WI... A truly Russian Slavic Christianity

[PakistaniGuyUK]

What if Kievan Rus decides against importing the Orthodox faith but instead opts to create its own ‘brand’ of heavily Russified/Slavified Christianity incorporating many indigenous pagan ideas? In other words a centralized but indigenous ‘Christianity’ with its roots deep in ‘Slavdom’ as opposed to one with a Greek/Byzantine flavour?

In OTL emissaries were supposedly sent from Kievan Rus to different locations to study their religions, but the Pagan monarch Vladimir I eventually settled on Byzantine/Orthodox Christianity with his representives overwhelmed by the magnificence of Hagia Sophia.

Let’s say ATL emissaries, although swayed by outer vestiges of Byzantium, remain cautious about any decision to import this religion wholesale into Kievan Rus. They brief the monarch that the wealth and status of Byzantium would indeed attract many followers and great prestige but the friction from Pagan chieftains would be insurmountable...

So Vladimir I makes a compromise. In consultation with his boyars (some among them who remain sympathetic to the Pagan faith), he decides to form a new ‘Russian faith’ with himself at the helm. Significant elements from Byzantium are borrowed while indigenous Pagan belief is also accommodated. Vladimir I calls this new religion - ‘Russian Christianity’ - and declares it the salvation of all Slavic peoples everywhere. As God’s representative of Earth Vladimir I, and his descendants, are the ones tasked to administer ‘God’s Kingdom.’

How would this Russian Christianity look like exactly? For sake of argument let’s say it incorporates the belief in One God, the Trinity, Jesus Christ as Saviour, the Churches, paintings, icons, Mass, candles, priests, and other vestiges from Byzantium. Yet in a uniquely Russian twist Jesus Christ is seen as a human incarnation of a Slavic God or Deity (maybe Perun?) and the Russian Monarch (and later Tsars after Vladimir I) would also see themselves as the living embodiment of this Christ-Soul

‘Russian Christianity’ unlike OTL Orthodoxy would accommodate belief in minor deities. The Trinity (and Monarch/Tsar) would be the most important aspect, but and one step below them ‘lesser gods’ such as Perun (Thunder), Dzbog (Fortune), Lada (Goddess of Beauty and Love), Mokosh (Fertility) and so on would continue to be worshipped. Old Pagan Slav holidays would become official state holidays for worshipping ancestors or pagan gods, whereas some such as Koliada (24-25th December) would simply be converted to Christian holidays.

‘Russian Christianity’ would have no emotional attachment to Byzantium in the OTL sense. Instead Kiev or Moscow would become the Holy of Holies, the True Jerusalem, the Blessed Holy Land. The Russian Tsar would see himself as the Protector of all Slavs and 'Russian Christianity' the only form of religion that could lead Slavs to true salvation. Whether the non-Slav and non-Russian world would see these adherents as Christians is unlikely, at best they'd be considered heretical.

Lets assume for this WI that this form of ‘Russian Christianity’ discussed above survives at a 'state religion' up to the 1200s which gives it roughly 200 years since Vladimir I’s death.

Firstly, what butterflies may emerge from 1015 – 1200?

Secondly, after 1240 how will the Russian state evolve? Will the Mongol Empire (and subsequent Golden Horde) somehow get butterflied away?

What will be the impact on Byzantium and Eastern Orthodox Christianity (will it just get relegated to Greece and the Balkans)?

 

[UnaiB]

@alexmilman

 

[Jan Olbracht]

Such syncretic Slavo-Christianity lack advantages of Orthodox or Catholic faith. So no political gains, no literate class (priests, monks) to help improve administration.

Rus' would need to develop itself from scratch something, that already exists and could be just imported and implemented immediately.

And what about writing? Bible translation?

 

[Gloss]

Such syncretic Slavo-Christianity lack advantages of Orthodox or Catholic faith. So no political gains, no literate class (priests, monks) to help improve administration.

Rus' would need to develop itself from scratch something, that already exists and could be just imported and implemented immediately.

And what about writing? Bible translation?

Why would it not have a literate class or writing?

 

[Raferty]

The native Pagan elements in the Rus were not especially easy to do a syncretism routine with. For one thing, this suggestion indicates some kind of Pan Slavic ethnic consciousness that I do not think was apparent by any means at the time.

Even concepts such as Tsardom came from the Byzantine tradition, after all.

Now, I am amenable to the idea of an alternate conversion in Russia. Islam is one such route, although I think the cultural context makes it uneasy and less likely to result in a hegemonic religion of power the way Orthodox Christianity became in the Rus. It's notable that Islam was most successful in Russia amongst groupings with nomadic tendencies (and therefore spread easily along trade routes), while Christianity spread more through active conversion of sedentary agricultural regions.

More likely in my view is that the various Byzantine heresies (Paulician and Bogomilist) produce an exile class that is able to convert the Rus to their specific interpretation. This had historical precedent through the Arian conversions of the Germanic groups, for example. So you'd get something that would be very different long term that saw Constantinople as not an ideal but as the New Babylon. In my view, the Paulicians are the best chance of this, as the Manichean elements and tendency towards violence made it much more attractive as a religion of power than the quasi Anarchist and Gnostic Bogomilist. If the latter wins out, it probably has to change a lot and would accompany something like a social transformation of parts of the Rus.

 

[Marko]

Though there could a type of syncretism with Perun and Yahwe, Yarilo and Jesus, Mokosh and Mary, and Veles and Satan becoming one thing with former "lesser" gods taking to roles of saints, angles and daemons.

 

[Jan Olbracht]

Why syncretize then? They could as well create reformed Slavic paganism, with priest and temples, something, that existed briefly among Polabian Slavs (who opposed Christianization but at the same time took inspiration from it to redesign their own religion).

 

[Yuhaoyang]

Such national church simply made no sense for 10th century “New European” nations like Rus，Poland or Hungary since one of the most important reasons (if not the single most important reason )for them to adopt Christianity was to be properly admitted into the Chalcedonian Christian civilization and political system.
If you want a “true Russian Christianity”，better look for a much later pod to start the Russian version of Protestant Reformation.
I think having the Catholic Church and Greek Orthodox Church successfully United in 14th or 15th century would be a good start.

 

[Fulano]

More likely in my view is that the various Byzantine heresies (Paulician and Bogomilist) produce an exile class that is able to convert the Rus to their specific interpretation.

Personally I would like to see a Russia that, instead of the Byzantine Orthodox Rite, imported the Armenian Apostolic Rite.

 

[Evil Crusader]

Personally I would like to see a Russia that, instead of the Byzantine Orthodox Rite, imported the Armenian Apostolic Rite.

The main problem is that it doesn't come with major external sponsors, so an Armenian (or Paulician) Rus' requires a different political setup.
That Byzantium was in a slow upswing certainly played a large part in the eventual, fateful, choice of Orthodoxy.

 

[Emperor-of-New-Zealand]

Why syncretize then? They could as well create reformed Slavic paganism, with priest and temples, something, that existed briefly among Polabian Slavs (who opposed Christianization but at the same time took inspiration from it to redesign their own religion).

That's my thinking, and Vladimir toyed with this himself IIRC. The reasons for picking a "mainstream" religion were to do with political/economic ties, so even a syncretic version of the faith will not achieve this goal. If he wants to keep pagan elements and doesn't care what the rest of Europe thinks, then he might as well just stay pagan.