Jul 08 - The alleged site of the baptism of Vladimir the great in 988 (the first Christian ruler of Kievan Rus), Chersonesos, near Sevastopol, Crimea
Vladimir was the first ruler of Kievan Rus to convert and be baptized, but I've read that his baptism here at Chersonesos is apocryphal, and that the (reconstructed) church of St. Vladimir was built on the site of the Byzantine church in which he was baptized. So I can't account for the competition and the claims for the location of the baptism site right here under this (although in the ruins of another Byzantine church).
- "Vladimir was the son of the Norman-Rus prince Svyatoslav of Kiev by one of his courtesans and was a member of the Rurik lineage dominant from the 10th to the 13th century. [Norman? his grand-dad Rurik was a Swedish viking]. 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 [and killed] Yaropolk, another son of Svyatoslav, who attempted to seize the duchy of Novgorod as well as Kiev. [According to Wikipedia, Yaropolk I succeeded Svyatoslav. One Russian historian "suggests that Yaropolk went through some preliminary rites of baptism before he was murdered at the behest of his pagan 1/2 brother, whose own rights to the throne were questionable, before his conversion was formalized."] By 980 Vladimir had consolidated the Kievan realm from Ukraine to the Baltic and had solidified the frontiers against incursions of Bulgarian, Baltic, and Eastern nomads.
- The history here is so murky in the 10th and 11th cent.s, that there are a good number of incompatible versions and theories. www.flickr.com/photos/97924400@N00/6656607919/in/datepost...
- "Although Christianity existed in Kiev before Vladimir’s time, he had remained a pagan, accumulated @ 7 wives, established temples, and, it is said, took part in idolatrous rites involving human sacrifice. With insurrections troubling Byzantium, the emperor Basil II (976-1025) sought military aid from Vladimir, who agreed [to assist] in exchange for Basil’s sister Anne in marriage. A pact was reached in @ 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 to eliminate Constantinople’s final reluctance. [This seems to say that he was baptized before he arrived in Crimea, contradicting the popular account.] Vladimir then ordered the Christian conversion of Kiev 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 an account by the 11th-cent. 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 Kiev, 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 Kiev exchanged legates with the papacy. The Christian Vladimir 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." (Brittanica.com)
- Here's a trailer for 'Viking' (2016), a Russian depiction of the late 10th cent. drama surrounding the rise of Vladimir the Great.: youtu.be/yahJUX959qk?si=kE6gkVmLAhdysDQn I borrowed it from the TPL and watched it in my Mom's room at her nursing home. It has great production values, a comely cast, much violence, very much, and tries to adhere to the historical record from what I could tell, but it's no G.O.T. Yes, "heavy is the head that wears the crown", but no-one ever has any fun or makes a joke, no-one's likable (Vladimir and his brothers were Vikings after all, or the descendants of Vikings youtu.be/oEdUa8XRE8Q?si=aagLuC5diJPY2bON ), and it was a bit of a slog. The movie has a tough row to hoe in presenting Vladimir as moral and introspective, whereas in fact he was an opportunist and a warlord and acted like one. The subtext is that "we want you to like this guy [the national hero who converted Kievan Rus to Christianity], but we want cred for authenticity, so he has to kill his brother, rape his unwilling wife, etc. See how he feels guilty later?" Ok, but that disconnect is your challenge or problem, and now it's the film's problem.
- Here the Peçenegs attack (not "Bogatyrs").: youtu.be/Ao7WWL0Oemo?si=hAMOxlCtZ1KJU5qO
- The opening scene with the Ornak hunt.: youtu.be/Uis_P6CWS5s?si=Q0TRUxxfBnMGI4_o
Jul 08 - The alleged site of the baptism of Vladimir the great in 988 (the first Christian ruler of Kievan Rus), Chersonesos, near Sevastopol, Crimea
Vladimir was the first ruler of Kievan Rus to convert and be baptized, but I've read that his baptism here at Chersonesos is apocryphal, and that the (reconstructed) church of St. Vladimir was built on the site of the Byzantine church in which he was baptized. So I can't account for the competition and the claims for the location of the baptism site right here under this (although in the ruins of another Byzantine church).
- "Vladimir was the son of the Norman-Rus prince Svyatoslav of Kiev by one of his courtesans and was a member of the Rurik lineage dominant from the 10th to the 13th century. [Norman? his grand-dad Rurik was a Swedish viking]. 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 [and killed] Yaropolk, another son of Svyatoslav, who attempted to seize the duchy of Novgorod as well as Kiev. [According to Wikipedia, Yaropolk I succeeded Svyatoslav. One Russian historian "suggests that Yaropolk went through some preliminary rites of baptism before he was murdered at the behest of his pagan 1/2 brother, whose own rights to the throne were questionable, before his conversion was formalized."] By 980 Vladimir had consolidated the Kievan realm from Ukraine to the Baltic and had solidified the frontiers against incursions of Bulgarian, Baltic, and Eastern nomads.
- The history here is so murky in the 10th and 11th cent.s, that there are a good number of incompatible versions and theories. www.flickr.com/photos/97924400@N00/6656607919/in/datepost...
- "Although Christianity existed in Kiev before Vladimir’s time, he had remained a pagan, accumulated @ 7 wives, established temples, and, it is said, took part in idolatrous rites involving human sacrifice. With insurrections troubling Byzantium, the emperor Basil II (976-1025) sought military aid from Vladimir, who agreed [to assist] in exchange for Basil’s sister Anne in marriage. A pact was reached in @ 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 to eliminate Constantinople’s final reluctance. [This seems to say that he was baptized before he arrived in Crimea, contradicting the popular account.] Vladimir then ordered the Christian conversion of Kiev 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 an account by the 11th-cent. 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 Kiev, 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 Kiev exchanged legates with the papacy. The Christian Vladimir 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." (Brittanica.com)
- Here's a trailer for 'Viking' (2016), a Russian depiction of the late 10th cent. drama surrounding the rise of Vladimir the Great.: youtu.be/yahJUX959qk?si=kE6gkVmLAhdysDQn I borrowed it from the TPL and watched it in my Mom's room at her nursing home. It has great production values, a comely cast, much violence, very much, and tries to adhere to the historical record from what I could tell, but it's no G.O.T. Yes, "heavy is the head that wears the crown", but no-one ever has any fun or makes a joke, no-one's likable (Vladimir and his brothers were Vikings after all, or the descendants of Vikings youtu.be/oEdUa8XRE8Q?si=aagLuC5diJPY2bON ), and it was a bit of a slog. The movie has a tough row to hoe in presenting Vladimir as moral and introspective, whereas in fact he was an opportunist and a warlord and acted like one. The subtext is that "we want you to like this guy [the national hero who converted Kievan Rus to Christianity], but we want cred for authenticity, so he has to kill his brother, rape his unwilling wife, etc. See how he feels guilty later?" Ok, but that disconnect is your challenge or problem, and now it's the film's problem.
- Here the Peçenegs attack (not "Bogatyrs").: youtu.be/Ao7WWL0Oemo?si=hAMOxlCtZ1KJU5qO
- The opening scene with the Ornak hunt.: youtu.be/Uis_P6CWS5s?si=Q0TRUxxfBnMGI4_o