History

Ukraine’s saint – a Swedish Viking

The poor, war-torn country is Christian, thanks to St Volodymyr david horspool

When I lived in west London, I used to walk past him on my way to the Tube every day. St Volodymyr, ‘Ruler of Ukraine 980–1015’, as the inscription on Leo Mol’s statue has it.

If I had happened to be at this spot in Holland Park in May 1988, I would have seen a gathering of the senior churchmen of Ukraine in all their finery, Orthodox and Catholic, celebrating the unveiling of a statue to a founding father of a nation that was, at the time, still in the unwelcome embrace of the Soviet Union.

Though Volodymyr was posthumously canonised, most of his career was not conspicuously saintly.

His people were Kyivan Rus’, descended from Swedish Vikings – ‘river kings’, as a recent historian (Cat Jarman) has described them. They travelled down the Volga and Dnieper, trading, raiding and intermarrying with Slavic tribes.

Volodymyr came to power after a fraternal bloodbath: one brother killed another; Volodymyr killed the survivor.

He secured his position by attacking his neighbours and hiring Swedish mercenaries. He was at this time still a pagan – a ‘fire worshipper’ in the description of Muslim writers who were fascinated and terrified by these northern warriors. But his mother had been a Christian, and Volodymyr seems to have sensed that adopting Christianity might be a good move.

That, admittedly, is not exactly the way his conversion is described in the nearest historical source. Nestor, the 12th-century Kyivan monk who wrote the Russian Primary Chronicle, tells the story of Volodymyr browsing through monotheisms, discussing Islam and Catholic and Byzantine Christianity with

ambassadors at his court. inner defences for the next four centuries. He also considered Judaism, Harald Hardrada built a reputation for because the Khazars, who himself in the Guard as one of the most ruled to the East, had adopted fearsome fighters in Europe before he that faith. came a cropper fighting on his own After consulting the account at Stamford Bridge in 1066. diplomats, Volodymyr sent out In Kyiv, Volodymyr was buried in 1015 his own envoys, who made in the first stone church to be constructed uncompromising reports on there, known as the Church of the Tithes their findings: the (Muslim) because Volodymyr had given up a tenth Bulgars existed in a state of of his wealth to fund it. That church was ‘sorrow and a dreadful stench’; destroyed and rebuilt several times, they saw ‘no glory’ in the before finally being wiped off the map by (Catholic) Germans’ worship. the Soviets in 1928. The Khazars had already But Saint Sophia, the cathedral begun been discounted, on the grounds by Volodymyr’s son, is still standing, one St Volodymyr in that Volodymyr didn’t want to of the ‘Seven Wonders of Ukraine’ chosen Holland Park embrace a religion whose God in a public vote. had shown his anger with his Ukraine’s Viking history has often followers by exiling them. caused controversy, dividing along Which left the Byzantine Christians, nationalist lines between those who who prayed in buildings so magnificent believe the Vikings mixed in at all levels, that ‘We knew not whether we were in and those who argue that Kyiv was heaven or on earth.’ basically Slav with a Viking elite on top Volodymyr was sold on the idea, – known as the ‘Normanists’ and the ordering the destruction of his pagan ‘anti-Normanists’. Each side has their idols, the baptism of his people and own amateur historian tyrant to draw on. paving the way for the flourishing of Hitler said that the ‘Russians would church building and art under his still be living like rabbits’ if it hadn’t been successor, Yaroslav the Wise. for the Vikings, while Putin managed not Volodymyr’s adoption of Christianity to mention the Viking connection at all in was certainly a personal choice. He his history essay on Russia and Ukraine rejected Islam on the basis that he published online last year. couldn’t give up alcohol: ‘Drinking is In both cases, of course, ‘history’ is the joy of the Ruses. We cannot exist being harnessed to an evil cause. Only without that pleasure.’ a madman or a fool would use it as But the conversion was also a good justification for an invasion of a political move, positioning Kyivan sovereign territory. But the London Rus’ as a natural ally of the Byzantine statue of Ukraine’s royal saint is an Empire. This was confirmed when the unimpeachable reminder that this is Emperor Basil II offered his sister a very old culture, which has claimed its Anna in marriage. own identity for a very long time. The connection between Byzantium and Kyiv was strengthened further when Volodymyr offered his Swedish mercenaries, known as Varangians, to the Emperor. The Varangian Guard became an essential part of Byzantium’s 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)