HIST 2600 Lecture 4: HISTORY OF RUSSIA LECTURE 4
Document Summary
After sviatoslav"s death, civil war broke out over who will lead kievan rus. St. vladimir won by murdering his older brother. Got his title by converting his state to christianity. Chronicle tells us that vladimir reached this decision after listening to the world"s ambassadors of religions explaining their faiths. Also sent his own ambassadors to understand these churches. After this, vladimir took eastern orthodox christianity as his country"s faith. There were good reasons why vladimir chose this religion . Great roman empire got so large it had to be politically divided. Rome remained capital of western part of empire. Constantinople became administrative capital of eastern half; became permanent in 395 (self governing) By 4th century, rome declines in importance after sacking of rome by. During european dark ages, byzantine empire became most wealthy and powerful. Christian church was split after 5th century a. d. Constantinople became headquarters of orthodox church headed by a.