Древняя Русь и Скандинавия: Избранные труды

The attitude of the Rus’ to the possible change of religion could not have taken place if the new faith was utterly unknown to them. It presupposes their knowledge, however little, of Christianity[1388]. Kievan Vikings had ample opportunities of getting acquainted with Christianity before 860, also by other ways than Byzantine missions. The raids of the Rhos on Byzantine provinces on the shores of the Black Sea started not later than in the beginning of the ninth century. The first expedition attested in Byzantine sources took place between 807 and 820. It was a sudden attack of «the barbarians of the Rhos, a people which is, as everyone knows, utterly wild and rough, devoid of any traces of humaneness» on the town of Amastris[1389]. The plunder was stopped by a miracle at the grave of the late bishop of Amastris, St. George. The robbers were paralyzed and could move only after their leader promised not to disturb Christians any more[1390].

In the first half of the ninth century there appear Scandinavian names in the pro-sopography of the Byzantine nobility: Inger (< Ingvarr, Old Russian Igor’), the pariarch of Nicea c. 825, and Inger, father of the mistress of Emperor Michael III and the wife of Emperor Basilios I who was called Eudocia Ingerina (ca. 841 – ca. 882)[1391]. In 839 (or 838) a group of Rhos people who turned to be Swedes stayed in Constantinople being sent by their chakanus whoever it might be to Emperor Theophil[1392]. Aproxi-mately at the same time three new military provinces, the Themes of Climata in the Crimea and Paphlagonia and the Ducate of Chaldia in Anatolia, were created by the Byzantine government. They all located on the coasts of the Black Sea. According to W. Treadgold, their separation from larger themes was caused by the increasing attacks of the Rhos on coastal towns[1393]. These are only a few cases that happened to be recorded, but rare as they are, they outline a broad spectrum of activities of Scandinavians in Byzantium already in the first half of the ninth century not limited only to warfare. Peaceful visits and life in Constantinople provided for the Norsemen better opportunities to become acquainted with Christian faith and rituals than occasional raids and robberies. Even the latter, however, resulted in capturing Christians and thus also contributed to the spread of Christianity among the Rus’.

The progress of the new faith among Scandinavians in Eastern Europe in the first half of the ninth century seems to be rather successful as an Arabic author writing in 840ies, an official of high standing and thus possessing vast information, Ibn Khordadbeh, wrote that the merchants of ar-Rus who traveled as far as Baghdad claimed to be Christians[1394]. The Rus’ merchants are usually suspected to only pretend to be Christians to avoid paying larger taxes, the main argument being that it was too early for Rus’, be them Slavs or Scandinavians, to adopt Christianity. The genuine faith of the Rus’ merchants in Baghdad can never be established with certainty, but it is quite enough that at that time, even if pagans, they already knew sufficiently much about Christianity to use its rituals and traditions for their own benefit. The Western Vikings did the same, though several decades later[1395].

Thus in the first half of the ninth century Christianity was succesfully penetrating into Viking bands who made Kiev their main base. Some of the Vikings could have got baptized during their stay in Constantinople and several years after the 860 attack on Constantinople the Rhos leaders (the prince or princes of Kiev) got converted together with (some of?) their warriors.

II

The memories of the events connected with the Christianization of the Rus’ in 860ies must have been, however, swept away by a new wave of the Vikings who seized Kiev at the last quarter of the ninth century[1396]. The «Primary Chronicle» tells (s. a. 882) about a «prince» Oleg (< Helgi) who moved from «Novgorod» (i. e. Ladoga-Ilmen region) to Kiev, deceived Askold and Dir pretending to be a merchant, killed them and assumed power in Kiev. The annalist stresses that it was Oleg and his retinue who got the name of the Rus’[1397].

The new warrior elite of Kiev was obviously pagan. During the whole reign of Oleg (d. in 911[1398]) and up to the mid-tenth century there exists no information about Christianity among the Rus’ either in Old Russian or foreign sources. On the contrary, the annalists do not miss a chance to stress that Oleg and his retunue were pagans devoted to heathen rituals and knowing no God. It is worth noting that Askold and Dir are never accused of being pagans.