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The Orthodox Church prospers in Russia.
Around 980, Kiev was under the rule of Vladimir, the first of the long
series of autocrats who shaped Russia to their will. Vladimir felt that
a single state faith could foster political unity, and he decided to impose
one, replacing the numerous pagan beliefs practised in Russia. According
to legend, he decreed the official faith only after sending emissaries
to collect information on Islam, Judaism and Christianity.
The first he rejected because it prohibited wine. "Drinking," he said,
"is the joy of the Russes." The second he spurned because the originators
of Judaism had hd to flee their home land, and Vladimir saw no point in
adopting the religion of a dispersed people.
That left just the two branches of Christianity. Vladimir's agents,
investigating the Roman Catholic Church, "beheld no glory" in it. But in
Byzantium they dazzled by the Eastern Orthodox Church. "The Greeks led
us to the buildings where they worshipped their God, and we knew no whether
we were in heaven or on earth. For on earth there is no such splendour
or such beauty, and we are at a loss to describe it." Impressed by this
report, Vladimir arranged to be baptized into the Orthodox Church and forced
all of his subjects to do the same.
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