and then, like herded cattle, were driven into the stream to be
baptized. The work of Olga was completed--Russia was Christianized
(992)!

It would be long before Christianity would penetrate into the heart of
the people. As late as the twelfth century only the higher classes
faithfully observed the Christian rites; while the old pagan ceremonies
were still common among the peasantry. And even now the Saints of the
Calendar are in some places only thinly disguised heathen deities and
pagan rites and superstitions mingle with Christian observances.

The conversion of Vladimir seems to have been sincere. From being a
cruel voluptuary and assassin, he was changed to a merciful ruler who
could not bear to inflict capital punishment. He was faithful to his
Greek wife Anna. On the spot where he had once erected Perun, and
where the two Scandinavians were martyred at his command, he built the
church of St. Basil; and he is now remembered only as the saint who
Christianized pagan Russia, and revered as the "Beautiful Sun of Kief."

So the two most important events considered thus far in the history of
this land have been, first, its military conquest from the North, and
second, its ecclesiastical conquest from the South. If the first
helped it to become a nation, the second determined the character which
that nationality should assume.

To explain one fact by another and unfamiliar and uncomprehended fact
is one of the confusing methods of history! In order to know why the
adoption of the form of religion known as the Greek Church so
powerfully influenced Russian development, one must understand what
that faith was and is, and the source of the antagonisms which divided