The 9th century Christianization of Rus was arguably the single most important event that occurred in the history of Russia. The year 988 brought great changes, which at the time were unforeseen but inevitably changed the overall society of Russia. Although Russia did experience events that impacted its outcome, such as the assertion of independence of Novgorod in 1136, and the invasion of the Mongols in the mid 13th century, these two events did not stand up to the overall impact on Russia as did the newfound religion of Christianity. Overall, although these two events did bring many changes to Russia, they did not have an effect on the culture of Russia in its entirety, which is why they were less significant. In 987, Prince Vladimir was faced…show more content… His advisers recommended him to send out servants to find the most suitable religion. When his servants came back they spoke saying “Then we went on to Greece…and we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth” because Earth had no “such beauty” (Zenkovsky p.66-67). Vladimir’s intentions of finding a religion was to have something elegant and aesthetically pleasing. This was suitable to him. After his baptism, he was allowed to marry the wife of Constantine’s emperor, connecting Kievan Rus to this empire. Then, upon arrival back to Kiev, he forced his people to be baptized. The effects of the Christianization were unique. First off, it unified the people as they were all diverse. In the past, rulers had a difficult time finding ways to unify their people and religion was a great way to do it. It also allowed Rus to be connected to foreign politics as the church was headed by the Patriarch of Constantinople, and was allowed to trade with the Byzantine empire with tax breaks. The Christianization of Rus had physical changes but changes in perspective as well. Kaiser shows this in his writing by displaying how women were now divided into two categories and seen as