om death. There are
still in the world an immense number of fine souls--strong and upright
souls--who hate all that is small and mean, who know and who practise
all the delicate promptings of honor, and who prefer death to an
unworthy action or to a lie!

That is what we owe to chivalry, that is what it has bequeathed to us.
On the day when these last vestiges of such a grand past are effaced
from our souls--we shall cease to exist!

CONVERSION OF VLADIMIR THE GREAT

INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY INTO RUSSIA

A.D. 988-1015

A. N. MOURAVIEFF

(According to early Greek and Roman writers, Russia in their time was
inhabited by Scythians and Sarmatians. The Greeks established commercial
relations with the most southerly tribes. In the fourth and fifth
centuries, during the migrations of the nations, Russia was invaded by
Goths, Alans, Huns, Avars, and Bulgarians, who, however, made no
settlements. They were followed by the Slavs, who are looked upon as the
Sarmatians already mentioned.

The Slavs settled as far north as the upper Volga. The chief settlements
were Novgorod and Kieff, which became the capitals of independent
principalities, Novgorod especially becoming an important commercial and
trading centre.

The commerce northward through the Baltic was subject to the attacks of
the Scandinavian Northmen, known as Varangians. They demanded tribute of
the Slavs, and on its refusal attacked and captured Novgorod. A little
later Novgorod established its independence as a republic; but within a
few years we find this section controlled by a Varangian tribe from Rus,
a district of Sweden. This tribe was led by three brothers, Ruric the
Peaceful, Sineous the Victorious, and Trouvor the Faithful, who settled
and ruled in different parts of the country.

In 864, on the death of his brothers, Ruric consolidated their
territories with his, assumed the title of grand prince, peaceably took
possession of Novgorod and made it his capital, naming the country
Russia, after his native place.

With the advent of the Varangians the authentic history of Russia
begins. The millenary of that event was celebrated in 1862 at Novgorod,
as the foundation of the Russian empire.

Ruric died in 879. In the next hundred years his successors conquered
many neighboring lands and added them to the empire. Kieff became the
capital. Numerous invasions into the territory of the Greek empire were
made and Constantinople was frequently