Who were the Slavs before Christianity. Orthodox Russia

On July 28, the Baptism of Russia was celebrated in our country. I would like to recall how Patriarch Kirill, in an interview with the Rossiya channel, spoke about our ancestors who lived before baptism:

“And who were the Slavs? These are barbarians, people speaking in an incomprehensible language, these are second-class people, they are almost animals. And enlightened men went to them, brought them the light of Christ's truth…”.

These words of Cyril reflect the official point of view on the history of Russia, which has evolved over the centuries and is based on Christian chronicles. What do alternative sources say?

For many millennia, Russia lived according to the ancient Vedic laws, which had nothing to do with "barbarian paganism." Until such time as "enlightened men" came, who began to plant Christianity "with fire and sword." By the way, the question arises: who exactly acted with "fire and sword" in Russia? After all, according to some reports, "enlightened men", carrying the "light of Christ's truth", then destroyed three-quarters of the population of Russia. It turns out that numerous armed detachments were operating, about which for some reason there is not a word in the annals ... And did Jesus bequeath such bloodshed and genocide in his name?

Of course, it was impossible to eradicate the primordial faith from the people with the help of violence. And although many formally accepted the new faith, in reality, dual faith persisted in Russia for a very long time. Until now, in the prayers of the Old Believers, there are names of ancient Russian gods and goddesses: Yav, Rule, Sventovit, Veles, Perun ...

But in the 17th century, an insidious move was made. The reform of Patriarch Nikon changed not only the formal ritual side (to be baptized with three fingers instead of two, to walk around the lectern counterclockwise, etc.), but also the very essence. All Russian gods were matched with analogues from among Christian saints, ancient folk holidays were combined with Christian ones (Midsummer Day instead of Kupala, Easter instead of Great Day, etc.), and the church itself began to call itself “Russian” and “Orthodox”. Concepts have changed.

And what were our ancestors long before the baptism with fire and sword? The Russian people have always been distinguished by great spirituality, connection with the Gods (with the Higher World).

Oleg Platonov in his book “Russian Economy without Globalism” concludes that “Russian civilization is one of the oldest spiritual civilizations in the world. Its basic values ​​were formed long before the adoption of Christianity. The main features of Russian civilization were the predominance of spiritual and moral priorities, the cult of kindness and love of truth, non-covetousness, original forms of labor self-government - the community and the artel.

In Russia, which stretched across almost all of Eurasia, before Christianity, the dominant teaching was the Vedic teaching, based on ethical laws - the very ones that Jesus came to preach to the Jews. Jesus came to the Jewish people as the Messiah in a difficult time of moral decline, indulgence in hypocrisy, which can be compared with Satanism. Jesus Christ spoke of the god of the Jews "YHWH" as Satan, accusing the Jews of making the devil himself their only god. There was no need to impose the precepts of Jesus on the Russians - they kept them anyway.

Christianity was brought to Russia by Prince Vladimir, he decided to replace the traditional religion with one that would help keep the people in subjection to him. Of course, it was impossible to eradicate the primordial faith from the people with the help of violence. Resistance to the new faith lasted almost 9 centuries.

Many teachings speak of the Lord Maitreya - the gatherer of the sixth race of earthlings, the Teacher of the new era of Aquarius. Someone may consider this information something exotic, oriental, alien to our culture. But, as we have already understood, the knowledge preserved in the East is the Vedic principles of our common ancestors. Moreover, Maitreya is known not only in India and China, he was known by the ancient Iranians and Armenians under the name of Mithra (god of the Sun, heavenly light and justice). Maitreya (Sanskrit "loving, benevolent";) - "Lord, named Compassion."

Maitreya is consonant with the Russian "matter", "mother" and even "matryoshka" - which, as you know, is not just a children's toy, but a symbol of the universe. Therefore, Maitreya is not alien to Russians, but on the contrary, all the indigenous peoples of Russia are inextricably linked with Lord Maitreya historically and genetically. Maitreya's teaching is the teaching of the Mother of the World, the triumph of female, creative, giving birth energies that replace the male, rational type of social management.

I would like to note that we do not assure everyone that we write in our articles. We only analyze alternative sources and quote them. And it's up to you, our dear readers, to draw conclusions.

The tribes of our ancestors, for a long time, lived as separate tribes, kept apart, fought among themselves and did not have a single pagan religion. As a result, the religious ideas of the ancient Slavs differed in different tribes. The names of the gods often differed, but the natural basis of the deities and their purpose were common. Common moments became the basis for the creation of the Slavic pantheon. The first mention of the pantheon in the pre-Christian religion in Russia dates back to the beginning of the reign of Prince Vladimir. Perun, Makosh, Lada, Veles, Svarog are the main gods that were the basis for many Slavic tribes.

What religion was in the ancient Russian state

When Prince Vladimir came to power, his first decision was to create a single pantheon. With his help, the prince wanted to simplify the unification of Russia and strengthen his power. In Kyiv and Novgorod, on specially selected hills, pagan sanctuaries were built. In these places, sacred to our ancestors, there were pagan idols of Perun, Dazhdbog, Mokosh, Stribog. In Kyiv, the sanctuary was made on a hill, near the princely palace. Our ancestors came to worship at these shrines.

But after the adoption of a new faith - Christianity, the prince ordered the sanctuary in Kyiv to be demolished, and instead of it he installed the first Christian church (St. Andrew's Church). But these places have retained their supernatural and mystical properties to this day. In Kyiv, many legends and mystical events are connected with the place where the sanctuary was. The place where there was a sanctuary on Peryn (near Novgorod) was also considered mystical for a long time, the sailors who sailed past on ships considered it a good tradition to throw a coin into the water, for Perun, as if asking him for good luck. This custom was popular until the 20th century.

Places for worship were chosen on a well-visible hill. An idol was installed in its center, outwardly it was a wooden pole. An altar was set up nearby to sacrifice animals, and, on special occasions, people. Archaeologists still find bones of animals near similar places. The place where worship was performed was called "temple", the place for sacrifices - "treatment". Nowadays, there are few idols left, the main reason being that they were made of wood, and only occasionally of stone. Many Slavs had domestic idols. It is known that before baptism, many people of Kiev took the figurines of domestic idols into the caves.

To understand what faith was in Russia before Christianity, you need to see which gods entered the pantheon:

Attention

Our ancestors had many other gods, but information about them came to us in fragments, so there is little information. But even when considering the main gods, one can see and understand what religion was in Russia before Christianity, and that its roots are closely connected with the pantheons of the peoples neighboring us.

The Slavic pantheon included deities from the religions of the Eastern and Southern Slavs, as well as from the religion of the Western Slavs, the table shows us the hierarchy of gods and supernatural beings.

Levels of Slavic deities

Magi played a significant role in the religion of the Slavs. For example, under Prince Vladimir, they had a very strong influence, and only they appointed sacrifices to be offered to the gods. Many considered them sorcerers and soothsayers, keepers of secret knowledge. There are mentions of them in chronicles, for example: in the chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years".

Religious beliefs of the Eastern Slavs

If we talk briefly about the religion of the Eastern Slavs, then, first of all, it is necessary to mention the god Perun, who, even before the creation of a single pantheon, was the main god of the Eastern Slavs. Some scholars believe that the second name of Perun among the Eastern Slavs was Svarog. When a thunderstorm began, people closed doors and windows, turned over all the dishes. It was believed that it was Perun with his lightning chasing evil spirits that could fly into the house and hide in the dishes. To appease him, they sacrificed animals. In very important cases, human sacrifices were brought, and there is written confirmation of this.

Our ancestors did not build pagan temples. Instead, they built temples and shrines where they performed various religious rituals and performed sacrifices.

They also worshiped Yarilo, Dazhdbog, Mokosh, Stribog and Veles. Veles, perhaps, was the second most important, after Perun. The Eastern Slavs had an idea of ​​what “paradise” (meaning a beautiful garden) was, and what “hell” was (meaning “underworld”). The earth was held in special esteem, it was even eaten when they took an oath or argued.
They did not have an analogue of the priests, so the oldest man in the family performed family ceremonies. And the larger rituals were performed by one of the elders.

Religion of the Western Slavs

The god Perun, among the Western Slavs, was better known under the name Perkunas. But, to this day, there is little information about this. There is an opinion that the horseman Vytis, who is depicted on the modern coat of arms of Lithuania, is Perkūnas. The Western Slavs did not have open sanctuaries, they built pagan temples, in which stood all the known idols that they worshiped, and not just one of them. The temple itself was separated by a partition; only a priest could approach it. Among the Eastern Slavs, access to the temple, for all believers, was free.
In ancient times, among the Western Slavs, each tribe considered an animal to be its progenitor, and it was revered as sacred. For example, the Lutichi tribe worshiped wolves and considered them sacred animals. During rituals, in this tribe, wolf skins were put on. It was believed that the spirit of the wolf protects their tribe from evil spirits. It is believed that thanks to such worship, myths about werewolves appeared. Ancient legends say that sorcerers turned into wolves and that wolves helped those who worshiped them (in the fairy tale "Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf" the wolf helped the prince).

Religion of the South Slavs

The ideas about the religion of the southern Slavs were fundamentally different from the ideas of the eastern and western Slavs. Supernatural forces that command natural phenomena, they represented in the form of various snakes. The image of the snake, for them, was the main image. Their image of people was presented in the form of female warlike deities - vil and samovil.
The South Slavs believed that animals in ancient times were people, but because of any sins committed, they were turned into animals. Therefore, all animals understand human language, understand human feelings, but, because of sins, they cannot speak (for example, proverbs: “stones speak”, “the mountain has eyes”).

But, despite the apparent differences, here we can find traces of the god Perun, as well as Dazhdbog and Mokosh. Many cities and villages had, and still have, names similar to the name Perun, for example: Peringrad, Perinyasi, Perkunista. Also, the name of one of the flowers is called Perunika.

Conclusion

The religious beliefs of the Slavs are heterogeneous and have many differences. But, with a more detailed examination of the culture and religion of the ancient Slavs, we see many common factors and common deities in different tribes.

The religion of the Slavs before the advent of Christianity was very multifaceted and interesting, it deified all natural phenomena, showed how much a person is connected with nature. Therefore, even today, there are people who adhere to the pagan faith. Thanks to them, we can see: ancient rites, hear Slavic myths. The theme of the pagan religion of our ancestors is very popular in our time.

Modern scientists, historians and theologians of the Russian Orthodox Church argue that Russia became Orthodox only thanks to the baptism of Russia and the spread of Byzantine Christianity among the dark, wild Slavs, mired in paganism. This wording is very convenient for distorting history and belittling the significance of the most ancient culture of all Slavic peoples. What could Christian missionaries know about the culture and Faith of the Slavic peoples? How could they understand a culture alien to them? Here is an example of a description of the life of the Slavs by one of the Christian missionaries:

“Orthodox Slovenes and Rusyns are wild people and their life is wild and godless. Naked men and girls are locked together in a hotly heated hut and torture their bodies, slashing each other with tree branches mercilessly to the point of exhaustion, then run out naked and jump into an ice hole or a snowdrift. And having cooled down again, they run into the hut to torture themselves with rods.

How else could Greek-Byzantine missionaries understand the simple Orthodox rite of visiting a Russian bath. For them it was really something wild and incomprehensible.

The very word Orthodoxy means the glorification of the Glorious World of Rule with a kind word, i.e. World of Light Gods and our Ancestors. In the modern sense, the "scientific intelligentsia" identifies Orthodoxy with Christianity and the Russian Orthodox Church (Russian Orthodox Church). An opinion was formed that a Russian is necessarily an Orthodox Christian. This formulation is fundamentally wrong. Russian means Orthodox, this concept is undeniable. But a Russian is not necessarily a Christian, because not all Russians are Christians.

The very name Orthodox was appropriated by Christian hierarchs in XI century(1054 AD) at the split into the western and eastern churches. The Western Christian Church, centered in Rome, became known as the Catholic Church, i.e. Ecumenical, and the eastern Greek-Byzantine church with its center in Constantinople (Constantinople) - Orthodox, i.e. Orthodox. And in Russia, the Orthodox have appropriated the name of the Orthodox Church, because. Christian teaching forcibly spread among the Orthodox Slavic peoples.

Did the peoples of Europe and Asia really need Christianity? Or was it necessary for individuals striving for power? According to the Teachings of Jesus Christ, all his commandments and deeds are aimed at instructing the Jews on the True path, so that each person from the 12 tribes of Israel could receive the Holy Spirit and reach the Kingdom of Heaven. This is reported by Christian writings: canonical and synodal (the Bible or the separately recognized New Testament); Apocrypha (Gospel of Andrew, Gospel of Judas Simon, etc.), and non-canonical (Book of Mormon, etc.). Here is what they say:

“These are twelve,” Jesus sent and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter the cities of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; As you go, preach to them that the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”(Matthew ch.10, vv.5-7).

“And Andrei Jonin, His disciple, asked: “Rabbi! to which nations should we bring the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven?” And Jesus answered him: “Go to the nations of the east, to the nations of the west, and to the nations of the south, where the children of the house of Israel dwell. Do not go to the pagans of the north, for they are sinless and do not know the vices and sins of the house of Israel.(Gospel of Andrew ch.5 v.1-3).

Many may say that this is apocryphal, there is no such thing in the Bible, Jesus was sent as a Savior to all the peoples of the world. But Jesus himself told his disciples otherwise, and the Bible says this:

And he answered and said, I have only been sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (Matt. Ch.15, Art. 24).

And twenty years had not passed after the crucifixion of Jesus the Nazarene, as the crowds of the newly-appeared apostles and interpreters of the Teachings of Christ, ignoring the commandments of Jesus, rushed north to the Gentiles and pagans, destroying the ancient Culture and Ancient Faith of the northern peoples, while saying that they bring Love , Peace and Salvation from sins to all nations. Their goal was aimed at increasing the followers of the Teachings of the Great Fisherman. In those ancient times, the followers of Jesus were called the Nazarenes and their sacred symbol was not a cross, as they try to prove today, but an image fish.

The goal of later preachers, especially after the declaration of Christianity as the state religion in the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, was quite different. Use the Teachings of Christianity (created by the Jew Saul, who later declared himself the Apostle Paul) to shake the ancient foundations and renounce the Faith of the Ancestors. The expansion of influence on the minds of people, the enslavement of peoples and their own enrichment at the expense of others, although, at the same time, they said that all wealth goes to the construction of the Church of Christ, to the creation of Temples, for worship should not take place, as before, in caves. Any discontent was suppressed by force, and they built their church on the blood and bones of people who sincerely believe in the Teachings of Jesus Christ.

“And it came to pass that I saw among the Gentiles the foundation of one great church. And the angel said to me: Look at the foundation of the church, which is the most shameful of all the other churches, and puts to death the saints of God; yea, and tortures them, and oppresses them, and puts on them an iron yoke, and brings them down into bondage. And it came to pass that I saw this great and shameful church, and saw that the devil was the foundation of it. And I also saw gold and silver, silks and scarlet, fine linen and all kinds of costly clothes, and saw many harlots. And the angel said to me: Behold, all this gold and silver, silks and purples, fine linen of expensive clothes and harlots are the objects of desire of this great and shameful church. And for the sake of people's praise, they destroy the saints of God, and bring them down into bondage.(Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi, ch.13, vv.4-9).

All this, as a well-established mechanism, was used to Christianize European countries, and Russia was no exception. How did it all happen in Russia? After all, Russia had its richest culture, its own religion in two forms: Ynglism and Vedism. A special form of statehood - the Veche Democratic Republic. Each person was free and did not know what slavery, betrayal, lies and hypocrisy are. The Slavs respected the faiths of other peoples, for they observed the Commandment of Svarog: "Do not force the Holy Faith on people and remember that the choice of faith is a personal matter of every free person."

As we know from the school history course, Rus was baptized by Prince Vladimir of Kyiv in 988 AD. He single-handedly decided for everyone which religion is the best and most correct, and which religion should be professed by all Russian people. Why did this happen? What made Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich abandon the Vedic Faith of his ancestors and accept another faith - Christianity?

“6496 (988) Vladimir, the son of Svyatoslav, reigned in Kyiv alone, and he did not observe the laws and commandments of the Gods and our Ancestors, and he was defeated by the lust of women, and was insatiable in fornication and corrupted girls and had wives up to 1000 and violated the Commandment Svarozhy “a husband must encroach on a single wife, otherwise you will not know salvation.” And the Wise Magi came to Vladimir, they said to him these words: “The prince will punish you, for Svarog does not tolerate the violation of His Commandments, do not wait for our help, for we will not go against the God of Heaven.” Since that time, Prince Vladimir's eyes ached, and the fog covered his eyes, when he matured at the maidens and wives, and he grieved greatly, and did not know what to do. And the Greek ambassadors came to him, and offered to be baptized in order to avoid the punishment of Svarogy. And heeding the admonitions of the Greeks, Vladimir renounced the Holy Faith of his father's Ancestors and accepted pagan, Christian baptism, and got rid of God's punishment, for Svarog does not punish for confessing a different faith. And, having regained his sight, he desecrated the Shrines of the Orthodox Faith, Kummira and burned the images of the Gods and Ancestors, and Kummir Perun ordered to be thrown into the river. And Prince Vladimir the Apostate commanded to baptize the people of Kyiv by force, and those who did not want to be baptized ordered to put a fierce death to death ” (Chronicle of the Community of the Western Rosses of the Old Russian Inglistic Church).

But the destruction of the Holy Faith by Kyiv alone did not end. The princely squads, together with Christian preachers, marched through the Russian lands with fire and sword, destroying Ancient Russian culture, Ancient Russian Temples, Temples, Sanctuaries and Settlements, killing Russian clergymen: Kapenov, Magi, Vedunov and Wizards. For 12 years of forced Christianization 9 million Slavs who refused to renounce the Faith of the Ancestors, was destroyed , and this despite the fact that the entire population, before the baptism of Russia, was 12 million people. After 1000 AD the destruction of the Old Believer Slavs did not stop. This is confirmed by the Ancient texts of the Russian Chronicles, which the Russian Orthodox Church has preserved.

“6579 (1071) ... Two Magi rose up near Yaroslavl ... And they came to Belozero, and there were 300 people with them. At that time, it happened to come from Svyatoslav Yan, the son of Vyshatin, who was collecting tribute ... Yan ordered to beat them and pull out their beards. When they were beaten and torn out with a split beard, Yan asked them: “What do the Gods say to you?” ... They answered: “So the Gods say to us: we will not be alive from you.” And Yan told them: “They told you the truth” ... And seizing them, they killed them and hung them on an oak tree ” (Laurentian Chronicle. PSRL, vol. 1, v. 1, L., 1962).

“6735 (1227) Magi, Veduns, accomplices appeared in Novogorod, and many sorcery, and indulgence, and signs worked ... Novogorodtsy caught them and brought the Magi to the courtyard of the husbands of Prince Yaroslav, and tied all the Magi, and threw them into the fire, and then they all burned down"(Nikon Chronicle v.10, St. Petersburg, 1862).

Not only Russian people professing the Vedic Faith or pre-Vedic Ynglism were destroyed, but also those who interpreted Christian teaching in their own way. Suffice it to recall the Nikonovsky schism in the Russian Christian Church, how many innocent schismatics, Old Believers were burned alive, while a woman, an old man or a child did not look. A very successful application of the Commandments of Jesus Christ: Thou shalt not kill, and love thy neighbor as thyself.

This inhuman destruction of the Russian Spiritual Culture and the Culture of other peoples lasted not a hundred, not three hundred years, it continues to this day. Everything that contradicts the doctrines of the Russian Orthodox Church must be destroyed. Since the time of Peter the Great, this principle has been applied in Siberia. Suffice it to recall the Tara riots of Summer 7230 (1722), which were suppressed by weapons, many Orthodox Old Believers-Ynglings and Orthodox Old Believers (schismatics) were burned alive, many were doomed to a more painful death by impalement.

All this action was carried out with the blessing of the hierarchs of the Christian Church. I absolutely do not want to blame ordinary parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Church who sincerely believe in the Savior Jesus Christ of atrocities. But the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church are trying to instill in their parishioners intolerance towards non-Christians and pagans.

The 20th century did not change the attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church to other confessions, especially to the Orthodox Old Believers-Ynglings, whom Christians still call pagans. In Summer 7418 (1910) in Omsk, the Temple (Temple) of the Sign of Perun was founded, so as not to irritate Christians, it was called the Znamensky Temple or the Church of the Sign. In Summer 7421 (1913) the Temple was consecrated by Pater Diem (Head of the Council of Elders and the Church, High Priest) of the Old Russian Church Miroslav, and opened the doors for the Orthodox-Ynglings or, as they called themselves, the Old Believers.

On October 20, 1913, the icon "The Sign of the Queen of Heaven" arrived in Omsk from Novgorod. And the bishop of Omsk and Pavlodar Andronik proposes to build a temple in Omsk in honor of the icon of the “Sign of the Queen of Heaven”, for which they began to collect donations from parishioners, but on August 1, 1914, World War I began, and the money collected for the construction of the temple went to military needs ( organization of military hospitals). And yet, Bishop Andronik found a way out: at the end of 1916, on his orders, the Old Believers-Ynglings were expelled from the Temple of the Signs of Perun, the Temple was refurbished and the icon “The Signs of the Queen of Heaven” was brought into the Temple and began to conduct their services in a foreign church.

So the representatives of the Omsk diocese ordered before the revolution.

After the Bolsheviks came to power in Omsk, the Znamensky Temple was closed and a tire shop with heavy presses was set up in it. In 1935, a basement was dug under the temple, and after some time, the walls of the church masonry burst due to the action of the presses. Now the premises of the Temple are used as an assembly hall of the Omskpassazhirtrans Training Complex, and the sanctuary, where consecration rites took place among the Old Believers and the holy of holies (altar) among Christians, is used as a class for disassembling engines.

For those who do not know, the Temple of the Sign of Perun is located at the address: Omsk, st. Kuibyshev 119-A.

Repeated appeals of the representatives of the Old Russian Inglistic Church to the Regional Administration on the issue of the return of the Temple did not give anything, since the Archbishop of the Omsk-Tara diocese Theodosius began to claim this Temple. And in order to avoid religious conflicts, they decided not to give the Temple to anyone yet. But, knowing the connections of Archbishop Theodosius with representatives of the regional administration, one can guess in advance in whose favor the issue will be decided.

There is another example of ROC interference in the affairs of other confessions. All Omsk residents and residents of the region are aware of the existence of an ashram of Babaji's followers in the village of Okuneva, Muromtsevo District. The followers of Babaji, as well as the parishioners of the Old Russian Inglistic Church, consider the Omsk Land to be the Sacred Land, whose name is Belovodie. In this Holy Land, the followers of Babaji perform their rituals, bring flowers and gifts to the established cult pillar with the sign OM, because from here our ancestors came to India and brought the teachings of the Veda to the Indians and Dravidians. For Indians, Chinese, Mongols, the land in the north is Sacred Land.

For everyone, but not for Archbishop Theodosius. In 1993, he arrived in Okunevo and ordered the cult pillar to be thrown into the river (just as the Kyiv prince Vladimir did with Perun's Kummir), and a Christian cross was installed in its place. It is not clear by what right he did this, because there is not a single Christian church in Okunev and there never was, apparently the deeds of Prince Vladimir of Kyiv are closer in spirit than the establishment of peaceful relations between religious denominations.

In two years, in 1995, the Omsk diocese will celebrate its centenary. A hundred years is not a thousand. Having come to the lands of Belovodye, as uninvited guests, Christians behave like masters, declaring that they have been here for a thousand years and only they have the right to exist and teach the people Spirituality and Culture. The authorities decided not to interfere in the acts of Theodosius, but they should, because Archbishop Theodosius violates not only the Law of the RSFSR “On Freedom of Religion” N 267-1 of October 25, 1990, but also the constitution of the Russian Federation.

In Omsk and the region, people of any religion, regardless of confessional affiliation, should live and exist peacefully. Everyone must profess that Faith or religion that is closer to him in Spirit, so as not to blush before the Gods, Ancestors and descendants.

Diy Vladimir, Elder of the Valley Community of the Old Russian Yngling Church of the Orthodox Old Believers of the Ynglings.

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Fragment from the book by Lev Prozorov "Pagans of Baptized Russia"

... I have already cited one figure in several of my works, reader, but here I will tell you more about it - it is too serious a matter, and this figure has the most direct relation to the topic of the book. Here is what the historian V.V. Puzanov with reference to the collection “Ancient Russia. City, castle, village” (M., 1985, p. 50):

“Of the 83 sites of ancient settlements of the 9th-early 11th centuries studied by archaeologists. 24 (28.9%) ceased to exist by the beginning of the 11th century.

(Puzanov V.V. "The main features of the political system of Kievan Rus X-XI centuries" // Research in Russian history. On the 65th anniversary of Professor I.Ya. Froyanov. St. Petersburg - Izhevsk, 2001. P. 31).

Of course, the researcher is trying his best not to see what, in fact, he claims, arguing about the “formation of a single state of Russia”, the “pacification” of some indistinct “tribes”. But the facts, as they say, are a stubborn thing - not a single source says absolutely nothing about the “pacification” of anyone in the last decades of the power of the future “saint”. By the end of the 10th and the beginning of the 11th century, sources refer not to punitive expeditions against the "tribes", but to the baptism of Russia. Such was the price of "enlightenment with the good news" of the East Slavic lands - 28.9% of Russian settlements. Nearly a third...

(Lev Prozorov "The Pagans of Baptized Russia. Tales of the Black Years." - M. Yauza, Eksmo, 2006. Chapter 2, p. 112. ISBN 5-699-18758-8.)

Download a book " The pagans of baptized Russia»

I. Introduction ________________________________________________ 4

II. Main part ___________________________________________6

1. Russia before the adoption of Christianity _______________________________6

2. The first Christians in Russia ___________________________________ 8

3. Reasons for the adoption of Christianity in Russia _____________________9

III. Conclusion______________________________________________22

References ____________________________________________24

I. INTRODUCTION

The most important internal political event of the Kievan state was the baptism of Rus in 988, associated with the strengthening of the unity of the country, the need to establish strong ties with the outside world.

The expression “baptism of Russia” seems to imply the existence of a one-time developments: rapid and widespread introduction to Christianity of the whole people, the whole country - Ancient Russia. Meanwhile, domestic history does not know such an event. It was long, stretching for several centuries process the introduction of Christianity as the state religion of the centralized Kievan state. The official beginning of this process, which was gradually prepared by all the previous development of ancient Russian society, was laid by Prince Vladimir, who in 988 baptized only the inhabitants of his capital, and in subsequent years, the population of a number of other cities of Kievan Rus.

The conversion of Russians to Christianity began earlier. Evidence of the baptism of a part of the Russians in 860 has been preserved. Russian Christians are also mentioned in the treaty between Russia and the Greeks of 944. Princess Olga converted to Christianity during her visit to Constantinople in 957.

In an effort to replace the Slavic pagan pantheon with an authoritative monotheistic (monotheism) religion, Prince Vladimir chose between four faiths. The question of the choice of faith was the question of the choice of political and cultural orientation and, more broadly, the very nature of the people and their psychology.

More than a thousand years have passed since Christianity was established in Russia, on the basis of which Russian civilization grew.

The topic of this essay is relevant. At present, politicians and the media in Russia pay close attention to religious and interfaith issues. Centuries-old religious barriers and inter-confessional conflicts are gradually being overcome, aspirations to educate the younger generation in the spirit of tolerance have been outlined.

The purpose of this work is to form an idea of ​​the adoption of Christianity in Russia and its historical significance.

To achieve this goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasks:

Give a description of pagan Russia,

Get acquainted with the baptism of Russia by Prince Vladimir,

To note the historical significance of the adoption of Christianity in Russia.

II. Main part

Russia before the adoption of Christianity

For a long time, there was an idea of ​​pre-Christian Russia as a civilizationally backward period, and only the adoption of Christianity illuminated this dark culture and allowed Russia to fully enter the family of European peoples. This rather corresponds to the church thesis “paganism is darkness, Christianity is light”, but it does not correspond to historical realities at all. In fact, long before the adoption of faith in Jesus Christ, Kievan Rus had a high, original culture.

As the Tale of Bygone Years testifies, the year 862 should be considered the date of foundation of Kyiv and the beginning of the countdown of Kievan Rus, although in reality a large settlement on the site of Kyiv already existed in the 5th century. But, nevertheless, as a state entity, Kievan Rus really dates back to the 9th century, and for more than a hundred years Kyiv existed as a pagan power. The emerging cities (by the end of the 9th century there were at least 25 of them), the courts of princes of various ranks, and even more so of the Grand Duke of Kyiv himself, had already reached a level of culture compatible with that of Western Europe. The Russian military nobility laid the main routes both south to Byzantium and west to the German lands. Kievan Rus was located on the so-called route “from the Varangians to the Greeks”.

Paganism was the state religion, which was reflected in the creation of the priestly class: sorcerers, sorcerers, blasphemers, who developed an accurate calendar and were good at predicting the weather. It was the priests who took an important part in the development of mythology. Many fairy tales that have come down to us were created by them. And the tales of Koshchei the Immortal and Anastasia the Beautiful go back to even earlier Indo-European myths and are close to the ancient Greek myth of Hades and Persephone. It was in that era that the epic epic took shape.

Pagan mythology and religious rites are an important part of the idea of ​​the spiritual life of our ancestors, the Slavic tribes who lived on the territory of present-day Russia. The ancient Slavs had strong remnants of animism, i.e. faith in spirits, and through this spiritualization of nature and natural forces. They worshiped lakes, rivers, groves; believed that forests were inhabited by various creatures other than humans. In ancient times, there was a belief in "ghouls", the spirits of Evil, and "shores", the spirits of Good. All nature seemed to the Slavs spiritualized and alive. They entered into communication with her, wanted to participate in those changes that took place in nature, and accompanied these changes with various rites. Thus, a circle of pagan holidays was created, associated with the veneration of nature and with the cult of ancestors.

Later, the Proto-Slavs began to worship Rod (his assistants were Yarilo and Kupala) and Rozhanitsy Lada and Lele, whose cult was directly connected with agriculture and everything on which the fertility of the earth depends. In the era of the formation of state formations on the lands of the Slavs, a pagan pantheon proper begins to take shape, which at different times included such deities as Svarog (the god of heaven), he is also Stribog, Veles (the patron of cattle and cattle breeders, as well as wealth, trade), Perun (the god thunder and lightning, later - the patron of warriors and military affairs), Dazhdbog (god of light), the goddess of fertility and the patroness of women Mokosh, etc. The “naturalness” of Slavic paganism was manifested especially in the fact that among priestly, military and economic and natural deities, last.

But all these images of the gods did not receive from the Slavs that clarity and certainty, as, for example, in the more developed Greek mythology. The external cult among the Slavs was also not developed: there were no temples, no special class of priests. In some places, crude images of the gods, "idols" were placed in open places. They were sacrificed, sometimes even human; this was the limit of idolatry.

Gradually, relations with Byzantium and the Arab East had an educational impact on the Russian Slavs. “Christianity came to them from Byzantium. In the middle of the 9th century, the Russians, after an unsuccessful campaign against Byzantium, were baptized, but after that paganism again took over in the country ... "

In the future, Christian traditions began to take shape in Russia. Princely power also comes to Christianity. But Christianity did not spread among the people for quite a long time.

The first Christians in Russia

The slow spread of Christianity among the Varangian and Slavic warriors began already in the 9th century. Initially, a few soldiers who participated in raids on Byzantium, merchants who traded with Christian Greeks, accepted baptism. The change of faith of the combatants was a completely natural thing: they spent a lot of time on campaigns, in foreign lands, including Byzantium, where they saw beautiful churches, solemn services, compared their cults with the Christian faith.

Tribal, pagan beliefs were, as a rule, based on a misunderstanding of the impact on a person of some unpleasant, unknown forces. The ideas about these forces correlated with tribal life, with the peculiarities of the area, with the specific occupations of the population. Therefore, serious changes in everyday life called into question various elements of belief, gave rise to a religious crisis (thus, the tribes worshiping the spirits of the mountains could not maintain their ideas about them, having moved to plain). It is not surprising that the most active part of society showed the greatest susceptibility to a change in religion: warriors and merchants.

It is considered a well-established fact that the princes Askold and Dir, with a certain number of people, were baptized in Kyiv by a bishop sent by the Patriarch Photius I of Constantinople in the early or middle of the 860s, shortly after the Russian campaign against Constantinople in 866. These events are sometimes called the first (Fotiev, or Askold's) baptism of Russia. This fact is not very popular in historiography, which is accustomed to attribute the Christianization of our country to 988. True, the authenticity of the event itself was not in doubt and was not denied in the literature. But its significance for the development of Russia was too underestimated and obscured. In Soviet historiography, the point of view, which can be called "estate", has become popular. Its meaning lies in the fact that in the 60s of the IX century. not all Kievan Rus was baptized, not the people, not the state and not the country, but only a certain part of the social elite, headed by the Kyiv kagan. The state as a whole continued to remain pagan, which determined its ideological status.

Approximately in 912, during the reign of Igor, there was already a Christian church of Elijah the Prophet in Kyiv. There were many Christians in the squad of Prince Igor himself. The prince's wife, Princess Olga, was also a Christian. Although there are different opinions about the exact time and place of her baptism, it is generally accepted that she was baptized in Constantinople in 957. In a word, the Christian faith became well known to the people of Kiev even under the first Varangian princes. 3. Reasons for the adoption of Christianity in Russia The famous "baptism of Russia", which marked the beginning of the formation of the Russian Orthodox civilization, was caused by a whole range of factors. Among them is Vladimir's desire to strengthen the state and its territorial unity. An attempt to achieve these goals by creating a single pantheon of pagan gods led by Perun did not lead to overcoming tribal separatism and strengthening princely power. Only monotheism could unite the country and illuminate the authority of the sole princely power. It should also be taken into account that the adoption of Christianity introduced Russia into the family of European peoples, and paganism doomed to isolation and hostility from Christianized neighbors who treated pagans as "non-humans". At the same time, it must be borne in mind that the final split of Christianity into Catholic and Orthodox branches occurred only in 1054. Probably, some personal considerations of Vladimir and some episodes of his life also affected. He probably took into account the baptism of his grandmother Olga, who left a good memory of herself. It is possible that his sinful pagan past, for example, fratricide during the struggle for power, violence, polygamy, eventually made him think about spiritual purification, which could leave a good memory of him. But, most likely, he acted on the basis of pragmatic considerations. The fact is that his adoption of Christianity was due to his marriage to the sister of the Byzantine emperor Anna. This unusually raised his authority, and, consequently, strengthened the princely power. The so-called problem of “choosing a faith” is also important, on the solution of which the entire course of Russian history largely depended. According to the chronicle legend, representatives of three monotheistic religions came to Vladimir in Kyiv: Islam, Judaism and Christianity. The prince rejected Islam under the pretext that it forbids the use of wine. “The joy of Russia is drinking, without drinking there is no Russia,” he supposedly answered the temptations of Muslims. He did not accept Judaism because the Jews did not have their own state, as a result of which they were scattered throughout the earth. He did not accept the proposal made by the envoys of the Pope, citing the fact that his grandmother also rejected Catholicism. Only the preaching of a representative of the Orthodox Byzantine Church made a favorable impression on him. But Vladimir was in no hurry with the decision and sent his ambassadors to different countries. When they returned, they called the Greek faith the best, and the Greek temples and church services the most beautiful. How to treat this legend? What are the true reasons for choosing a faith? Obviously, behind this legend are hidden real facts that stopped the choice of Russia on the Orthodox form of Christianity. These are, first of all, strong cultural and economic ties with Byzantium, the presence of their own influential Orthodox community, which had developed long before the reign of Vladimir. In addition, the prince probably took into account the international situation, the relationship between church and state, as well as some dogmatic differences. For example, the pope's claims to secular power, the unwillingness of the Catholic Church to take into account local peculiarities and its militancy could not but alienate the head of the young state from this form of Christianity. The Orthodox Church was subject to secular power. This was in line with the East Slavic tradition, according to which the prince was also the head of a religious cult. Among other things, Orthodoxy was more tolerant of local traditions, and Byzantium at that time was the center of civilization, the heir to the great Rome, the most developed and cultured country in Europe. 4. Baptism of Russia by Prince Vladimir

Byzantium legitimately called itself the successor of the Roman Empire, but it was a special world of the Eastern Roman Empire, which absorbed the cultural influences of both East and West. After the fall of Christian Rome, Byzantium became, as it were, the earthly embodiment of the idea of ​​a new world Christian kingdom, the “second Rome”. The splendor and unheard of luxury of the Constantinople court was a kind of reflection of the harmony and order created by the Creator in the Universe. The earthly bearer of the idea of ​​Byzantium being chosen by God was considered the emperor. The anointing to the kingdom was a sacrament supposedly annihilating all sins committed before the coronation.

For Russia, the Byzantine Empire was not only a rich and powerful neighbor and rival, but also the ideal of a centralized state system. Vladimir showed himself to be a mature and far-sighted politician, deciding to accept Orthodoxy of the Byzantine model. The decisive role in this choice was played, of course, not by considerations of an aesthetic nature, but by deliberate political motives. Neither the Khazar Khaganate nor the Volga Bulgaria could interest Vladimir as allies, since at the end of the 10th century. these countries have gone or have already left the stage of history. As for the Catholics, according to their theological postulates, the Pope of Rome is the vicar of God on earth, and the choice of the Western branch of Christianity would mean for the Russian ruler the obligatory recognition of the superiority of the Pope's power over his own. Such dependence contradicted the desire of the ancient Russian princes for state independence. The Catholic countries themselves, weak and fragmented at that moment, did not arouse political interest in Russia.

Byzantium, which inherited many features of oriental despotisms, was characterized by the sacralization (deification) of royal power. The Byzantine emperor was considered the vicar of God on earth, the owner of all power. Choosing Orthodoxy, Vladimir got the opportunity to unite in his hands the highest religious and secular power and thereby immeasurably elevate the power of the Grand Duke in comparison with his former status. In addition, an alliance with Byzantium, the most powerful power of that time, the heir to the Roman Empire, opened up tempting prospects in the international arena. Christian self-consciousness strengthened the faith of the princes, who compared themselves with the Byzantine emperors, in their high destiny. Byzantium and the Eastern Christian Church showed Ancient Russia the ideal way for that time to overcome paganism, and with the maximum preservation of traditions. The history of his marriage to the Byzantine princess Anna, the sister of the co-emperors Basil and Constantine, is closely connected with the decision of Vladimir to convert to the Christian faith. The chronicle reports that in 988 Vladimir laid siege to Korsun and, having taken the city, sent messengers to the emperors to say: “I heard that you have a maiden sister. If you do not give it to me, then I will do to your capital the same thing that I did to this city. The Byzantine rulers, who found themselves in a hopeless situation, demanded that Vladimir be baptized, since Christians should not marry pagans. Vladimir, who had already decided to be baptized, demanded, however, that Anna come to him in Korsun, accompanied by priests who would baptize him in the captured city. Seeing no other way out, the Byzantines agreed, and Vladimir was baptized in Chersonese.

Returning to Kyiv from Chersonesus, Vladimir ordered the destruction of pagan idols. Downtrodden, they were burned or chopped to pieces. The statue of Perun was tied to a horse's tail and dragged from the mountain to the river, and then thrown into the water. Specially assigned people had to push the idol floating down the Dnieper from the shore until it was beyond the rapids. The prince sought to demonstrate to his subjects the impotence of the pagan gods, their inability to stand up for themselves. After the defeat of the pagan temples, Vladimir began to convert the people of Kiev to Christianity. Just as John the Baptist once baptized the ancient Jews, plunging them into the waters of the Jordan, so now the priests who came from Constantinople and Korsun baptized the inhabitants of Kiev in the Dnieper (or, according to other sources, in its tributary, the Pochaina River).

The Greek priests who had come with Anna from Constantinople and brought as captives from Korsun faced a difficult task. They had to preach in an ethnically heterogeneous, multilingual country. The missionaries achieved their goal by following simple principles. They proceeded from the fact that religion should be the same for the whole country and the whole people, and preached in the Slavic language. Byzantium had experience in educational activities in Bulgaria and other Slavic countries. The Bulgarians helped to introduce Russia to the spiritual values ​​of Christianity.

The very date of the baptism of the people of Kiev remains controversial. Historians name different years. But still, traditionally, the adoption of Christianity by Russia dates back to 988 (this is the date of the baptism of Vladimir himself). For a long time, overcoming serious resistance, the Christianization of the vast Kievan state took place. So, when Dobrynya and another voivode of Vladimir, Putyata, came to Novgorod, about to baptize its inhabitants, they met them with weapons in their hands, declaring: “It’s better for us to die, rather than our gods give to reproach.” It was possible to force the stubborn pagans to submit only when the Kyiv army set fire to several houses, threatening to turn the entire wooden city into a huge fire. Novgorodians asked for peace. After that, Dobrynya crushed the pagan idols and forced their adherents to be baptized in Volkhov. Those who resisted were dragged to the river by force. The memory of the forced baptism of the Novgorodians was preserved in the proverb: "Christen the baptized with a sword, and Dobrynya with fire."

Most of the inhabitants of Kievan Rus were baptized during the reign of Vladimir, but there were still many pagans. Some of the converts returned to pagan rites immediately after the departure of the prince's army from their area. Paganism held out for a particularly long time in the wilds of the Northeast. The Rostov-Suzdal and Murom lands were converted to Christianity only in the middle of the 11th century, and the new faith was finally established there by the end of the century.

In an effort to facilitate the adoption of Christianity by the Slavs, the church consecrated some pagan holidays. So, the Maslenitsa holiday is pagan in origin. The Kupala holiday, which marked the arrival of summer, merged with the day of St. John the Baptist. Worship of the Thunderer Perun was replaced by the veneration of Elijah the Prophet, St. Blaise became the patron of cattle instead of Veles.

These beliefs have firmly entered Russian Christianity. Faith in goblin, brownies, mermaids has also been preserved. However, the survivals of pagan ideas did not make a believing Christian a pagan. 5. The consequences of the adoption of Christianity in Russia

The significance of the transition to Christianity was enormous and manifested itself in everything - from the daily diet and farming practices to the international position of the country.

The establishment of Christianity in Russia as the state religion had a great impact on various spheres of the social and spiritual life of the country.

Requiring many days of fasting, Christianity forced to eat more vegetables, and, consequently, to improve gardening. Many vegetables became known in Russia thanks to the Byzantines. It is no coincidence that the monks were the best gardeners.

The adoption of Christianity was a significant step in the development of the East Slavic civilization, it contributed to the creation of a single statehood and a single church organization. The teaching of Christianity about the one God, sanctifying the power of one sovereign, helped Vladimir overcome the division of the Eastern Slavs along tribal lines, although some foundations of separatism were preserved, supported by the local nobility. Nevertheless, the central authority was strengthened, as evidenced by the extraordinary growth of international prestige, diplomatic, trade, political and cultural ties of Kyiv. Already in the reign of Vladimir, dynastic marriages of the Kyiv grand-ducal house of Rurikovich with the ruling houses of Europe become common.

From now on, the ancient Russian nobility could rely on church canons (laws), ideas and institutions that came from Byzantium. The adoption of Orthodoxy contributed to the emergence and strengthening of feudal land ownership, both secular and ecclesiastical.

After the emergence of church land ownership, private (boyar) land ownership also appeared on a larger scale. The spread of the norms of Byzantine law in Russia also stimulated the formation of feudal relations, the formation of separate social groups and strata, which contributed to the development of feudalism.

With the adoption of Christianity came an understanding of the common fate of Russia and the whole world. Old Russian writers were aware of themselves as an integral part of the contemporary world. Unlike national religions, Christianity has an international character and promotes awareness of the unity of human history. Russia joined the world cultural heritage through Byzantium, which experienced in the IX-XI centuries. peak of its heyday.

With the adoption of Orthodoxy, a church hierarchy began to take shape, which occupied an important place in ancient Russian society. The Russian Church initially, following the Greek model, depended on the Grand Duke, and church hierarchs were independent only in church matters. The sources are silent when the metropolis appeared in Russia and who was the first metropolitan, how many bishops there were initially. It is known, however, that the church was headed by the Metropolitan of Kyiv, appointed from Constantinople or by the Kyiv prince himself, with the subsequent election of bishops by the cathedral.

The Church in Ancient Russia was not only the dominant force in the spiritual life of the people, but also an influential social and political force. The Church had extensive land holdings, its own villages and cities, its own serfs and even its regiments, as well as its own court and legislation. The princes paid a tenth of the taxes for the upkeep of the church (tithe). The monasteries created in Russia became the strongest church organizations. The first of them was the Kiev-Pechersky ("pechera" - a cave in which the monks settled) monastery, founded in the second half of the 11th century. The total number of monasteries in pre-Mongol times reached 70.

The Orthodox Church had to wage a stubborn struggle against pre-Christian beliefs. The strength and vitality of paganism over many centuries allow us to speak of a kind of dual faith as a historical and cultural phenomenon of folk life in Russia. In some areas, pagan rites and customs remained almost unchanged until the beginning of the 20th century.

Before the adoption of Christianity, Kievan Rus was a state with a significantly developed pagan culture, pagan annals. Eastern Slavs in the middle of the 1st millennium BC had a primitive pictographic writing - "features and cuts", - consisting of the simplest signs in the form of dashes and notches and, apparently, has come down to us thanks to archaeological finds. Gradually, the Slavs began to use Greek letters for writing, but without any system, "without dispensation", i.e. without adapting them to the peculiarities of their language.

The creation of the Slavic alphabet is associated with the names of Cyril and Methodius - "equal to the apostles" enlighteners, Greeks by origin, who baptized Bulgaria, and in the second half of the 9th century. who created the Old Slavonic alphabets based on the Old Bulgarian language - Cyrillic and Glagolitic. First, the “Thessalonica” brothers, from Thessalonica (present-day Thessaloniki), created the Glagolitic alphabet, with the help of which they rewrote the first church books for the southern Slavs, and baptized Bulgaria. Later, from the mixing of the Glagolitic alphabet with elements of Greek writing, an easier and more convenient Cyrillic alphabet arose. The Cyrillic alphabet in Russia underwent serious changes twice - under Peter the Great and after October 1917. At present, the ancient Cyrillic alphabet has been preserved as the language of Orthodox worship - Church Slavonic.

After the baptism of Russia, East Slavic writing received an unprecedented impetus for the development. According to Academician D.S. Likhachev, “with Christianity came writing of a different, higher class. It was writing with a dispensation, with punctuation marks, with a division into words, with a certain grammar. The real bearers of ancient Russian enlightenment are the monasteries, where Russian chronicles were kept and the richest libraries of handwritten books were collected. The Kiev Caves Monastery became a major center of ancient Russian education, cultivating respect for literacy as a Christian virtue. School monastic education was based on the principles of "enkiklios pedia" (Greek "all-encompassing education", hence the word "encyclopedia"), which included dialectics, rhetoric, grammar and theology.

Handwritten books were written on parchment - the thinnest calfskin of a special dressing. The oldest of the books that have come down to us is the Ostromir Gospel, named after its owner, the Novgorod posadnik Ostromir. It dates from the middle of the 11th century. In pre-Mongol Russia, there was mainly translated literature of Byzantine, ancient and other foreign authors. However, gradually in the XI-XII centuries. original works of ancient Russian authors began to appear: “The Word on Law and Grace” by Metropolitan Hilarion of Kyiv, “Instruction” by Vladimir Monomakh, “Word” and “Prayer” by Daniil Zatochnik. The main genres of ancient Russian literature were hagiography (lives of saints) and other literature of religious content. But outstanding secular works were also created, among which was the famous Tale of Igor's Campaign.

After the adoption of Christianity, Vladimir organized the first schools in Russia. The adoption of a new religion and the assimilation of Church Slavonic writing was accompanied by the transfer to Russia of the main monuments of early Christian and Byzantine literature: biblical books, writings of the church fathers, historical writings. Although the bulk of the books were translated, there is an assumption that under Vladimir the first Russian chronicle was also compiled, covering events from the time of Rurik to the beginning of the 11th century.

Books were expensive, they did not reach the people, and he found a way to reflect his aspirations and ideas about the politics of Russia in oral folk art, in epics, the appearance of which many scientists attribute to the reign of Vladimir. These are epics about the struggle of Dobrynya with a snake, about Alyosha Popovich and Tugaryn Zmeevich, about Nightingale the Robber, a whole cycle of epics about Ilya Muromets, etc. In Prince Vladimir, the people saw an outstanding political figure, a symbol of the state unity of Russia. But having a positive attitude towards him, the epics do not idealize him: the difference between him and the heroes is emphasized. The prince is only the center around which the heroes are grouped. It is they, with their exploits, strength, kindness, justice, who are the true spokesmen for the ideals of the masses.

With the adoption of Christianity in Russia, monumental stone architecture became widespread. The first stone building was the Church of the Tithes in Kyiv, erected by Greek masters, following the example of Constantinople in the 11th-12th centuries. churches of St. Sophia were built in Kyiv, Novgorod and Polotsk, connecting the Byzantine canon with local conditions and the requirements of the Kyiv prince. The Golden Gate in Kyiv is considered to be a masterpiece of ancient Russian architecture. In Vladimir, Suzdal, Smolensk, Rostov, Assumption Cathedrals were erected, distinguished by their majesty and elegance of form. It is no coincidence that later, during the construction of the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, the Vladimir Assumption Cathedral was taken as a model.

The foundations of church architecture were borrowed from Byzantium, the very type of cross-domed church, which was universally established in Russia. The temple reproduced the picture of the world in accordance with a strict hierarchy as an expression of the divine order. Ancient Russia adopted the Byzantine system of vaulted and domed ceilings, the construction of buildings of exquisite spatial configuration and great height. However, a purely Russian phenomenon that transformed the appearance of the Byzantine cross-domed church was the many-domed domes.

Three main types of fine art came to Russia from Byzantium: mosaic (a colorful pattern of pieces of smalt), fresco (painting on a wall made with special paints on wet plaster) and an icon (from the Greek “eikon” - an image). The first painters were Greek masters who created the miraculous icon of Our Lady of Vladimir, the most revered in Russia (now kept in the Tretyakov Gallery), the mosaic Our Lady Oranta (from the Greek "oranta" - praying), the frescoes of the Kiev Hagia Sophia and other unsurpassed masterpieces.

The adoption of Christianity influenced the development of the craft. The methods of laying walls and erecting domes, stone-cutting, as well as mosaics, which were used in the construction and decoration of churches, were transferred by the Greeks to Russian masters.

The adoption of Christianity led to a significant softening of the morals that reigned in Russia. The Church categorically forbade human sacrifices, ritual murders of wives and slaves, and stubbornly fought against the slave trade.

Christianity contributed to the strengthening of princely power. The clergy inspired the population and the princes themselves that God himself puts them on the throne. The divine origin of princely power, according to the teachings of the church, demanded unquestioning obedience from the subjects, and from the prince an awareness of his high responsibility.

Formally, Russia became Christian. The funeral pyres went out, the fires of Perun, who demanded sacrifices for himself, went out, but for a long time pagan burial mounds were poured, secretly praying to Perun and celebrating the violent holidays of their native antiquity.

The new Russian Church became a new and plentiful source of income for its spiritual mother, the Church of Constantinople, and a new instrument of exploitation in the hands of the leaders of Kievan society. These material benefits could be paid for by adapting the Christian ideology to the paganism of the Slavs. The Russian Church played a complex and multifaceted role in the history of Russia. Undoubtedly, its usefulness as an organization that helped the young Russian statehood in the era of the rapid development of feudalism. Its role in the development of Russian culture, in familiarization with the cultural wealth of Byzantium, in the spread of enlightenment and the creation of major literary and artistic values ​​is also undoubted.

III. Conclusion

ü familiarization of Kievan Rus with the values ​​of Christianity;

ü creating conditions for cooperation between the tribes of the East European Plain and other Christian tribes and nationalities;

ü Russia was recognized as a Christian state, which determined a higher level of relations with European countries and peoples.

The Russian Church, which developed in cooperation with the state, became a force uniting the inhabitants of different lands into a cultural and political community.

The transfer to Russian soil of the traditions of monastic life gave the originality of the Slavic colonization of the northern and eastern Slavs of the Kievan state. Missionary activity in the lands inhabited by Finnish-speaking and Turkic tribes not only drew these tribes into the orbit of Christian civilization, but also somewhat softened the painful processes of the formation of a multinational state (this state developed on the basis of a national and religious idea. It was not so much Russian as Orthodox. ).

Initiation to the thousand-year-old Christian history posed new cultural and spiritual tasks for Russian society and pointed to the means of solving them (the development of the centuries-old heritage of the Greco-Roman civilization, the development of original forms of literature, art, and religious life).

Borrowing became the basis for cooperation, from the mastered achievements of Byzantium gradually grew stone architecture, iconography, frescoes, hagiographic literature and annals, school and correspondence of books, previously unknown to the Slavs.

The baptism of Russia, understood not as a short-term action, not as a mass rite, but as a process of gradual Christianization of the East Slavic and neighboring tribes - the baptism of Russia created new forms of the inner life of these ethnic groups approaching each other and new forms of their interaction with the outside world.

2. Zakharevich A.V. Textbook "History of the Fatherland". Moscow.: "Dashkov and K", 2006

3. "History of Russia from ancient times to the end of 1861" / Ed. N.I. Pavlenko. Moscow.: "Higher School", 2001

4. Karamzin N. M. “History of the Russian State”, vol. 1, ch. IX-X.

5. Kostomarov N.I. "Russian history in the biography of its main figures". Kaluga: "Golden Alley", 2005.6. Sukhov A.D. Introduction of Christianity in Russia. Social prerequisites and consequences of the baptism of Russia. Moscow: "Thought", 2000

Kostomarov N.I. "Russian history in the biography of its main figures". Kaluga. "Golden Alley", 2005.

Modern scientists, historians and theologians of the Russian Orthodox Church argue that Russia became Orthodox only thanks to the baptism of Russia and the spread of Byzantine Christianity among the dark, wild Slavs, mired in paganism.
Such a formulation is very convenient for distorting history and belittling the significance of the most ancient culture of all Slavic peoples.

What could Christian missionaries know about the culture and Faith of the Slavic peoples?
How could they understand a culture alien to them?

Here is an example of a description of the life of the Slavs by one of the Christian missionaries.
“Orthodox Slovenes and Rusyns are wild people and their life is wild and godless. Naked men and girls are locked together in a hotly heated hut and torture their bodies, slashing each other with tree branches mercilessly to the point of exhaustion, then run out naked and jump into an ice hole or a snowdrift. And having cooled down again, they run into the hut to torture themselves with rods.
How else could Greek-Byzantine missionaries understand the simple Orthodox rite of visiting a Russian bath. For them it was really something wild and incomprehensible.

The very word Orthodoxy means the glorification of the Glorious World of Rule with a kind word, i.e. World of Light Gods and our Ancestors.
In the modern sense, "scientific intelligentsia" identifies Orthodoxy with Christianity and the ROC (Russian Orthodox Christian Church).

The opinion was formed that a Russian is necessarily an Orthodox Christian. This formulation is fundamentally wrong.
Russian means Orthodox, this concept is undeniable. But a Russian is not necessarily a Christian, because not all Russians are Christians.

The very name Orthodox was appropriated by Christian hierarchs in the 11th century (1054 AD) during the split into the western and eastern churches.

The Western Christian Church, centered in Rome, became known as the Catholic Church, i.e. Ecumenical, and the eastern Greek-Byzantine church with its center in Constantinople (Constantinople) - Orthodox, i.e. Orthodox.
And in Russia, the Orthodox have appropriated the name of the Orthodox Church, because. Christian teaching forcibly spread among the Orthodox Slavic peoples.

Did the peoples of Europe and Asia really need Christianity? Or was it necessary for individuals striving for power?

According to the Teachings of Jesus Christ, all his commandments and deeds are aimed at instructing the Jews on the True path, so that each person from the 12 tribes of Israel could receive the Holy Spirit and reach the Kingdom of Heaven.
This is reported by Christian writings: canonical and synodal (the Bible or the separately recognized New Testament); Apocrypha (Gospel of Andrew, Gospel of Judas Simon, etc.), and non-canonical (Book of Mormon, etc.).

Here is what they say: “These are twelve,” Jesus sent and commanded them, saying: “Do not go on the way to the Gentiles and do not enter the cities of the Samaritans, but go especially to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; as you go, preach to them that the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew ch.10, vv.5-7).

“And Andrei Jonin, His disciple, asked: “Rabbi! to which peoples to carry the good news about the Kingdom of Heaven?” And Jesus answered him: “Go to the nations of the east, to the nations of the west, and to the nations of the south, where the children of the house of Israel dwell. Do not go to the pagans of the north, for they are sinless and do not know the vices and sins of the house of Israel ”(Gospel of Andrew ch.5 st. 1-3).

Many may say that this is apocryphal, there is no such thing in the Bible, Jesus was sent as a Savior to all the peoples of the world. But Jesus himself told his disciples something else, and the Bible says it this way: “He said in response: I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew ch.15, article 24).

And twenty years had not passed after the crucifixion of Jesus the Nazarene, as the crowds of the newly-appeared apostles and interpreters of the Teachings of Christ, ignoring the commandments of Jesus, rushed north to the Gentiles and pagans, destroying the ancient Culture and Ancient Faith of the northern peoples, while saying that they bring Love , Peace and Salvation from sins to all nations.

Their goal was aimed at increasing the followers of the Teachings of the Great Fisherman. In those ancient times, the followers of Jesus were called the Nazarenes and their sacred symbol was not a cross, as they try to prove today, but an image fish.

The goal of later preachers, especially after the declaration of Christianity as the state religion in the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, was quite different.
Use the Teachings of Christianity (created by the Jew Saul, who later declared himself the Apostle Paul) to shake the ancient foundations and renounce the Faith of the Ancestors.

The expansion of influence on the minds of people, the enslavement of peoples and their own enrichment at the expense of others, although, at the same time, they said that all wealth goes to the construction of the Church of Christ, to the creation of Temples, for worship should not take place, as before, in caves.
Any discontent was suppressed by force and they built their church on the blood and bones of people who sincerely believe in the Teachings of Jesus Christ.

“And it came to pass that I saw among the Gentiles the foundation of one great church. And the angel said to me: Look at the foundation of the church, which is the most shameful of all the other churches, and puts to death the saints of God; yea, and tortures them, and oppresses them, and puts on them an iron yoke, and brings them down into bondage.
And it came to pass that I saw this great and shameful church, and saw that the devil was the foundation of it. And I also saw gold and silver, silks and scarlet, fine linen and all kinds of costly clothes, and saw many harlots.
And the angel said to me: Behold, all this gold and silver, silks and purples, fine linen of expensive clothes and harlots are the objects of desire of this great and shameful church. And for the sake of people's praise, they destroy the saints of God, and bring them down into bondage. (Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi, ch.13, vv.4-9).

All this, as a well-established mechanism, was used to Christianize European countries, and Russia was no exception.
How did it all happen in Russia? After all, Russia had its richest culture, its own religion in two forms: Ynglism and Vedism. A special form of statehood - the Veche Democratic Republic.

Each person was free and did not know what slavery, betrayal, lies and hypocrisy are. The Slavs respected the faiths of other peoples, for they observed the Commandment of Svarog: "Do not force the Holy Faith on people and remember that the choice of faith is a personal matter of every free person."

As we know from the school history course, Rus was baptized by Prince Vladimir of Kyiv in 988 AD. He single-handedly decided for everyone which religion is the best and most correct, and which religion should be professed by all Russian people.
Why did this happen? What made Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich abandon the Vedic Faith of his ancestors and accept another faith - Christianity?

“6496 (988) Vladimir, the son of Svyatoslav, reigned in Kyiv alone, and he did not observe the laws and commandments of the Gods and our Ancestors, and he was defeated by the lust of women, and was insatiable in fornication and corrupted girls and had wives up to 1000 and violated the Commandment Svarozhy “a husband must encroach on a single wife, otherwise you will not know salvation.”

And the Wise Magi came to Vladimir, they said to him these words: “The prince will punish you, for Svarog does not tolerate the violation of His Commandments, do not wait for our help, for we will not go against the God of Heaven.” Since that time, Prince Vladimir's eyes ached, and the fog covered his eyes, when he matured at the maidens and wives, and he grieved greatly, and did not know what to do. And the Greek ambassadors came to him, and offered to be baptized in order to avoid the punishment of Svarogy.

And heeding the admonitions of the Greeks, Vladimir renounced the Holy Faith of his father's Ancestors and accepted pagan, Christian baptism, and got rid of God's punishment, for Svarog does not punish for confessing a different faith.
And having regained his sight, he desecrated the Shrines of the Orthodox Faith, Kummira and burned the images of the Gods and Ancestors, and Kummir Perun ordered to be thrown into the river. And Prince Vladimir the Apostate commanded that the people of Kyiv be baptized by force, and those who did not want to be baptized ordered to be put to death with a fierce death. (Chronicle of the Community of the Western Rosses of the Old Russian Inglistic Church).

But the destruction of the Holy Faith by Kyiv alone did not end. The princely squads, together with Christian preachers, marched through the Russian lands with fire and sword, destroying Ancient Russian culture, Ancient Russian Temples, Temples, Sanctuaries and Settlements, killing Russian clergymen: Kapenov, Magi, Vedunov and Wizards.
For 12 years of forced Christianization 9 million the Slavs who refused to renounce the Faith of the Ancestors were destroyed, and this despite the fact that the entire population, before the baptism of Russia, was 12 million human.

After 1000 AD the destruction of the Old Believer Slavs did not stop. This is confirmed by the Ancient texts of the Russian Chronicles, which the Russian Orthodox Church has preserved.
“6579 (1071) ... Two Magi rose up near Yaroslavl ... And they came to Belozero, and there were 300 people with them. pluck their beards.

When they were beaten and torn out with a split beard, Yan asked them: “What do the Gods say to you?” ... They answered: “So the Gods say to us: we will not be alive from you” And Yan told them: “They tell you the truth they told "... And seizing them, they killed them and hung them on an oak tree" (Laurentian Chronicle. PSRL, vol. 1, v. 1, L., 1962).

“6735 (1227) Magi, Veduns, accomplices appeared in Novogorod, and many sorcery, and indulgences, and signs worked ... Novogorodtsy caught them and brought the Magi to the courtyard of the husbands of Prince Yaroslav, and tied all the Magi, and threw them into the fire, and then they all burned down ”(Nikon Chronicle v. 10, St. Petersburg, 1862).

Not only Russian people professing the Vedic Faith or pre-Vedic Ynglism were destroyed, but also those who interpreted Christian teaching in their own way.
Suffice it to recall the Nikonovsky schism in the Russian Christian Church, how many innocent schismatics, Old Believers were burned alive, while a woman, an old man or a child did not look.

A very successful application of the Commandments of Jesus Christ: Thou shalt not kill, and love thy neighbor as thyself.
This inhuman destruction of the Russian Spiritual Culture and the Culture of other peoples lasted not a hundred, not three hundred years, it continues to this day. Everything that contradicts the doctrines of the Russian Orthodox Church must be destroyed.

Since the time of Peter the Great, this principle has been applied in Siberia. Suffice it to recall the Tara riots of Summer 7230 (1722), which were suppressed by weapons, many Orthodox Old Believers-Ynglings and Orthodox Old Believers (schismatics) were burned alive, many were doomed to a more painful death by impalement.
All this action was carried out with the blessing of the hierarchs of the Christian Church. I absolutely do not want to blame ordinary parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Church who sincerely believe in the Savior Jesus Christ of atrocities.

But the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church are trying to instill in their parishioners intolerance towards non-Christians and pagans.
The 20th century did not change the attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church to other confessions, especially to the Orthodox Old Believers-Ynglings, whom Christians still call pagans.

In Summer 7418 (1910) in Omsk, the Temple (Temple) of the Sign of Perun was founded, so as not to irritate Christians, it was called the Znamensky Temple or the Church of the Sign.
In Summer 7421 (1913) the Temple was consecrated by Pater Diem (Head of the Council of Elders and the Church, High Priest) of the Old Russian Church Miroslav, and opened the doors for the Orthodox-Ynglings or, as they called themselves, the Old Believers.

On October 20, 1913, the icon "The Sign of the Queen of Heaven" arrived in Omsk from Novgorod.
And the Bishop of Omsk and Pavlodar Andronik proposes to build a temple in Omsk in honor of the icon of the “Sign of the Queen of Heaven”, for which they began to collect donations from parishioners, but on August 1, 1914 World War I began, and the money collected for the construction of the temple went to military needs (organization of military hospitals).
And yet, Bishop Andronik found a way out: at the end of 1916, on his orders, the Old Believers-Ynglings were expelled from the Temple of the Sign of Perun, the Temple was refurbished and the icon of the Sign of the Queen of Heaven was brought into the Temple and began to conduct their services in a foreign church.

So the representatives of the Omsk diocese ordered before the revolution.
After the Bolsheviks came to power in Omsk, the Znamensky Temple was closed and a tire shop with heavy presses was set up in it. In 1935, a basement was dug under the temple, and after some time, the walls of the church masonry burst due to the action of the presses.

Now the premises of the Temple are used as an assembly hall of the Omskpassazhirtrans Training Complex, and the sanctuary, where consecration rites took place among the Old Believers and the holy of holies (altar) among Christians, is used as a class for disassembling engines.

For those who do not know, the Temple of the Sign of Perun is located at the address: Omsk, st. Kuibyshev 119-A.
Repeated appeals of the representatives of the Old Russian Inglistic Church to the Regional Administration on the issue of the return of the Temple did not give anything, since the Archbishop of the Omsk-Tara diocese Theodosius began to claim this Temple.

And in order to avoid religious conflicts, they decided not to give the Temple to anyone yet. But, knowing the connections of Archbishop Theodosius with representatives of the regional administration, one can guess in advance in whose favor the issue will be decided.
There is another example of ROC interference in the affairs of other confessions.
All Omsk residents and residents of the region are aware of the existence of an ashram of Babaji's followers in the village of Okuneva, Muromtsevo District.

The followers of Babaji, as well as the parishioners of the Old Russian Inglistic Church, consider the Omsk land to be the Sacred Land, whose name is Belovodie.
On this Holy Land, the followers of Babaji perform their rituals, bring flowers and gifts to the established cult pillar with the sign OM, because from here our ancestors came to India and brought the Teachings of the Veda to the Indians and Dravidians.

For Indians, Chinese, Mongols, the land in the north is Sacred Land.
For everyone, but not for Archbishop Theodosius. In 1993, he arrived in Okunevo and ordered the cult pillar to be thrown into the river (just as the Kyiv prince Vladimir did with Perun's Kummir), and a Christian cross was installed in its place.
It is not clear by what right he did this, because there is not a single Christian church in Okunev and there never was, apparently the deeds of Prince Vladimir of Kyiv are closer in spirit than the establishment of peaceful relations between religious denominations.

In two years, in 1995, the Omsk diocese will celebrate its centenary. A hundred years is not a thousand.
Having come to the lands of Belovodye, as uninvited guests, Christians behave like masters, declaring that they have been here for a thousand years and only they have the right to exist and teach the peoples of Spirituality and Culture.

The authorities decided not to interfere in the acts of Theodosius, but they should, because Archbishop Theodosius violates not only the Law of the RSFSR “On Freedom of Religion” N_267-1 of October 25, 1990, but also the constitution of the Russian Federation.
In Omsk and the region, people of any religion, regardless of confessional affiliation, should live and exist peacefully.

Everyone must profess that Faith or religion that is closer to him in Spirit, so as not to blush before the Gods, Ancestors and descendants.

Diy Vladimir,
Elder of the Valley Community of Old Russian
Yngling Orthodox Church of Old Believers Ynglings.