ADOPTION OF CHRISTIANITY IN RUSSIA

Well before Ancient Russia, in the 1st century, Apostle Andrew the First-Called told his disciples as he stood on the Dnieper River:

“You see the mountains? They will witness God's grace in glory and there will stand a great city with many churches…”

And he then climbed up to the top of the mountains, gave his blessings, left a cross, said a prayer and came down and later on there sprang up the city Kiev....

This comes from the Russian Chronicles "The Tale of Bygone Years" by Nestor the Monk.

On the place where Andrew the First-Called said the teachings of Christ they built a church in his honour several centuries later...

Seeds of Christianity, scattered by the first missionaries, starting from Andrew the First-Called, took nearly one thousand years to put forth shoots in the land of our Eastern Slav forefathers. Until the 10th century Eastern Slavs practiced paganism worshipping various gods that stood for forces of nature and honoured the deceased forefathers as patrons. Slavs had no temples or priests. Instead, as the historians argue, they cultivated magi and sorcerers. Open heights served as convenient places to put up statues of deities made of wood or stone with altars before or around them. Sometimes the offerings included human sacrifices.

The first attempt to impart Christian values to our Slav forefathers was made by Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga - we told you of her in the previous program.

A widow after the death of Prince Igor, Olga ran the Ancient Russian state from the position of wisdom and discipline. In 955 (on other estimates in 957) Olga made a long trip to Byzantium, Constantinople, to borrow Christian wisdom and get christened. At the christening the Patriarch of Constantinople told her:

"Blessed are you among Russian women, for out you came of the darkness for the light. And blessed you will be in the hearts of future generations of the Russians and your grandchildren".

The head of the Byzantine church instructed Olga in the values of the religion, the Christian set of rules and prayer conduct and introduced her to the Ten Commandments. In the christening Olga got the name Yelena.

The princess took a priest with her and back home he baptized many of her entourage. And in the wake of her comeback from Byzantium Christian churches were built too.

Olga's most ardent wish was to see her son Svyatoslav a Christian too. But a brave warrior as he was, Svyatoslav remained adamantly against it. I know, he said, that I'd better listen to you, mother. But even if I wanted to get baptized, my people will not follow me. If I adopt the Christian law alone, my boyars and dignitaries will laugh at me. So why should I take up an alien religion that will drive people away from me and leave me in isolation unneeded and unwanted.

That was in the chronicles. But there must have been other reasons too. Along with devotion to his armed force Prince Svyatoslav couldn't accept the idea of salvation or understand the meaning and value of Christian faith to the state.

Princess Olga lived a long life, the last fifteen years of her life - in Christian faith. She died in July 969. 30 years after her death the Princess's relics were retrieved, untouched by decay. In the presence of masses of people the Holy relics were ceremoniously put into a stone coffin and taken to the newly-built Church of the Holy Mother of God in Kiev. That marked the first in Russian history public ritual to pay tribute to a saint.

According to the chronicles, on top of the stone sarcophagus was a small window and when someone with true belief in the sainthood of Princess Olga approached it, the window opened all on its own revealing to the eye the undecayed body of the blessed princess, radiating light like a sun. Many people are said to have become cured of various diseases at the coffin. If approached by a non-believer the window of the stone coffin stayed shut.

What Princess Olga strived so much to prepare Russia for was carried out by her grandson, Prince Vladimir, who made Christianity the official religion in Russia.

Prince Vladimir was Svyatoslav's son, Olga's grandson and Rurik's great-grandson.

Half of his life the Prince was a heathen, belligerent and sly, who had many wives. Even though he as well as his brothers was raised by their grandmother, Princess Olga, he remained deaf to the teachings of Christ and stayed ignorant to the Christian values. More than that, after killing his brother Yaropolk, he seized power and came to reign in Russia.

In all likelihood, the Prince's conscience never left him in peace after the fratricide, for the pagan faith forgave none of such acts either. So, in an attempt to ingratiate himself with the gods, the Prince plunged in earnest worship of the idols to which he brought offerings in large numbers. Vladimir was particularly generous to Perun, the god of thunder and lightning and the patron of prince's power. He made the god's statue with a silver head and gold moustache.

In 983, after another of his military successes, Prince Vladimir and his army thought it necessary to sacrifice human lives to the gods. A lot was cast and it fell on a youth, Ioann by name, the son of a Christian, Fyodor. His father stood firmly against his son being sacrificed to the idols. More than that, he tried to show the pagans the futility of their faith:

“Your gods are just plain wood: it is here now but it may rot into oblivion tomorrow; your gods neither eat, nor drink, nor talk and are made by human hand from wood; whereas there is only one God - He is worshipped by Greeks and He created heaven and earth; and your gods? They have created nothing, for they have been created themselves; never will I give my son to the devils!”

An open abuse of the deities, to which most of our forefathers bowed in reverence in those times, triggered widespread indignation. Rampant crowds killed the Christian Fyodor and his son Ioann. Later on, after the overall christening of Russia, people came to regard them as the first Christian martyrs in Russia and the Orthodox Church set a day to commemorate them - July 25th.

Immediately after the murder of Fyodor and Ioann Ancient Russia saw persecutions against Christians, many of which had to escape or conceal their belief. Churches stood ripped....

However, Prince Vladimir mused over the incident long after, and not in the last place, for political considerations too. The chronicles have it that different preachers came to the Prince, each offering a particular faith. Vladimir spoke to Muslims, Catholics, Jews but for different reasons rejected all the religions. Finally, a Greek philosopher told the prince of the Old and New Testaments and presented him with a canvas depicting Doomsday. When he learned of what the unrepentant were in for, Prince Vladimir went numb with horror and after a short pause said with a sigh: “Blessed are the good doers and damned are the evil!”

The Greek philosopher walked off with numerous gifts and honours. In 987 Prince Vladimir summoned boyars and city elders seeking counsel on all proposals from the religious emissaries. The boyars and elders pronounced the following judgment:

“Do remember, Your Honour, that each naturally praised his own religion. Should You want to find what each religion really is, send your men to different countries and let them tell you of how different peoples serve God.”

The ambassador returned each with his own story. But no other religion had impressed them as much as the Greek.

“And we stepped on the Greek soil,” they recalled, “and they showed us their place of worship. And we knew not whether it's heaven or earth, for nowhere had we seen such a beauty, and we know not even how to speak of it. We knew only that God was there with people and that their service was better than anywhere. The beauty we've seen there will now never go, for never will you take the bitter if you've tasted the sweet. Likewise, no longer can we practice paganism.”

The story is narrated by Saint Nestor in "The Tale of Bygone Years", where he described the Prince's men as people of wisdom, who revealed such a profound understanding of Orthodoxy. The boyars provided the following argumentation:

“If the Greek religion were unworthy, Your grandmother, Princess Olga, the wisest of women, would have never adopted it.”

After learning thereby of various beliefs and getting repeated counseling from the boyars and the elders, Vladimir resolved to take the Greek religion. But he was too proud to address Byzantium in person for fear of being looked upon as a beggar.

In 988, after conquering the rich Greek city of Hersonissos Prince Vladimir sent ambassadors to Byzantine Emperors Vasily and Konstantin to announce that he wanted to marry their sister, Princess Anna. In case of refusal he threatened to take Constantinople. So the emperors had to concede. But a Christian cannot marry a pagan, even if he is the prince of a powerful and prosperous state. Vladimir had to be baptized and let go of his four wives and numerous concubines. And he promised to do so.

Princess Anna escorted by religious figures and civil officials set out to Hersonissos by sea. The chronicles say Prince Vladimir had eye trouble at the time and couldn't see anything. The princess convinced him of the urgency of his being baptized. As soon as the priest laid his hand on the prince his vision returned to him and the boyars, stunned by the miracle, got baptized in the same Saint Vasily Church on Hersonissos's city square. The surviving foundation of the church is now shown to tourists and pilgrims who arrive in the Crimea, which is now the territory of the Ukraine.

After the christening Prince Vladimir became Vasily. He built a new church in Hersonissos and returned the city to the Byzantine emperors. He took no prisoners. Instead, he invited with him several priests and in place of contribution took church vessels and the relics of saint Clement and his disciple Fim.

After getting enlightened through the Holy Gospels Prince Vladimir was keen on his subjects to follow suit too. For a start he ordered the destruction of all idols, which were dumped in rivers, cut with axes or burnt.

When all pagan shrines were destroyed Vladimir ordered all people to be baptized in the Dnieper and other rivers. Orthodox cathedrals rose up where heathen temples used to stand.

Prince Vladimir built a wooden church in Kiev in honour of Saint Vasily, his heavenly patron. Ironically, the church was built on the very place where the idol of the deity Perun had once stood.

From Constantinople the Prince called skillful architects to build a stone church in honour of the Holy Mother of God on the place where the Christians Fyodor and his son Ioann fell victim to the pagans in 983. By the year 996 the church was completed and Prince Vladimir gave it the crosses and vessels he had brought from Hersonissos. He also ordered that all services in the church be conducted by priests from Hersonissos. And he gave one tenth of his income for the maintenance of this establishment. After the Prince and Princess died, the church housed the marble shrine of Prince Vladimir and the sepulchre of Princess Anna.

The christening caused a profound transformation in Prince Vladimir changing his thoughts and looks. Nothing reminded of his pagan past. He was terrified of hurting anyone and took up arms only when it was necessary to defend his Motherland.

The Prince ordered schools to be built to teach Slavic alphabet and the Bible to the youngsters. He was helpful to the poor and sick and threw feasts for ordinary folks in cities and villages.

Vladimir's faith in Christianity took deep roots in him. He did whatever he could to live up to the honour of being called a Christian and became both a wise ruler and a spiritual leader to his people, who lovingly called him Vladimir the Red Sun. The church ordained the Prince in sainthood and made him Equal-to-the-Apostles. Russia's Orthodox believers mark July 28th as Commemoration Day for the Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Prince Vladimir.

Christianity took roots in Russia gradually, in continuous struggle with paganism. Even so, schools for future clergymen from among the Russians opened all the same and the Russian Orthodox Church came into being.

Christening marked a turning point in the lives of Russian people. Under the influence of the church pagan traditions vanished and enlightenment and culture arrived accompanied by rich literature translated from Greek, exquisite architecture and icon painting. The christening expanded Ancient Russia's ties with the rest of the Christian world.

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You supported Leo's idiotic claims, your blind statements up top, that Moscow and thus Russians have nothing to do with Kieven Russ (except that almost all European Russian cities, to include Moscow were central in Kieven Russ). Second, where do you think the name Russian comes from. The slavic name of Kieven Russ is Kievski Russ, the slavic name for Russia is Russiya, or in other words the Russes, as in the lands of the Russ.

Gads, it's good to know a bit of the language when posting.

Are you denying that Ukraine and other countries should be independent from Russia?

Nope, that's first of all your addition. Second of all, its up to the people in those lands. If parts want to reunify with Russia, it's there right if parts don't, equally their right.

The Russian Communists ripped out microphones in the Ukraine Congress today to stop the passage of trade reforms

The Russian communists? Oh, you mean Gregory and his party of communists flew to Ukraine, went into the Rada and ripped out the microphones?

Oh wait:

KIEV, Ukraine -- Communists and pro-government lawmakers threw punches at each other Wednesday during an angry debate in the Ukrainian parliament over a package of bills needed for entry to the World Trade Organization.

Well, seems that these were Ukrainian communists: which means one of two things: either you don't understand that none Russians can be communists (Yes, Marx and Ingel weren't Russians either) or you purposely lied and mistated the facts. Now which is it?

As for your other article, to begin with, the fact you're reading Pravda, a communist tabloid says a lot. I particularly found their other articles interesting:

Olympic Erotica 2004
American fashion model seduced famous Ukrainian soccer player Shevchenko.
EU to assign 10 million euros to build underground passages for toads and frogs in Ukraine
Mothers-in-law make men sexually useless
Oh, but this one is the best: Russian scientist deciphers message from aliens, which he found on Earth

Furthermore, as for the article itself:

Yury Dyashchenko, 50, set his shirt ablaze, but then quickly took it off and put out the fire, leaving his hair slightly singed. Police, who brought reinforcements along with two ambulances, had tried to negotiate with the group earlier but backed off after another man doused himself with gasoline, reports the AP. The protesters accused President Viktor Yushchenko and his new government of failing to fulfill pledges to crack down on rampant corruption among state authorities. Dyashchenko, a lawyer from eastern Ukraine, accused a local mayor of stealing his company in early 1990s. He said all his attempts to reclaim his property in the court have failed because of corruption. "Everything is corrupted and with new people in power it turned from bad to worse," he said. Another man, Viktor Lavrynych, 42, said that "the courts are violating the laws in most of Ukraine. "I supported Yushchenko but nothing has been changed," he said.

if you had bothered to read it, these guys voted for Yushchenko and are now disappointed. Not exactly what you played it up as. So once again, either you didn't bother to read the article or you are lieing on purpose. Which is it?

Finally, why do you resort to sexually implicit cursing when defending your religious history posts? I refer to "S_uck on it"

Try again. Suck on a piece of lemon, tart isn't it. That's the expression I expect on your face once you get disproven, as usual.

The Ukrainian King? Where exactly was Ukraine then? Do you understand (I know you don't) what Ukraine means? Kraine is the edge, the edge of civilization, such as Kraine in Croatia which was a Serb settlement under the Austrians, on the edge of the Turk lands, thus the edge of civilization (since islamics weren't considered civilized and most still aren't).

Ukraine, at that time was on the finish borders, today's Belarus. Gads, why don't you study something outside your hate filled conspiracy threads before posting. This isn't even challenging.

Further east in the Carpathians, Christianity was introduced even earlier in an area that is now Poland. Will your map of "Russia " now extend to Kracow?

Silly strawman at best.

Below is a good summary of Kievan Rus--it was neither Russia, Ukraine or Belarus, but medieval East Slav state led by Viking descendants (Rus) from Kiev and it covered modern NorthWestern Russia, most of Ukraine and Belarus.
After break up of Kievan Rus in 12th century and subsequent invasions by Mongols, Polish Lithuanian Kingdom, etc. it evolved into 3 separate nations--Russians, Ukrainians and Belarussians. That's historical fact. Now they are separate nation-states and should respect each other borders and sovereignty. If some nutcases use Kievan Rus as a justification to "reunite" Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, this is certainly a dangerous avanturistic position. But it does not mean that history should be rewritten.

http://www.bartleby.com/65/ki/KievanRu.html

k´fn) (KEY) , medieval state of the Eastern Slavs. It was the earliest predecessor of modern Ukraine and Russia. Flourishing from the 10th to the 13th cent., it included nearly all of present-day Ukraine and Belarus and part of NW European Russia, extending as far N as Novgorod and Vladimir. According to the Russian Primary Chronicle, a medieval history, the Varangian Rurik established himself at Novgorod c.862 and founded a dynasty. His successor, Oleg or Oleh (d. c.912), shifted his attention to the south, seized Kiev (c.879), and established the new Kievan state. The Varangians were also known as Rus or Rhos; it is possible that this name was early extended to the Slavs of the Kievan state, which became known as Kievan Rus. Other theories trace the name Rus to a Slavic origin. Oleg united the Eastern Slavs and freed them from the suzerainty of the Khazars. His successors were Igor or Ihor (reigned 912–45) and Igor’s widow, St. Olga or Olha, who was regent until about 962. Under Olga’s son, Sviatoslav or Svyatoslav (d. 972), the Khazars were crushed, and Kievan power was extended to the lower Volga and N Caucasus. Christianity was introduced by Vladimir I or Volodymyr I (reigned 980–1015), who adopted (c.989) Greek Orthodoxy from the Byzantines. The reign (1019–54) of Vladimir’s son, Yaroslav the Wise, represented the political and cultural apex of Kievan Rus. After his death the state was divided into principalities ruled by his sons; this soon led to civil strife. A last effort for unity was made by Vladimir II or Volodymyr II (reigned 1113–25), but the perpetual princely strife and the devastating raids of the nomadic Cumans soon ended the supremacy of Kiev. In the middle of the 12th cent. a number of local centers of power developed: Halych in the west, Novgorod in the north, Vladimir-Suzdal (see Vladimir) in the northwest, and Kiev in the south. In 1169, Kiev was sacked and pillaged by the armies of Andrei Bogolubsky of Suzdal, and the final blow to the Kievan state came with the Mongol invasion (1237–40). The economy of the Kievan state was based on agriculture and on extensive trade with Byzantium, Asia, and Scandinavia. Culture, as well as religion, was drawn from Byzantium; Church Slavonic was the literary and liturgical language of the state. According to some scholars the history of the Kievan state is the common heritage of modern Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians, although their existence as separate peoples has been traced as far back as the 12th cent. Ukrainian scholars consider Kievan Rus to be central to the history of the Ukraine.

Here is another link to informative and objective article on Kievan Rus in Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kievan_Rus'

The Fragment explaining how inhabitants of Kievan Rus evolved into Russians, Ukrainians and Belarussians:

Kievan Rus was not able to maintain its position as a powerful and prosperous state, in part because of the amalgamation of disparate lands under the control of a ruling clan. As the members of that clan became more numerous, they identified themselves with regional interests rather than with the larger patrimony. Thus, the princes fought among themselves, frequently forming alliances with outside groups such as the Polovtsians, Poles, and Hungarians. During the years from 1054 to 1224 no less than 64 principalities had a more or less ephemeral existence, 293 princes put forward succession claims, and their disputes led to 83 civil wars.

The Crusades brought a shift in European trade routes that accelerated the decline of Kievan Rus. In 1204 the forces of the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople, making the Dnieper trade route marginal. As it declined, Kievan Rus splintered into many principalities and several large regional centers: Novgorod, Vladimir-Suzdal, Halych, Polotsk, Smolensk, Chernigov, and Pereyaslavl. The inhabitants of those regional centers then evolved into three nationalities: Ukrainians in the southeast and southwest, Belarusians in the northwest, and Russians in the north and northeast.

I have in my library a newspaper from Winnipeg, Canada, dated 1918, published by a Ukrainian organization based there. The article asks whether "we" (Ukrainian readers) should call themselves "Ukrainian", "Vikrainian", or "Rusyn". Even then it hadn't been decided. So the entire concept of "Ukrainian" has been in flux all along, since it first began as a POLITICAL alternative to Russian identity in the early 1800's in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (divide and conqure strategy).

Why else would most everybody I've ever met from the Ukraine (eastern, southern, or western) be quite clear that they are "Russian" even if living in the Ukrainian landmass.

By the way, the people in westernmost Ukraine (the Carpathian region) were quite clear in the early 1800's that they identified with the Russian nation "from the Poprad River [Slovakia] to the Pacific", and Alexander Duchnovich's de facto national anthem "Ja Rusin Byl" [I was Rusin, am, and will be] refers to having "Russian" parents and "Russian" environment.

Ukrainian identity was formed long before Austro-Hungarian empire, so its absolutely wrong to say that Austro-Hungarian leadership invented it. Ukrainian language started forming somewhere in 13th or 14th century. Zaporozje Cossacks by the time of 1648 Khmelnitski uprising against Polish overlords saw themselves as a sort of a separate Ukrainian nation (or quasi-nation). Khmelnitski decided to Unite with Moscow Ruler in 1654 wanting full autonomy for Ukraine under Moscow Protectorate. The subsequent Ukrainian Cossack leaders frequently rebelled against Moscow Authority when Moscow started to tighted its control over Ukraine. Formation of Ukrainian and Russian identity is centuries old complex process and its ridiculous to try to pin it all on Austro-Hungarian leadership. The bottom line--these identities are formed and Nation states are created around them.

So much crap, not worth commenting. Like:
"By the way, the people in westernmost Ukraine (the Carpathian region) were quite clear in the early 1800's that they identified with the Russian nation "from the Poprad River [Slovakia] to the Pacific", and Alexander Duchnovich's de facto national anthem "Ja Rusin Byl" [I was Rusin, am, and will be] refers to having "Russian" parents and "Russian" environment.

There is also "Russian" church in NYC and they are proud to be russians (really Ruthenians), the only "problem" is - they speak Ukrainian.

Not RUSSIAN but RUSIN (or RUSNAK). Have you compared language those "Russians" speak? It is Ukrainian with mixture of some Slovak and Polish words. Far remote from rough Russian language. Language on the territory tells the story who is who. If people speak Ukrainian and Ukrainian dialects that are closer to literary Ukrainian than Russian, then they are hardly Russian. Russian Imperial worshipers, as soon as they see RUS... somewhere, it was mother Russia and invented by Russians and all their bases are belong to them. Like the world's nicest political system. Glory to bat'ko Lenin! I lived there, I know, you are full of it. Interesting that garbage and personal attacks by JB6 are tolerated by the admin.

I have a life besides arguing with likes of JB6. As some deep thinker said: If you argue with idiot, it is hard to tell who is... (something like that :-)

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