VLADIMIR', the name of two celebrated Russian princes, the former of whom, VLADIMIR SVIATORLAVITM was the first Christian sovereign of Russia. On the death of his father (972), Vladimir, though illegitimate, received Novgorod as his share of the heritage, but was driven out by Jaropolk, who had already murdered the third brother, Oleg. However, Vladimir, by the aid of a body of Varangians (from Scandinavia), returned and overcame Jaropolk, by whose assassination (980) he became sole ruler in Russia. Disembarrassing himself of his dangerous allies by persuading them to take service with the Byzantine emperor, lie next recovered by force from the Poles the prov inces r) which they had deprived his brother, and subdued various tribes which had recently revolted. Russia at this time was an ill-compacted empire; the various Slavic tribes which dwelt within its boundaries acknowledged the sovereignty of the Russian princes solely by the payment of tribute, and that only when the princes were powerful enough to enforce it; hence it was the custom for the princes personally, or their dele gates, to go their regular rounds after the fashion of tax-collectors, backed up by a large armed retinue. Vladimir tried to increase the central •authority, and one of the means he adopted was the erection at his capital, Kiev, of the idol Perun (Thunder), the supreme divinity of the Slaves, and of the images of other inferior deities, Slave and Finnish. But a few years more effected a remarkable change; many of Vladimir's sub jects were Greek Christians; his mother, Olga, had become one; besides, he wished to allied with the Byzantine imperial family, and moved by these and other reasons of personal or patriotic ambition, he resolved to turn Greek Christian. His mode of arriv ing at conversion and matrimony was as curious as effective; he first made an attack upon the Byzantine empire, then sent an embassy to Constantinople, promising peace and his conversion, in exchange for the hand of Anna, the sister of Constantine IX., threatening war in case of refusal. His demands were gladly complied with; and after his marriage and baptism at Kherson in 988, he returned to Kiev, destroyed all the idols, and commanded his subjects to be baptized. They had not the slightest objection to be baptized, if their feared and admired prince wished it; and for days the Dnieper was crowded with applicants for the first testing ordinance of Christianity. It could hardly have been expected that a conversion managed in such a fashion would have affected the manners and conduct of such an arbitrary, violent, and daring prince as Vladimir; yet, strange to say, from 988 he appeared to have undergone a thorough mental and moral transformation; churches were built, schools:established, capital punishment was supplanted by a fine, and such excessive lenity shown to all criminals, that in the inter good government, it was found necessary to remonstrate with the thorough going convert. Formerly, time wisdom and valor for which he was renowned were.
equaled by his licentiousness, so that time chronicles had more than one reason for say ing that "he was like unto Solomon;" but the strictest chastity characterized the latter part of his life; and his charity to the poor. and personal forbearance, were extreme. He died in 1014, three years after his wife Anna. The Russian church has decreed him the epithets of "saint,' and "equal of the apostles."—Viaramin II. VSEVOLODOWITCH, surnamed Monomachus, grand-prince of Kiev, the great grandson of the preceding, was born in 1053. His father being a younger son, there seemed to be little chance of Vladimir's attaining power in the ordinary course of events, in his own country; and he accordingly led a baud of auxiliaries to join Boleslas II. of Poland in his wars with such renown, as on his return ranked him at the head of Russian warriors. Vladimir's father having, as the eldest of the Russian princes, succeeded to the grand principality of Kiev (1078), Vladimir took advanta,ge of the opportunity to wrest from their lawful possessors, Smolensk, Tchernigov, and Novgorod; though some years afterward his cousin Oleg, the dispossessed prince of Tchernigov, with the aid of the Polotzee or Cumans (a Turkish nation which was at that time the terror of the Rus sians), recovered his dominion. Vladimir having subsequently routed the Polotzee in several engagements, became so extremely popular that in 1112 he was chosen grand prince of Kiev, and for 13 years he displayed his eminent qualities as a ruler and a war rior. The maintenance of internal tranquillity, the improvement of old, and the building of new -towns, and the encouragement of commerce, on the one band; and the success ful campaigns against the Tchudes, Poles, Polotzee, and Bolgars (a Mohammedan com mercial people settled on the Volga), on the other, are the principal characteristics of his reign. Most of Vladimir's fame, however, rests on his writings, which present an inter esting picture of the internal life of Russia in the 11th c., and indicate prominently the earnest practical influence of the newly introduced Christianity. Vladimir's mother was a daughter of Constantine Monomachus; and Alexis Comnenus, who wished to be on good terms with his powerful northern neighbor, is said to have sent him the grown, scepter, and sword of his grandfather, which are still shown as such, and which are employed in the coronation of the czar.