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Before Russia Was Russia: A Spiritual Inheritance
Long before anyone called it “Russia,” the land stretching from Kyiv to the forests of Muscovy was not merely a place of shifting borders—it was a spiritual drama in the making. The story of Russia is not just about empires, invasions, or names. It is about faith, about a people baptized into a holy calling, and about the enduring flame of Orthodoxy passed from one capital to the next.
🔥 From Pagan Soil to Sacred Waters
Before the baptism of a nation, the Slavic tribes of the 9th century lived in darkness—spiritually, morally, and cosmologically. They worshipped a pantheon of false gods: Perun the thunderer, Veles the cattle god, and Mokosh the fertility goddess. But all of that changed in 988 A.D., when Prince Vladimir of Kievan Rus’ embraced Eastern Orthodox Christianity and ordered a mass baptism in the Dnieper River.
“We no longer knew whether we were in heaven or on earth,” his envoys said after witnessing the Byzantine liturgy.¹
Vladimir did not merely convert. He consecrated a civilization, linking the Eastern Slavs to the spiritual legacy of Byzantium and the ancient Church. The people went from burning sacrifices to drinking from the cup of Christ. A cultural exodus from paganism began—and it would mark the Russian soul forever.
🕊️ The Church That Survived the Horde
Kievan Rus’ would eventually fall under the hooves of the Mongol Horde in the 13th century. Cities were razed. Thrones shattered. But the Orthodox Church endured.
The Mongols tolerated the Church, even exempted it from taxation, allowing the spiritual authority of the metropolitans to flourish. When Kyiv fell, the Church moved north to Moscow—and there, a new idea was born:
Moscow is the Third Rome.
Rome fell. Constantinople fell. Moscow shall not fall.
This was not just a slogan. It was theology. The Russians believed they had inherited a sacred duty: to preserve the true Orthodox faith in a world spiraling into heresy and decline.
👑 When Tsars Were Theologians
In 1547, Ivan the Terrible crowned himself the first Tsar of All Rus’. But this was more than politics. “Tsar” was derived from Caesar, implying divine sanction and sacred authority. He saw himself as both king and defender of the faith.
The Russian state became a theocracy in function if not in form. The Tsar ruled with the blessing of the Church. He burned heretics, built cathedrals, and justified war with a Bible in one hand and a sword in the other.
“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God…” (Romans 13:1, KJV)
Orthodoxy wasn’t an accessory—it was the identity of the people. Even peasants in rags carried icons and crossed themselves with trembling reverence.
📜 Scripture Behind the Sacred Story
The religious consciousness of Rus’ was shaped by Scripture and tradition:
- Isaiah 60:3 – “And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”
→ Moscow embraced its role as the beacon of Orthodoxy after Constantinople’s fall. - 2 Thessalonians 2:15 – “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught…”
→ Russia resisted both Catholic and Protestant influences, anchoring itself in the traditions of the early Church. - Romans 13:1 – “For there is no authority except from God.”
→ Justified the Tsar’s absolute rule as divinely ordained.
The Church and crown were bound together. To question one was to threaten the other.
🌾 Holy Rus’: More Than a Name
So what was Russia before it became Russia?
It was Holy Rus’—not a kingdom of men, but a kingdom of the soul. It was a people consecrated in cold rivers, a Church that survived under Mongol boots, a theology that built empires, and a flame that tried to never go out.
Even as Russia would later embrace empire, communism, and secularism, the ghost of Holy Rus’ would never entirely fade. It was baptized into Orthodoxy. And what is baptized must, one day, rise again.
🕯️ Final Thought
Long before tanks or Tsars, there was a cross in the river. That’s where Russia truly began—not in blood, but in water.
📚 Footnotes (Turabian Style)
- Dmitri Obolensky, The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe, 500–1453 (New York: Praeger, 1971), 132.
- Nicholas Zernov, The Russians and Their Church (London: SPCK, 1978), 45.
- Sergei Firsov, The Russian Church and the Russian State (Moscow: Orthodox Brotherhood Press, 2006), 88.
R-Rated Religion 
Your article is elegantly written but dangerously naive.
The romanticization of Russia as “Holy Rus’” might sound noble, but when you wrap a modern authoritarian state in medieval vestments, you’re not promoting spiritual insight, you’re enabling propaganda. The Russian Federation is not a sacred heir to Byzantium; it is a nuclear-armed autocracy that weaponizes religion to justify war, crush dissent, and consolidate power. That’s not Orthodoxy, it’s imperial mythmaking.
Let’s be clear:
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was not an act of religious duty. It was a geopolitical land grab wrapped in quasi-messianic rhetoric.
Putin’s regime has co-opted Orthodoxy as a state tool, not a moral compass. When the Church becomes the mouthpiece of a kleptocracy, it ceases to be a spiritual refuge and becomes a political bludgeon.
You frame criticism of Russia as a media-driven misunderstanding of its spiritual values. But the West isn’t hostile because of Orthodoxy, it’s hostile because of tanks, assassinations, cyberwarfare, and propaganda campaigns. Moral disgust isn’t Russophobia, it’s a reaction to real atrocities.
And no, we don’t need to pretend that Russia’s baptism in 988 AD gives it special moral status today. The Roman Empire was also baptized. That didn’t stop it from crucifying dissidents and collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions.
Finally, invoking Scripture to excuse or obfuscate tyranny is the oldest trick in the book, literally. We’ve seen every empire from Constantinople to the Confederacy pull that same stunt. God doesn’t need another Caesar.
If you’re genuinely interested in spiritual identity, then the real question isn’t “Is Russia our enemy?”, it’s “What happens when faith becomes the handmaid of power?” And in Russia’s case, the answer is already burning across the Ukrainian countryside.
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I am not sure you understand the spirit of the article.
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