Christianization of Kievan Rus'
Vladimir ties Rus' to the Orthodox Byzantine world
Grand Prince Vladimir of Kiev adopted Byzantine Christianity and had the people of Kiev baptised in the Dnieper. The conversion tied Rus' to the Orthodox world of Byzantium and shaped its culture, literacy and statehood for centuries.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 10th century
Did you know
Thirty-three years after the Christianization of Rus', Vikings were cutting wood in Newfoundland — tree rings date it precisely to 1021.
Rus was baptised in 988, a year after Hugh Capet became King of France. His descendants would rule France for more than 800 years.
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- c. 1000 Stephen I, first king of Hungary — 12 years later
Africa
- 969 Founding of Cairo — 19 years earlier
- 972 Al-Azhar Mosque opens — 16 years earlier
- c. 1000 Extinction of the elephant birds — 12 years later
- 1006 Supernova SN 1006 — 18 years later
Asia
- c. 1010 The Tale of Genji — 22 years later
Alive at the time
- Vladimir the Great (aged 28)
- Avicenna (Ibn Sina) (aged 8)
- Ferdowsi (aged 48)
- Hugh Capet (aged 48)
- Æthelred the Unready (aged 22)
- Leif Erikson (aged 18)
- Murasaki Shikibu (aged 15)
- Yaroslav the Wise (aged 10)
- Sei Shōnagon (aged 22)
- Robert II the Pious (aged 16)