Speaking about the Baptism of Rus', the main event ancient history of our Fatherland, it should first be noted that this should not be understood as exactly the Baptism or Enlightenment that takes place on an individual upon his entry into the Church. This identification of the Baptism of Rus' leads to rather erroneous ideas about it historical event. Strictly speaking, the Baptism of Rus' was, first of all, an act of affirmation of Christianity, its victory over paganism in the political sense (since we are talking specifically about the state, and not an individual). From that time on, the Christian Church in the Kiev-Russian state became not just a public, but also a state institution. In general terms, the Baptism of Rus' was nothing more than the establishment of a local Church, governed by the episcopate in local cathedras, which took place in 988 . (possibly 2-3 years later) on the initiative of Grand Duke Vladimir (+1015).
However, our story would be inconsistent if we did not first present the conditions in which Christianity penetrated and established itself in our country and what kind of religious world, namely paganism, Christian preaching had to face in Rus'.
So, the pagan cult of the ancient Slavs did not represent anything strictly regulated. They worshiped the elements of visible nature, first of all: God willing(the deity of the sun, the giver of light, heat, fire and all sorts of benefits; the luminary itself was called Khorsom) And Veles (hair) - to the bestial god(patron of flocks). Another important deity was Perun- the god of thunder, thunder and deadly lightning, borrowed from the Baltic cult (Lithuanian Perkūnas). The wind was personified Stri-god. The sky in which Dazhd-God resided was called Svarog and was considered the father of the sun; Why, God willing, was the middle name adopted? Svarozhich. The deity of the earth was also revered - Mother earth of cheese, some kind of female deity - Mokosh, as well as givers of family benefits - Genus And Woman in labor.
Nevertheless, the images of the gods did not receive the same clarity and certainty among the Slavs as, for example, in Greek mythology. There were no temples, no special class of priests, no places of worship. In some places, vulgar images of deities were placed in open places - wooden idols and stone women. Sacrifices were made to them, sometimes even human ones, and this was the limit of the cult side of idolatry.
The disorder of the pagan cult testified to its living practice among the pre-Christian Slavs. It was not even a cult, but a naturalistic way of seeing the world and worldview. It was precisely in those areas of consciousness and worldview in which early Russian Christianity did not offer any alternative that pagan ideas persisted until modern times. Only in the second half of the 19th century. with the development of the zemstvo education system, these stable ideological forms were offered a different, more Christianized (as if school) form of ethnic and naturalistic consciousness.
Already in the ancient period, these persistent ideological categories were adapted by Christianity, as if transformed into Christian symbols, sometimes acquiring completely Christian symbolic content. As a result, for example, the name Khor(o)sa, symbolizing the sun as a kind of fiery circle ( good, colo) in the sky they began to call the round chandelier, emitting light in the church, located, by the way, under the dome, which also symbolizes the firmament in temple symbolism. Similar examples could be multiplied, which, however, is not the purpose of this essay; it is only important to ultimately give this phenomenon an adequate explanation.
It is implied that ideological syncretism was not a continuation of paganism in Russian Christianity, but only a kind of “toolkit.” In the process of perceiving Christian symbols, willy-nilly, categories more traditional for the Slavic worldview were used, as if certain receptors with which a Slav (whether a warrior, a plowman or a clergyman) perceived the abstractions of a teaching that was new to them.
However, the interweaving (syncretism) of symbols did not necessarily indicate the massive penetration of pagan ideology into Christian doctrine among the newly converted Slavs, which is clearly evidenced by the loss of the cult of one of the most popular Slavic deities, Dazhd-God, associated with the animistic (animal) understanding of the change of light and heat (summer and winter). Moreover, such a syncretism of ideological and ritual traditions was characteristic not only of the Slavs, but also of the Greco-Roman world, which accepted Christianity as if at first hand.
Even more cult of visible nature Eastern Slavs the cult of ancestors was developed. The long-dead head of the clan was idolized and considered the patron of his offspring. His name was originally from or squinting (ancestor). Vegetable sacrifices were also offered to him. Such a cult order originated and existed in the conditions of the tribal life of the ancient Slavs. When, in later times of pre-Christian history, clan ties began to disintegrate, and families became isolated in separate households, a privileged place sort of family ancestor stepped in - brownie, patron of the court, invisibly managing his household. Ancient Slav believed that the souls of the dead continue to wander the earth, inhabiting fields, forests, waters ( goblin, mermaids, mermaids) - all nature seemed to him endowed with some kind of soul. He sought to communicate with her, to participate in her changes, accompanying these changes with holidays and rituals. This is how a year-long circle of pagan holidays was created, associated with the veneration of nature and the cult of ancestors. Observing the correct change of winter and summer, the Slavs celebrated the days of the autumn and spring equinoxes with holidays carols(or autumn), welcomed spring ( Red hill), saw off the summer ( bathed) etc. At the same time, there were holidays about the dead - funeral feasts(table wake).
However, the morals of the ancient Slavs were not distinguished by “special” piety; for example, blood feud was practiced . Until Yaroslav the Wise, the princely power in Rus' did not have judicial functions, and the punishment of the guilty was the business of the relatives of the victim. The state, of course, did not interfere in such lynching, considering it as an element customary law(a relic of pre-state generic relations) . In addition, the slave trade spread. And, although this was not the main export industry, as, for example, among the Normans, the Slavs did not disdain this, albeit not on such a wide scale.
The main conclusion that we must draw is that the Slavs did not have even the remotest idea of the one Creator God that Christianity has. The pagan religion of the Slavs was by no means God-seeking, like, for example, the paganism of the ancient Greeks, but naturalistic, satisfied with the observation and worship of unknown natural elements. This fact, perhaps, most eloquently testifies to the nature of the perception of Christianity, which was new for the Slavs, and its connection with traditional paganism. Thus, the fact that all Slavs, including ours, were destined to accept St. Baptism is a great participation of God's providence, who wants to be saved as a whole person and come into the mind of truth(1 Tim 2:4).
It would also be a mistake to imagine that the Baptism of Rus' “brought” Christianity to Rus'. Let us remember that this was only a political affirmation of the Christian faith and the Church in the lands lying along the famous caravan route “from the Varangians to the Greeks,” where Christianity could not but be known, if only due to the active socio-cultural exchange associated with international trade and labor market (chief education, military). What was pre-Vladimir Christianity and what were the sources of its penetration?
First of all, we should remember that for many years a Christian princess ruled on the Kiev table - St. Olga (945–969); if you still doubt the Christianity of Prince Askold (...-882). Already in the text of the agreement with Byzantium in 944 it is mentioned cathedral church St. prophet Elijah, and also, according to the chronicler, mnozi besha(were) Varangian Christians (The Tale of Bygone Years; hereinafter referred to as PVL). And if blessed Olga did not have time to attract her only son Svyatoslav to the faith, because... at the time of her adoption of Christianity (944) he was already quite an adult, moreover, absorbed in a passion for military exploits, it is possible that she succeeded in relation to her grandchildren - Yaropolk and Vladimir, especially since the eldest of them was Yaropolk was in her care until he was 13 years old, and Vladimir was still several years younger.
In any case, we know that Yaropolk, being the ruler of a politically “unbaptized” state, greatly patronized Christians: Christians give great freedom, as we read in the Joachim Chronicle. Thus, there is every reason to believe that in the 80s. X century in Kyiv, not only many Varangians and boyars, but also some ordinary townspeople, not to mention merchants, were baptized and became Christians. But the majority of the inhabitants, both of the ancient capital and of other large cities, were undoubtedly pagans who lived quite peacefully with the Christian minority. The population of the villages was the most conservative; The cultivation of pagan beliefs persisted here for many centuries.
Particular attention should be paid to the last two decades before Epiphany. The famous conqueror Svyatoslav, son of Igor and St. Olga had three sons. During his lifetime, his father placed the eldest, Yaropolk, in Kyiv (preferring to spend his life on military campaigns far from the capital), Oleg - in Ovruch, and the youngest, Vladimir - in Novgorod. But due to his youth, he appointed his governors as their rulers: Yaropolk - Sveneld, and Vladimir - his uncle, Dobrynya. It is not known exactly for what reasons a quarrel arose between the brothers, the consequence of which was the death of Oleg and the flight of Vladimir overseas to the Varangians, but it would be more plausible to attribute it, rather, to the intrigues of the governor-regents, rather than to the conscience of the young princes.
One way or another, Yaropolk reigned in Kyiv and briefly became the sovereign prince (972–978). By the way, his reign was marked by a number of important events. Thus, in 973, Russian ambassadors were sent with rich gifts to the residence of the German Emperor Otto I. The purpose of the embassy is not known to us, but most likely the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (as it was officially called) acted as a kind of mediator in the negotiations between Rus' and Rome. Without the patronage of this most important person in central Europe, direct contacts between the “barbarians” and the “Romans”, even on missionary issues, were hardly feasible at that time. As a result, in 979 an embassy from Pope Benedict VII arrived in Kyiv. This was the first direct contact between Rus' and Rome, although it did not bring any results, because a year earlier, a coup took place in Kyiv, freezing the Christian policy of the Kyiv princes for some time. Namely, using the betrayal of the governor Blud, Vladimir, having killed Yaropolk, managed to reign in Kyiv.
Immediately after the coup, Vladimir declared himself a zealous pagan, which provided him with the support of the pagan part of the Kievites, probably dissatisfied with the pro-Christian policies of Yaropolk. The temporary triumph of paganism in Rus' was hardly just Vladimir’s political play on religious antipathies in order to put pressure on the “Olginsko-Yaropolkova” Christian elite. The fact is that during his flight to Scandinavia, Vladimir managed not only to mature in age and marry the daughter of a Varangian king (prince), but also to completely wean himself (although not to forget) from the Christian principles acquired in the environment of his grandmother, Princess Olga, having learned from Normans, their morals and customs, nurtured by the cult of war and pirate profit.
As a result, in Kyiv, along with traditional Slavic idols, the “Varangian” prince began to introduce the cult of the god of war and the thunderer Perun. This Baltic Mars, as it turned out, required, in addition to the usual worship, also human sacrifices. In 983, after a successfully carried out campaign against the Yatvingians (a Lithuanian tribe living in the region of modern Grodno), Vladimir decided to make thanksgiving sacrifices to the gods, to which the elders and boyars decided to cast lots for a boy and a maiden, and whoever the lot fell on would sacrifice. The lot of the youth fell on the son of one Varangian, who was a Christian. He, of course, did not give up his son and locked himself in his home. Then the crowd came and tore them both to pieces - and the Russian land is defiled with blood, as the oldest chronicle (PVL) reports. The sources of that time did not preserve the names of our first martyrs and the places of their burial: and no one can tell where you put them, but later calendar calendars call them - Theodore And John the Varangians(memory is honored on July 12).
However, this sacrifice should not be understood as the special pagan zeal of the prince. Vladimir. In principle, the idol of Perun stood in Kyiv long before him, and human sacrifices were quite common among the Normans, and not too outlandish for the Slavs. In addition, as we see, the idea of bloodshed did not belong to Vladimir at all, but to the priestly elite - the elders, who were embittered against Christians over the many years of rule of Christian princes - and the execution mission, as always, was entrusted to the crowd, traditionally characterized by animal fanaticism. Paradoxically, it was to Vladimir that the Russian land subsequently owed its Christian Baptism.
It is difficult to say for sure what finally convinced Vladimir to abandon his violent temper and accept the faith of Christ. During the first years of his reign, he was not really distinguished by his good behavior; at least, the chronicle described him as a rather depraved young man. It should, however, be borne in mind that the chronicler deliberately described Vladimir before his conversion in especially gloomy tones in order to more clearly present the greatness of his moral transformation after Baptism. Be that as it may, as this often happens, by the age of 30 a man, especially one who has gone through a difficult military school, sometimes, looking back at his life, sees in it not quite what it appeared to him before... Perhaps Our enlightener had to experience something similar.
Historians often view Vladimir's conversion in a formal historical context - as a progressive process of Christianization of other Central European rulers. Indeed, in 960 the Polish prince Mieszko I was baptized, in 974 - the Danish king Harold Blotand, in 976 - the Norwegian king (since 995 king) Olaf Trygvasson, in 985 - the Hungarian Duke Gyoza. All these rulers were immediate neighbors of Rus', at certain times, both allies and enemies. However, this does not sufficiently reveal the reasons for the Baptism of our enlightener, since it does not take into account the factor of Vladimir’s confessional alternative, because in addition to neighbors in the west, the Kyiv sovereign had the same neighbors and allies in the Black Sea south and the steppe east. The main direction of allied ties was addressed specifically to the steppe neighbors of Rus', the pagan Cumans, and the main trade competitor was the Volga Bulgars - Mohammedans since 922 (not to mention the Jewish Khazars, defeated by Vladimir's father Svyatoslav). Thus, the sphere of cultural contacts of the Kyiv prince was much more diverse, which allows us to consider the version of his Baptism on the principle of “imitation” as unconvincing.
There were many legends about exactly how Vladimir was baptized and how he baptized his people, but it is most likely that Vladimir, in essence, was baptized, if not secretly, then without much pomp, as our chronicles presented it a century later. At least, the chronicler himself, already at the beginning of the 12th century, could not provide reliable information about where exactly this memorable event took place: They say that he was baptized in Kyiv, but others decided: in Vasilevo, but the friends will say otherwise(PVL). The most popular, although not so reliable, legend represents this place as the baptism of Vladimir. Chersonesos in Crimea (in the vicinity of present-day Sevastopol). In addition, Vladimir could have received Baptism in his princely residence in Vasilevo (modern Vasilkov, Kyiv region), as, for example, the famous pre-revolutionary historian E.E. believes. Golubinsky. This version is not without foundation, since this town owed its name precisely to the event of St. The baptism of Vladimir, in which he was named Vasily.
The fact is that we have to draw the lion's share of information about the Baptism of Rus' from the oldest chronicle that has reached us - Tales of Bygone Years, which, firstly, was compiled almost 120 years after the event, and secondly, contains a lot of contradictory data. However, they are still not so contradictory as not to try to restore the actual circumstances, at least in general terms.
So, the chronicle begins the description of the Baptism of Vladimir with the plot of the “test of faith” by the grand ducal ambassadors in different countries, namely, observing where who serves God how?. For us today this would seem very outlandish, for it is difficult to imagine knowing another faith by contemplating the external ceremonial of its services, not to mention being convinced of its truth. Moreover, was there any point in going overseas for Orthodoxy when in Kyiv itself there was a local rather large Christian community whose main church (probably not the only one) cathedral church St. Prophet Elijah on Podol, known since the time of Prince. Igor. Nevertheless, the chronicle legend forces Vladimir, a man, it must be said, of remarkable statesmanship, to be convinced by such a “test of faith” and on this basis to accept Baptism. At the same time, Vladimir gets to be baptized only after making a victorious raid on Korsun (Chersonese) in Taurida.
Such a legend, at odds with other sources, has long aroused distrust among historians, although no one, of course, accused the chronicler of making it up, since the event and the story are separated by a huge time period for that era. According to one of the most authoritative pre-revolutionary historians S.F. Platonov, in the chronicles of the early 12th century. Three different time, but completely reliable legends turned out to be united:
A) that Vladimir was offered to accept his faith by the ambassadors of the Volga Bulgars (Muslims), Khazars (Jews), Germans (Western Christians, probably from the same German Emperor Otto I) and Greeks (Eastern Christians, most likely Bulgarians);
b) that Vladimir was struck by physical blindness, but after Baptism he miraculously regained his sight with both spiritual and physical eyes;
V) about Vladimir’s siege of the most important Byzantine trading post in the Crimea, the city of Korsun. All these legends are based on indirect historical evidence.
Let's start in order. As already mentioned, in 979 to the book. Yaropolk was sent a return embassy from the Pope, of course, with a proposal for the Baptism of Rus', but it found Vladimir, not Yaropolk, on the throne. It is possible that it was then that Vladimir’s answer to the Latin missionaries sounded, recorded in the chronicle: go back, for our fathers did not accept this(PVL) . This rhetorical passage of the chronicle, oddly enough, also has its own historical reason. As is known, in 962 the mission of the Latin bishop Adalbert, sent to Rus', failed due to the refusal of the prince. Olga to accept spiritual citizenship of the Pope. Words our fathers, thrown by Vladimir, in this case do not contradict the fact that we are most likely talking about the prince’s grandmother. Vladimir to Olga, for in the Old Russian language fathers parents were called in general (for example: Godfathers Joachim and Anna).
As for other missionaries, earlier sources are silent about them, as well as about the corresponding embassies for a kind of “test of faith” by Vladimir, which definitely should not have escaped the attention of at least the Byzantine diplomats, if they had really such an embassy was sent. However, it is not surprising that Vladimir, the monarch of the largest European power, was tried to be lured into his faith by both the Mohammedans and the Khazars, who were completely defeated by his father, who were actually left without a state at that time, and, even more so, by representatives of the Vatican. Several embassies of Vladimir to different countries are known, but for purely diplomatic purposes, and not for the sake of studying liturgical rites.
In connection with the legend of Vladimir’s blindness, the news of a pirate attack by the Black Sea Varangians in the 830s deserves special attention. to the Crimean city of Surozh (modern Sudak). Then the main city church, where the relics of the local saint, Bishop, rested, was plundered. Stefan Sourozhsky. However, in the midst of the “triumph” of vandalism, as the Life of St. Stefan, the leader of the attackers was suddenly struck by paralysis (his neck was twisted by a spasm, which had a very painful effect). The Varangians, in fear, had to not only return the loot and free the captives, but also give a rich ransom before their king was freed from punishment. After what happened, the leader and his entire retinue received St. Baptism. Could something similar, albeit in a milder form, happen to our enlightener, so that he would consciously believe and lead his people to the right faith? Life names Vladimir Russian Saul: the latter also, before becoming the Apostle Paul, in bodily blindness knew Christ and received his sight in order to preach the Gospel to the pagans (see. Acts, chapter 9).
Finally, the last chronicle legend is of greatest interest and importance for us, since it contains, perhaps, the most difficult question - about the time of the Baptism of Rus' and the prince himself. Vladimir. Thus, “The Tale of Bygone Years” dates Vladimir’s acceptance of baptism under 988 year , however, mixing this event with the Korsun campaign and as a result forcing the prince. Vladimir to be baptized in Korsun and it was for this purpose that the campaign itself was carried out. However, earlier sources, for example, “Memory and Praise to Vladimir” by Jacob Mnich (late 11th century) and Byzantine chronicles say that Vladimir took Korsun for the third summer according to his Baptism. In fact, the baptized prince had no need to go to Crimea for Baptism. Such nonsense occurs repeatedly in PVL. For example, the adoption of Christianity by Princess Olga, according to the chronicle, took place in Constantinople from the patriarch and none other than the emperor as his successors. Apparently, the court chroniclers of the 12th century. it was difficult to imagine the victorious Kyiv princes of the 10th century receiving St. Baptism without unnecessary pomp from a simple priest and, judging by the ambiguity of the data, quite at home (if Prince Vladimir was not baptized at all in childhood during the time of his grandmother, Princess Olga-Elena). But what then does the Korsun campaign have to do with it?
Another important circumstance is woven into this. In the mid-980s. external threats and internal rebellions put the Byzantine Empire in an extremely difficult situation. On top of that, in 987, an uprising broke out under the commander Vardas Phokas, who declared himself basileus (king). At the end of 987 - beginning of 988, the co-ruler brothers Vasily II and Constantine VIII were forced to turn to the Prince of Kyiv for military support against the rebels. Vladimir agreed to send a fairly large army to Byzantium in exchange for the emperors’ promise to marry his sister, Princess Anna, to him. As a politician, Vladimir thought impeccably - to become related to the Byzantine dynasty would mean to practically equate the Russian princes, if not with the Roman basileus, then at least with the great European monarchs of that time and significantly strengthen the world authority of the Kyiv state.
Already in the summer of 988, with the help of the Russian legions, the tsars managed to defeat the rebels, and in April of the following 989, they finally suppressed the rebellion. However, having gotten rid of mortal danger, the tsars were in no hurry to fulfill their promise - Princess Anna seemed to have no intention of going to distant “barbarian” Rus'. Having waited the entire summer of 989, Vladimir realized that he had simply been deceived... But in this case, it was no longer a question of strengthening the world authority of the Kyiv state, but of justification for the literal diplomatic slap in the face. It was here that Vladimir was forced to move troops to the Byzantine colonies and force Constantinople to fulfill its obligation (remember how 12 years earlier, Vladimir, being humiliated by the refusal of the Polotsk prince Rogvold to marry his daughter Rogneda, went on a campaign to Polotsk, the consequence of which was capture of the city and murder of Rogvold and his sons).
So, in the fall of 989, Vladimir, as the chronicle reports, having collected many of the Varangians, Slovenians, Chudis, Krivichi and Black Bulgarians, besieged the most important trading post of Byzantium in the Northern Black Sea region, the city of Chersonesos. Taking advantage of the winter storms on the Black Sea and, accordingly, the inability to receive reinforcements by sea from Byzantium, Vladimir took the city under complete siege and by May 990 forced it to completely capitulate. Moreover, Vladimir promised to lead the army to the walls of Constantinople itself... In the end, the Byzantine sovereigns could not withstand the forceful pressure exerted against them, and soon Vladimir was married to Princess Anna in the same Chersonese, and as a “vena” (ransom) for The city returned the bride to the emperors, establishing a beautiful temple in it (and to this day its ruins testify to the beauty and splendor of the shrine). However, he still took the Korsun clergy with him to Kyiv to help with further Christianization.
In addition, in the retinue of Tsarevna Anna, the bishops appointed to the Russian departments in Constantinople arrived. This is how the Kiev Metropolis began, which in a formal sense was the beginning of the Russian Church. Prof. HER. Golubinsky is right in his way when he proposes that the year 990 be considered the date of the Baptism of Rus'. However, in reality, the book. Vladimir undertook “baptism” as the establishment of Christianity as the state faith in Rus', in fact, immediately after his personal appeal, that is, already in 988: Vladimir himself, and his children, and his whole house were baptized with holy baptism. (« Memory and praise to Vladimir" Jacob Mnich), the courtiers, the squad, the townspeople (of course, those who still remained in paganism) were baptized.
A completely reasonable question may arise as to who could be entrusted with the education of yesterday’s pagans and the prince himself, because the Greek clergy did not know the Russian language, and was very few in number. This issue is resolved in the context of cultural and political contacts of Rus' throughout the 10th century. The most significant direction of these contacts was associated with the First Bulgarian Kingdom (680-1018), where the heirs of Tsar Boris-Simeon, the first Christian ruler of Bulgaria (†889), ruled. It was the Bulgarian missionaries who carried out an active catechetical program in Rus' throughout this time, thus weaving their powerful northeastern neighbor into the orbit of cultural influence of the Ohrid Archdiocese (Patriarchy). At least, we do not know of a Greek metropolitan earlier than Theopemtus, who arrived in 1037 at the Kyiv See actually from the Patriarch of Constantinople.
Let us also recall that Bulgaria was baptized more than a century earlier (c. 865) and by the time of our enlightenment had a rich patristic library translated into the Slavic language, as well as a developed tradition of Greco-Slavic cultural synthesis (remember, for example, the works of John the Exarch, Chernoriz the Brave , Konstantin Preslavsky and other outstanding spiritual writers). The Bulgarian Church, it should be noted, generally played a huge role in the Baptism of Rus'. This is the secret of the relative ease of spreading Christianity among us (compared to Western Europe), that the faith was assimilated by the people in their native Slavic language, as close as possible to the spoken language, in the spirit of the Cyril and Methodius Christian tradition. In addition, by the time of his Baptism, Prince. Vladimir gained enormous prestige among the people as a victorious ruler and a man of deep statesmanship. In this regard, the chronicle phrase put into the mouths of the people of Kiev looks quite reliable: If this had not been good, the prince and the bolyars would not have accepted this(PVL). Although only those who did not strongly persist in paganism reasoned this way.
Before the Korsun campaign, catechesis was only of a private nature (as before Vladimir), and probably did not go much beyond the walls of the capital Kyiv. The Korsun victory brought official approval to the Russian Church, and only then, on July 31, 990, did the people of Kiev hear the prince’s almost ultimatum call: If someone does not appear in the morning on the river, whether rich, poor, or poor... let him be disgusted with me(PVL).
Thus, in the Epiphany of Vladimirov the Russian Church was born, and not so much churches or a new political mentality, but the great beginning of everything that is now associated with ancient Russian culture and spirituality, and not only ancient - in the words of historian L.N. Gumilyov: “the victory of Orthodoxy gave Rus' its thousand-year history.”
965 - Destruction Khazar Khaganate by the army of the Kyiv prince Svyatoslav Igorevich.
988 - Baptism of Rus'. Kievan Rus accepts Orthodox Christianity.
1223 - Battle of Kalka- the first battle between the Russians and the Mughals.
1240 - Battle of Neva- military conflict between the Russians, led by Prince Alexander of Novgorod, and the Swedes.
1242 - Battle of Lake Peipsi- a battle between the Russians led by Alexander Nevsky and the knights of the Livonian Order. This battle went down in history as the “Battle of the Ice.”
1380 - Battle of Kulikovo- a battle between the united army of the Russian principalities led by Dmitry Donskoy and the army of the Golden Horde led by Mamai.
1466 - 1472 - travel of Afanasy Nikitin to Persia, India and Turkey.
1480 - The final deliverance of Rus' from the Mongol-Tatar yoke.
1552 - Capture of Kazan Russian troops of Ivan the Terrible, the termination of the existence of the Kazan Khanate and its inclusion in Muscovite Rus'.
1556 - Annexation of the Astrakhan Khanate to Muscovite Rus'.
1558 - 1583 - Livonian War. The war of the Russian Kingdom against the Livonian Order and the subsequent conflict of the Russian Kingdom with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Poland and Sweden.
1581 (or 1582) - 1585 - Ermak's campaigns in Siberia and battles with the Tatars.
1589 - Establishment of the Patriarchate in Russia.
1604 - Invasion of False Dmitry I into Russia. The beginning of the Time of Troubles.
1606 - 1607 - Bolotnikov's uprising.
1612 - Liberation of Moscow from the Poles by the people's militia of Minin and Pozharsky The end of the Time of Troubles.
1613 - The rise to power of the Romanov dynasty in Russia.
1654 - Pereyaslav Rada decided to reunification of Ukraine with Russia.
1667 - Truce of Andrusovo between Russia and Poland. Left Bank Ukraine and Smolensk went to Russia.
1686 - "Eternal peace" with Poland. Russia's entry into the anti-Turkish coalition.
1700 - 1721 - North War - fighting between Russia and Sweden.
1783 - Annexation of Crimea to the Russian Empire.
1803 - Decree on free cultivators. Peasants received the right to redeem themselves with the land.
1812 - Battle of Borodino- a battle between the Russian army led by Kutuzov and French troops under the command of Napoleon.
1814 - Capture of Paris by Russian and Allied forces.
1817 - 1864 - Caucasian War.
1825 - Decembrist revolt- armed anti-government mutiny of Russian army officers.
1825 - built first Railway in Russia.
1853 - 1856 - Crimean War. In this military conflict, the Russian Empire was opposed by England, France and the Ottoman Empire.
1861 - Abolition of serfdom in Russia.
1877 - 1878 - Russo-Turkish War
1914 - Beginning of the First World War and the entry of the Russian Empire into it.
1917 - Revolution in Russia(February and October). In February, after the fall of the monarchy, power passed to the Provisional Government. In October, the Bolsheviks came to power through a coup.
1918 - 1922 - Russian Civil War. It ended with the victory of the Reds (Bolsheviks) and the creation of the Soviet state.
* Separate flashes civil war began already in the autumn of 1917.
1941 - 1945 - War between the USSR and Germany. The confrontation took place within the framework of the Second World War.
1949 - Creation and testing of the first atomic bomb in the USSR.
1961 - The first manned flight into space. It was Yuri Gagarin from the USSR.
1991 - The collapse of the USSR and the fall of socialism.
1993 - Adoption of the Constitution by the Russian Federation.
2008 - Armed conflict between Russia and Georgia.
2014 - Holding the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
2014 - Return of Crimea to Russia.
2018 - Holding the World Cup in Russia.
BAPTISM OF Rus', the introduction of Christianity in the Greek Orthodox form as the state religion (late 10th century) and its spread (11th-12th centuries) in Ancient Rus'. The first Christian among the Kyiv princes was Princess Olga. The adoption of Christianity in Rus' ... Russian history
Modern encyclopedia
Baptism of Rus'- BAPTISM OF Rus', the introduction of Christianity in the Greek Orthodox form as the state religion. Started by Vladimir I Svyatoslavich (988 989), who was baptized along with his family and squad, and then began the baptism of Kievites, Novgorodians and others.… … Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
Introduction in Ancient Rus' at the end of the 10th century of Christianity in the Greek Orthodox form as the state religion. The decomposition of the primitive system and the formation of the Old Russian state became preparatory conditions for the change of pagan religion... ... Political science. Dictionary.
Introduction of Christianity in the Greek Orthodox form as the state religion. Started by Vladimir Svyatoslavich in 988-89. Contributed to the development of culture, the creation of monuments of writing, art, and architecture. The 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus' was celebrated... Big encyclopedic Dictionary
Fresco "Baptism of Saint Prince Vladimir". V. M. Vasnetsov Vladimir Cathedral (Kyiv) (late 1880s) Baptism of Rus' introduction to Kievan Rus Christianity as a state religion, implemented at the end of the 10th century by Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich.... ... Wikipedia
BAPTISM OF Rus'- The traditional name for the introduction of Christianity in Rus'* in the Greek Orthodox (see Orthodoxy*) form as the official state religion. The first in Rus', in order to strengthen trade and political ties with Byzantium, adopted Christianity... ... Linguistic and regional dictionary
Introduction to Ancient Rus' at the end of the 10th century. Christianity as a state religion. Started by Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich (988 89). Contributed to the strengthening of the Old Russian state, contributed to the development of culture, the creation of monuments... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
Acceptance of Dr. Russia in the end 10th century Christianity as state religion. Some researchers (V.A. Parkhomenko, B.A. Rybakov) connect the baptism of Rus' with the Kyiv prince. Askold (9th century). The decomposition of the primitive communal system, the emergence of social... ... Soviet historical encyclopedia
Baptism of Rus'- events associated with recognition in the con. 10th century Dr. Russian state (Kievan Rus) Christ. religions in quality of official and dominant. Elements of Christianity penetrated into the East. Slavs society starting from the 3rd 4th centuries. All R. 9th century Christianity already existed... Ancient world. encyclopedic Dictionary
Books
- The Baptism of Rus', Gleb Nosovsky. A new book A. T. Fomenko and G. V. Nosovsky consists entirely of material published for the first time and is devoted to the reconstruction of the era of the second half of the 14th century. This era in Russian history... eBook
- The Baptism of Rus' and Saint Vladimir, Alekseev S.V.. For centuries the Russian people remembered the Kyiv prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich. I remembered 171;affectionate 187;, remembered 171;Red Sun 187;, singing the generosity of feasts and the splendor of the heroic court. Not…
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 explored question 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 question 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. It simply disappeared from the pages of the scientific press.
The purpose of my article, therefore, is not to complete, but to begin posing some problems associated with the adoption of Christianity, to disagree with, and perhaps contradict, conventional views, especially since established points of view often do not have a solid basis, but are a consequence of certain, unspoken and largely mythical “attitudes”.
One such misconception stuck in general courses history of the USSR and other semi-official publications, this idea that Orthodoxy was always the same, did not change, 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.”
In our article we will dwell on only one problem - the national significance of the adoption of Christianity. I do not dare present 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, you should understand what paganism was 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 rituals 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 achieved by paganism. And in paganism itself there were relatively few specific national features characteristic of only one people. At best, individual tribes and the population of individual localities were united on the basis of a common cult. 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 unification. There were “Germans” all around, that is, people who did not speak an understandable language, enemies who came to Rus' “out of the blue,” and the steppe strip bordering Russia was 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 festivals, and performed religious prayers. Folk songs were designed to be performed in wide spaces. Bright colors were required to be noticed from afar. People sought to be hospitable and treated merchant guests with respect, for they were messengers about a distant world, storytellers, witnesses to the existence of other lands. Hence the delight in rapid movements in space. Hence the monumental nature of art.
People built mounds to remember the dead, but graves and grave markers did not yet indicate a sense of history as a process extended over time. The past was, as it were, one, antiquity in general, not divided into eras and not ordered chronologically. Time was a repeating annual cycle, with which it was necessary to conform in one’s economic work. Time as history did not yet exist.
Time and events required knowledge of the world and history on a large scale. It is worthy of special attention that this craving for a broader understanding of the world than that given by paganism was felt primarily along the trade and military roads of Rus', primarily 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 phenomenal success in Rus', which marked the 10th century of Russian history.
Baptism of Rus'. New Empire Creator
The true creator of the huge empire of Rus' - Prince Vladimir I Svyatoslavich in 980 makes the first attempt to unify 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 Volodymer began his reign as one in Kyiv, and placed idols on the hill outside the courtyard of the tower”: Perun (Finno-Ugric Perkun), Khorsa (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 Kyiv, he sent his uncle Dobrynya to Novgorod and he “placed an idol over the Volkhov River, and the priest would honor his people like 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, was the idol of the Finnish Perkun, although, apparently, the most widespread cult in Novgorod was Slavic god Belesa, or otherwise Hair.
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 nations communicated most with each other. This call had a long history behind it; it echoed throughout Russian history.
The great European trade route, known from 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 to the west. This route not only connected Scandinavia with Byzantium, but also had branches, the most significant of which was the route to the Caspian Sea along the Volga. The main part of all these roads ran through the lands of the Eastern Slavs and was used by them primarily, but also through the lands of the Finno-Ugric peoples who took part in trade and processes public education, in military campaigns against Byzantium (it is not for nothing that one of the most famous places in Kyiv was the Chudin Dvor, that is, the farmstead of the 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 supposed dates of baptism, the consideration of which is beyond the scope of this article). And all this evidence speaks of the emergence of Christianity primarily in centers of communication between people of different nationalities, even if this communication was far from peaceful. This indicates again and again 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 onto the world stage was organically connected with the emergence in Rus' of a highly organized literary language, which would consolidate this inclusion in texts, primarily translated ones. Writing made it possible to communicate not only with modern Russian cultures, but also with past cultures. She made it possible to write her own history, a philosophical generalization of her 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 (Chersonese) 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 principle uniting countries, including Rus' as part of 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 was very early time recorded by non-Russian sources. The Apostle Andrew preached on his way through the Caucasus to the Bosporus (Kerch), Feodosia and Chersonesos. In particular, Eusebius of Caesarea (died around 340) speaks about the spread of Christianity by the Apostle Andrew in Scythia. The Life of Clement, Pope of Rome, tells about Clement's stay in Chersonesus, where he died under Emperor Trajan (98-117). Under the same emperor Trajan, Patriarch Hermon of Jerusalem sent several bishops one after another to Chersonesus, where they suffered martyrdom. The last bishop sent by Hermon died at the mouth of the Dnieper. Under Emperor Constantine the Great, Bishop Kapiton appeared in Chersonesus, and also died a martyr. Christianity in Crimea, which needed a bishop, was reliably recorded already in the 3rd century.
At the first ecumenical council in Nicaea (325) there were representatives from Bosporus, Chersonesus and Metropolitan Gottfil, who was outside the Crimea, to whom, however, the Tauride bishopric was subordinated. The presence of these representatives is established on the basis of their signatures under the council resolutions. The church fathers - Tertullian, Athanasius of Alexandria, John Chrysostom, Blessed Jerome - also speak about the Christianity of some of the Scythians.
The Christian Goths who lived in Crimea formed a strong state that had a serious influence not only on the Slavs, but on the Lithuanians and Finns - at least on their languages.
Connections with the Northern Black Sea region were then complicated 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 the south to the north undoubtedly took place. Christianity continued to spread under Emperor Justinian the Great, covering Crimea, North Caucasus, as well as the eastern shore of the Sea of Azov among the Trapezite Goths, 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 Sea to the Carpathians and the Crimean coast, a special cultural situation arose. Not only Islam and Judaism, but also Christianity were widespread in the Khazar state, 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 Muslims, fled to the north, that is, to Khazaria. In the Crimea and the North Caucasus within Khazaria, the number of Christian bishops naturally grew, 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 sought spiritual dominance, as evidenced by Jewish-Khazar and Arab sources. 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 Vladimir’s choice of faith described by the Russian chronicler - through surveys and disputes.
Baptism of Rus'. Age of Christianity
It seems natural that Christianity in Rus' also appeared as a result of the awareness of the situation that developed in the 10th century, when the presence of states with a Christian population as the main neighbors of Rus' was especially obvious: here were the Northern Black Sea region, and Byzantium, and the movement of Christians across the main trade routes that crossed Rus' from south to north and from west to east.
A special role here belonged to Byzantium and Bulgaria.
Let's start with Byzantium. Rus' besieged Constantinople three times - in 866, 907 and 941. These were not ordinary predatory raids; they ended with the conclusion of peace treaties that established new trade and state relations between Russia and Byzantium.
And if in the treaty of 912 only pagans participated on the Russian side, then in the treaty of 945 Christians came first. In a short period of time the number of Christians has clearly increased. This is also evidenced by the adoption of Christianity by the Kyiv princess Olga herself, whose magnificent reception in Constantinople in 955 is described by both Russian and Byzantine sources.
We will not go into consideration of the most complex question of where and when Olga’s grandson Vladimir was baptized. The 11th century chronicler himself refers to the existence of different versions. I will only say that one fact seems obvious: Vladimir was baptized after his matchmaking with the sister of the Byzantine emperor Anna, for it is unlikely that the most powerful emperor of the Romans, Vasily II, would have agreed to become related to a barbarian, and Vladimir could not help but understand this.
The fact is that the predecessor of Vasily II, Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, in his widely famous work“On the Administration 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 the inscription of St. Sophia of Constantinople prohibits Romans from becoming 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. The Empire by this time had repelled the Arab danger and had overcome the cultural crisis associated with the existence of iconoclasm, which led to a significant decline visual arts. And it is noteworthy that Vladimir I Svyatoslavich played a significant role in this flowering of Byzantine power.
In the summer of 988, a selected six-thousand-strong detachment of the Varangian-Russian squad, sent by Vladimir I Svyatoslavich, saved the Byzantine Emperor Vasily II, completely defeating the army that tried to take the imperial throne of Bardas Phocas. Vladimir himself accompanied his squad, which was going to help Vasily II, to the Dnieper rapids. Having fulfilled their duty, the squad remained to serve in Byzantium (later the guard of the emperors was the squad of the Anglo-Varangians).
Along with the consciousness of equality, the consciousness of the common history of all mankind came to Rus'. Most of all, in the first half of the 11th century, Metropolitan Hilarion of Kiev showed himself in the formation of the national self-awareness of Rusyns in his famous “Sermon on Law and Grace,” where he depicted the general future role of Rus' in the Christian world. However, back in the 10th century, the “Philosopher’s Speech” was written, which is an exposition world history, into which Russian history was supposed to merge. The teachings of Christianity gave, first of all, awareness of the common history of mankind and the participation of all peoples in this history.
How was Christianity adopted in Rus'? We know that in many European countries Christianity was imposed by force. Baptism in Rus' was not without violence, but in general the spread of Christianity in Rus' was quite peaceful, especially if we remember other examples. Clovis forcibly baptized his squads. Charlemagne forcibly baptized the Saxons. Stephen I, King of Hungary, forcibly baptized his people. He forcibly forced those who managed to accept it according to 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 repression. The idols were lowered down the river, just as dilapidated shrines were later lowered - old icons, for example. The people cried for their defeated god, but did not rebel. The revolt of the Magi in 1071, which the Initial Chronicle tells about, was caused by famine in the Belozersk region, and not by the desire to return to paganism. Moreover, Vladimir understood Christianity in his own way and even refused to execute the robbers, declaring: “... I’m 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 Plato the idea that “Vladimir hastened, but the Greeks were deceitful - they baptized the ignorant and unlearned,” then it was precisely this circumstance that contributed to the peaceful entry of Christianity into folk life and did not allow the church to take a sharply hostile position in relation to pagan rituals and beliefs, but, on the contrary, to gradually introduce Christian ideas into paganism, and in Christianity to see a peaceful transformation of people's life.
So, double faith? No, and not dual faith! There cannot be dual faith at all: either there is only one faith, or there is none. The latter could not have happened in the first centuries of Christianity in Rus', because no one was yet able to take away from people the ability to see the unusual in the ordinary, to believe in the afterlife and in the existence of the divine principle. To understand what happened, let us return again to the specifics of ancient Russian paganism, to its chaotic and non-dogmatic character.
Every religion, including the chaotic paganism of Rus', has, in addition to all kinds of cults and idols, also moral principles. These moral foundations, whatever they may be, organize people's life. Old Russian paganism permeated all layers of the society of Ancient Rus' that began to feudalize. From the records of the chronicles 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: “We no longer have children, willingly or unwillingly, we are against it; let us not disgrace the Russian lands, but let us lie down with bones, for the dead have no shame in the imam. If we run away, it’s a disgrace to the imam. The imam will not run away, but we will stand strong, and I will go before you: if my head falls, then provide for yourself.”
Once upon a time, students of Russian secondary schools learned this speech by heart, perceiving both its chivalrous meaning and the beauty of Russian speech, as, incidentally, they also learned other speeches of Svyatoslav or the famous description given to him by the chronicler: “...walking easily, like a pardus (cheetah), You create many wars. Walking, he did not carry a cart, nor cooked a cauldron, nor cooked meat, but he cut up horse meat, whether animal or beef on coals, baked meat, nor a tent, but laid the lining and the saddle in the heads; The same goes for his other warriors. And he sent to the countries saying: “I want to go to you.”
I purposely cite all these quotes without translating them into modern Russian, so that the reader can appreciate the beauty, accuracy and laconicism of ancient Russian literary speech, which 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 dealing even with the enemy - all this remained even 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 moral reading (I write about this in a special work) - there are the following lines: “... beauty is a weapon for a warrior and sails for a ship, This is also the righteous man’s book veneration.” The righteous is compared to a warrior! Regardless of where and when this text was written, it also characterizes high Russian military morale.
In the “Teaching” of Vladimir Monomakh, 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” is visible - Svyatoslav), his courage in battles and hunting (the two main princely deeds): “And I will tell you, my children, my work, I worked better than you, the ways of my deeds.” (going on hikes) and fishing (hunting) from the age of 13.” And having described his life, he notes: “And from Shchernigov to Kiev, I went to see my father several times (more than a hundred times), during the day I moved until Vespers. And all the paths are 80 and 3 great, but I can’t remember the lesser ones.”
Monomakh did not hide his crimes: how many people he beat and burned Russian cities. And after this, as an example of truly noble, Christian behavior, he cites his letter to Oleg, the content of which, amazing in its moral height, I had to write about more than once. In the name of the principle proclaimed by Monomakh at the Lyubech Congress of Princes: “Let everyone keep his homeland” - Monomakh forgives the defeated enemy Oleg Svyatoslavich (“Gorislavich”), in the battle with whom his son Izyaslav fell, and invites him to return to his homeland - Chernigov: “ What are we, sinful and evil people? “live today, and die in the morning, today in glory and honor (in honor), and tomorrow in the grave and without memory (no one will remember us), or divide our meeting.” The reasoning is completely Christian and, let’s say in passing, extremely important for its 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 evidenced by the Initial Chronicle,... These lines gave rise to various guesses about where this “book teaching” was carried out, whether it was schools and what type, but one thing is clear: “book teaching” became a subject of state concern.
Finally, another Christian virtue, from Vladimir’s point of view, was the mercy of the rich towards the poor and wretched. Having been baptized, Vladimir began to primarily care for the sick and poor. According to the chronicle, Vladimir “commanded every beggar and wretched person to come to the prince’s courtyard and collect all their needs, drink and food, and from the women in kunami (money).” And for those who could not come, the weak and sick, deliver supplies to their yards. If this concern of his was to some extent limited to Kiev or even part of Kyiv, 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 him the majority of his readers and rewrites 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 charity.
In the future, we will return to another moment in the Christian religion, which turned out to be extremely attractive when choosing faiths and for a long time determined the nature of East Slavic religiosity. Now let us turn to that lower layer 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 layer 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 instilled love and respect for the land, which was so necessary in agricultural work. Here Christianity quickly came to terms with paganism, or rather, with its ethics, the moral foundations of peasant labor.
Paganism was not united. This idea, which we repeated above, should also be understood in the sense that in paganism there was a “higher” mythology associated with the main gods, which Vladimir wanted to unite even before the adoption of Christianity, organizing his pantheon “outside the courtyard of the tower,” and mythology “lower”, which consisted mainly in connection with beliefs of an agricultural nature and cultivated 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 Novgorod. However, the second circle of beliefs began to become Christianized and acquire shades of Christian morality.
Research recent years(mainly the wonderful 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'
In particular, there remained in different parts of our country peasant pomochi, or cleanup, - common labor performed by the entire peasant community. In the pagan, pre-feudal village, pomochi were performed as a custom of general rural work. In a Christian (peasant) village, pomochi became a form of collective assistance to poor families - families that have lost their head, the disabled, orphans, etc. The moral meaning contained in pomochi intensified in the Christianized rural community. It is remarkable that pomochi was celebrated as a holiday, had a cheerful character, was accompanied by jokes, witticisms, sometimes competitions, and general feasts. Thus, all the offensive character was removed from peasant assistance to low-income families: on the part of neighbors, assistance was performed not as alms and sacrifice, which humiliated those who were helped, but as a cheerful custom that brought joy to all participants. To help, people, realizing the importance of what was being done, came out in festive clothes, the horses were “put away in the best harness.”
“Although the work done by clearing is hard and not particularly pleasant, nevertheless clearing is a pure holiday for all participants, especially for children and young people,” reported a witness to a clearing (or helping) in the Pskov province.
The pagan custom acquired an ethical Christian overtones. Christianity softened and absorbed other pagan customs. For example, the initial Russian chronicle talks about the pagan kidnapping of brides near the water. This custom was associated with the cult of springs, wells, and water in general. But with the introduction of Christianity, beliefs in water weakened, but the custom of meeting a girl when she walked with buckets on the water remained. Preliminary agreements between the girl and the guy took place near the water. Perhaps the most important example of preserving and even enhancing the moral principles of paganism is the cult of the earth. Peasants (and not only peasants, as V.L. Komarovich showed in his work “The Cult of Family and Land in the Princely Environment of the 11th-13th Centuries”) treated the land as a shrine. Before starting agricultural work, they asked the land for forgiveness for “ripping open its chest” 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 from the ground right in the square.
There are many examples that can be given. The adoption of Christianity did not abolish the lower layer of paganism, just as higher mathematics did not abolish elementary mathematics. There are no two sciences in mathematics, and there was no dual faith among the peasantry. There was a gradual Christianization (along with the dying out) of pagan customs and rituals.
Now let's turn to one extremely important point V .
The initial Russian chronicle conveys a beautiful legend about the test of faith by Vladimir. The ambassadors sent by Vladimir were from the Mohammedans, then from the Germans, who served their service according to Western custom, and finally came to Constantinople to the Greeks. The last story of the ambassadors is extremely significant, for it was the most important reason for Vladimir to choose Christianity from Byzantium. I will give it in full, translated into modern Russian. Vladimir's ambassadors came to Constantinople and came to the king. “The king asked them - why did they come? They told him everything. Hearing their story, the king rejoiced and did them great honor that 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 clergy and dress yourself in holy vestments, so that they can see the glory of our God.” Hearing about this, the patriarch ordered to convene the clergy, performed a festive service according to custom, and lit the censer, and organized singing and choirs. And he went with the Russians to church, and they put them on best place, showing them the beauty of the church, the singing and the bishop’s service, 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 kings Vasily and Constantine called them, and said to them: “Go to your land,” and sent them away with great gifts and honor. They returned to their land. And Prince Vladimir called his boyars and elders and said to them: “The men we sent have come, let’s listen to everything that happened to them,” and he turned to the ambassadors: “Speak before the squad.”
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 led us to where they serve their God, and did not know whether we were in heaven or on earth : for there is no such spectacle and such beauty on earth and we don’t know how to tell about it. We only know that God is with the people there, 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 taste the bitter; So we can no longer remain in paganism here.”
Architecture
Let us remember that the test of faith did not mean which faith is more beautiful, but which faith is true. And the main argument for the truth of the faith, Russian ambassadors declare its beauty. And this is no coincidence! 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 up their cities with such zeal and erected central churches in them. Together with church vessels and icons, Vladimir brings from Korsun (Chersonese) two copper idols (that is, two statues, not idols) and four copper horses, “about which the ignorant think that they are marble,” and places them behind the Tithe Church, on the most solemn place in the city.
The churches erected in the 11th century are to this day the architectural centers of the old cities of the Eastern Slavs: Sofia in Kyiv, Sofia in Novgorod, Spas in Chernigov, the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir, etc. No subsequent temples and buildings have overshadowed what was built in the 11th century.
None of the countries bordering Russia in the 11th century could compare with it in the grandeur of its architecture and in the art of painting, mosaics, applied art and in the intensity of historical thought expressed in chronicles and work on translated chronicles.
The only country with high architecture, complex both in technique and in beauty, which, besides Byzantium, can be considered the predecessor of Rus' in art, is Bulgaria with its monumental buildings in Pliska and Preslav. Large stone temples were built in Northern Italy in Lombardy, northern Spain, England and the Rhine region, but this is far away.
It is not entirely clear why in the countries adjacent to Rus', mainly rotunda churches were widespread in the 11th century: either 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 was most suitable for performing the baptismal ceremony.
In any case, churches of the basilica type are replacing rotunda churches, and it can be considered that in the 12th century the adjacent countries were already carrying out extensive construction and were catching up with Rus', which nevertheless continued to maintain primacy until the Tatar-Mongol conquest.
Returning to the heights of the art of pre-Mongol Rus', I cannot help but quote from the notes of Pavel Aleppo, who traveled around Russia under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and saw the ruins of the Church of Sophia in Kyiv: “The human mind is not able to embrace it (the Church of Sophia) due to the variety of colors of its 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 numerousness of its porticos and vestibules.” Not everything in this description is accurate, but one can believe the general impression that the Temple of Sophia made on a foreigner who saw the temples of both Asia Minor and the Balkan Peninsula. One might 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 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 is precisely what distinguishes it from heresy. 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 to perceive this aesthetic moment, for it stayed with it for a long time and became its defining element. Let us remember that for many centuries Russian philosophy was closely connected with literature and poetry. Therefore, it must be studied in connection with Lomonosov and Derzhavin, Tyutchev and Vladimir Solovyov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chernyshevsky... Russian icon painting was speculation in colors, expressing, first of all, a worldview. Russian music was also a philosophy. Mussorgsky is the greatest and still far from being discovered thinker, in particular a historical thinker.
It is not worth listing all the cases of the moral influence of the church on Russian princes. They are generally known to everyone who, in one way or another, to a greater or lesser extent, is impartially and unbiasedly interested in Russian history. Let me 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 this is good or bad - let the readers judge. But one thing is indisputable: the perfectly organized Bulgarian written language 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 starting dates of this kind are usually conventional. But if we talk about the conventional date for the beginning of Russian culture, then, in my opinion, I would consider the year 988 to be the most reasonable. Is it necessary to delay anniversary dates into 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 types of arts, it is unlikely that such a date will in any way elevate Russian culture. 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 on the world stage with its Kiev, the rival of Constantinople, exactly a thousand years ago. A thousand years ago, high painting and high applied art appeared in our country - precisely those areas in which there was no lag in East Slavic culture. We also know that Rus' was a highly literate country, otherwise how would it have developed such a high literature 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, “The Word of Law and Grace” - a work the likes of which no country had in his time - ecclesiastical in form and historical and political in content.
Attempts to substantiate the idea that they accepted Christianity according to Latin custom are devoid of any scientific documentation and are clearly tendentious in nature. Only one thing is unclear: what significance this could have if the entire Christian culture was adopted by us from Byzantium and as a result of relations between Rus' and Byzantium. 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, nothing can be deduced. Just as nothing decisive can be deduced from the fact that Vladimir, before this division, received Latin missionaries in Kyiv “with love and honor” (what reason did he have to accept otherwise?). Nothing can be deduced from the fact that Vladimir and Yaroslav married their daughters to kings who belonged to the Western Christian world. Didn’t Russian tsars in the 19th century marry German and Danish princesses and marry off their daughters to Western royalty?
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 view the refusal of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily Vasilyevich to accept the Union of Florence of 1439 with the Roman Catholic Church, for its time it was an act of the greatest political significance. For this not only helped preserve their own culture, but also contributed to the reunification of the three East Slavic peoples, and at the beginning of the 17th century, during the era of Polish intervention, helped preserve Russian statehood. This thought, as always with him, was clearly expressed by S.M. Soloviev: the refusal of the Florentine Union 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 north-eastern Rus' in 1612, made it impossible for the Polish prince to ascend the Moscow throne, and led to a struggle for the faith in the Polish possessions.
The Uniate Council of 1596 in the ominous Brest-Litovsk could not blur the line between the national Ukrainian and Belarusian cultures.
The Westernizing reforms of Peter I could not blur 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. The role and significance of Christianity in Rus' were very changeable, just as Orthodoxy itself was changeable in Rus'. However, given that painting, music, to a large extent architecture and almost all literature in Ancient Rus' were in the orbit of Christian thought, Christian debate and Christian themes, it is quite clear that Pushkin was right, if his thought is broadly understood.
In Orthodox church calendar this date (according to the old style - July 15) is the day of remembrance of Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir (960-1015). On June 1, 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the Federal Law “On Amendments to Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Days of Military Glory and Memorable Dates in Russia.”
The Russian Orthodox Church came up with a proposal to give state status to the Day of the Baptism of Rus'.
In June 2008, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church decided on the day of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir on July 28 to perform a divine service according to the charter of the great holiday, and also addressed the leadership of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus with a proposal to include the day of St. Prince Vladimir among the state memorial dates.
In Ukraine, a similar date is a public holiday called the Day of the Baptism of Kievan Rus - Ukraine, which is celebrated annually on July 28 - the day of remembrance of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir. The holiday was established in July 2008 by decree of the President of Ukraine.
The first official celebration of the baptism of Rus' took place in 1888 on the initiative of the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, Pobedonostsev. Anniversary events took place in Kyiv: on the eve of the anniversary, the foundation stone was laid for the Vladimir Cathedral; A monument to Bohdan Khmelnytsky was unveiled, and solemn services were held.
Following Kiev, Christianity gradually came to other cities of Kievan Rus: Chernigov, Volyn, Polotsk, Turov, where dioceses were created. The baptism of Rus' as a whole dragged on for several centuries - in 1024 Yaroslav the Wise suppressed the uprising of the Magi in the Vladimir-Suzdal land (a similar uprising was repeated in 1071; at the same time in Novgorod the Magi confronted Prince Gleb), Rostov was baptized only at the end of the 11th century, and in Murom, pagan resistance to the new faith continued until the 12th century.
The Vyatichi tribe remained in paganism the longest of all the Slavic tribes. Their enlightener in the 12th century was the Monk Kuksha, a Pechersk monk who suffered martyrdom among them.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
