Rurik's grandsons had already Slavic
names.[4] The principal event in those ancient times, and one which
manifested its beneficent consequences in respect to civilization
here, as every where, was the introduction of Christianity, towards
the end of the tenth century. Vladimir the Great, the first Christian
monarch, founded the first schools; Greek artists were called from
Constantinople to embellish the newly erected churches at Kief; and
poetry found a patron and at the same time her hero in Vladimir.
Vladimir and his knights are the Russian Charlemagne and his peers,
king Arthur and his Round table. Their deeds and exploits have proved
a rich source for the popular tales and songs of posterity; and serve
even now to give to the earlier age of Russian history a tinge of that
romantic charm, of which the history of the middle ages is in general
so utterly void. The establishment of Christianity was followed by the
introduction of Cyril's translation of the Scriptures and the
liturgical books. The kindred language of these writings was
intelligible to them; but was still distinct enough from the old
Russian to permit them to exist side by side as two different
languages; the one fixed and immovable, the voice of the Scriptures,
the priests, and the laws; the other varying, advancing, extending,
adapting itself to the progress of time.
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