[Berosus]

1,020 years ago, the Russian leader, Grand Prince Vladimir I, was looking for a modern religion, and eventually chose Orthodox Christianity. He turned down Islam because it would have meant giving up drinking: "Drinking is the joy of the Rus. We cannot exist without that pleasure." Oh, how the country has changed, if Russia is likely to become Moslem now (by demographics, if not by wholesale conversion).

[MadIvan]

In 1552, Tsar Ivan IV, sacked the city of Kazan and forced its inhabitants to convert to Christianity. You can hook a turbine to his corpse now, and generate enough electricity to power Smolensk, I think.

Regards, Ivan