The researcher of ancient Russia named the main myths about the Baptism of Rus

The baptism of Rus was not a violent act, but a long and complex historical process that completed centuries of religious and cultural transformations. This was announced in an interview with Izvestia by the head of the Department of Cultural Studies at MGUTU. Razumovsky, Candidate of Philosophical Sciences Daniil Krapchunov.

According to him, the idea of the forced baptism of Russia is one of the key myths that have passed from scientific discussion into the sphere of public opinion and are used in anti-religious polemics.

The expert stressed that such assessments are largely based on an attempt to transfer modern ideas about the state and society to historical reality. He noted that in Ancient Russia, the prince was perceived not only as a political and military leader, but also as a religious leader who had the right to establish a cult.

"It was his prerogative to establish a cult. This is not often noticed today, but it was the Prince-baptist of Russia, eight years before the adoption of Christianity at the state level, who carried out religious reform, which reflected his quest. And we don't know any objections about this from the nobility, the retinue, the boyars," he said.

Separately, the expert refuted the idea of the existence of a single pre-Christian religion in Russia. According to him, it was about a multitude of disparate tribes with different cults and gods.

"We know from written sources and from archaeology that Christians lived and Christian churches stood not only in Kiev before 988, but also in Novgorod. So the baptism of Rus is rather the finale, the completion of a process that lasted several hundred years, rather than its beginning, and certainly not a one—step act," he said.

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The conversion of the population to the new faith lasted for several generations

The expert also rejected the thesis that the adoption of Christianity led to the destruction of cultural heritage. On the contrary, according to him, it was this process that contributed to the development of education, writing and art. He noted that in a short time after the baptism, schools, books, chronicles, birch bark letters and iconography appeared.

"It is birch bark letters that shatter the myth of the church's destruction of the Slavic cultural, book, and written heritage," he stressed.

In addition, the expert drew attention to the fact that Christianity penetrated into Russia not only from Byzantium, but also through the Balkans, and also had traces of Latin and Celtic traditions, which were eventually replaced by the Byzantine canon.

Earlier, Philip Ilyashenko, a priest and vice-rector of St. Tikhon's Orthodox University for the Humanities, told us what not to do during the Petrov Fast.