The Sovereign

Grand Prince Vladimir, “Red Sun,” the Holy Baptizer of Rus—who came to power by pagan right, and then later himself swept aside pagan idols into the Dnipro. The ruler who married a Byzantine princess and received the right to the royal (Caesar) title—more precisely, to win that right not only by the valor of a faithful retinue, but also by his own sword. What is known about him, the greatest of the rulers of our history, who lived a thousand years ago? There is much known. Not only from domestic chronicles. Vladimir was known to chroniclers of Europe and Asia, of Byzantium and the Arab world. So there is enough information—true information—to clearly imagine the image of a ruler-warrior, a ruler-builder, who turned decisively not only toward the Truth of the Russians, but also of hundreds of other tribes living on the land under his rule. Vladimir’s father, the great commander Svyatoslav, fought on equal terms with the Byzantine emperor. The Byzantine emperor owed Vladimir. And the Grand Prince managed to make the ruler of the largest of those empires repay the debt in full—what even the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was refused.