How it all got started

[puppyshoes]

Vladimir The Great,half of the orthodox are named after him, was victorious over his enemies. The saw what disarray his country was in. Then he knew that they must have a religion to unite them. He sent emissaries out to witness the three great religions. One told him that though Western Christianity seemed pious, Rome was like a cesspool of ungodliness. Now you must remember this was at the height of the dark ages and papal abuses. Also the black plague was raging. The another emissary arrived and told his of his impression of Islam. He too was impressed by their piorness. But was unmoved by their desire to conquer countries and fore them by the sword to convert doesn't happen anymore. Then the man from Constantinople arrive, he couldn't' contain his excitement. He said when he attended their services he wasn't sure if he was in heaven or on earth. Vladimir was so impressed he knew this was what he had been looking for. He sent for a Bishop so he could learn more. Needless to say,he converted,but more than this, he left the affairs of the state with a trusted person and went out himself preaching and baptizing. None knew he was the Prince. He didnt take the name of king or empiror,but instead said there is ne king and that is Jesus Christ. So he was Prince Vladimir. Throughout history has called him Vladimir the Baptizer. He even went so far as to break the ice in the rivers and then baptized people, infants to adult. He restructured land rights so that each family had what they needed, a large family would get a large plot ot land to work,while a small one would get a smaller one. The widows and orphans were properly cared for by the Church. Finally all maiming and torture was outlawed. I don't know if this is true,but I was told that the death penalty was done away with. The country disarmed,saying"How can we kill someone Christ died for?" It became a near perfect place to live,deseenters were banished to other countries where they could live the way they wanted.

[benda]

Thank you for your narration. It is really very interesting. But I want to say that, in my opinion, three things are not quite correct:

1. The baptizing took place in 988. I very doubt somebody had heard about black plague by that time.
2. Before Vladimir the rulers of Rus also named themselves Princes. It is actually not a prince - son of a king. It is more correct to translate is as... Count or something like this. It is "knyaz'" in Russian and Ukrainian - not "prints" - prince. And as you know nobody could be recognized as king without Papa's permittance. And remembering Vladimir chose Orthodoxity, not Catholicism (and though final division took place in 1054, contradictions became very deep already by that time), there was no chance Papa would recognize him as the King unless being forced to.
3. Finally, country didn't disarm - it was Vladimir who conquered remaining free Slavic tribes and united the whole Rus. Besides, Pechenegs after killing the Prince Svyatoslav tried to conquer Kyiv Rus, and there was a major batle near Trubezh, 993. Only Yaroslav succeded to destroy them as a tthreat in 1036.