Vladimir the Great dies at Kiev

July 15, 1015

The grand prince who had cast Perun's idol into the Dnieper and baptized his people in 988 died quarreling with his son Yaroslav. His death triggered a vicious war of succession that would make his son Svyatopolk the Accursed a byword for fratricide across Russian history forever after. Vladimir's choice of Byzantine Christianity over Islam and Latin rites shaped the cultural orientation of Russia for a millennium.