History
Ukraine’s saint – a Swedish Viking
LONDONSTILLS/ ALAMY
The poor, war-torn country is Christian, thanks to St Volodymyr david horspool When I lived in west London, ambassadors at his court. I used to walk past him on my He also considered Judaism, way to the Tube every day. St because the Khazars, who Volodymyr, ‘Ruler of Ukraine ruled to the East, had adopted 980–1015’, as the inscription that faith. on Leo Mol’s statue has it. After consulting the If I had happened to be at diplomats, Volodymyr sent out this spot in Holland Park in his own envoys, who made May 1988, I would have seen uncompromising reports on a gathering of the senior their findings: the (Muslim) churchmen of Ukraine in all Bulgars existed in a state of their finery, Orthodox and ‘sorrow and a dreadful stench’; Catholic, celebrating the they saw ‘no glory’ in the unveiling of a statue to a (Catholic) Germans’ worship. founding father of a nation The Khazars had already that was, at the time, still in been discounted, on the grounds the unwelcome embrace of that Volodymyr didn’t want to St Volodymyr in the Soviet Union. embrace a religion whose God Holland Park Though Volodymyr was had shown his anger with his posthumously canonised, most of his followers by exiling them. career was not conspicuously saintly. Which left the Byzantine Christians, His people were Kyivan Rus’, who prayed in buildings so magnificent that ‘We knew not whether we were in descended from Swedish Vikings – ‘river kings’, as a recent historian (Cat Jarman) heaven or on earth.’ has described them. They travelled down Volodymyr was sold on the idea, the Volga and Dnieper, trading, raiding ordering the destruction of his pagan and intermarrying with Slavic tribes. idols, the baptism of his people and paving the way for the flourishing of Volodymyr came to power after a church building and art under his fraternal bloodbath: one brother killed successor, Yaroslav the Wise. another; Volodymyr killed the survivor. Volodymyr’s adoption of Christianity He secured his position by attacking was certainly a personal choice. He his neighbours and hiring Swedish rejected Islam on the basis that he mercenaries. He was at this time still couldn’t give up alcohol: ‘Drinking is a pagan – a ‘fire worshipper’ in the description of Muslim writers who were the joy of the Ruses. We cannot exist fascinated and terrified by these northern without that pleasure.’ warriors. But his mother had been a But the conversion was also a good Christian, and Volodymyr seems to have political move, positioning Kyivan sensed that adopting Christianity might Rus’ as a natural ally of the Byzantine be a good move. Empire. This was confirmed when the That, admittedly, is not exactly the Emperor Basil II offered his sister way his conversion is described in the Anna in marriage. The connection between Byzantium nearest historical source. Nestor, the and Kyiv was strengthened further 12th-century Kyivan monk who wrote when Volodymyr offered his Swedish the Russian Primary Chronicle, tells the story of Volodymyr browsing through mercenaries, known as Varangians, to monotheisms, discussing Islam and the Emperor. The Varangian Guard Catholic and Byzantine Christianity with became an essential part of Byzantium’s
inner defences for the next four centuries. Harald Hardrada built a reputation for himself in the Guard as one of the most fearsome fighters in Europe before he came a cropper fighting on his own account at Stamford Bridge in 1066. In Kyiv, Volodymyr was buried in 1015 in the first stone church to be constructed there, known as the Church of the Tithes because Volodymyr had given up a tenth of his wealth to fund it. That church was destroyed and rebuilt several times, before finally being wiped off the map by the Soviets in 1928. But Saint Sophia, the cathedral begun by Volodymyr’s son, is still standing, one of the ‘Seven Wonders of Ukraine’ chosen in a public vote. Ukraine’s Viking history has often caused controversy, dividing along nationalist lines between those who believe the Vikings mixed in at all levels, and those who argue that Kyiv was basically Slav with a Viking elite on top – known as the ‘Normanists’ and the ‘anti-Normanists’. Each side has their own amateur historian tyrant to draw on. Hitler said that the ‘Russians would still be living like rabbits’ if it hadn’t been for the Vikings, while Putin managed not to mention the Viking connection at all in his history essay on Russia and Ukraine published online last year. In both cases, of course, ‘history’ is being harnessed to an evil cause. Only a madman or a fool would use it as justification for an invasion of a sovereign territory. But the London statue of Ukraine’s royal saint is an unimpeachable reminder that this is a very old culture, which has claimed its own identity for a very long time. The statue stands in front of the Ukrainian Institute, which has some helpful suggestions on how to support their compatriots in their fight for survival (ukrainianinstitute.org.uk) The Oldie Spring 2022 61
