958-1015

Vladimir's father was Prince Sviatoslav I of Kiev of the Rurikid dynasty. After the death of his father in 972, Vladimir, who was then prince of Novgorod, was forced to flee to Sweden after his brother Yaropolk murdered his other brother Oleg, becoming the sole ruler of Rus'. In Sweden, with the help of Ladejarl Håkon Sigurdsson, ruler of Norway, he assembled a Varangian army and reconquered Novgorod from Yaropolk. By 980, Vladimir had consolidated the Rus realm from modern-day Belarus, Russia and Ukraine to the Baltic Sea and had solidified the frontiers against incursions of Bulgarians, Baltic tribes and Eastern nomads. Originally a follower of Slavic paganism, Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988 and Christianised the Kievan Rus'. Due to this act, which fundamentally altered the historical trajectory of the Rus' and led to his declaration as a saint in both Western Christianity and the Eastern Orthodox Church. He introduced the Byzantine law code into his territories following his conversion but reformed some of its harsher elements; he notably abolished capital punishment, along with judicial torture and mutilation