Orthodox religion in early Russia

[Karalysia]

Why did Russia adopt Orthodoxy, and what role did it play in the Russian state in terms of its state institutions/power and of course its cultural development?

 

[Brian Shanahan]

Orthodoxy was first adopted by Kievan Rus around 1000AD, so the most obvious reason would be interaction and proximity. On interaction there was lots of trade between Kiev and Constantinople, with the Varangian guard also added in. On Porximity Constantinople was the closest major religious centre to Rus, and therefore had the easiest chance of influence.

I couldn't say for certain about cultural influence, I haven't read much about medieval Constantinople or Russia. But the Orthodox Church did have large inflence in the country (the religious pretty much did at that time). Many practices such as Iconography were adopted, and the Russians took Cyrillic as their written text. As regards religious practice Russia pretty much cleaved strictly to Orthodoxy.
After Constantinople fell, Moscow gradually tried to assume it's place in the Orthadox firmament.

Someone else will probably have to give you a better detailed account.

 

[Yeekim]

I remember an anecdote which wiki tells as follows:

The Primary Chronicle reports that in the year 987, as the result of a consultation with his boyars, Vladimir sent envoys to study the religions of the various neighboring nations whose representatives had been urging him to embrace their respective faiths. The result is amusingly described in the following apocryphal anecdote. Of the Muslim Bulgarians of the Volga the envoys reported there is no gladness among them; only sorrow and a great stench. They also said that their religion was undesirable due to its taboo against alcoholic beverages and pork[citation needed]; supposedly, Vladimir said on that occasion: "Drinking is the joy of the Rus'."[citation needed]

Russian sources also describe Vladimir consulting with Jewish envoys (who may or may not have been Khazars), and questioning them about their religion but ultimately rejecting it, saying that their loss of Jerusalem was evidence of their having been abandoned by God.[citation needed]

Ultimately Vladimir settled on Christianity. In the gloomy churches of the Germans his emissaries saw no beauty; but at Hagia Sophia, where the full festival ritual of the Byzantine Church was set in motion to impress them, they found their ideal: "We no longer knew whether we were in heaven or on earth," they reported, "nor such beauty, and we know not how to tell of it."

 

[Dachs]

Yeah, the Primary Chronicle is total crap as far as that goes.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

various neighboring nations whose representatives had been urging him to embrace their respective faiths.

I know the feeling.

 

[Lord Baal]

Yeah, the Primary Chronicle is total crap as far as that goes.

There are places in which the Primary Chronicle isn't total crap?

 

[Dachs]

True, true. At least in other places, though, there are clues as to what probably happened, as opposed to that parable.

 

[Perfectionist]

As far as conversion goes, Vladimir, perhaps with the example of the Khazars in mind, had apparently been looking for something to unite his people and bolster his legitimacy. The guys around the prince still worshiped Norse gods at this point, while the Slavs obviously worshiped various Slavic gods, and he apparently wanted to bridge the gap. We hear, for instance, that Vladimir set up a temple to six gods, some from each pantheon, and tried to identify himself with their worship. Christianity is obviously more attractive than paganism to rulers with such inclinations, and those sorts of motivations drove conversion in Scandinavia and England. As to the proximate cause of his conversion, it was almost certainly a condition of his marriage to Anna. Marrying a porphyrogenita to a Russian was outlandish enough; marrying a pagan completely beyond the pale. Now, why that marriage happened is open to debate, as the chronology isn't completely clear. It might have been Vladimir's condition for giving Basil military aid, it might have been the product of Byzantine imperial ambitions in the north, and so on.

Orthodoxy's impact on the Russian state is too large a topic to really discuss. You'd have to narrow it down a fair bit.

There are places in which the Primary Chronicle isn't total crap?

As a chronicle, the Primary Chronicle is generally fairly decent, once you get past the mid tenth century. Not perfect, of course, but if you expect the people compiling chronicles to be perfectly unbiased recorders of the past you don't deserve to know what was happening.

 

[Yeekim]

There are places in which the Primary Chronicle isn't total crap?

There are better primary sources?

 

[Lord Baal]

There are better primary sources?

Well, no, but that doesn't disguise the poor quality of quite a bit of the Chronicle.

 

[_random_]

It was very difficult for a pagan country to obtain allies, so adopting some sort of organized religion was a necessity.

Ironically, when the Russia Grand Prince was seeking a religion to convert Russia to, he sent envoys to both Iran, Constantinople, and Rome, to study the religions. They liked Islam more than they did Orthodoxy, but Islam forbids the consumption of alcohol, so they went with Orthodox Christianity.

Also note that the Byzantines were significantly more threatened by Islamic powers than western Christians, so they had more motivation to create a new ally.

 

[Karalysia]

A Muslim Russia sounds like an interesting ATL.

 

[HistoryFan]

The Russians wanted a religion to unite their people. They decided against Judaism because there was a lot of hatred towards that religion and it was unpopular, they decided against Islam because it prohibits alcohol consumption and thus that left Christianity as the only religion, as for why Orthodoxy... I forget

Or at least this what my AP World History text book told me...

 

[LightSpectra]

The Russians wanted a religion to unite their people. They decided against Judaism because there was a lot of hatred towards that religion and it was unpopular, they decided against Islam because it prohibits alcohol consumption and thus that left Christianity as the only religion, as for why Orthodoxy... I forget

Or at least this what my AP World History text book told me...

Islam's sphere of influence hadn't penetrated past the Balkans or Caucasus yet, so Islam was barely even a choice at all. It was only even considered after the 14th century, when the Golden Horde adopted Islam as the state religion; though by then, the Russias had been too Christianized for that to be considered.

The adoption of Orthodoxy is probably the most significant factor in the Westernization of the west Asian states. Due to the large amount of church control over the Kievan Rus society, they had a comparatively high rate of education, technological advancement and human rights. The Moscowvy-Novgorod-Kievan web peaked and declined relatively alongside with the Eastern Roman Empire, though began to take a course of its own during the reign of Ivan III. His grandson was Ivan IV "the Terrible," and the rest is history.

 

[Perfectionist]

Islam's sphere of influence hadn't penetrated past the Balkans or Caucasus yet

Volga Bulgars say hi.

The adoption of Orthodoxy is probably the most significant factor in the Westernization of the west Asian states.

The Rus states weren't oriental to begin with. They were founded by Swedes, after all.

they had a comparatively high rate of education

If you mention birch-bark letters I will slap you.

 

[LightSpectra]

Volga Bulgars say hi.

Not my area of expertise but I'm almost entirely sure that they were politically insignificant compared to the Eastern Roman Empire's (and to a lesser degree, Poland's) influence on the Russias.

The Rus states weren't oriental to begin with. They were founded by Swedes, after all.

I didn't say they were oriental. I was just using the term "west Asian" for lack of a better one coming to mind.

 

[Yeekim]

If you mention birch-bark letters I will slap you.

What about them? A myth?
(I won't get behind "comparatively high level of education", you just sparked my interest)

 

[Traitorfish]

I didn't say they were oriental. I was just using the term "west Asian" for lack of a better one coming to mind.

"Eastern European" would have been rather more obvious. "West Asia" is usually taken to refer to the Middle East. The division between Europe and Asia is essentially defined by the traditional spheres of Christian and Islamic influence.

 

[Perfectionist]

What about them? A myth?

No, quite real. They just don't justify the more extravagant claims about them. They're mostly from the upper classes, though some are from artisans and craftsmen, and mostly deal with money in the early period and land in the late, which is to say that they're written by precisely the people you'd expect to be literate about precisely the thing you'd expect them to be writing about. They certainly don't indicate that there was mass, casual literacy among the peasantry, and don't necessarily even indicate widespread literacy among the urban population, though that is an attractive supposition.