The Russians' Secret - Book Review (Part 2 of 6)

The "Conversion" of Russia

“The 'Conversion' of Russia” is a subheading in chapter 3 of The Russians' Secret (hereafter TRS), “conversion” being inside quotation marks to convey the authors' skepticism. They cast doubt on the authenticity of faith among Christians having political power: the Kievan Prince Vladimir (r. 980-1015), Basil II (r. 976-1025), the emperor of Byzantium who asked Vladimir to help fight the Bulgars, and his sister Anna (963-1011) whom Vladimir had requested as a wife in marriage. 

The Baptism of Rus'

The Kievan Primary Chronicle (12th c.) recalls how Vladimir sent ambassadors to investigate the faiths of the Greeks, Latins, and Muslims. Upon their return, they told of their awe at the beauty of the Greek Orthodox service and the place where it was conducted, saying they did not know whether they had been in heaven or on earth. The prince and boyars then agreed to be baptized. Incredulous of the account, the authors of TRS write, “The legend is definitely fictitious” (p. 29). In favor of the event's plausibility, Marwazi, a late 11th-century Persian, affirmed that Vladimir sent emissaries to Khorezm, in Central Asia, asking for a teacher to instruct Rus' in Islam. For this reason, Franklin and Shepard conclude that “it is overwhelmingly probable that the story echoes Vladimir's soundings of the 980's, and if envoys were sent to a Moslem power, they were most probably also sent to the Germans and the Byzantines” (See Simon Franklin and Jonathan Shepard, The Emergence of Rus 750-1200 [London and New York: Longman, 1998], 161). 

St. Vladimir, Baptizer of Kievan Rus' 

Prince Vladimir accepted Orthodoxy as the official religion of Kievan Rus'. The authors' cynicism toward Vladimir's conversion is evident when they state that “some knew there was more to Christianity than what Prince Vladimir had found” (p. 16). In the Primary Chronicle, Vladimir is morally corrupt and supportive of evil practices during his pagan life, all of which renders his conversion all the more remarkable. Vladimir's character was indeed transformed at baptism, no longer the pagan warlord guilty of murder, rape, adultery, and idolatry. As a Christian, St. Vladimir cared for the poor, dismissed his concubines, and lived monogamously with his wife Anna. In the words of Fr. John Strickland, he “responded to the Sermon on the Mount by ordering the suspension of capital punishment” (The Age of Division: Christendom from the Great Schism to the Protestant Reformation [Chesterton, IN: Ancient Faith Publishing, 2020], 22.) Given the TRS's emphasis on living by the Sermon on the Mount, hopefully the authors' audience can appreciate St. Vladimir's Christian conviction, regardless of his being a prince with imperial power. Butler knows of nothing that contradicts the evidence that “Vladimir's reputation as a sinner who became a philanthropist prevailed both inside and outside of Rus'” (Francis Butler, Enlightener of Rus': The Image of Vladimir Sviatoslavich Across the Centuries [Bloomington, IN: Slavica, 2002], 62). 

The right-believing St. Vladimir, Baptizer of Kievan Rus' (958-1015)

Evidence of Genuine Conversion

The great baptism at Kiev in 988 was, to the TRS authors, a “violent 'conversion'” (pp. 12-14). However, the conversion of Russia was rather peaceful, not to be compared with the forced conversions to Roman Catholicism in Medieval western Europe, such as under the Frankish king Charlemagne (747-814), who forcibly converted the Saxons through captivity and massacres, or the religious wars carried out by the Crusaders between 1095 and 1291. As Vlasto points out, “[I]f we consider the first few centuries of Russian Christianity as a whole, the record is excellent.” He continues, “Limitless Russia peculiarly lent itself to this wholly peaceful method of evangelization. Oppression was rare; on the contrary the monasteries and missionaries protected their new converts against the secular officials who in due course followed in their wake” (A. P. Vlasto, The Entry of the Slavs into Christendom: An Introduction to the Medieval History of the Slavs [Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1970], 264-265). The “introduction of Christianity to southern Russia,” writes Bolshakoff, “did not meet with any serious resistance because the Slavonic tribes did not possess temples or a regular priesthood” (Serge Bolshakoff, Russian Nonconformity [Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press, 1950], 24).

The authenticity of the conversion of Rus' is also reflected by its subsequent Christianization, such as the spread of the Church's culture and ecclesiastical organization. Replacing pagan practices, Christian burial forms are observed in the late 10th century onwards and church artifacts in urban areas date from the 11th to 13th centuries. During the reign of Yaroslav the Wise (r. 1019-1054), the state collected taxes to support the clergy, built churches such as Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, and established an academy for the translation of patristic texts and theological education. Yaroslav also appointed Metropolitan Hilarion of Kiev in 1051-1052 as the first native primate of Russia. Dispelling the kind of historiography found in TRS, Stella Rock stated,

Within the boundaries of Kiev, swiftly followed by Novgorod and other major towns, the urban population witnessed the public and dramatic destruction of their pagan idols and the building of masonry and wooden churches, followed by spectacular cathedrals. The spiritual or psychological impact of this work must surely have constituted a radical change in the fabric of society and the consciousness of those who participated in the transformation. (Popular Religion in Russia: 'Double Belief' and the Making of an Academic Myth [New York, NY: Routledge, 2007], 8)

But in TRS, Russia's conversion marked the beginning of Christianity as Russia's “state religion,” which the authors contrast with the Kingdom of Heaven and the “underground church.” To them, Russian Orthodoxy inherited from Constantinople, replete with sacraments, infant baptism, clergy, icons, crosses, relics, incense, Slavonic hymns, and temples with towers and shinning domes, cannot be equivalent to the kingdom of God, an “inner kingdom . . . of believers” (pp. 12-17). An Orthodox perspective, on the other hand, doesn't require such a dichotomy. In the words of Strickland, a contemporary Orthodox historian, “Neophyte Russia was a good example of Christendom's principle of heavenly transformation, the imperative to reconfigure life in the world according to the kingdom of heaven” (The Age of Division: Christendom from the Great Schism to the Protestant Reformation [Chesterton, IN: Ancient Faith Publishing, 2020], 22). In summary, casting doubt upon Russia's conversion calls into question the historical scholarship of the TRS authors and the conclusions of their work.

Updated: April 9, 2024 

Recommended Resources:

Breck J., Meyendorff, Fr. J., Silk, E. (eds.) The Legacy of St. Vladimir (Crestwood, NY: SVS Press. 1990).

Butler, F. Enlightener of Rus': The Image of Vladimir Sviatoslavich Across the Centuries (Bloomington, IN: Slavica, 2002).

Dvornik, F. “Byzantine Political Ideas in Kievan Rus”. Dumbarton Oaks Papers. 9-10 (1956): 73-121.

Fedotov, G.P. The Russian Religious Mind. vol 1. Kievan Christianity. (Belmont, MA: Nordland. 1975.)

Florovsky, Fr. G. The Ways of Russian Theology (Belmont, MA: Nordland. 1979.)

Franklin, S. Byzantium-Rus-Russia: Studies in the Translation of Christian Culture. (Farnham, Hants.: Variorum Collected Studies Series. 2002.)

Franklin S. and Shepard, J. The Emergence of Rus 750-1200 (London and New York: Longman, 1998). 

Gvosdev, N. K. An Examination of Church-State Relations in Byzantine and Russian Empires with an Emphasis on Ideology and Models of Interaction (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press. 2001).

McEvedy, C. The New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History. (London: Penguin Books. 1992).

Meyendorff, Fr. J. Byzantium and the Rise of Russia. (Crestwood, NY: SVS Press. 1980).

Meyendorff, Fr. J. Rome, Constantinople, Moscow. (Crestwood, NY: SVS Press. 1996).

Obolensky, D. “Russia’s Byzantine Heritage” in Cherniavsky, M. (ed.) The Structure of Russian History (New York, NY: Random House. 1970).

Patapios, Hieromonk, “St. Theodore the Studite and the Problem of the Paulicians." Greek Orthodox Theological Review 43 (1998): 143-154.

Poppe A. “The Political Background to the Baptism of Rus’: Byzantine Russian Relations between 986-89”. Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 30 (1976): 195-244.

Rock, S. Popular Religion in Russia: 'Double Belief' and the Making of an Academic Myth (New York, NY: Routledge, 2007).

Senyk, S. A History of the Church in Ukraine. (Rome: Pontificio Istituto Orientale. 1993).

Shubin, D.H. A History of Russian Christianity: From the Earliest Years Through Tsar Ivan IV. vol. I. (New York, NY: Algora Publishing. 2004).

Stokes, A.D. “The Status of the Russian Church, 988-1037”. The Slavonic and East European Review, 89 (1959): 430-442.

Venning, T., Harris, J. A Chronology of the Byzantine Empire. (London: Palgrave MacMillan. 2006).

Vlasto, A. P. The Entry of the Slavs into Christendom: An Introduction to the Medieval History of the Slavs (Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1970).

Wells, C. Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World. (New York, NY: Delacorte Press. 2006).