RUSSIA. 
459 
two thousand measures attest the loss and the remnant of the 
barbarians. After a painful voyage, they again reached the 
mouth of the Borysthenes; but their provisions were ex¬ 
hausted, the season was unfavourable; they passed the win¬ 
ter on the ice ; and, before they could prosecute their march, 
Sviatoslaf was surprised and oppressed by the neighbouring 
tribes, with whom the Greeks entertained a perpetual and 
useful correspondence. After remaining on the defensive 
during winter, exposed to all the horrors of famine and 
disease, he on the return of spring attempted to force his way 
through the ranks of the enemy; but his troops were defeated, 
and himself killed in the battle. 
Yaropolk, the sovereign of Kief, may be considered as the 
successor of Sviatoslaf on the Russian throne ; but his reign 
was short and turbulent. A war took place between him 
and his brother Oleg, on account of a base assassination 
committed by the latter on the son of his father’s friend and 
privy counsellor Suenald. Oleg was defeated and slain, and 
the other brother, Vladimir, dreading the increased power 
and ambitious disposition of Yaropolk, abandoned his do¬ 
minions, which were quickly seized on by the Kievian 
prince. Vladimir had retired among the Varagians, from 
whom he soon procured such succours as enabled him to 
make effectual head against the usurper. While his natural 
courage was thus increased, his enmity against Yaropolk 
received an additional spur from an affront put on him by a 
lady whom he had sought in marriage, but who, despising 
the meanness of his birth, as being the son of a slave, had 
rejected his proposals, and offered her hand to Yaropolk. 
The vindictive Vladimir, on being informed of this insult, 
attacked the possessions of the lady’s father, put both him 
and his two sons to the sword, and obliged the princess to 
accept his hand, yet reeking with the blood of her father. 
He now advanced towards Kief, where Yaropolk was by no 
means prepared to oppose him. The Kievian prince had 
indeed been lulled into security by the treacherous reports of 
one of his wayvodes, who was in the interest of Vladimir, 
and who not only prevented Yaropolk from taking effectual 
measures for his safety, but found means to raise suspicions 
in his breast against the inhabitants of his capital, which he 
-thus induced him to abandon. The Kievians, left without a 
leader, opened their gates to Vladimir; and the wretched 
Yaropolk, still misled by the treachery of his adviser, deter¬ 
mined to throw himself on the mercy of his brother. It is 
probable that this would have availed him little, as Vladi¬ 
mir seems to have determined on his death; but before he 
could reach the arms of his revengeful brother, Yaropolk was 
assassinated by some of his Varagian followers. 
By this murder, which had probably been planned by 
Vladimir, the conqueror acquired the undivided possession 
of all his father’s territories, and maintained the sovereignty 
during a long reign, respected at home and feared abroad. 
Indeed, had not the commencement of his reign been stained 
with the blood of his father-in-law and his brother, we 
might place him among the most distinguished monarchs of 
the age in which he lived, as he not only extended and en¬ 
riched his empire, but was the means of establishing in his 
dominions, on a firm and lasting basis, the Christian religion, 
which, though introduced by Olga, appears hitherto to have 
made but a very trifling progress. 
The commencement of Vladimir’s reign formed but a con¬ 
tinuation of those enormities which had conducted him to 
the throne. He began with removing Blude, the treacherous 
wayvode, by whom his brother had been betrayed into his 
power, and to whom he had promised the highest honours 
and dignities. Accordingly, for three days he suffered 
Blude to live in all the splendour of a prince. At the end of 
that period he thus addressed him; “ I have fulfilled my 
promise; I have treated thee as my friend ; the honours thou 
hast received exceed thy most sanguine wishes. To-day, 
as the judge of crimes, and the executor of justice, I condemn 
the traitor, and punish the assassin of his prince.’’ Having 
uttered there words, he caused Blude to be put to death. 
He displayed still more the perfidiousness of his character 
in his behaviour towards the Varagians, who had assisted in 
reinstating him on the throne of his ancestors; for on their 
requesting permission to go and seek their fortune in Greece, 
he granted their request, but privately advertised the emperor 
of their approach, and caused them to be arrested and secured. 
Vladimir engaged in numerous wars, and subjected several 
of the neighbouring states to his dominion. He seized on 
part of the Polish territories, and compelled the Bulgarians 
who dwelt in the districts that now form the government of 
Kazan, to do him homage. He subdued the Petchenegans 
and Khazares, who lay in the immediate neighbourhood of 
the Kievian state ; lie reduced to his authority Halitsch and 
Vladimir, countries which are now called Gallicia and Lubo- 
miria; he conquered Lithuania as far as Memel, and took 
possession of a great part of the modern Livonia. 
His conduct after these successes by no means prognosti¬ 
cated his future zeal for the Christian religion. None of the 
Russian monarchs appear to have been more devout in the 
adoration of their heathen deities than Vladimir. It was 
usual for him to return thanks to the gods for the success 
which they had granted to his arms; and to shew his grati¬ 
tude by offering on their altars a part of the prisoners he had 
taken in war. On one occasion his piety "extended so far, 
that he resolved on selecting one of his own subjects as the 
object of his sacrifice, thinking that he should thus more 
worthily testify his gratitude for the signal favours he had 
received from heaven. His choice fell on a young Varagian, 
the son of a Christian, and who had been brought up in the 
new faith. The unhappy lather refused the demanded victim; 
the people, enraged at deeming their prince and their religion 
insulted by the refusal, assailed the house of the Christian, 
and having burst open the doors, butchered both the father 
and the son, folded in mutual embraces. 
Yet this furious Pagan, and bloody warrior, afterwards 
became a most zealous Christian, and a shining example to 
his subjects of chanty and benevolence. The circumstances 
that led to these important changes are, as well as the 
martial achievements of this favourite prince, related with 
great minuteness by the Russian annalists, and give this 
part of their chronicles the air rather of a historical romance, 
than a narrative of facts. We are told that the fame of 
Vladimir’s military exploits had rendered him so formidable 
to the neighbouring nations, that each courted his alliance, 
and strove to render this more lasting by engaging him in 
the ties of the same religion with themselves. In parti¬ 
cular the Grecian emperors sent to him a philosopher, 
whose exhortations, though they did not at first induce 
Vladimir to embrace the Greek ritual, at least succeeded 
in giving him a favourable opinion of it; so that 
the philosopher was entertained with respect, and returned 
home loaded with presents. We are also told, that, de¬ 
termined to act in the most impartial manner with respect 
to the several religions which he had been invited to em¬ 
brace, he dispatched persons remarkable for their wisdom 
and sagacity, to visit the surrounding nations, observe the 
religious tenets and ceremonies that distinguished them, and 
report to him the result of their observations. On the return 
of these deputies, the report of those who had visited the 
churches of Constantinople, and witnessed the imposing 
splendour of religious adoration, and the gorgeous decorations 
of the Greek priests, in the superb basilicum of St. Sophia, 
proved so satisfactory to Vladimir, that he determined on 
embracing the Christian religion according to the observances 
of the Greek church. Though he resolved on baptism, he 
was too proud to seek from the Greek emperor a priest, by 
whom the solemn ordinance might be performed. With a 
savage ferocity worthy of the times in which he lived, he 
determined to gain by conquest what his haughty soul dis¬ 
dained to acquire by request. He assembled an army select- 
ed from all the nations of which his empire was composed, 
and marching to Taurida, laid siege to Theodosia, a town 
even then of great repute, and which commanded the whole 
Chersonesus. On sitting down before the walls of this place, 
he is said to have offered up the following characteristic 
prayer: “ O God grant me thy help to take this town, that 
I may carry front it Christians and priests, to instruct me 
