In what year was the baptism of Rus and what is the significance of the event?

In what year was the baptism of Rus? This event is one of the most important in the national history. After all, it not only determined the further spiritual development of the whole people, but also transformed the very image of the Russian state, having set the latter a vector of geopolitical development for centuries ahead.

Perov emergence of Christians: in what year was it?

The baptism of Rus was not a one-step act at all. He was preceded by long years of penetration into these lands of Christian preachers. For example, it is with their activities that the origin of writing among the Slavs is associated. Cyrillic and Glagolitic were developed by the Greeks specifically in order to shift the Holy Scripture for the Moravian Slavs into a language they understand. Somewhat later, this alphabet reached the Balkans and to the Russian territories, where it became very firmly entrenched. Speaking about the year in which the baptism of Rus was, it should also not be forgotten that even before the reform of Vladimir, there were already a lot of local Christians in the local lands. The most famous of them, perhaps, was the grandmother of the reformation ruler - the famous princess Olga. It is well known that in the middle of the tenth century, before the nationwide adoption of Orthodoxy, the Church of the Tithes appeared in Kiev . True, it is not known exactly what year it was. The baptism of Rus, therefore, was only a logical consequence of the many years of penetration of Christian ideas and the cultural evolution of society itself.

Geopolitical background

In addition to the above reasons, the prince had more weight to carry out this reform. No doubt, the prince's spiritual search took place. However, it should always be remembered that in the middle of the 10th century Rus was transformed into a large-scale territorial formation, uniting under its authority significant Slavic tribes. For the ruler it should be obvious that the state needs prosperity for the sake of invisible threads that will hold it back. Something more than just the military strength of the squad. Such threads in history often became the creation of a single bureaucratic apparatus, the introduction of unified laws and regulations, taxation throughout the country. In the case of Russia, it was necessary to impose uniform gods on the whole country. The first such attempt was the establishment of a single pantheon of pagan gods a few years before baptism. However, it collapsed. And the prince's eyes were turned to the most popular at that time monotheistic religions: Islam and Christianity. The history is widely known that it was the church service of the Orthodox Greeks that impressed him most. Favorable adoption of Christianity was also for geopolitical reasons: it literally gave a pass to Russia in the circle of advanced Western states of the time. Thus, Vladimir ceased to be considered for the Christian rulers a dark backward barbarian and became one civilizational step with them. In a practical embodiment, this allowed him to marry a Byzantine princess.

So in what year did the baptism of Rus take place?

In 988 the Christianization of the Eastern Slavs became a violent affair. As the chronicle testifies, the population was literally driven into the river Pochaynu (the tributary of the Dnieper in the Kiev region) to perform the rite. Of course, pagan faith still retained its influence for many decades and even centuries. Furthermore,
Many local gods entered the Orthodox pantheon of Russians as saints, staying there until today. However, a turning point occurred. The year of the baptism of Rus was the start of a new era for both the state and its people. The political benefits for the state and the prince himself have already been said. No less important was the further influence of Christianity on the formation of the three East Slavic peoples, which at that time finally separated into a separate niche, while becoming extremely close to each other. Baptism determined the development of the civilizational image of Russians for all subsequent centuries. Literally in all spheres of Russian medieval culture - in painting, architecture, literature - the Byzantine canons are obvious.