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Vladimir Biography

Vladimir Image

VLADIMIR I, the Great or the Saint, the first Christian sovereign of Russia, ruled from 980 to 1015. The facts of his life must be gleaned from the sagas, and are subject to doubt. The account generally accepted is as follows: After the death of his brothers he became ruler of all Russia, and by conquest he increased his territory very greatly. Russia at this time was an ill-compacted Empire; the various Slavic tribes which dwelt within its boundaries acknowledged the sovereignty of the Russian princes solely by the payment of tribute, and that only when the princes were powerful enough to enforce it. Vladimir sought to increase the central authority. Many of his subjects were Greek Christians, his mother, Olga, had become one, and he wished to be allied with the Byzantine Imperial family, and for these and other reasons resolved to adopt Greek Christianity. He sent an embassy to Constantinople, promising peace and his conversion, in exchange for the hand of Anna, the sister of Constantine IX. His request was gladly complied with, and after his marriage and baptism at Kherson in 988 he returned to Kiev, destroyed all his idols, and commanded his subjects to be baptized. Churches were built, schools established, capital punishment was supplanted by fines, and excessive lenity shown to all criminals. He died July 15, 1015. The Russian church has decreed him the epithets of "saint" and "equal of tine Apostles." The Order of Vladimir was founded in his honor by Catharine II (q.v.) in 1782, and the University of Kiev was also named for him.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XXIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 215.