Putin: Christianity is the foundation of the Russian state
Source: ABC News
Vladimir Putin says the adoption of Christianity more than 1,000 years ago in territory that later became Russia marked the starting point for forming the Russian nation itself.
Putin's comments came Saturday in a ceremony marking the 1,030th anniversary of the adoption by Christianity by Prince Vladimir, the leader of Kievan Rus, a loose federation of Slavic tribes that preceded the Russian state.
Speaking to thousands of clergy and believers at a huge statue of the prince outside the Kremlin, Putin said adopting Christianity was "the starting point for the formation and development of Russian statehood, the true spiritual birth of our ancestors, the determination of their identity. Identity, the flowering of national culture and education."
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Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/putin-calls-christianity-foundation-russian-state-56884314
Murderous despot "Christian"
= new reply since forum marked as read
a few days ago what Frank would think of Americans' ever decreasing intelligence, and their willingness to cozy up to someone whose IQ is barely larger than his shoe size. Someone who can be played the fool by the ex-head of the KGB, and despises the Constitution as much as Donald Trump.
I think Frank would view him as an alien from another planet. In any conversation Frank would rip him to shreds. Could you imagine a debate between Frank and Little Donnie? Little Donnie wouldn't be able put a complete sentence together. :surrunder: Frank would kick his moronic ass.
You were taken from us much to soon Frank. 
We miss you and wish you were here for this "special" time in American history.
They were being persecuted in Europe because their brand of Christianity was not the favored brand at the time and place, and the other guys had more swords and guns. So they ran away from Christian persecutors, and set up their own persecution system in the New World.
Progress, they call it. 
Pilgrim's Progress.
Putin The Great receives church's blessing:
Russian Orthodox priests bless Putin's troops, weapons:
I'll bet Trump and Betsy DeVos will be dreaming of starting a huuuge corporation just to supply priests to bless all of America's armaments.
Just think, with our massive military at $100 a pop, the money that could be made!.....
rocktivity
Kievan Rus' at the kreshchenie didn't include all of Ukraine and included some parts that aren't usually considered Ukraine. Two hundred years later, at its height--where we usually think of Rus' as being--it reached to the Baltic. Few put Pskov or Muroma in Ukraine.
It's like saying Cahokia was (partly) in Missouri, therefore the Missouri state government somehow claims Cahokia. The connection is weak.
In 882 Russian didn't have phonemic palatalization, Ukrainian hadn't lenited *g, jers were still around and the vowels that shifted after jer-fall hadn't even starting to think about shifting. There were definitely isoglosses between the larger dialectal boundaries, but they weren't that strong.
In the case of Russia, the Horde provides a sort of negative link between Rus' and Russia. Rus' had a weakish monarchy, with the rulers for quite a while making sure that it was a not subject to centrifugal forces by rotating heirs between power centers. At the same time, the assembly in Rus' wielded a fair amount of power. It was more democratic than most of Europe; perhaps England with the Magna Carta is similar, along with the Germanic territories (coincidence that Varangians were likely Norse?). I like to think that Novgorod's later system was a continuation, but I don't think I was taught that.
The Horde revised Rus' system rather thoroughly (as in "totally replaced it"
, and imposed the system they'd learned from those they adopted their faith from. It was confessional, with a strong merger of church and state. If you were a religious community your religious leaders were the point of contact with your overlords: They'd communicate to their people what the rules were, were responsible for ensuring compliance, and if the community needed divergent rules for use "in house" (among themselves, typically out of sight of the majority) the religious leaders were responsible for promulgating them. There was no real difference. In Russia, the patriarch and the grand duke/tsar' went hand in hand. The religious leaders had to bless the secular leaders and the secular leaders had to follow the dictates of the religious leader. Later, if the religious leaders fell afoul of the secular leaders one of the two tended to vanish. After Ivan IV that was usually the religious leader.
It's utterly false for Russia to claim the legacy of Rus'. It's father is the Horde. It's mother is the Orthodox church.
But while Ukraine was the home of most of Rus', it's not like much of the Rusian legacy remains in Ukrainian thinking.
Actually, in many areas of Russia, vodka is the foundation of the Russian state.....
