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Chrisianity was introduced into Russia sometime in the ninth or tenth century. Historians argue about the date. One account cites a letter from Byzantine Patriarch Photius stating that the Rus became Christians shortly after the Bulgars in 863. Whatever the original date, it is clear that at least a portion of the citizenry of Kiev Rus were Christian by 944 when the Rus-Byzantine Treaty specifically mentioned them. The remainder of the citizens of Kiev Rus were pagans worshipping Perun (God of Thunder and Lightning) and Volos (God of Earth, Water, and the Underworld).
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The probability is that Christianity and paganism were both alive and well in Kiev Rus in the ninth century and that a succession of Kiev's rulers held different religious beliefs. In the tenth century, Grand Prince Vladimir, seeking an alliance with Byzantium, converted to Christianity, married into the Byzantine royal family, and ordered the entire population of Kiev to be baptized in the Dnieper River. The "Baptism of Kiev" is regarded to be the formal inauguration of the Christian state of Kiev Rus. Shortly thereafter Vladimir constructed the first Christian Church in Kiev Rus - the Church of the Tithes.
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