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Christianization of Kievan Rus'

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Either in 945 or 957, the ruling regent, [[Olga of Kiev]], visited Constantinople with a certain priest, Gregory. Her reception at the imperial court is described in ''De Ceremoniis''. Although it is usually presumed that she was baptized in Constantinople rather than Kiev, there is no explicit mention of the sacrament, so neither version is excluded. Olga is also known to have requested a bishop and [[priest]]s from Rome.<ref[Thietmar of Merseburg says that the first archbishop of Magdeburg, Adalbert of Prague, before being promoted to this high rank, was sent by Emperor Otto to the country of the Rus (''Rusciae'') as a simple bishop but was expelled by pagans. The same data is duplicated in the annals of Quedlinburg and Hildesheim, among others.</ref> Her son Sviatoslav (r. 963-972) continued to worship Perun and other gods of the Slavic pantheon. He remained a stubborn [[Paganism|pagan]] all of his life; according to the Primary Chronicle, he believed that his warriors would lose respect for him and mock him if he became a Christian.
Svyatoslav's successor, Yaropolk I (r. 972-980), seems to have had a more conciliatory attitude towards Christianity. Late medieval sources even claim that Yaropolk exchanged ambassadors with the Pope. The ''Chronicon'' of Adémar de Chabannes and the life of St. [[St Romuald of Ravenna|Romuald]] (by Pietro Damiani) actually document the mission of St. Bruno of Querfurt to the land of ''Russia'', where he succeeded in converting to Christianity a local king (one of three brothers who ruled the land). Alexander Nazarenko suggests that Yaropolk went through some preliminary rites of baptism, but was murdered at the behest of his pagan half-brother Vladimir (whose own rights to the throne were questionable) before his conversion was formalized. Following this theory, any information on Yaropolk's [[baptism]] according to the Latin rite would be suppressed by the later Orthodox chroniclers, zealous to keep Vladimir's image of the Russian Apostle untarnished for succeeding generations.<ref>Alexander Nazarenko. ''Древняя Русь на международных путях''. Moscow, 2001. ISBN 5-7859-0085-8.</ref>
== Vladimir's baptism of Kiev ==
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