weapons, and Perun, their God, and Hair, cattle god.» Prince Svyatoslav swore by Perun and Volos in the treaty of 971 with Byzantium. The Slavs considered their connection with God, with the Pantheon of Gods, their honor, conscience and freedom to be the most valuable. The Rus despised gold, and one of the treaties with Byzantium and Prince Svyatoslav proves this. If the oath is broken, «let us be golden, like this gold.»
The baptism of Rus was of great importance in Russian history. Pagan beliefs were replaced by a nationwide unified religion. The adoption of Christianity from Byzantium predetermined the future path of Russia’s development as the largest stronghold of Orthodoxy.
The princely power grew, and with it, the need to strengthen the state grew. Disagreement in polytheism did not give unity and weakened the state of Ancient Russia. Despite the assertion of the common Slavic pantheon of gods, the union of tribes was steadily disintegrating. Vladimir Svyatoslavovich understood that a stronger religion was needed, capable of uniting people.
Before the adoption of baptism, paganism flourished in Russia, it was a completely religious system. Christianity cannot be called a completely new form of spiritual life. Prince Vladimir understood that it would be extremely difficult to introduce a completely new and unusual religion into Russia. After all, even before the advent of Christianity in Russia, there was a cult of the god of the Genus, who was a heavenly god, ruled the clouds, breathed life into all living things. In fact, the baptism of Russia gave a sharp impetus to the people from the transition of one religion to another, from polytheism of polytheism, to monotheism, that is, monotheism.
Historian S. F. Platonov believes that the main reasons for the baptism of Russia were economic. It was difficult for the state to subjugate many Slavic communities, Russia was baptized in order to strengthen the role of the state and subjugate a completely cohesive people. One of the reasons is trade, Christian peoples did not want to communicate and trade with pagans, Russia risked remaining isolated. With acceptance Russia became on a par with other European states, Europeans began to conduct a dialogue with them and no longer looked at them as Russian barbarians. Because Christianity in Russia was Orthodox and came from Byzantium, Russia, felt isolated, because Catholicism prevailed in Western Europe at that time. The prince did not know that after the baptism, Kievan Rus would remain the only Orthodox state, and Greek Byzantium would soon fall.
With the adoption of Christianity, the prince stopped supporting pagan cultures, and they began to be destroyed everywhere. Religious buildings, idols and temples, which were especially revered by pagans, were destroyed. Pagan holidays and rituals were strongly condemned by the clergy.
The Prince himself, being a pagan, was inclined to the Byzantine faith. In 980, Grand Duke Vladimir I Svyatoslavich tried to unite paganism and make polytheism in Russia. Throughout Russia, 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 testifies that Prince Vladimir was devoted to pagan gods. He had serious intentions by creating the Slavic pantheon of gods is in Kiev, he sends his uncle Dobrynya to Novgorod, and he «put an idol over the Volkhov River, and I’ll give him the people of the city like God.» The chronicle reports: «And the beginning of the principality of Volodimer in Kiev is one, and put the idols on the hill outside the courtyard of the terem»: Perun (Finno-Ugric Perkun), Horsa (god of the Turkic tribes), Dazhbog, Stribog (Slavic gods), Simargla, Mokosh (goddess of the Mokosh tribe). The idol that Dobrynya set up in Novgorod was the idol of the Finnish Perkun, the inhabitants of Novgorod gave more reverence to the Slavic god Veles.
Christianity in Russia was spread long before the official baptism of Russia under Vladimir I Svyatoslavich in 988. This is evidenced by numerous data. Let us start with Byzantium. Russia besieged Constantinople three times – in 866, 907 and 941. Pre-planned robber raids were repeatedly carried out on Russia, and a peace treaty was subsequently concluded. Russia and Byzantium had well-established trade and state relations. Initially, only pagans participated in the signing of the treaty in 912 from the Russian side, Christians already occupy the first place in the signing of the treaty in 945. The number of Christians has increased markedly in a short period. The first baptism took place in Constantinople in 955; Princess Olga received it. It was a magnificent and solemn event, both Russian and Byzantine sources tell about it. People from the closest princely entourage became Christians.
Every religion, including the chaotic paganism of Russia, has, in addition to all kinds of cults and idols moral foundations. These moral foundations, whatever they may be, organize people’s life. Old Russian paganism permeated all layers of the society of Ancient Russia that had begun to feudalize. From the records of the chronicles, it is clear that Russia already possessed the ideal of military behavior. This ideal is clearly seen in the stories of the Initial Chronicle about Prince Svyatoslav.
How was Christianity accepted in Russia? Many European countries have adopted Christianity by force. The baptism of Russia was not without an onslaught, the majority were baptized quite peacefully. Baptism – personal and national – was a prerequisite for the contract of Prince Vladimir with Basil II, which was concluded in 987.
The contract read as follows:
Vasily II was ready to resume relations with the Russian-Byzantine side. But the military-political side had to accept the following conditions. To settle relations with neighboring lands, to eliminate conflicts in everything and, above all, in matters of faith. The new agreement was to seal forever-friendly ties between two Christian sovereigns and two Christian peoples. Having agreed to these conditions, Vladimir had to personally be baptized according to the Greek rite. It was also necessary to convert to Christianity as soon as possible his entourage of «boyars», «nobles», and «all the people of the Russian land».
Prince Vladimir was baptized himself, baptized his children, and then the whole house received holy baptism. In the future, near and distant relatives adopted Christianity. At the same time, the princely squad was baptized. With the adoption of baptism, the prince dissolved involuntary souls, male and female. The main part of the contract concluded with Basileus Basil II was successfully fulfilled. The last condition was the baptism of the Kievans, and then Vladimir became the sovereign of the Christian people.
Vladimir wanted to convince the townspeople of the insignificance of his old faith, and that they voluntarily accepted the upcoming religion. To do this, he gave the order to destroy the very sanctuary of Perun, which was being built a few years earlier «on a hill outside the courtyard of the teremny.» This was done to convince the Slavs of the Christian faith. The prince also gave an order to the servants, and the statue of Perun was thrown to the ground, tied to the tail of a horse, it was dragged from the «mountain» to the bank of the Dnieper. The statue was beaten with iron sticks; this was done in order to exorcise the demon. Perun was thrown into the water, the servants escorted him to the Dnieper rapids, and the idol sailed further downstream. Thus, Russia said goodbye to pagan idols.
At that time, the abuse of the defeated gods was accepted. In the city of Arkona there was the most revered sanctuary of Svyatovit, in 1168 when the Danes took the city. The Danish king Valdemar I ordered «to pull out this ancient idol of Svyatovit, especially revered by the Slavic people, a rope was thrown around the neck of the idol and it was dragged in front of the Slavs, then broken into pieces and thrown into the fire» (the message of the German chronicler Helmold).
Residents of the city of Kiev had to be prepared for the sacrament of baptism. In order for people to know the faith of Christ, Christian priests walked around the city and brought the word of God to people. Not many people agreed to the position of preachers, several local clergy and «priests of Korsun» who came with Vladimir. The prince faced a difficult
