The same motifs permeate the eulogy of Ol’ga following the report of her death under the year of 969. In the annalist’s representation of early Russian history Ol’ga appears a crucial, probably symbolic figure, the harbinger of the fates of the Old Russian state.
According to his conception, the annalist interpreted Ol’ga’s visit to Constantinople as a voyage in order to join to Christianity. The same interpretation is maintained by most of modern scholars who argue that the main goal of Ol’ga’s travel was a religious one.
Several minor discrepancies were, however, pointed out and raised discussions. One of them is the silence of Constantine VII about the baptism of Ol’ga during her stay in Constantinople though he described two receptions given to her at the Byzantine court in many details in his treatise «De cerimoniis»[1418]. Constantine depicts several magnificent ceremonies that where aimed at both to honor Ol’ga as a ruler of a neighbouring state important for Byzantine foreign policy and to impress the barbarian princess with the luxury and splendour of the Byzantine court. Constantine also enumerates the gifts granted to Ol’ga and her suite. In this context the absence of mentions about an event of paramount importance for Byzantium – religious incorporation of a dangerous neighbour into the Byzantine commonwealth with possible political consequences – as well as a great success of Byzantine diplomacy seems strange and unexplainable[1419].
Among other members of Ol’ga’s suite who were bestowed with gifts Constantine names a priest, Gregorius by name. The presence of a priest in Ol’ga’s nearest surroundings who must have come to Constantinople together with her from Kiev made specialists wonder if Ol’ga could have become a Christian earlier in Kiev[1420]. There is no doubt that baptism was accessible in Kiev where there were many Christians in the princely retinue and the church of St. Elias had been functioning since 945. It seems probable that Ol’ga was converted and became a Christian some time before her visit to Constantinople. Her conversion then must have been inspired by Christians among the Kievan elite that still consisted mostly of Varangians.
The assumption that Ol’ga was baptized in Kiev is further corroborated by the narration about the events after Ol’ga’s return from Constantinople:
The Greek Emperor sent a message to her saying, «inasmuch as I bestowed many gifts upon you, you promised me that on your return to Rus’ you would sent me many presents of slaves, wax, and furs, and dispatch soldiery to aid me». Ol’ga made answer to the envoys that if the Emperor would spend as long a time with her in the Pochayna [river] as she had remained on the Bosporus, she would grant his request. With these words she dismissed the envoys[1421].
The passage points to at least two things that contradict the annalist’s presentation of the aims of Ol’ga’s voyage and most probably reflect relations other than stated in the chronicle. The first point is the demand of the Byzantine Emperor to send warriors to him according to their agreement in Constantinople. The exchange of gifts and especially the rendering of military aid[1422] must have been the results of political negotiations.
The second point is Ol’ga’s negative attitude to her reception at the court of Constantine VII. According to the narrative of Ol’ga’s stay in Constantinople, she was received with great honours and the Emperor was so amazed by «her intellect» that he proposed her to become his wife. There is nothing to suspect lack of respect towards Ol’ga. Moreover if her main aim was to be baptized, the princess had no reasons to feel unsatisfied as her goal was brilliantly fulfilled; she had not only been baptized but the Emperor became her godfather.
The narration, however, presents Ol’ga unsatisfied and even irritated by her stay. She indignantly remarks that she had to wait too long a time on the Bosporus to be received by the Emperor which she took as an offence. The two parts of the story contradict each other and they seem to reflect principally different narrative strategies. The first part of the narration, though permeated with folklore motifs, is shaped in accordance with the annalist’s tendency to glorify Ol’ga as the first Christian ruler in Rus’. The second part seems to reflect a non-Christian tradition depicting Ol’ga’s voyage as a political undertaking, not necessarily very successive (from the Russian point of view) and having left unpleasant memories. It seems that the chronicle tale about Ol’ga’s visit to Constantinople developed out of a folklore motif of heroic matchmaking and included few, if any, Christian connotations. Suffice it to point out here that the exposition to the chronicle narrative presents Ol’ga very little interested in being baptized:
Ol’ga went to Greece, and arrived at Tsar’grad. The reigning Emperor was named Constantine, son of Leo. Ol’ga came before him, and when he saw that she was very fair of countenance and wise as well, the Emperor wondered of her intellect. He conversed with her and remarked that she was worthy to reign with him in his city. When Ol’ga heard his words she replied that she was still a pagan, and that if he desired to baptize her, he should perform this function himself; otherwise, she was unwilling to accept baptism. The Emperor, with the assistance of the Patriarch, accordingly baptized her[1423].
Ol’ga puts forward conditions on which she would agree to get baptized so that it is the Emperor who appears to be the initiator of her baptism and not she herself. The first «conversation» as well as the next one in the course of which the Emperor proposes her to become his wife remind of heroic competitions of the bride with the claimants with the final victory of the bride:
After her baptism, the Emperor summoned Ol’ga and made known to her that he wished her to become his wife. But she replied, «How can you marry me, after yourself baptizing me and calling me your daughter? For among Christians that is unlawful, as you yourself must know». Then the Emperor said, «Ol’ga, you have outwitted me». He gave her many gifts of gold, silver, silks, and various vases, and dismissed her, still calling her his daughter[1424].
The final remark “You have outwitted me” looks like a vestige of the verbal competition won by Ol’ga in the original tale. But no matter how this tale was complicated with folklore motifs it belonged to the historical tradition and had a relation about Ol’ga’a real visit to Constantinople as its subject. The political goals of her visit must have been reflected, even if in an obscure way, in this tale, and that determined the last part of the chronicle narration. But for the annalist who knew that Ol’ga was a Christian and that Christianity came to Rus’ from Byzantium it was only natural to reinterpret the voyage of Ol’ga to Constantinople as a quest of the true faith. Thus, Ol’ga’s dissatisfaction with her visit could belong to the historical core of the tale and point to the fact that her visit was not entirely successful.
The failure to achieve her aims or their only partial fulfilment might very well explain the events that followed Ol’ga’s visit to Constantinople if the date 957 for her voyage is accepted.
In 959 Ol’ga sent an embassy to Otto I of Germany asking for a bishop and priests, probably to introduce Christianity on a wider level. The mission of Adalbert spent about a year in Rus’ and returned to Magdeburg in 962 without success. Though the extant sources provide no information about the reasons of Ol’ga’s appeal to the German emperor, her embassy is viewed in the context of contradictions between Byzantium and Germany and is interpreted as an attempt of a Russian ruler to play on these contradictions and to gain by exploiting them[1425]. At the same time Ol’ga’s appeal to German (i. e. Roman) church could reflect rather vague, unofficial religious connections of Rus’ with Byzantium which could hardly be the case if Ol’ga were baptized in Constantinople.
Thus, Ol’ga’s baptism seems to reflect a new step in the process of penetration of Christianity into Rus’: the growth of authority of the new faith among the Russian elite and the appearance of people baptized in Kiev and not only in Byzantium.
Christianization of Ol’ga did not mean, however, a wide spread of the new faith. Nothing is known about Christians outside Kiev, the seat of the «Russian» princes. Ol’ga’s baptism looks more like a private act, and her son, a warrior prince Svjato-slav, the first prince with a Slavic name, felt no inclination to Christianity. The annalist stresses Ol’ga’s attempts to persuade him into Christianity and formulates Sv-jatoslav’s refusal with the words probably borrowed from oral tradition: «How shall I alone accept another faith? My followers will laugh at that»[1426]. In fact, far from all his followers and relatives would laugh at Svjatoslav. Even twenty years earlier, as we have seen, the number of Christians among Igor’s hird was large enough to make special provisions for their oath. But Christianity was and remained until 988 the faith not of princes but of their followers. Even if the eldest son and successor of Svjatoslav Jaropolk was baptized[1427]