obvious: here is the Northern Black Sea region, and Byzantium, and the movement of Christians along the main trade routes that crossed Rus' from south to north and from west to east.

Byzantium and Bulgaria played a special role here.

Let's start with Byzantium. Rus' besieged Constantinople three times - in 866, 907 and 941. These were not ordinary robber raids, they ended with the conclusion of peace treaties that established new trade and state relations between Russia and Byzantium.

And if only pagans participated in the agreement of 912 on the Russian side, then in the agreement of 945, Christians already take the first place. In a short period of time, the number of Christians has clearly increased. This is also evidenced by the adoption of Christianity by the Kievan princess Olga herself, whose magnificent reception in Constantinople in 955 is told by both Russian and Byzantine sources.

We will not enter into consideration of the most difficult question of where and when Olga's grandson Vladimir was baptized. The 11th-century chronicler himself refers to the existence of various versions. I will only say that one fact seems obvious; Vladimir was baptized after his courtship to the sister of the Byzantine emperor Anna, for it is unlikely that the most powerful emperor of the Romans, Basil II, would have agreed to intermarry with the barbarian, and Vladimir could not help but understand this.

The fact is that the predecessor of Basil II, Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, in his well-known work “On the Management of the Empire”, written for his son, the future Emperor Roman II (father of Emperor Basil II), forbade his descendants to marry representatives of barbarian peoples, referring to the Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine I the Great, who ordered to inscribe in the altar of St. Sophia of Constantinople, the Romans were forbidden to be related to strangers - especially to the unbaptized.

It should also be taken into account that from the second half of the 10th century the power of the Byzantine Empire reached its greatest strength. By this time, the empire had repelled the Arab danger and overcome the cultural crisis associated with the existence of iconoclasm, which led to a significant decline in fine arts. And it is noteworthy that Vladimir I Svyatoslavich played a significant role in this heyday of Byzantine power.

In the summer of 988, a select six thousandth detachment of the Varangian-Russian squad, sent by Vladimir I Svyatoslavich, saved the Byzantine emperor Basil II, utterly defeating the army of Varda Foki, who was trying to take the imperial throne. Vladimir himself escorted his squad, sent to the aid of Vasily II, to the Dnieper rapids. Having fulfilled their duty, the squad remained to serve in Byzantium (subsequently, the squad of the Anglo-Varangians was the guard of the emperors).

Along with the consciousness of equality came to Rus' the consciousness of the common history of all mankind. Most of all, in the first half of the 11th century, Metropolitan Hilarion of Kiev, Rusyn by origin, showed himself in the formation of national self-consciousness in his famous “Sermon on Law and Grace”, where he drew a common future role for Rus' in the Christian world. However, back in the 10th century, the “Speech of the Philosopher” was written, which is a presentation of world history, into which Russian history was supposed to merge. The teaching of Christianity gave first of all the consciousness of the common history of mankind and the participation in this history of all peoples.

How was Christianity adopted in Rus'? We know that in many countries of Europe Christianity was forcibly planted. Baptism in Rus' was not without violence, but on the whole, the spread of Christianity in Rus' was quite peaceful, especially if we recall other examples. Clovis forcibly baptized his squads. Charlemagne forcibly baptized the Saxons. Stefan I, King of Hungary, forcibly baptized his people. He forcibly forced those who managed to accept it according to the Byzantine custom to abandon Eastern Christianity. But we do not have reliable information about mass violence on the part of Vladimir I Svyatoslavich. The overthrow of the idols of Perun in the south and north was not accompanied by repressions. The idols were lowered down the river, as later dilapidated shrines were lowered - old icons, for example. The people wept for their fallen god, but did not rise up. The uprising of the Magi in 1071, which the Primary Chronicle tells about, was caused in the Belozersky region by hunger, and not by the desire to return to paganism. Moreover, Vladimir understood Christianity in his own way and even refused to execute robbers, declaring: "... I am afraid of sin."

Christianity was conquered from Byzantium under the walls of Chersonesos, but it did not turn into an act of conquest against its people.

One of the happiest moments of the adoption of Christianity in Rus' was that the spread of Christianity proceeded without special requirements and teachings directed against paganism. And if Leskov in the story “At the End of the World” puts into the mouth of Metropolitan Platon the idea that “Vladimir hastened, and the Greeks were cunning - they baptized the ignoramuses of the unlearned,” then it was precisely this circumstance that contributed to the peaceful entry of Christianity into popular life and did not allow the church to occupy sharply hostile positions in relation to pagan rites and beliefs, but on the contrary, to gradually introduce Christian ideas into paganism, and to see in Christianity a peaceful transformation of people's life.

So doubling? No, not duality! There can be no dual faith at all: either there is only one faith, or there is none. The latter in the first centuries of Christianity in Rus' could not possibly exist, because no one has yet been able to deprive people of the ability to see the unusual in the ordinary, to believe in an afterlife and in the existence of a divine principle. To understand what happened, let us return again to the specifics of ancient Russian paganism, to its chaotic and non-dogmatic character.

Any religion, including the chaotic paganism of Rus', has, in addition to all sorts of cults and idols, also moral foundations. These moral foundations, whatever they may be, organize the life of the people. Old Russian paganism permeated all layers of the society of Ancient Rus' that began to feudalize. From the records of the annals it is clear that Rus' already possessed the ideal of military behavior. This ideal is clearly visible in the stories of the Primary Chronicle about Prince Svyatoslav.

Here is his famous speech addressed to his soldiers: let us not disgrace the Russian lands, but lie down with bones, the dead are not shameful to the imam. If we run away, shame on the imam. Imam will not run away, but we will stand strong, but I will go before you: if my head lies down, then provide for yourself.

Once upon a time, Russian secondary school students learned this speech by heart, perceiving both its chivalrous meaning and the beauty of Russian speech, as, incidentally, other speeches of Svyatoslav or the famous characteristic given to him by the chronicler: “... walking easily, like a pardus (cheetah), wars are much more creative. Walking, you don’t carry a cart by yourself, neither a boiler nor cooking meat, but having slashed a horse meat or a beast on coals, you baked an uncle, not a tent, but a lining and a saddle in your heads; the same is true of other howls of his weight byahu. And sent to the countries of the verb: “I want to go to you.”

I deliberately quote all these quotations without translating them into modern Russian, so that the reader can appreciate the beauty, accuracy and laconism of ancient Russian literary speech, which has enriched the Russian literary language for a thousand years.

This ideal of princely behavior: selfless devotion to one's country, contempt for death in battle, democracy and the Spartan way of life, directness in addressing even the enemy - all this remained after the adoption of Christianity and left a special imprint on the stories about Christian ascetics. In the Izbornik of 1076, a book specially written for the prince, who could take it with him on campaigns for moralizing reading (I write about this in a special work), there are the following lines: “... beauty is a weapon for a warrior and a sail (sails) for a ship, tacos and the righteous veneration of the book. The righteous is compared to a warrior! Regardless of where and when this text was written, it also characterizes the high Russian military morality.

In Vladimir Monomakh's "Instruction", most likely written at the end of the 11th century, and possibly at the beginning of the 12th century (the exact time of writing does not play a significant role), the fusion of the pagan ideal of the prince's behavior with Christian instructions is clearly visible. Monomakh boasts of the number and speed of his campaigns (the “ideal prince” - Svyatoslav looks through), his courage in battles and hunting (two main princely affairs): (walking on hikes) and fishing (hunting) from the age of 13. And describing his life, he remarks: “And from Shchernigov to Kiev, I didn’t (more than a hundred times) go to my father, in the afternoon I moved until vespers. And all the ways are 80 and 3 great, but I can’t remember the smaller ones for now. ”

Monomakh did not hide his crimes: how many people he beat and burned Russian cities. And after that, as an example of truly noble, Christian behavior, he cites his letter to Oleg, about the amazing content of which I had to write more than once. In the name of the principle proclaimed by Monomakh at the Lyubech Congress of Princes: “Let each one keep his fatherland” - Monomakh forgives the defeated enemy Oleg Svyatoslavich (“Gorislavich”), in the battle with whom his son Izyaslav fell, and invites him to return to his fatherland - Chernigov: “ And what are we, human sinners and dashing? - live today, and die in the morning, today in glory and honor (in honor), and in the morning in the coffin and memorylessness (no one will remember us), and our assembly will be divided. The arguments are quite Christian and, let's say in passing, extremely important for their time during the transition to a new order of ownership of the Russian land by princes at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries.

Education after the baptism of Rus'

Education was also an important Christian virtue under Vladimir. After the baptism of Rus', Vladimir, as the Primary Chronicle testifies,. These lines evoked various conjectures as to where this “book teaching” was conducted, whether these were schools and what type, but one thing is clear: “book teaching” has become a matter of state concern.

Finally, another Christian virtue, from the point of view of Vladimir, was the mercy of the rich in relation to the poor and wretched. Having been baptized, Vladimir began to take care of the sick and the poor first of all. According to the chronicle, Vladimir “ordered every poor and wretched person to come to the prince’s yard and collect all the needs, drink and food, and from the wives with kunami (money).” And for those who could not come, the weak and sick, to deliver supplies to the yards. If this concern of his was to some extent limited to Kiev or even part of Kiev, then even then the chronicler's story is extremely important, because it shows what exactly the chronicler considered the most important in Christianity, and with it the majority of his readers and rewriters of the text - mercy, kindness. Ordinary generosity became mercy. These are different acts, for the act of good deed was transferred from the person giving to those to whom it was given, and this was Christian mercy.

In the future, we will return to one more moment in the Christian religion, which turned out to be extremely attractive in the choice of faiths and for a long time determined the nature of East Slavic religiosity. Now let's turn to that lower stratum of the population, which before the baptism of Rus' was called smerds, and after, contrary to all the usual ideas of scientists of modern times, the most Christian stratum of the population, which is why it got its name - the peasantry.

Paganism here was represented not so much by the highest gods, but by a layer of beliefs that regulated labor activity according to the seasonal annual cycle: spring, summer, autumn and winter. These beliefs turned work into a holiday and brought up the love and respect for the land, which is so necessary in agricultural work. Here Christianity quickly came to terms with paganism, or rather, with its ethics, the moral foundations of peasant labor.

The language was not uniform. This idea, repeated by us above, should also be understood in the sense that in paganism there was a “higher” mythology associated with the main gods, whom Vladimir wanted to unite even before the adoption of Christianity, arranging his pantheon “outside the courtyard of the tower”, and mythology "lower", which consisted mainly in connection with the beliefs of an agricultural nature and brought up in people a moral attitude towards the land and towards each other.

The first circle of beliefs was decisively rejected by Vladimir, and the idols were overthrown and lowered into the rivers - both in Kyiv and in Novgorod. However, the second circle of beliefs began to become Christianized and acquire shades of Christian morality.

Recent studies (mainly the remarkable work of M. M. Gromyko “Traditional Norms of Behavior and Forms of Communication of Russian Peasants of the 19th Century.” M. 1986) provide a number of examples of this.

The moral role of the baptism of Rus'

Remained, in particular, in different parts of our country, peasant help, or cleanup - a common work performed by the entire peasant community. In the pagan, pre-feudal village, help was performed as a custom of common rural work. In the Christian (peasant) village, help became a form of collective assistance to poor families - families that have lost their head, the disabled, orphans, etc. The moral meaning contained in the help became stronger in the Christianized rural community. It is remarkable that help was performed as a holiday, had a cheerful character, was accompanied by jokes, witticisms, sometimes competitions, general feasts. Thus, the entire offensive character was removed from the peasant assistance to poor families: help from the neighbors was made not as alms and sacrifice, humiliating those who were helped, but as a cheerful custom that brought joy to all participants. Realizing the importance of what was being done, people went out to help in festive clothes, the horses were “put in the best harness”.

“Although the cleanup work is hard and not particularly pleasant, but meanwhile the cleanup is a pure holiday for all participants, especially for children and youth,” said a witness to the cleanup (or help) in the Pskov province.

The pagan custom acquired an ethical Christian coloring. Christianity softened and absorbed other pagan customs. So, for example, the initial Russian chronicle tells about the pagan kidnapping of brides near the water. This custom was associated with the cult of springs, wells, water in general. But with the introduction of Christianity, beliefs in water weakened, and the custom of meeting a girl when she was walking with buckets of water remained. By the water, preliminary agreements between a girl and a guy were also made. Perhaps the most important example of preserving and even increasing the moral principle of paganism is the cult of the earth. Peasants (and not only peasants, as V. L. Komarovich showed in his work “The Cult of the Family and the Land in the Princely Environment of the XI-XIII centuries”) treated the land as a shrine. Before the start of agricultural work, they asked the land for forgiveness for the fact that they “ripped open its breast” with a plow. They asked the earth for forgiveness for all their offenses against morality. Even in the 19th century, Raskolnikov in Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" first of all publicly asks for forgiveness for the murder right on the ground right in the square.

There are many examples. The adoption of Christianity did not abolish the lower stratum of paganism, just as higher mathematics did not abolish elementary mathematics. There are no two sciences in mathematics, there was no dual faith among the peasantry. There was a gradual Christianization (along with the withering away) of pagan customs and rituals.

Now let's turn to one extremely important point in .

The initial Russian chronicle conveys a beautiful legend about the testing of faith by Vladimir. The ambassadors sent by Vladimir were with the Mohammedans, then with the Germans, who served their service according to Western custom, and finally came to Tsargrad to the Greeks. The last story of the ambassadors is extremely significant, because it was the most important reason for Vladimir to choose Christianity from Byzantium. I will give it in full in translation into modern Russian. The ambassadors of Vladimir came to Constantinople and appeared to the king. “The king asked them - why did they come? They told him everything. Hearing their story, the king rejoiced and did them a great honor on the same day. The next day he sent to the patriarch, saying to him: “The Russians have come to test our faith. Prepare the church and the clergy, and dress yourself in hierarchal robes, so that they may see the glory of our God.” Hearing about this, the patriarch ordered to convene the clergy, held a festive service according to custom, and censers were lit, and singing and choirs were organized. And he went with the Russians to the church, and they put them in the best place, showing them the beauty of the church, the singing and service of the bishops, the presence of the deacons, and telling them about serving their god. They (that is, the ambassadors) were in admiration, marveled and praised their service. And the kings Basil and Constantine called them, and said to them: “Go to your land,” and let them go with great gifts and honor. They returned to their own land. And Prince Vladimir summoned his boyars and elders and said to them: “The men sent by us have come, let us listen to everything that happened to them,” I turned to the ambassadors: “Speak before the retinue.”

I omit what the ambassadors said about other faiths, but here is what they said about the service in Constantinople: “and we came to the Greek land, and brought us to where they serve their god, and did not know whether we were in heaven or on earth : for there is no such sight and beauty on earth, and we do not know how to tell about it. We only know that God lives there with people, and their service is better than in all other countries. We cannot forget that beauty, for every person, if he tastes the sweet, then will not take the bitter; so we can no longer be here in paganism.”

Architecture

Let us recall that the test of faiths meant not which faith is more beautiful, but which faith is true. And the Russian ambassadors proclaim its beauty as the main argument for the truth of faith. And this is no accident! It is precisely because of this idea of ​​the primacy of the artistic principle in church and state life that the first Russian Christian princes built their cities with such zeal and built central churches in them. Together with church vessels and icons, Vladimir brings from Korsun (Chersonesos) two copper idols (that is, two statues, not idols) and four copper horses, “about which the ignoramuses think they are marble”, and puts them behind the Church of the Tithes, on the most solemn place in the city.

The churches erected in the 11th century are still the architectural centers of the old cities of the Eastern Slavs: Sofia in Kiev, Sofia in Novgorod, the Savior in Chernigov, the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir, etc. No subsequent churches and buildings overshadowed what was built in the 11th century.

None of the countries that bordered Russia in the 11th century could compare with it in the grandeur of its architecture and in the art of painting, mosaics, applied arts and in the intensity of historical thought expressed in chronicles and translation chronicles.

The only country with high architecture, complex both in technology and in beauty, which, apart from Byzantium, can be considered the forerunner of Rus' in art, is Bulgaria with its monumental buildings in Pliska and Preslav. Large stone temples were built in northern Italy in Lombardy, in northern Spain, in England and in the Rhine region, but this is far away.

It is not entirely clear why in the countries adjacent to Rus' rotunda churches were predominantly distributed in the 11th century: whether this was done in imitation of the rotunda built by Charlemagne in Aachen, or in honor of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, or it was believed that the rotunda is most suitable for performing the rite of baptism.

In any case, temples of the basilica type are replaced by rotunda temples, and it can be assumed that in the 12th century the adjacent countries were already carrying out extensive construction and were catching up with Rus', which nevertheless continued to retain its primacy until the Tatar-Mongol conquest.

Returning to the height of the art of pre-Mongolian Russia, I cannot fail to quote from the notes of Paul of Aleppo, who traveled around Russia under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and saw the ruins of the Sophia Cathedral in Kiev: “The human mind is unable to embrace her (the Church of Sophia) because of the variety of colors of her marbles and their combinations, the symmetrical arrangement of parts of its structure, the large number and height of its columns, the elevation of its domes, its vastness, the multiplicity of its porticos and vestibules. In this description, not everything is accurate, but one can believe the general impression that the Sophia temple made on a foreigner who saw the temples of both Asia Minor and the Balkan Peninsula. One can think that the artistic moment was not accidental in the Christianity of Rus'.

The aesthetic moment played a particularly important role in the Byzantine revival of the 9th-11th centuries, that is, just at the time when Rus' was being baptized. Patriarch Photius of Constantinople in the 9th century, in an address to the Bulgarian prince Boris, persistently expressed the idea that beauty, harmonious unity and harmony as a whole distinguish the Christian faith, which differs from heresy precisely in this. In the perfection of the human face, nothing can be added or subtracted - and so it is in the Christian faith. In the eyes of the Greeks of the 9th-11th centuries, inattention to the artistic side of worship was an insult to divine dignity.

Russian culture was obviously prepared for the perception of this aesthetic moment, for it remained in it for a long time and became its defining element. Let us recall that for many centuries Russian philosophy was closely connected with literature and poetry. Therefore, it should be studied in connection with Lomonosov and Derzhavin, Tyutchev and Vladimir Solovyov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chernyshevsky... Russian icon painting was a speculation in colors, expressing, above all, a worldview. Philosophy was also Russian music. Mussorgsky is the greatest and far from being discovered thinker, in particular, a historical thinker.

It is not necessary to list all the cases of the moral influence of the church on the Russian princes. They are well known to everyone who, in one way or another, to a greater or lesser extent, impartially and unbiasedly is interested in Russian history. I will say briefly that the adoption of Christianity by Vladimir from Byzantium tore Rus' away from Mohammedan and pagan Asia, bringing it closer to Christian Europe. Whether that's good or bad, let the readers judge. But one thing is indisputable: the well-organized Bulgarian literature immediately allowed Rus' not to start literature, but to continue it and create works in the very first century of Christianity that we have the right to be proud of.

Culture itself does not know the starting date, just as the peoples, tribes, and settlements themselves do not know the exact starting date. All anniversary beginning dates of this kind are usually arbitrary. But if we talk about the conditional date of the beginning of Russian culture, then I, in my opinion, would consider the year 988 the most reasonable. Is it necessary to delay anniversaries in the depths of time? Do we need a date of two thousand years or one and a half thousand years? With our world achievements in the field of all kinds of arts, such a date is unlikely to elevate Russian culture in any way. The main thing that the Eastern Slavs have done for world culture has been done over the last millennium. The rest is just assumed values.

Rus' appeared with its Kiev, a rival of Constantinople, on the world stage exactly a thousand years ago. A thousand years ago, both high painting and high applied art appeared in our country - just those areas in which there was no lag in East Slavic culture. We also know that Rus' was a highly literate country, otherwise where would such a high literature have formed at the dawn of the 11th century? The first and most amazing work in form and thought was the work of the “Russian” author, Metropolitan Hilarion (“Sermon on Law and Grace” - a work that no other country had the likeness of in his time, - ecclesiastical in form and historical and political in content.

Attempts to substantiate the idea that they accepted Christianity according to the Latin custom are devoid of any scientific documentation and are clearly tendentious in nature. Only one thing is not clear: what could it matter if the whole Christian culture was adopted by us from Byzantium and as a result of relations between Rus' and Byzantium. Nothing can be deduced from the very fact that baptism was accepted in Rus' before the formal division of the Christian churches into Byzantine-Eastern and Catholic-Western in 1054. How can nothing decisively be inferred from the fact that before this separation Vladimir received Latin missionaries in Kyiv “with love and honor” (what grounds did he have for receiving otherwise?). Nor can anything be deduced from the fact that Vladimir and Yaroslav gave their daughters to kings adjacent to Western Christendom. Didn't Russian tsars in the 19th century marry German and Danish princesses, didn't they marry their daughters to Western sovereigns?

It is not worth listing all the weak arguments that Catholic historians of the Russian Church usually give, Ivan the Terrible rightly explained to Possevino: “Our faith is not Greek, but Christian.”

But it should be taken into account that Russia did not agree to the union.

No matter how we consider the refusal of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily Vasilyevich to accept the Union of Florence in 1439 with the Roman Catholic Church, for its time it was an act of the greatest political significance. For this not only helped to preserve their own culture, but also contributed to the reunification of the three East Slavic peoples, and at the beginning of the 17th century, in the era of Polish intervention, helped to preserve Russian statehood. This idea, as always with him, was clearly expressed by S.M. Solovyov: the rejection of the Union of Florence by Vasily II "is one of those great decisions that determine the fate of peoples for many centuries to come ...". Loyalty to ancient piety, proclaimed by Grand Duke Vasily Vasilyevich, supported the independence of northeastern Rus' in 1612, made it impossible for the Polish prince to ascend the throne of Moscow, and led to a struggle for faith in the Polish possessions.

The Uniate Cathedral of 1596 in the ominous Brest-Litovsk could not wash away the line between national Ukrainian and Belarusian cultures.

The western reforms of Peter I could not wash away the line of originality, although they were necessary for Russia.

The hasty and frivolously conceived church reforms of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and Patriarch Nikon led to a split in Russian culture, the unity of which was sacrificed for the sake of the church, purely ritual unity of Russia with Ukraine and Belarus.

Pushkin said this about Christianity in his review of N. Polevoy's "History of the Russian People": "Modern history is the history of Christianity." And if we understand that by history Pushkin meant, first of all, the history of culture, then Pushkin's position is, in a certain sense, correct for Russia as well. The role and significance of Christianity in Rus' were very changeable, just as Orthodoxy itself was changeable in Rus'. However, considering that painting, music, to a large extent architecture and almost all literature in Ancient Rus' were in the orbit of Christian thought, Christian disputes and Christian themes, it is quite clear that Pushkin was right, if his thought is broadly understood.

Vladimir Svyatoslavich the Great Saint
Reign: 980-1015
Years of life: 947-1015

The Grand Duke of Kiev, a political and religious figure who went down in the history of Orthodoxy as an "Equal to the Apostles" prince; gave Christianity in Rus' the status of a state religion. Also known as the "Baptist of Rus'".

Prince Vladimir the Great - biography

The son of the Grand Duke of Kyiv Svyatoslav I Igorevich, who, when dividing his principality, installed Vladimir to reign in Novgorod at the request of the Novgorodians in 969. According to legend, Vladimir's mother is the housekeeper of Princess Olga Malusha.

During the internecine war between the two older brothers Yaropolk and Oleg, which ended in the death of Oleg, Vladimir was frightened by the lust for power of his older brother and fled "over the sea" to the Varangians. He returned in 980, at the head of the Varangian squad in order to return the lost. He fulfilled his task: having taken Kyiv, he lured Yaropolk out of it with the help of the traitor Yaropolk for negotiations and killed him.

Kyiv prince Vladimir the Great

Strengthening his power with the help of the Varangians, he subordinated to Kyiv the Vyatichi, Radimichi and Yatvingians (tribes that lived in the west of present-day Belarus). For a more successful opposition to the nomads (Pechenegs, etc.), he built fortresses and earthen ramparts on the southern borders: along the Desna, Irpen, Osetra, Sula, Trubezh rivers. Chronicles emphasize the militancy and cruelty of Vladimir the pagan, who did not shy away from human sacrifices.

In 995, Vladimir with an army was forced to flee from the Pechenegs near Vasiliev; in 997, when Vladimir went to Novgorod to gather an army, the Pechenegs attacked Belgorod (the city was saved by a miracle). Fought with the Volga Bulgaria. His wars with Byzantium and Poland are also known (campaign of 992).

It was Vladimir who founded the first schools in Rus' for teaching literacy, but this was already done under the influence of Christianity and in order to be able to train his own, Russian priests.

Vladimir the Great - years of reign

Most of all, Vladimir became famous for the fact that he baptized Rus', that is, precisely
on his orders, many people converted to the Christian faith. By birth and upbringing, he was a pagan. When he defeated his brother Yaropolk and began to reign in Kyiv, he first ordered the construction of a temple of the most important pagan gods in the city, including the god Perun.

Gradually, it turned out that the interests of the state required the adoption by all of one faith, a faith that could unite disparate tribes into one people in order to stand together against enemies and earn the respect of allies. But the peoples who lived around Rus' prayed to different gods: Muslims - to Allah, Jews - to Jehovah, Christians - to the Christian God. And although they all recognized only one true god, the rites and laws of all of them were different.

Therefore, it was very difficult to choose one of the faiths. According to legend, in 986 he received ambassadors from Volga Bulgaria, Rome, from the Khazars and Greeks, who offered him to accept, respectively, the Muslim, “Latin” (Western Christian), Jewish or “Greek” (Eastern Christian) faith.

After listening to everyone, including the Greek "philosopher", he next year sent his own envoys to test different religions and was captivated by the famous story of those who visited Byzantium, fascinated by the "heavenly" beauty of the divine service there (in passing, the boyars and elders reminded the prince of the Christian choice of "grandmother his Olga, the wisest of all men").

Christian Rus' under Vladimir the Great

Then he made the final decision, which, according to another, more political and pragmatic version, was due to the "Korsun issue", i.e. campaign against Byzantium (aggressive or allied, associated with the suppression of the local uprising of the commander Phocas), as a result of which Vladimir converted to Christianity, taking the Byzantine princess Anna, the sister of Emperor Basil II, as his wife.

In 988 Vladimir took Kherson (Korsun). The baptism of the prince took place in 987/989 precisely in Kherson, while he adopted the new name of Vasily, in honor of the emperor as his absentee successor. (In church tradition, 988 is accepted for the year of baptism.) Returning to Rus', the prince brought with him Greek priests, liturgical books and utensils.

Baptisms in Kiev took on a mass character, pagan idols were destroyed, the first Christian churches were erected (the wooden church of St. Basil and the stone one, Tithes, in honor of the Virgin; the latter was consecrated in 996). Finally, in the same years, a special Kiev Metropolis of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and a number of other bishoprics (Belgorod, Novgorod, Polotsk, etc.) were established.

According to the chronicles, after accepting the new faith, Vladimir's character changed: filled with goodwill, he became famous for his charity work and now refused to execute even criminals, preferring to take a fine (vira) from them. This did not prevent him, a skilled strategist, from successfully defending himself against the Pechenegs (populating the southern borders for this purpose) and opposing Poland in Galicia.

With a large number of wives and concubines, Vladimir had many children. History mentions the following sons: Vysheslav, Izyaslav, Yaroslav, Vsevolod, Svyatoslav, Stanislav, Pozvizd, Boris, Gleb, Mstislav, Sudislav and Svyatopolk.

In 995, Vladimir divided Rus' into appanages and gave them to management. sons. Historians believe that this was the biggest mistake of all, which subsequently led to the fragmentation of Rus' into separate principalities and civil strife.

Vladimir decided to go on a campaign against Novgorod in order to punish the recalcitrant son of Yaroslav, the local prince, but he died in his suburban village of Berestov (near Kiev) on July 15, 1015 and was buried in the tithe church in Kiev.

Favorite hero of folk epics, "Vladimir the Red Sun O"was canonized as Holy Grand Duke Vladimir. Church memory is celebrated on the day of his death on July 15 (28).

In 2017, a grandiose historical film "Viking" was released on the screens of Russia. It was dedicated to the Grand Duke.

Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich, Vladimir the Great, Vladimir Yasnoye Solnyshko is the most important character in Russian history, a cruel warrior and a talented politician who made a huge contribution to the unification of Russian lands. Baptist of Rus'.

The exact date and place of birth of the Grand Duke has not been established, presumably he was born in 955 - 960 in the village of Budyatyn near Kiev. Vladimir is a descendant of the great family of Ruriks, the illegitimate son of Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich and the housekeeper Princess Olga Malusha.

The enraged princess, having learned about the adultery of her slave with her son, exiled the pregnant Malusha out of sight, but did not abandon her grandson - "robichich", the son of a slave. When Vladimir was three years old, she took him to Kyiv and gave him to be raised by her brother, governor Dobrynya.

Novgorod

Prince Svyatoslav spent all his time on military campaigns and had little interest in the internal affairs of the subject lands. Therefore, he distributed the territories belonging to him to his sons. Yaropolk got Kyiv, Oleg - Drevlyane region (modern Belarus), and Vladimir got Novgorod.

In 972, Svyatoslav Igorevich died in battle with the Pechenegs, and his heirs became full owners of their possessions. But soon an internecine war broke out between the brothers. The reason was the death of Yaropolk's comrade-in-arms at the hands of Oleg. Enraged, Yaropolk decided to punish his brother and take away the Drevlyansky lands from him. In the very first battle, Oleg's army was defeated, and he himself died, crushed on the bridge by warriors fleeing in a panic. Yaropolk annexed the occupied lands to his possessions and fixed his eyes on Novgorod.

Sensing danger, Vladimir fled to his Varangian friends in Scandinavia, and Yaropolk became the sole ruler of all Rus'. But not for long. Vladimir did not sit idly by the sea. He quickly found allies, gathered an army, and two years later regained Novgorod. The locals greeted the prince with delight and joined the ranks of his squad. Feeling his strength, Vladimir decided to continue to win back the Russian lands from his brother.

To begin with, he sent his army to the Drevlyansk lands, captured by his brother from Oleg. The calculation turned out to be correct, the inhabitants did not really like the governors of Yaropolk and quickly went over to the side of Vladimir. In order to finally gain a foothold in these possessions, the prince decided to marry the daughter of the influential Polotsk prince Rogvold Rogneda. However, the beauty refused Vladimir, publicly calling him "the son of a slave", and preferred to see Yaropolk as her husband. The revenge of the angry Vladimir was terrible. His squad captured and destroyed Polotsk to the ground, and Rogvold and his family were brutally killed. And before that, Vladimir, on the advice of his faithful mentor Dobrynya, raped Rogneda in front of his parents.

Immediately after that, he sent his troops to Kyiv. Frightened, Yaropolk was not ready for battle and, having fortified the city, prepared for a long siege. But this was not part of the plans of the determined Vladimir, and he figured out how to lure his brother out of the city by cunning. The prince bribed the governor Yaropolk Blud, who convinced him to flee to Roden. There Vladimir, under the pretext of negotiations, ambushed his brother and killed him. He married the pregnant wife of Yaropolk, who soon gave birth to a son, Svyatopolk, and became the sole ruler of Rus'.

Prince of Kyiv

Having added Yaropolk's warriors to his army, Vladimir entered Kyiv. He already had enough of his soldiers to refuse the help of the Varangians, who, moreover, were accustomed to plunder the occupied lands. And Vladimir was not going to give Kyiv for plunder. Therefore, leaving the most devoted and talented associates for himself, he sent the rest to Constantinople, promising them "mountains of gold" and new opportunities for enrichment. And he himself asked the Byzantine emperor to take them into his service and spread them to different places, thereby providing him with military assistance.

Having reformed his army, the prince began to strengthen his own power. As a basis, he decided to take a pagan religion, which was supposed to justify his usual rampant lifestyle (the prince had five legal wives and about a thousand concubines).

Vladimir built a temple in Kyiv, where huge idols of the main pagan gods were built. Rites and sacrifices were regularly held there, which, according to the prince, should have strengthened his power. The image of the main god Perun with a human head in a helmet and with a mustache, personifying, apparently, Prince Vladimir himself, has survived to this day.

The first ten years of his reign in Russia were marked by numerous victories over external enemies and the unification of Russian lands into a single state.

But with the expansion of borders to the west, the issue of changing religion to one of the more widespread and advanced became more and more urgent. Vladimir was a far-sighted politician and understood that paganism was becoming an obstacle to the further development of Rus'. A large number of adherents of Christianity have long appeared in his lands, among whom was Vladimir's grandmother, Princess Olga.

After carefully weighing all the pros and cons, talking with influential representatives of various faiths and consulting with wise elders and nobles, Vladimir decided to opt for Christianity, the adoption of which would promise additional benefits for Rus' in relations with Byzantium.

Personal life

Vladimir more than once provided military assistance to the rulers of Constantinople, so he decided to ask for their sister as a wife. The emperors agreed on the condition that the Russian prince accept Christianity. However, the princess categorically opposed the decision of the brothers and refused to marry a barbarian and a bastard. Enraged, Vladimir sent his warriors to Taurida and besieged the city of Korsun (now Chersonese in Sevastopol). After that, he again asked for the hand of the princess, this time threatening that in case of refusal, Constantinople would suffer the same fate. The emperors had no choice but to persuade Anna and send her to the groom, accompanied by priests.

A luxurious wedding flotilla soon arrived in Korsun, where Vladimir was baptized. According to legend, the prince, who by that time was almost blind, received his sight during the rite of baptism, and, imbued with God's grace, immediately baptized his boyars and combatants. In the same place, in Korsun, the marriage of Anna and Vladimir took place, who received the name Vasily at baptism in honor of one of the bride's brothers. As a sign of gratitude to the emperors of Constantinople, the prince returned rich wedding gifts to them and generously gave Korsun.

Returning to Kyiv, Vladimir immediately baptized his sons, and after a while, the inhabitants of the city, gathering them on the banks of the Dnieper. Having become a zealous Christian, the prince ordered the destruction of the temple of pagan idols and the construction of the church of St. Basil on this site. At the same time, with the participation of Byzantine masters, the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos was erected, which was named Desyatinny in honor of a tenth of state revenues, which Vladimir ordered to be given in favor of the church.

The prince sent priests and educators to all his lands, who were called upon to spread the new faith in Rus'. Vladimir abandoned his former wives and concubines and recognized Anna as the only wife given to him by the Lord. With her help, he engaged in educational activities, organizing special educational institutions for Russian priests, and issued a new church charter, which was called the Pilot Book. He generously distributed land for the construction of churches and monasteries and purchased a skete on Mount Athos for Russian monks.

Under Vladimir, the first Russian gold and silver coins were minted, thanks to which the lifetime images of the prince have come down to us. As a true Christian, he cared for the poor and the suffering, opened hospitals and schools, distributed aid to the poor and hungry.

But in the rest of the Russian lands, the process of Christianization did not go as smoothly as in Kyiv. Some areas refused to follow the new faith, which caused popular riots and uprisings that had to be suppressed by force. Otherwise, the prince took a rather peaceful policy, stopping the campaigns of conquest and turning all his attention to strengthening the borders of the state. During this period, many fortress cities were built, in which his sons ruled.

Only the endless raids of the Pechenegs forced Vladimir to periodically take up arms.

feud between sons

The last years of the Grand Duke were overshadowed by the conflict between his sons, which resulted in a new internecine war. Vladimir had twelve sons, each of whom owned their own lands. His father's favorites were the younger Boris and Gleb, so when Vladimir decided to bequeath the throne to Boris towards the end of his life, this caused indignation of the eldest sons Svyatopolk and Yaroslav.

Svyatopolk, the son of Yaropolk's widow, adopted by Vladimir, from childhood harbored hatred for the prince who killed his father. Having married the daughter of a Polish prince and enlisted the support of the Poles, he decided to claim the throne against the will of Vladimir. The plot was revealed, and Svyatopolk was imprisoned in a fortress.

After some time, the Novgorod prince Yaroslav rebelled, refusing to pay tribute to Kyiv. Vladimir personally led the army and went to battle with his son, but on the way he fell ill and died unexpectedly. Svyatopolk took advantage of the moment and decided to claim the vacant throne.

However, the people of Kiev rebelled and began to demand that Boris be placed on the throne. Then Svyatopolk decided to get rid of his competitors and treacherously sent assassins to Boris and Gleb. The next victim of the bloody Svyatopolk was brother Svyatoslav, the ruler of the Drevlyansk lands. Yaroslav had to deal with the presumptuous brother. He chose a time when Svyatopolk did not have the support of the Polish army, and moved his squad to Kyiv. Svyatopolk did not enjoy the love and support of the townspeople, so he was forced to flee. During the battle on the Alt River, the prince was killed.

Memory

For the greatest merits of Prince Vladimir in the creation of the Russian state, he was canonized as a saint. Every year on July 15 in Rus' they celebrate the day of his memory, which is a great religious holiday. In Kyiv, Belgorod, Sevastopol and many other cities, monuments to the baptist of Rus' were erected, and a majestic temple was built in his honor on the territory of Chersonese.

On November 4, 2016, the world's largest monument to Prince Vladimir, dedicated to the millennium of his death, was inaugurated in Moscow.

Prince Vladimir went down in Russian history as a man through whose efforts Christianity spread everywhere in Rus'. He was baptized himself and forced his subjects to follow his example. However, was the prince who converted the Slavic pagans into Christians so pure and holy? HistoryTime tells about the far from sinless life of Vladimir Svyatoslavovich, canonized as a saint.

As soon as many generations of Russian people did not name the legendary prince: Vladimir the Holy, the Baptist, the Red Sun ... However, if we analyze historical sources, doubts about the righteousness of this ruler immediately arise. Childhood, adolescence and youth of Vladimir passed completely in the spirit of paganism. And how could it be otherwise? His father, Prince Svyatoslav of Novgorod, only laughed at the whim of his old mother who converted to Christianity. His parent, as we remember from the school history course, was the famous Princess Olga. It was she who became the first ruler of Rus', who converted to Orthodoxy. However, Olga's son refused to follow her example and raised his heir in the best traditions of paganism.

Vladimir's mother was a slave Malusha, a servant of Princess Olga. Of course, the pagan Svyatoslav did not reckon with the feelings of a woman and took the offspring from a mother of ignoble origin. Vladimir himself also got it: in childhood he was often called “robichich”, that is, the son of a slave.

Vladimir had two brothers on his father's side: Oleg and Yaropolk. However, in his case, they became not support and support, but an obstacle on the way to the throne. According to chronicles, in 969 the father of all three brothers, Svyatoslav, divided his lands between his sons: Kiev went to Yaropolk, Novgorod to Vladimir, and Oleg to the lands where the Drevlyane tribe lived. This alignment of forces did not last long: a couple of years later, his father died, and Yaropolk and Oleg entered into an open battle for new possessions, during which the latter died. Now Yaropolk has only one competitor left. Vladimir, not being a fool, decided to go away from sin "overseas": sit out in peace and quiet, think over the situation and think over a plan of action. However, overseas seclusion did not last long: after a while, Vladimir returned to Rus' with an army of mercenaries and opposed his brother. This time Yaropolk lost: Vladimir managed to bribe his servant and easily dealt with the annoying relative. Gentle family relationship, you will not say anything.

Vladimir, who has since become the one and only ruler of Rus', has gone wild. The authors of the chronicles agreed that the pagan prince was cruel, vicious and completely indulged in vices. The main passion of Vladimir were women. The prince alone had at least five legal wives, and the number of concubines and mistresses was even several hundred. These included not only local girls, but also natives of those regions where modern Bulgarians and Czechs live. Here is what the author of The Tale of Bygone Years wrote about the love affairs of Prince Vladimir:

Vladimir was defeated by lust. He had a wife: Rogneda, whom he settled on Lybed, where the village of Predslavino is now located, from her he had four sons: Izyaslav, Mstislav, Yaroslav, Vsevolod and two daughters; he had Svyatopolk from a Greek woman, Vysheslav from a Czech woman, and Svyatoslav and Mstislav from another wife, and Boris and Gleb from a Bulgarian woman, and he had three hundred concubines in Vyshgorod, three hundred in Belgorod and two hundred in Berestovo, in a village that now called Berestovoye. And he was insatiable in fornication, bringing married women to himself and corrupting girls. He was the same womanizer as Solomon, for they say that Solomon had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines.

In the early years of his reign, Vladimir, like his father, was a staunch pagan. Having become the Grand Duke of Kyiv, the only surviving son of Svyatoslav, without thinking twice, founded a pantheon of gods near the princely court. According to the chroniclers, he erected statues of Perun, Mokosh, Stribog, Dazhbog, Khors and Simargl. The first Christians who lived at that time in Kyiv suffered from the attacks of the pagans and even died for their faith: for example, Theodore and his successor John, who came from the Varangians, were martyred. Also, pagan Vladimir was fascinated by foreign policy: he subjugated several hitherto recalcitrant Slavic tribes to Kyiv and annexed new lands.

Vladimir, as a wise statesman, quickly realized that it was not easy to unite the pagan Slavs. The fact is that each clan and tribe had its own authorities: the gods worshiped by neighboring settlements could differ radically. Then Vladimir decided to unite everyone under the auspices of Perun, the god of thunder. This reform was unsuccessful: the tribes did not want to put up with the fact that some incomprehensible Perun was to replace their supreme deity. After the failure of this venture, Vladimir decided to take a desperate step: he decided to choose a new, monotheistic religion, which would radically change the way of life of his subjects. In 988, the prince chose Orthodox Christianity as a suitable faith. The baptism of Rus' was carried out "with fire and sword", and it was not so much Vladimir's coming to the true God as a political action. Nevertheless, the religious reform of the ruler had a significant impact on the life of the Russians, and subsequently somewhat reasoned with the prince himself.

I agree with all three opinions - 1) It's not about flea caps and slops, and not even about what motivated a person to write this article - God be his judge ...
2) The point is that with a minimum of argumentation (by the way, quite reliable, this is now taught in the first year at universities, moreover, with these very words, maybe my teacher wrote ???) perverted a) the concept of holiness b) the events of the birth of the monolithic unity of Rus'.
ERRORS AND ERRORS IN THE ARTICLE:
1) The assertion that Vladimir converted to Christianity for political reasons does not stand up to scrutiny.
(from the arguments - only your speculations, uv. author) Here are my thoughts in response - imagine yourself in his place - a voluptuary, a womanizer, a bloody tyrant, a pagan (human sacrifices ...)
this person, on political assumptions, adopted (by the way, from a very considerable list) Christianity? And this = One wife, you can’t fornicate, mercy, love for your neighbors and your enemies, moderation in food, and the splendor of worship (also bloodless) and also baptized all of Rus'! And find me a source of at least one saying that after that he fornicated, killed his brothers, or did something else indecent? Ate? On the contrary, it is known that the disposition of the Prince changed a lot after baptism. This does not fit into the framework of rational thinking - this is a miracle, and Russia is based on it. For the fact that he accepted Christ with all his heart and followed him with all his strength, having accomplished many great deeds for the faith and the people - for this he was recognized as a saint, and not just a saint, but Equal-to-the-Apostles! (Church dot on the life of St. Vladimir, see his life)
And for reference - the adoption of faith is a change of life, the person being baptized receives the forgiveness of all his sins (how not scoff about this - we will argue at the Last Judgment ...) and it is absurd to doubt holiness because of deeds before baptism.

2) It is further stated that the baptism went “with fire and sword” (and many people were killed? Where are the sources?) Here is an alternative development of events - the baptism of Kiev was a centralized event - the order was given - whoever does not appear is not a friend of the prince, a shirt the baptismal certificate was given out for free (and at that time it was quite a bit by the way) - but about fire and sword - it’s absurd to kill for a faith that prohibits murder - on the other hand, punitive measures against rebellions of the people are not a crime - this is the duty of the state - and at all times they killed for lawlessness and now there is a corresponding article in the constitution (the events are well written in the story of bygone years)

3) Anyone can reject all sources that write something good - they say they were falsified by order of the prince himself, or embellished there, or even lied, or they wrote later, but "in fact" this does not happen - but in this case everything just comes down to the question of faith... I believe in Holy Rus', but what do you believe in?
Thank you for your attention!

Dear Russian historians apparently deliberately hide one circumstance. Kyiv and Kievan Rus arose on the site of Great Bulgaria, which was the trading, industrial and cultural center of the Khazar Khaganate. Kyiv was founded by brothers, they say, who arrived by sea, Kiy, Shchek and Khoriv with his sister Lybid. The origin of these four is unknown. My personal opinion is that they came from Palestine, since the name Horeb corresponds to the Palestinian name of Mount Sinai, which now seems to be assigned to Egypt. In Palestine there is also the river Horeb. It is not known who these Lybed brothers were, perhaps like Sarah Joseph in Egypt, was one of the wives of these Palestinians. When all this happened, there is no exact chronology, 8-9 centuries, but it is known that the oldest written document discovered in Kyiv was written in the Jewish language. Before these events, before the emergence of the Kaganate, the Huns lived, whose state stretched from the Balkans to Altai. The Khazar Khaganate was only the western part of the empire of Atila - the Patrician of the Eastern Roman Empire. His descendant is Kubrat, also a Roman Patrician. In 635 Kubrat married the daughter of a rich Greek Evdokia. From the emperor of Byzantium, Heraclius, Kubrat received the rank of patrician, had five sons, Batbay, Kotrag, Asparuk, Kuver and Alcek. The grave of Kubrat was discovered in the Poltava region near the village of Pereshchepino. The items were taken to the Hermitage. This is absolutely accurate, documented data. During the time of Kubrat, the last Kagan Obadiah decided to accept one of the already existing religions as the state - Christianity, Islam or Judaism. On this occasion, he gathered a dispute in the Crimea, where priests of the corresponding religions were invited. Cyril was present from the Christians, since Methodius had already apparently died by this time. They were siblings, Bulgarians educated in Greece. They translated the Bible from Greek into Bulgarian, for which they compiled the alphabet - Glagolitic. The Cyrillic alphabet was later compiled by their student Feoktist, who named it so in honor of Cyril. Cyril and the Muslim mullah were carried away by a dispute between themselves, and at this time the rabbi penetrated the Kagan and convinced him that if you accept Islam or Christianity, the same disputes will arise in the country. Obadiah made the decision to convert to Judaism. This was the beginning of the end of the Kaganate. The rabbis surrounded the Kagan and cut off all access to him for all princes and outsiders in general. They slightly strangled him, to hypoxic encephalopathy, declaring it a folk custom, which the Bulgarians and other peoples had never heard of, and began to rule the country on behalf of the Kagan. The first step was the forcible planting of Judaism. Not Christianity, as the article says, by Vladimir, but Judaism by the rabbis. Then Kubrat ordered his sons to divide the people into parts and leave the power of the rabbis. What happened. Batbay went to the mountains, to Elbrpus, where Kabardino-Balkaria is now, Asparukh went to the Balkans, Kotrag to Kama and Atal. Kuver to Panonia, Alcek to Italy to the Lombards. Thus, Great Bulgaria and its capital Sarkel disappeared. Not the mythical Phonagoria, but Sarkel was the capital of Bulgaria. This is how Volga Bulgaria arose with the capitals Suvar and Bilyar, this is how Balkaria and Bulgaria on the Danube arose in the Caucasus. The attempts of Russians and other historians to introduce variants of "Bulgars", "Balkars" and to prove that the Danube Bulgarians are Slavs, and the Chuvashs are Turks, as you can see, are artificial. These are related peoples. In Hungary there is Mount Chuashrot and a lot of common words. Here, it is also necessary to mention the Pechenegs, who allegedly suddenly appeared in the Black Sea and Kuban steppes, which the Russians now began to consider their own from time immemorial. It is not true. Not all Bulgarians left with their leaders. Some of them hung out, not wanting to abandon their fields, although they began to raid boo

violent Oleg. These Bulgarians were left ALONE, alone, without princes and kings. In Bulgarian, in real Bulgarian, not in modern Slavic Danubian, but in Chuvash, it sounds “pechen”. A more subtle interpretation is possible, but this is Pechcheneh. No additions or deletions. One to one. Left alone, in the sense without a system of state administration, the Pechenegs were forced to organize themselves mainly to protect themselves from the raids of Oleg and his descendants. As a result, an extensive society of KAZAKOV was formed in the place of the Kaganate, which disappeared without the Bulgarians. From Stavropol, the Urals to Ukraine, which did not exist then. Cossack means "crossing, moving, moving", as they say in Europe - a nomad. The organization took place according to a kindred hierarchy, as evidenced by the Cossack ranks and ranks. Ataman literally means my Father. Esaul is my son. Cornet is also a Bulgarian word, the translation of which I will omit for now. The fact that the real Cossacks did not speak the Slavic language is said by many special sources, but evidence can also be found in fiction, for example, in the novel by L.N. Tolstoy "Cossacks". When a young officer goes to the place of service in the Caucasus, the Cossack accompanying him says that if Shamil finds out that Russian troops have arrived, he will begin to "tamish". This is a purely Chuvash word - to fuss. But. let's go back to Vladimir, prince of Kyiv. As shown above, the Jews were already present in Kyiv and were in full swing in the Kiev principality. Be that as it may, they had children, including Lybid. Here lies the key to the Jewish principle of recognizing the children of a Jewess as pure-blooded Jews, whoever their father may be, and the children of a Jew, not from a Jewess, as half-breeds. They themselves explain this by the fact that only the mother can know who the father of the children is. It is possible that Lybid performed precisely this role in the group of Jews who arrived in Bulgaria - the guardians of blood. The children could have been from Shchek, and from Horeb, and from Kiy, but they were all full-blooded Jews. This is the principle, the son of a Jewess is a Jew. And Lybid was called upon to keep it. So who was the offspring of Vladimir? His father, Novgorod Prince Svyatoslav (where did the concept of holiness come from, if there was no Christianity yet? True, his mother converted to Christianity) gave birth to him from the housekeeper of his wife Olga, a Jewess and adopted him. Therefore, he is a Jew. And they called him not a prince, but a kagan. Hence his Arab sexual inclinations with harems and 800 wives. But what made him baptize the subjects who remained after the departure of the Bulgarians? As stated in the article, the political need for unification and in a unified form. subjugation of the people. The remaining Bulgarians, who turned into Pecheneg Cossacks, did not pay tribute. No one wanted to accept Judaism, except for the few Karaites in the Crimea. The experience with wooden idols also did not pass. Islam demanded submission to the worst enemies of the Jews - Muslims, Persians, Babylonians, where the Jews had already done a lot of things and from where they were expelled. There was only Christianity in the variant of Orthodoxy. What Vladimir did, especially since this is the most convenient religion for pacifying the "servants of God." As Judaism proclaims, all nations are given to the Jews as slaves. What more could you want? And the state religion - Christianity, was also, like Judaism, forcibly introduced into the masses. But the hatred of the Jews for the Bulgarians because of their resistance to Judaism and the fact that by their departure they left the Jews without a source of livelihood. preserved for centuries. The son of the Jewish woman Anna Blank fiercely hated the Cossacks and ordered them to be exterminated without exception, told the Cossacks and gave their lands to the same Chechens. Therefore, real Cossacks no longer exist. The Jewish genocide of the Pecheneg Cossacks is coming to an end. Fugitive Russians who came to the lands of the Cossacks. like the Chechens, they are not Cossacks.