Conversion of Vladimir the Great
The Conversion of Volodimer[1] is a narrative recorded in several different versions in medieval sources about how Vladimir the Great converted from Slavic paganism to Byzantine Christianity in the 980s.
Scholars think the Sermon on Law and Grace, attributed to metropolitan Hilarion of Kiev between 1037 and 1050,[7] was written to take a stance in discussions on the canonisation of Volodimer that appeared to have been going on at the time.
Anxious to avoid the siege of his capital, Basil II turned to the Rus' for assistance, even though they were considered enemies at that time.
[9] The Primary Chronicle (Povest' vremennykh let, PVL), which was compiled in the 1110s, about 128 years after the events it narrates,[1] contains the story of Volodimer's conversion in pages 84–121.
[10] Ostrowski (2006) remarked: 'The entire episode of the missionaries is reminiscent of a disputation before the Khazar Khagan Bulan in the eighth century.
"[13][non-primary source needed] He also consulted with Jewish envoys (who may or may not have been Khazars), questioned them about Judaism but ultimately rejected it, saying that their loss of Jerusalem was evidence of their having been abandoned by God.
[11] After capturing Kherson, Volodimer sends a message threatening the co-emperors Basil and Constantine to attack and occupy Constantinople itself unless he is promised the hand of their sister, Anna Porphyrogenita, in marriage.
[15][non-primary source needed] Her co-Emperor brothers beg her to go: 'Through your agency God turns the land of Rus' to repentance, and you will relieve Greece from the danger of grievous war.
[17][non-primary source needed] A tearful princess Anna says goodbye to her homeland, and arrives at Kherson, where the town's inhabitants receive her.
'[1] This shows that Sylvester had access to multiple inconsistent accounts, had to choose which one to believe, copyedit, and write down, and to exclude all those sources which said something else about where the baptism happened (at least three competing alternative locations in total).
[11] About the last part, Ostrowski observed: 'From a narrative point of view, story 4 appears unnecessary, since Volodimer has already promised to be baptized as soon as Anna arrives with priests.
Andrzej Poppe (1988) dated the "Examination of Religions" narrative to 'not earlier than the second half of the eleventh century', and the "Kherson Legend" to the 1070s–1080s.
[1] Johnsson Hraundal added that 'the text [of the Primary Chronicle] was compiled much later than the period in question, in a rather different context, and is first and foremost a literary expression of the civilization and political system prevailing in Kiev at the time of its composition.
[26] However, Ostrowski remarked that regarding Volodimer's conversion 'only one of the [five] traditions – negotiations for the hand of Anna – finds independent corroboration in other sources of the time.
'[10] Traditional Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian historiography had assumed Volodimer was solely motivated to conquer Chersonesus in order to force the Byzantine emperors to marry off their sister to him.
[10] The marriage arrangement, the promise to convert to (Byzantine) Christianity, and the siege of Chersonesus, were thus all part of that alliance between Volodimer and Basil & Constantine against the rebel forces of Phokas.
