Other Events and Attributes:

• House: Rurikid
• FSID: 9Q68-XJL
• Appointments / Titles: Between 882 and 912; Grand Prince of Rus'

Notes:

Oleg of Novgorod (Old East Slavic: Ѡлегъ;[1] Old Norse: Helgi;[2] Russian: Олег Вещий, romanized: Oleg Veshchy, lit. 'Oleg the Prophet'; Ukrainian: Олег Віщий) was a Rurikid prince who ruled all or part of the Rus' people during the late 9th and early 10th centuries.
He is credited by Rus' Chronicles with moving from either Staraya Ladoga (Old Norse: Aldeigjuborg) or Novgorod, and seizing power in Kiev (Kyiv) from Askold and Dir, and, by doing so, laying the foundation of the powerful state of Kievan Rus'. He also launched an attack on Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. According to East Slavic chronicles, Oleg was the supreme ruler of the Rus' from 882 to 912.
This traditional dating has been challenged by some historians, who point out that it is inconsistent with such other sources as the Schechter Letter, which mentions the activities of a certain khagan HLGW (Hebrew: הלגו‎ usually transcribed Helgu) of Rus' as late as the 940s, during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Romanus I. The nature of Oleg's relationship with the Rurikid ruling family of the Rus', and specifically with his successor Igor of Kiev, is a matter of much controversy among historians.
According to the Primary Chronicle, Oleg was a relative (likely brother-in-law) of the first ruler, Rurik, and was entrusted by Rurik to take care of both his kingdom and his young son Igor. Oleg gradually took control of the Dnieper cities, seizing the power in Kiev by tricking and slaying Askold and Dir, and naming Kiev the capital of his newly created state Kievan Rus'. The new capital was a convenient place to launch a raid against Constantinople in 907.[3]
In 883, Prince Oleg of Novgorod made the Drevlians pay tribute to Kiev. In 907, the Drevlians took part in the Kievan military campaign against the Byzantine Empire.
According to the chronicle, Oleg, assaulting the city, ordered to wait for favorable wind with sails spread at some other point. When wind arose, it drove the wheeled boats towards the city through the land. The citizens were forced to start peace negotiation. Having fixed his shield to the gate of the imperial capital, Oleg won a favourable trade treaty, which eventually was of great benefit to both nations. Although Byzantine sources did not record these hostilities, the text of the treaty survives in the Chronicle.

Viktor Vasnetsov. Oleg being mourned by his warriors (1899).
The Primary Chronicle's brief account of Oleg's life contrasts with other early sources, specifically the Novgorod First Chronicle, which states that Oleg was not related to Rurik, and was rather a Scandinavian client-prince who served as Igor's army commander. The Novgorod First Chronicle does not give the date of the commencement of Oleg's reign, but dates his death to 922 rather than 912.[4]
Scholars have contrasted this dating scheme with the "epic" reigns of roughly thirty-three years for both Oleg and Igor in the Primary Chronicle.[5] The Primary Chronicle and other Kievan sources place Oleg's grave in Kiev, while Novgorodian sources identify a funerary barrow in Ladoga as Oleg's final resting place.[6]
Legend of the death of Oleg the Prophet[edit]

The reputed burial mound for Oleg of Novgorod; Volkhov River near Staraya Ladoga.
In the Primary Chronicle, Oleg is known as the Prophet (вещий), an epithet alluding to the sacred meaning of his Norse name ("priest"). According to the legend, romanticised by Alexander Pushkin in his ballad "The Song of the Wise Oleg,"[7] it was prophesied by the pagan priests (volkhvs) that Oleg would take death from his stallion.
To defy the prophecies, Oleg sent the horse away. Many years later he asked where his horse was, and was told it had died. He asked to see the remains and was taken to the place where the bones lay. When he touched the horse's skull with his boot a snake slithered from the skull and bit him. Oleg died, thus fulfilling the prophecy.
Oleg's death has been interpreted as a distorted variant of the threefold death theme in Indo-European myth and legend, with prophecy, the snake and the horse representing the three functions: the prophecy is associated with sovereignty, the horse with warriors, and the serpent with reproduction.[8]
In Scandinavian traditions, this legend lived on in the saga of Orvar-Odd.
Oleg of the Schechter Letter[edit]
According to the Primary Chronicle, Oleg died in 912 and his successor, Igor of Kiev, ruled from then until his assassination in 945. The Schechter Letter,[9] a document written by a Jewish Khazar, a contemporary of Romanus I Lecapenus, describes the activities of a Rus' warlord named HLGW (Hebrew: הלגו‎), usually transcribed as "Helgu".[10] For years many scholars disregarded or discounted the Schechter Letter account, which referred to Helgu (often interpreted as Oleg) as late as the 940s.[11]
Recently, however, scholars such as David Christian and Constantine Zuckerman have suggested that the Schechter Letter's account is corroborated by various other Russian chronicles, and suggests a struggle within the early Rus' polity between factions loyal to Oleg and to the Rurikid Igor, a struggle that Oleg ultimately lost.[12] Zuckerman posited that the early chronology of the Rus' had to be re-determined in light of these sources. Among Zuckerman's beliefs and those of others who have analyzed these sources are that the Khazars did not lose Kiev until the early 10th century (rather than 882, the traditional date[13]), that Igor was not Rurik's son but rather a more distant descendant, and that Oleg did not immediately follow Rurik, but rather that there is a lost generation between the legendary Varangian lord and his documented successors.[14]
Of particular interest is the fact that the Schechter Letter account of Oleg's death (namely, that he fled to and raided FRS, tentatively identified with Persia,[15] and was slain there) bears remarkable parallels to the account of Arab historians such as Ibn Miskawayh, who described a similar Rus' attack on the Muslim state of Arran in the year 944/5.[16]
Attempts to reconcile the accounts[edit]

Prince Oleg Approached by Pagan Priests, a Kholuy illustration to Pushkin's ballad.
In contrast to Zuckerman's version, the Primary Chronicle and the later Kiev Chronicle place Oleg's grave in Kiev, where it could be seen at the time of the compilation of these documents. Furthermore, scholars have pointed out that if Oleg succeeded Rurik in 879 (as the East Slavic chronicles assert), he could hardly have been active almost 70 years later, unless he had a life-span otherwise unheard of in medieval annals, except for the funny fact that the Saga of Örvar Odd's Saga actually does state that Oleg, if identical to Örvar-Oddr lived for three hundred years (360 years as hundred mostly meant 120 in Norse)[1]. To solve these difficulties, it has been proposed that the pagan monarch-priests of Rus' used the hereditary title of helgu, standing for "holy" in the Norse language, and that Igor and others held this title.[17]
It has also been suggested that Helgu-Oleg who waged war in the 940s was distinct from both of Rurik's successors. He could have been one of the "fair and great princes" recorded in the Russo-Byzantine treaties of 911 and 944 or one of the "archons of Rus" mentioned in De administrando imperio.[18] Regrettably, the Primary Chronicle does not specify the relations between minor Rurikid princes active during the period, although the names Rurik, Oleg and Igor were recorded among the late-10th-century and 11th-century Rurikids.
Georgy Vernadsky even identified the Oleg of the Schechter Letter with Igor's otherwise anonymous eldest son, whose widow Predslava is mentioned in the Russo-Byzantine treaty of 944.[19] Alternatively, V. Ya. Petrukhin speculated that Helgu-Oleg of the 940s was one of the vernacular princes of Chernigov, whose ruling dynasty maintained especially close contacts with Khazaria, as the findings at the Black Grave, a large royal kurgan excavated near Chernigov, seem to testify.[20]

His parents are unknown.

Family/Spouse: Ketilsdatter, Queen Thorunn Hydrna. Thorunn was born in 844 in Pskov, Russia; died in 900. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• House: Varangians
• FSID: LYNX-745
• Religion: Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholic
• Appointments / Titles: 962; Grand Princess of Kiev
• Appointments / Titles: 962; Regent for her son
• Life Event: 1547; Cannonized as Saint Olge; Patron of Widows & Converts; July 11

Notes:

Saint Olga (Church Slavonic: Ольга, died 969 AD in Kiev) was a regent of Kievan Rus' for her son Svyatoslav from 945 until 960. She is known for her obliteration of the Drevlians, a tribe that had killed her husband Igor of Kiev. Even though it would be her grandson Vladimir that would convert the entire nation to Christianity, for her efforts to spread Christianity through the Rus' Olga is venerated as a saint. While her birthdate is unknown, it could be as early as AD 890 and as late as 5 June 925.[1]

Grand Princess of Kiev, Equal to the Apostles
Born
Pskov
Died
11 July 969
Kiev
Venerated in
Roman Catholicism
Eastern Catholicism, especially in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
Eastern Orthodoxy
Feast
July 11/24

Early life Edit

Olga was reportedly from Pskov. The Primary Chronicle gives 879 as her date of birth, which is unlikely, given the birth of her only son probably some 65 years after that date. She was, hypothetically, of Varangian extraction.

She married the future Igor of Kiev arguably in 903, but perhaps as early as 901-902.

Regency Edit

After Igor's death on 945, Olga ruled Kievan Rus as regent on behalf of their son Svyatoslav.[2]

In 947, Princess Olga launched a punitive expedition against the tribal elites between the Luga and the Msta River.[3] Following this successful campaign, a number of forts were erected at Olga’s orders. One of them is supposed to be Gorodets in the Luga region[4] a fortification dated to the middle of the 10th century. Because of its isolated location, Gorodets does not seem to have been in any way associated with the pre-existing settlement pattern. Moreover, the fort produced another example of square timber frames designed to consolidate the rampart that was seen at Rurikovo Gorodische. The same building technique was in use a century later in the Novgorod fortifications.

Olga remained regent ruler of Kievan Rus with the support of the army and her people. She changed the system of tribute gathering (poliudie) in the first legal reform recorded in Eastern Europe. She continued to evade proposals of marriage, defended the city during the Siege of Kiev in 968, and saved the power of the throne for her son.

Drevlian Uprising Edit
The following account is taken from the Primary Chronicle. Princess Olga was the wife of Igor of Kiev, who was killed by the Drevlians. At the time of her husband's death, their son Svyatoslav was three years old, making Olga the official ruler of Kievan Rus' until he reached adulthood. The Drevlians wanted Olga to marry their Prince Mal, making him the ruler of Kievan Rus', but Olga was determined to remain in power and preserve it for her son.

The Drevlians sent twenty of their best men to persuade Olga to marry their Prince Mal and give up her rule of Kievan Rus'. She had them buried alive. Then she sent word to Prince Mal that she accepted the proposal, but required their most distinguished men to accompany her on the journey in order for her people to accept the offer of marriage. The Drevlians sent the best men who governed their land. Upon their arrival, she offered them a warm welcome and an invitation to clean up after their long journey in a bathhouse. After they entered, she locked the doors and set fire to the building, burning them alive.

With the best and wisest men out of the way, she planned to destroy the remaining Drevlians. She invited them to a funeral feast so she could mourn over her husband's grave. Her servants waited on them, and after the Drevlians were drunk, Olga's soldiers killed over 5,000 of them.[2] She then placed the city under siege.[2] She asked for three pigeons and three sparrows from each house; she claimed she did not want to burden the villagers any further after the siege.[2] They were happy to comply with the request.

Now Olga gave to each soldier in her army a pigeon or a sparrow, and ordered them to attach by thread to each bird a piece of sulfur bound with small pieces of cloth. When night fell, Olga bade her soldiers release the pigeons and the sparrows. So the birds flew to their nests, the pigeons to the cotes, and the sparrows under the eaves. The dove-cotes, the coops, the porches, and the haymows were set on fire. There was not a house that was not consumed, and it was impossible to extinguish the flames because all the houses caught on fire at once. The people fled from the city, and Olga ordered her soldiers to catch them. Thus she took the city and burned it, and captured the elders of the city. Some of the other captives she killed, while some she gave as slaves to her followers. The remnant she left to pay tribute.[5]

The story, however, is most likely a myth.[2]

Relations with the Holy Roman Emperor Edit
Seven Latin sources document Olga's embassy to Holy Roman Emperor Otto I in 959. The continuation of Regino of Prüm mentions that the envoys requested the emperor to appoint a bishop and priests for their nation. The chronicler accuses the envoys of lies, commenting that their trick was not exposed until later. Thietmar of Merseburg says that the first archbishop of Magdeburg, Saint Adalbert of Magdeburg, before being promoted to this high rank, was sent by Emperor Otto to the country of the Rus' (Rusciae) as a simple bishop but was expelled by pagan allies of Svyatoslav I. The same data is repeated in the annals of Quedlinburg and Hildesheim.

Christianity

Olga was the first ruler of Rus' to convert to Christianity, done in either 945 or 957. The ceremonies of her formal reception in Constantinople were detailed by Emperor Constantine VII in his book De Ceremoniis. Following her baptism, Olga took the Christian name Yelena, after the reigning Empress Helena Lekapena. The Slavonic chronicles add apocryphal details to the account of her baptism, such as the story of how she charmed and "outwitted" Constantine and spurned his proposals of marriage. In actuality, at the time of her baptism, Olga was an old woman, while Constantine already had a wife.

Olga was one of the first people of Rus' to be proclaimed a saint for her efforts to spread Christianity throughout the country. Because of her proselytizing influence, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church call Saint Olga by the honorific Isapóstolos, "Equal to the Apostles". She is also a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. However, she failed to convert Svyatoslav, and it was left to Vladimir I, her grandson and pupil, to make Christianity the lasting state religion. During her son's prolonged military campaigns, she remained in charge of Kiev, residing in the castle of Vyshgorod with her grandsons. She died in 969, soon after the Pechenegs' siege of the city.[6][7]

Notes

1. “Princess Olga of Kiev". Russiapedia. Retrieved 18 May 2016.

2. a b c d e Clements 2012, p. 7.

3. Laurentian Codex (1997:60)

4. Lebedev 1982:225-238; Zalevskaia 1982:49-54

5. Russian Primary Chronicle

6. extracts of the Primary Chronicle in English translation, University of Oregon

7. Primary Sources - A collection of translated excerpts on Medieval Rus, University of Washington Faculty Web Server (November 6, 2004)

References

Clements, Barbara Evans (2012). A History of Women in Russia: From Earliest Times to the Present. Indiana University Press.

Additional History:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_of_Kiev

https://www.ffish.com/family_tree/descendants_igor/d1.ht

Olga married Rurikovich, Igor in 903. Igor (son of of Novgorod, Prince Rurik Rurikovich and of Novgorod, Princess Efanda-Edvina) was born in 877 in Velikiy Novgorod, Novgorod, Russia; died in 945 in Korosten', Zhytomyr, Ukraine; was buried in 945 in Dereva, Novgorod, Russia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• House: Rurikid
• FSID: L8YY-PP2
• Appointments / Titles: 945, Kievian Rus' Empire (Historical)
• Appointments / Titles: Between 945 and 972, Kievian Rus' Empire (Historical); Grand Prince of Kiev

Notes:

Sviatoslav I Igorevich (Old East Slavic: С~тославъ / Свѧтославъ[1] Игорєвичь, Sventoslavŭ / Svantoslavŭ Igorevičǐ; Old Norse: Sveinald Ingvarsson) (c. 942 – 26 March 972), also spelled Svyatoslav was a Grand prince of Kiev[2][3] famous for his persistent campaigns in the east and south, which precipitated the collapse of two great powers of Eastern Europe, Khazaria and the First Bulgarian Empire. He also conquered numerous East Slavic tribes, defeated the Alans and attacked the Volga Bulgars,[4][5] and at times was allied with the Pechenegs and Magyars.

His decade-long reign over the Kievan Rus' was marked by rapid expansion into the Volga River valley, the Pontic steppe, and the Balkans. By the end of his short life, Sviatoslav carved out for himself the largest state in Europe, eventually moving his capital in 969 from Kiev (modern-day Ukraine) to Pereyaslavets (identified as the modern village of Nufăru, Romania)[6] on the Danube. In contrast with his mother's conversion to Christianity, Sviatoslav remained a staunch pagan all of his life. Due to his abrupt death in ambush, his conquests, for the most part, were not consolidated into a functioning empire, while his failure to establish a stable succession led to a fratricidal feud among his three sons, resulting in two of them being killed.

Name

The Primary Chronicle records Sviatoslav as the first ruler of the Kievan Rus' with a name of Slavic origin (as opposed to his predecessors, whose names had Old Norse forms). The name Sviatoslav, however, is not recorded in other medieval Slavic countries. Nevertheless, Sveinald is the Old East Norse cognate with the Slavic form as attested in the Old East Norse patronymic of Sviatoslav's son Vladimir: Valdamarr Sveinaldsson. This patronymic naming convention continues in Icelandic and in East Slavic languages. Even in Rus', it was attested only among the members of the house of Rurik, as were the names of Sviatoslav's immediate successors: Vladimir, Yaroslav, and Mstislav.[7][need quotation to verify] Some scholars see the name of Sviatoslav, composed of the Slavic roots for "holy" and "glory", as an artificial derivation combining the names of his predecessors Oleg and Rurik (whose names mean "holy" and "glorious" in Old Norse, respectively).[8]

Early life and personality

Virtually nothing is known about Sviatoslav's childhood and youth, which he spent reigning in Novgorod. Sviatoslav's father, Igor, was killed by the Drevlians around 945, and his mother, Olga, ruled as regent in Kiev until Sviatoslav reached maturity (ca. 963).[9] Sviatoslav was tutored by a Varangian named Asmud.[10] The tradition of employing Varangian tutors for the sons of ruling princes survived well into the 11th century. Sviatoslav appears to have had little patience for administration. His life was spent with his druzhina (roughly, "company") in permanent warfare against neighboring states. According to the Primary Chronicle, he carried on his expeditions neither wagons nor kettles, and he boiled no meat, rather cutting off small strips of horseflesh, game, or beef to eat after roasting it on the coals. Nor did he have a tent, rather spreading out a horse-blanket under him and setting his saddle under his head, and all his retinue did likewise. [11]

Sviatoslav's appearance has been described very clearly by Leo the Deacon, who himself attended the meeting of Sviatoslav with John I Tzimiskes. Following Deacon's memories, Sviatoslav was a blue-eyed man of average height but of stalwart build, much more sturdy than Tzimiskes. He shaved his blond head and his beard but wore a bushy mustache and a sidelock as a sign of his nobility.[12] He pre ferred to dress in white, and it was noted that his garments were much cleaner than those of his men, although he had a lot in common with his warriors. He wore a single large gold earring bearing a carbuncle and two pearls.[13]

Religious beliefs

Sviatoslav's mother, Olga, converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity at the court of Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus in 957,[14] at the approximate age of 67. However, Sviatoslav remained a pagan all of his life. In the treaty of 971 between Sviatoslav and the Byzantine emperor John I Tzimiskes, the Rus' are swearing by Perun and Veles.[15] According to the Primary Chronicle, he believed that his warriors (druzhina) would lose respect for him and mock him if he became a Christian.[16] The allegiance of his warriors was of paramount importance in his conquest of an empire that stretched from the Volga to the Danube.

Family

Very little is known of Sviatoslav's family life. It is possible that he was not the only (or the eldest) son of his parents. The Russo-Byzantine treaty of 945 mentions a certain Predslava, Volodislav's wife, as the noblest of the Rus' women after Olga. The fact that Predslava was Oleg's mother is presented by Vasily Tatishchev. He also speculated that Predslava was of a Hungarian nobility. George Vernadsky was among many historians to speculate that Volodislav was Igor's eldest son and heir who died at some point during Olga's regency. Another chronicle told that Oleg (? - 944?) was the eldest son of Igor. At the time of Igor's death, Sviatoslav was still a child, and he was raised by his mother or under her instructions. Her influence, however, did not extend to his religious observance. Sviatoslav had several children, but the origin of his wives is not specified in the chronicle. By his wives, he had Yaropolk and Oleg.[17] By Malusha, a woman of indeterminate origins,[18] Sviatoslav had Vladimir, who would ultimately break with his father's paganism and convert Rus' to Christianity. John Skylitzes reported that Vladimir had a brother named Sfengus; whether this Sfengus was a son of Sviatoslav, a son of Malusha by a prior or subsequent husband, or an unrelated Rus' nobleman is unclear.[19]
Five wives: Maloucha & Maloucha Malkonva & Debrime & Maria Monomakh & Kilikiya Dietmarschen

Notes

^ "E.g. in the ''Primary Chronicle'' under year 970". Litopys.org.ua. Retrieved 6 July 2013.
^ "Svyatoslav I - Prince of Kiev". Online Encyclopædia Britannica. Britannica.com. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
^ "Vladimir I - Grand Prince of Kiev". Online Encyclopædia Britannica. Britannica.com. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
^ A History of Russia: Since 1855, Walter Moss, pg 29
^ Khazarian state and its role in the history of Eastern Europe and the Caucasus A.P. Novoseltsev, Moscow, Nauka, 1990. (in Russian)
^ Stephenson, Paul (2000). Byzantium's Balkan Frontier: A Political Study of the Northern Balkans, 900-1204. Cambridge University Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-521-77017-0. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
^ Литвина, А. Ф.; Успенский, Федор Борисович (2006). Выбор имени у русских князей в X-XVI вв: династическая история сквозь призму антропонимики [The choice of personal names for the Russian princes of the 10th-16th centuries: a dynastic history through the prism of anthroponymy]. Труды по филологии и истории: Именослов, имя (in Russian). Индрик [Indrik]. p. 43. ISBN 5-85759-339-5. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
^ See А.М. Членов. К вопросу об имени Святослава, in Личные имена в прошлом, настоящем и будущем: проблемы антропонимики (Moscow, 1970).
^ If Olga was indeed born in 879, as the Primary Chronicle seems to imply, she should have been about 65 at the time of Sviatoslav's birth. There are clearly some problems with chronology.
^ Primary Chronicle entry for 968
^ Cross and Sherbowitz-Wetzor, Primary Chronicle, p. 84.
^ For the alternative translations of the same passage of the Greek original that say that Sviatoslav may have not shaven but wispy beard and not one but two sidelocks on each side of his head, see e.g. Ian Heath "The Vikings (Elite 3)", Osprey Publishing 1985; ISBN 978-0-85045-565-6, p.60 or David Nicolle "Armies of Medieval Russia 750–1250 (Men-at-Arms 333)" Osprey Publishing 1999; ISBN 978-1-85532-848-8, p.44
^ Vernadsky 276–277. The sidelock is reminiscent of Turkic hairstyles and practices and was later mimicked by Cossacks.
^ Based on his analysis of De Ceremoniis, Alexander Nazarenko hypothesizes that Olga hoped to orchestrate a marriage between Sviatoslav and a Byzantine princess. If her proposal was peremptorily declined (as it most certainly would have been), it is hardly surprising that Sviatoslav would look at the Byzantine Empire and her Christian culture with suspicion. Nazarenko 302.
^ Froianov, I. Ia.; A. Iu. Dvornichenko; Iu. V. Krivosheev (1992). "The Introduction of Christianity in Russia and the Pagan Traditions". In Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer. Russian Traditional Culture: Religion, Gender, and Customary Law. M.E. Sharpe. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-56324-039-3. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
^ Primary Chronicle _____.
^ Shared maternal paternity of Yaropolk and Oleg is a matter of debate by historians.
^ She is traditionally identified in Russian historiography as Dobrynya's sister; for other theories on her identity, see here.
^ Indeed, Franklin and Shepard advanced the hypothesis that Sfengus was identical with Mstislav of Tmutarakan. Franklin and Shepard 200-201.

Additional History:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Святослав_Игоревич
https://www.ffish.com/family_tree/descendants_igor/d1.ht

Family/Spouse: of Lyubech, Malusha Malkovna. Malusha was born in 940 in Lyubech, Chernihiv, Ukraine; died in 1020 in Ukraine. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Nickname: The Great
• FSID: L8BY-3VJ
• Appointments / Titles: 969; Prince of Novgorod
• Appointments / Titles: Between 11 Jun 980 and 15 Jul 1015, Kievian Rus' Empire (Historical); Grand Prince
• Life Event: Aug 988, Kiev, Ukraine; Beginning of Byzantine Orthodox Christianity in Kyivan Rus
• Life Event: Aug 988; Fourded the city of Yaroslavl

Notes:

Vladimir I, in full Vladimir Svyatoslavich or Ukrainian Volodymyr Sviatoslavych, by name Saint Vladimir or Vladimir the Great, Russian Svyatoy Vladimir or Vladimir Veliky, (born c. 956, Kyiv, Kievan Rus [now in Ukraine]—died July 15, 1015, Berestova, near Kyiv; feast day July 15), grand prince of Kyiv and first Christian ruler in Kievan Rus, whose military conquests consolidated the provinces of Kyiv and Novgorod into a single state, and whose Byzantine baptism determined the course of Christianity in the region.

Vladimir was the son of the Norman-Rus prince Svyatoslav of Kyiv by one of his courtesans and was a member of the Rurik lineage dominant from the 10th to the 13th century. He was made prince of Novgorod in 970. On the death of his father in 972, he was forced to flee to Scandinavia, where he enlisted help from an uncle and overcame Yaropolk, another son of Svyatoslav, who attempted to seize the duchy of Novgorod as well as Kyiv. By 980 Vladimir had consolidated the Kievan realm from Ukraine to the Baltic Sea and had solidified the frontiers against incursions of Bulgarian, Baltic, and Eastern nomads.

Although Christianity in Kyiv existed before Vladimir’s time, he had remained a pagan, accumulated about seven wives, established temples, and, it is said, taken part in idolatrous rites involving human sacrifice. With insurrections troubling Byzantium, the emperor Basil II (976–1025) sought military aid from Vladimir, who agreed, in exchange for Basil’s sister Anne in marriage. A pact was reached about 987, when Vladimir also consented to the condition that he become a Christian. Having undergone baptism, assuming the Christian patronal name Basil, he stormed the Byzantine area of Chersonesus (Korsun, now part of Sevastopol) to eliminate Constantinople’s final reluctance. Vladimir then ordered the Christian conversion of Kyiv and Novgorod, where idols were cast into the Dnieper River after local resistance had been suppressed. The new Rus Christian worship adopted the Byzantine rite in the Old Church Slavonic language. The story (deriving from the 11th-century monk Jacob) that Vladimir chose the Byzantine rite over the liturgies of German Christendom, Judaism, and Islam because of its transcendent beauty is apparently mythically symbolic of his determination to remain independent of external political control, particularly of the Germans. The Byzantines, however, maintained ecclesiastical control over the new Rus church, appointing a Greek metropolitan, or archbishop, for Kyiv, who functioned both as legate of the patriarch of Constantinople and of the emperor. The Rus-Byzantine religio-political integration checked the influence of the Roman Latin church in the Slavic East and determined the course of Russian Christianity, although Kyiv exchanged legates with the papacy. Among the churches erected by Vladimir was the Desiatynna in Kyiv (designed by Byzantine architects and dedicated about 996) that became the symbol of the Rus conversion. The Christian Vladimir also expanded education, judicial institutions, and aid to the poor.

Another marriage, following the death of Anne (1011), affiliated Vladimir with the Holy Roman emperors of the German Ottonian dynasty and produced a daughter, who became the consort of Casimir I the Restorer of Poland (1016–58). Vladimir’s memory was kept alive by innumerable folk ballads and legends.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vladimir-I

Vladimir Yaroslavich (Russian: Владимир Ярославич, Old Norse Valdamarr Jarizleifsson;[1] 1020 – October 4, 1052) reigned as prince of Novgorod from 1036 until his death. He was the eldest son of Yaroslav I the Wise of Kiev by Ingigerd, daughter of king Olof Skötkonung of Sweden.[2]

In the state affairs he was assisted by the voivode Vyshata and the bishop Luka Zhidiata. In 1042, Vladimir may have been in conflict with Finns, according to some interpretations even making a military campaign in Finland.[3] In the next year he led the Russian armies together with Harald III of Norway against the Byzantine emperor Constantine IX. He predeceased his father by two years and was buried by him in St Sophia Cathedral he had built in Novgorod. His sarcophagus is in a niche on the south side of the main body of the cathedral overlooking the Martirievskii Porch. He is depicted in an early twentieth-century fresco above the sarcophagus and on a new effigial icon on top of the sarcophagus.[4] The details of his death is unknown, however his son Rostislav and his descendants were in unfriendly relationship with the descendants of the Yaroslaviches triumvirate (Iziaslav, Sviatoslav, and Vsevolod). Three of Vladimir's younger brothers Izyaslav I, Svyatoslav II and Vsevolod I all reigned in Kiev, while other two (Igor and Vyacheslav) died in their early twenties after which their lands were split between the Yaroslaviches triumvirate. Coincidentally, the Vyshata of Novgorod pledged his support to Rostislav in the struggle against the triumvirate.

Vladimir's only son, Rostislav Vladimirovich, was a landless prince who usurped power in Tmutarakan. His descendants[5] were dispossessed by their uncles and were proclaimed as izgoi (outcast), but gradually managed to establish themselves in Halychyna, ruling the land until 1199, when their line became extinct. In order to downplay their claims to Kiev, the records of Vladimir's military campaigns seem to have been obliterated from Kievan chronicles. As a result, medieval historians often confuse him with two more famous namesakes — Vladimir the Great and Vladimir Monomakh. The name of Vladimir's consort is uncertain either. According to Nikolai Baumgarten, Vladimir was married to the daughter of count Leopold of Staden, Ode. Others (Aleksandr Nazarenko) disregard that assumption or claim a different person.

Vladimir's memory was better preserved in foreign sources. In Norse sagas he frequently figures as Valdemar Holti (that is, "the Nimble"). George Cedrenus noticed Vladimir's arrogance in dealing with the Byzantines.

Further reading
Volkoff, Vladimir. Vladimir, the Russian Viking. Overlook Press, 1985.
References
Fagrskinna ch. 67 (Alison Finlay, Fagrskinna: A Catalogue of the Kings of Norway Brill (2004), p. 236)
Traditionally, Ingegerd is associated with Anna of Novgorod, who is buried in the cathedral in another niche near Vladimir. However, Soviet archaeologists who opened her sarcophagus found the remains to be that of a woman in her 30s, whereas Ingegard is said to have lived into her fifties. Thus it is thought that Vladimir's mother, Anna, was Yaroslav's first wife and is not the same person as Ingegerd.
The first indisputable Novgorodian expedition to Finland was done in 1191. Suomen varhaiskeskiajan lähteitä. Gummerus Kirjapaino Oy, 1989. ISBN 951-96006-1-2. See also "online description of the conflict". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. from Laurentian Codex as hosted by the National Archive of Finland. In Swedish.
T. N. Tsarevskaia, Sofiiskii Sobor v Novgorode.
Marek, Miroslav. "His descendants". Genealogy.EU.
6. Coggeshall, Robt W. "Ancestors and Kin" (1988), p 189

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_of_Novgorod#:~:text=Vladimir%20Yaroslavich%20(Russian%3A%20%D0%92%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%B8%D1%80%20%D0%AF%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87,king%20Olof%20Sk%C3%B6tkonung%20of%20Sweden.

Vladimir married of the Byzantine Empire, Anna Porphyrogenita in 977. Anna (daughter of Macedonicos, Emperor Romanos II and Phocus, Empress of Byzantine Theophano) was born on 13 Mar 963 in Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey; died in 1011 in Kiev, Kiev, Ukraine; was buried in 1011 in Kiev, Kiev, Ukraine. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]