Rhos leaders[1386] but he emphasizes their wish to get baptized and their willingness to accept a bishop. Constantine on the contrary stresses the difficulties the Emperor had to make the Rhos Christians. He writes that the Emperor «convinced them to join in the saving baptizm and talked them into the acception of an archbishop who had been consecrated by Patriarch Ignatius».
The discrepancies in presenting the circumstances of the Christianization of the Rhos promoted a hypothesis that there might have been two missions to the Rhos sent at the interval of about two years[1387], which is hardly probable. It is much more plausible that the two records present the situation from different viewpoints and stress or exagerate its various aspects. Photius was inspired by the success of his mission and the most important thing for him was the transformation – almost miraculous – of cruel barbarians into obedient Christians. In his turn Constantine was anxious to underline the achievements of his grandfather and his personal contribution into the matter of Christianization of barbarians. The more efforts needed the task, the more glorious was the result. In spite of possible exagerations in both cases, however, there can be no doubt that the Rus’ or at least their rulers not only had nothing against but were ready, if not willing, to adopt Christianity soon after the raid of 860.
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.
Annalist’s invectives against Oleg’s heathenism are supported by the earliest extant Old Russian document, the treaty concluded by Oleg with Byzantium in 911 after his successful attack on Constantinople in 907. The treaty was included in the «Primary Chronicle» and it is supposed to be translated from Greek at the end of the eleventh century[1399]. One of the paragraphs stipulates that an oath shoull be sworn to confirm the treaty. The text of the oath leaves no doubt that the Rus’ of that time were pagan. Christian Greeks were to swear «in the name of the Holy Cross and the Holy and Indivisible Trinity of your one true God», whereas «we (i. e. the Rus’. – E. M.) have sworn to your Emperor… according to our own faith and the custom of our nation»[1400]. This custom was described earlier, in the preamble to the treaty of 907:
According to the religion of the Russes, the latter swore by their weapons and by their god Perun, as well as by Volos, the god of cattle[1401].
Even if the Christian community that could have appeared in Kiev in the third quarter of the ninth century still existed, as Dmitrij Obolensky maintains[1402], it had no influence on the new aristocracy and the number of Christians in Oleg’s retinue, if any, was so small that no special provisions for them were necessary.
Still even during Oleg’s reign the acquaintance of his warriors with Christianity started. The compiler of the «Primary Chronicle» adds after the text of Oleg’s treaty:
The Emperor Leo honored the Russian envoys with gifts… and placed his vassals at their disposition to show them the beauties of the churches, the golden palace, and the riches contained therein. They thus showed the Russes much gold and many palls and jewels, together with the relics of our Lord’s Passion: the crown, the nails, and the purple robe, as well as the bones of the Saints. They also instructed the Russes in their faith, and expounded to them the true belief[1403].
If the entry is not modeled after the account of Vladimir’s mission to Constantinople before adopting Christianity in 988, as Dmitrij Likhachev suspected[1404], it can be viewed as an important evidence of the proselytizing efforts of the Byzantine church. It seems not neccessary that among those “Russes” who benefited from the excursion and the instructions, should be Christians, as Henrik Birnbaum would like to think[1405]. But it can point to the fact that the Patriarchate never stopped attempts and used any chance of pressing Christian ideas on the Rus’ heathens.
Ill