- kievan rus’ :city states scattered around a central city (kiev)
- flat land, hard to defend
- vladimir (king) – constantly fighting with citizens, different ideas on how to run
- need an ally — looked toward byzantine (istanbul)
- offered to marry byzantine emperor’s sister
- king of byz asked his sis to marry vladimir, was scared because vladimir seemed agressive
- vladimir had many wives, king of byz sis said yes even though she didn’t want to…
- byz asked vladimir to become christian
- vladimir had a pre-christian religion, (people also spoke same slavic language, not russian, did not exist yet)
- byz spoke greek, vladimir had two guys translate holy docs to, they had to come up with an alphabet *cyrillic alphabet
- translations were very powerful form a literary standpoint… king james bible came after shakespeare, also very literary.
- vladimir converted, new wife went back. he told his people to be christian
- he forced them to become christian (988 – 989)
- some people worshipped dieties and gods that were connected to their crops and land, connected with nature and the seasons
- people “said” they were christian for fear of death, but did not practice/believe
- dvoeverie: two faiths, side by side — coming together slowly at the same time
- russian people were used to telling them what to do and feel, but did not
- ended up in a culture that mixed both
- russian lit, full of struggle and evil
- how can there be a god if there are so many bad things
- connection between bad parts of human nature and connect it back to all that’s can be good
- does god exist?
- tortured
- prechristian gods, beauty of nature — power of river, winds, sun in eyes