The early texts we have read about the first kings and queens who ruled over the Kievan-Ruse are inherently biased in the fact that they are aiming to establish a history of a budding nation. Put differently, their goal is to show how cultural values of the new state were established, and how they echo through history. “The Martyrdom of Boris and Gleb” is an interesting tale, both in what it says about early cultural Christian values and in its purpose to show Christianity’s hold within the Kievan-Ruse.

After Vladimir the Great Christianized the Kievan-Ruse, Christianity had to have been looked at as a non-Russian, or this early in history, a non-Kievan-Ruse practice. Russian did not invent its own religion but copied from their neighbors adopting a foreign practice. When Vladimir baptized the Kievan-Ruse, he brought them into a history and legacy far from their own. But the story of “The Martyrdom of Boris and Gleb” establishes a Kievan-Ruse Christian history for these citizens. It points at their own countryman and shows them as Saints for worship. No longer do citizen have to only read about great Christians as from other countries, but now Saints Boris and Gleb are nationally similar.

The Martyrdom of Boris and Gleb” establishes a uniquely Kievan-Ruse Christian history. The efforts of the future Russians to centralize and nationalize Christianity will be an interesting thread to track the rest of the semester, one that seems to start with Boris and Gleb