Who really was the founder of Kievan Rus prince Vladimir

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Disputes about who Prince Vladimir was have been going on since ancient times. Historical sources describing his accomplishments are fragmentary and often contradict each other.

Irina Karatsuba, Candidate of Historical Sciences and Dmitry Volodikhin, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University, tried to give a more complete picture of this person during a discussion organized by the Yegor Gaidar Foundation in conjunction with the Free Historical Society.

History of myths

Volodikhin:

My view of the fate and contribution of Saint Vladimir to Russian history is that of a traditionalist historian. I believe that at the first stage of his activity he was a successful conqueror, a man who in his activity obeyed pagan morality. As for the fact of baptism, it was both strategically and culturally justified and brought the light that subsequently filled Russian history and culture. It was a great blessing.

In addition, after baptism, Vladimir the Saint himself became a truly model of a Christian ruler, moreover, a man who became the first true ruler of Russia. He did what neither Rurik, nor Oleg, nor Igor, nor Svyatoslav did: he ceased to be a Viking and began to create a system of defense of the country from external threats, primarily from the predatory steppe elements. This strategy has subsequently proven itself over the centuries. Saint Vladimir is one of the best rulers in the entire history of the Russian land.

Whatever they say about him a thousand years later, then the prince did what was important and necessary for Russia. Whether we remember him now, whether we do not remember, we smear him with something black or gilded - this is absolutely unimportant for his fate. He has already taken place as a ruler, baptist, commander.

Karatsuba:

Everyone probably remembers the memorable project "The Name of Russia 2008". Then the figure of Prince Vladimir was not even included in the top 50 names that were significant for Russians, unlike, say, his son Yaroslav the Wise, Dmitry Donskoy and Alexander Nevsky.

Dmitry once used a very good image: he said that the past should be perceived as a mosaic of smalt. Suppose it consists of one hundred pieces, and we take out 95. We have five pieces left, and from them we are trying to restore the mosaic.

The sources at our disposal, on the basis of which we can create not myths, but something real, is basically the "Tale of Bygone Years", which was written in Kiev at the beginning of the XII century, and Prince Vladimir is the last third of the X - the beginning of the XI century. Yes, she relied on some chronicle vaults of the end of the 11th century that have not come down to us. It is clear what a lag in the sources is: they describe what happened 100-150 years ago, and they do it in almost unwritten conditions. Yes, there are Western sources - Byzantine, Latin, Arab, Armenian, and so on, which contradict each other, are dark, scarce and need interpretation.

In general, everything is bad with source study, so the imagination of historians, writers, publicists and other political strategists is roaming around. Of course, it is impossible to deny the significance of the figure of Vladimir in the baptism of Rus. But here we face a very big problem - the consequences of the adoption of Christianity by Russia in its Byzantine version. Moreover, I am not at all sure that the term "state" can be applied to this formation of the late 10th - early 11th centuries. So, speaking of Prince Vladimir, we are entering the realm of the history of myths.

The legend about the choice of faith by Vladimir, which the Tale of Bygone Years gives us, is a beautiful legend, rather related to the confessional environment of Russia, and not to what actually happened. By the degree of its commercial, military, diplomatic proximity to Byzantium, Ancient Russia was predetermined to adopt Christianity in its eastern version. Although there were not very clear for us attempts to communicate with the Latin lands and Olga, and Yaropolk. But, as Karamzin said, "what could have been, but could not become." I think that neither we, nor Ukraine are the heirs of Kievan Rus. It was a completely different education. In terms of culture, maybe yes. That "light" that Dmitry was talking about. But the problem is that there was a lot of darkness too.

Volodikhin:

If we talk about whether they remembered him before or not, then you can get off at the Kitay-Gorod metro station, go to Starosadsky Lane, and just opposite the Ioannovsky Monastery will be the Church of St. Vladimir. It was built not in 2014, but in the 17th century, and its canonization took place quite early - apparently in the 13th century. He entered not only in the annals, but also in a huge number of other monuments, and historians of the 19th century remembered him.

Indeed, the legacy of St. Vladimir does not belong to Russia, Ukraine or Belarus, it belongs to all three East Slavic peoples equally, because Ancient Russia during the time of Prince Vladimir was located on the territory of modern Russia, and on the territory of modern Belarus, and on the territory of modern Ukraine. All these three countries are now predominantly Orthodox in their confessions.

Two Vladimirs

Vladimir was canonized later, not during his lifetime. To many, the changes in his personality seem psychologically unreliable. But if you look at the chronology of the actions of St. Vladimir, these changes seem to be quite thought out, deeply felt. He reflected on what kind of faith is needed, how to change the mind and move away from paganism. I asked people who had visited other countries and got acquainted with the essence of other faiths. There was also a bargaining with Constantinople, quite prosaic politically.

Already baptized Vladimir attacks Korsun, a Christian city. After that, he decides a very difficult issue of parting with previous wives. This did not happen in a day, not in a week, not in a month. Is it possible to change in six months, a year? I think yes.

As for the reasons for choosing an orientation towards the Constantinople Empire, there were enough benefits. But let's remember that Christianity in Russia existed even before St. Vladimir. In Kiev, the Elias Church already stood, the prince's grandmother was baptized, and it was she who raised the children. There were enough Christians in the city. The guards were Christians, and this Christianity was precisely Eastern, because the first Little Baptism took place not in the 10th century, but a hundred years earlier. Of course, it was organic, natural - to do what the whole history (both family and state) had prepared for.

Karatsuba:

It seems to me a myth: it is unlikely that he was raised by his grandmother, because the boys of the ancient Russian princes, as a rule, were raised by specially selected men. Svyatoslav with his retinue laughed at Olga's Christianity. Maybe this is so, or maybe not, but you cannot talk about it with such confidence, as if everything was so.

Volodikhin:

You confidently say that Svyatoslav laughed at this faith. Let's see where your confidence and my confidence comes from. We appeal to the same episode - 962, the siege of Kiev by the Pechenegs. Svyatoslav is not in Kiev, and for a long time. Instead of him, Olga rules, because the chronicles call her the ruler, replacing Svyatoslav. With her grandchildren. It actually reflects the invasion of the Pechenegs together with the governors of the son who left to fight. After this episode, when Svyatoslav still returns, Olga asks him to be baptized, he laughs and refuses, but at the same time his life remains for a pretty penny, and this life will go away without returning to distant lands. And Olga remains in Kiev, and her grandchildren. Therefore, their childhood and youth passed with her, and not with Svyatoslav.

Semi-legendary prince

Karatsuba:

Prince Vladimir is a historical figure. Of course, there are quite legendary figures, such as Rurik. We still know more about Vladimir. But everything that we say about him must be accompanied by an unthinkable number of reservations. We do not know the date and place of his birth. We do not know where or when he was baptized. Yes, most likely, really near Kiev, but who really knows? We can guess about the motives of his adoption of Christianity, about the degree of awareness, about whether it was caused by spiritual reasons or a purely political situation, when a loose conglomerate of Slavic, Finno-Ugric and other tribes under the auspices of Kiev was simply falling apart, and a stronger belt was needed than the pantheon of six or seven pagan gods that Vladimir erected during the first religious reform.

And why, if he is such a devout Christian, the prince remained in history and was canonized with a pagan name, and not with the Christian name Vasily? Yes, it turned out the same with his grandmother, she was Elena after baptism, and this is also somehow strange. When he was canonized, we also do not know. Yes, maybe at the end of the 13th century, or maybe later. Yes, he converted to Christianity, baptized a small number of Kievites, and then Dobrynya baptized the Novgorodians with certain consequences. This religion became the basis of the spiritual life of Rus only by the XIV century.

Here we were talking about light - that's right, there was light, but there was a lot of everything else. There were such sayings as "Whoever learned Latin, he deviated into heresy", "Do not read many books, but do not fall into heresy." We love and honor Saints Cyril and Methodius, but as a result of the translation of the Gospel and services into the Slavic language, we have fenced off from the Western world. Seven Ecumenical Councils are good, but there was no scholasticism with theology, no heated dispute, no development of theological thought until the 19th century. A lot of things didn't work out. And at the origins of all this is Prince Vladimir. But, naturally, he was, is and will be in any school textbook, in any university course.

At the origins

I do not associate all our further history with Prince Vladimir. I just think that the significance of this person, who is remarkable in his own way, is greatly exaggerated. The state plunged into the abyss of a wild bloody massacre after his death, and he actually prepared this with his own hands. Christianity, adopted under him, was not like the present. But somewhere far away, in the mythological darkness, he stands at the origins of the state.

Volodikhin:

I believe that Vladimir stood at the origins of Russian civilization, and here I will be supported by the well-known historian, author of the book "Vladimir Saint", Doctor of Historical Sciences Sergei Alekseev. The name of the prince sounded loudly not only in the 11th century, but also in subsequent centuries. I would like to remind you that when the Book of Degrees was created under Metropolitans Macarius and Athanasius, St. Vladimir took a central place in it - the starting point for everything that happened next.