Constructed during the reign of his son, Ярослав Володимирович Мудрий – Yaroslav the Wise – Ярослав Владимирович Мудрый (* c. 978-982 to 17/20 February 1054 †),
there is a view that the foundation of the Собор Святої Софії – Cathedral of Saint Sophia – Собор Святой Софии may have been laid in 1011, toward the end of the reign
of Saint Vladimir (or Volodymir) the Great (r. 11 June 980 – 15 July 1015), giving the life of this Holy Church an even more striking parallel to the life of Christianity
within of Kyivan Rus'. Yaroslav the Wise, himself interred in the Cathedral, who may have been Vladimir's son by Anna Porphyrogenita, daughter of Byzantine
Emperor Romanos II, rather than by Rogneda of Polotsk, did not inherit the throne as Grand Duke of Kyiv – Великий Князь Київський directly from his father,
Saint Volodymir (or Vladimir). Just as fratricidal conflict had brought Vladimir to the throne of Kyiv in 980 with the death of his brother Yaropolk, so too on
Vladimir's death fratricidal chaos ensued among Vladimir's sons — brothers and half-brothers from the many "marital" unions of Vladimir during the days before his
Christian conversion, and afterward — but with this crucial difference: in 1015 Kyivan Rus' was Christian and had been since Byzantine-rite, Orthodox-Catholic Christianity
was officially received as the state religion of Kyivan Rus', and with mass baptisms in the Dnieper River directed by Volodymir-Vladimir, on 14 August 988.

And the reader will note that the term Orthodox-Catholic may be used here in more than an aspirational sense. French-born, Roman Cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida and
Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantinople had not yet excommunicated each other in 988 or indeed by the conclusion of Yaroslav the Wise's reign on 20 February 1054.
Humbert's Bull of excommunication, placed on the the high altar of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, occurred on 16 July 1054. (Humbert's impudent Bull was also illegal even
under his own Roman canon law, as Pope Leo IX had died on 19 April 1054, so Cardinal Humbert's warrant as legate lapsed immediately on that date.) Kyivan Rus' and its
successor states of the Ukraine, Russia and Belarus became Christian and passed through these early tumultuous but crucial rites of passage with a
United Orthodox-Catholic Church.

Returning though to Vladimir and the succession of his son Yaroslav (later known as the Wise) on Vladimir's death, the sovereignty of Kyivan' Rus passed first to Vladimir's
son, Sviatopolk I Vladimirovich. This is if Sviatopolk was in fact Vladimir's son by a former Greek nun, captured by Sviatoslav, the father of both Vladimir and Yaropolk.
Sviatopolk may instead have been sired by Yaropolk before Equal of the Apostles, Saint Vladimir the Great killed his brother Yaropolk and then raped his brother's widow,
the former Greek nun. Well, those were different times, and all this was before Vladimir's conversion. Recall Apostle Saint Paul's pre-conversion life.
In any case, this Sviatopolk (whether Vladimirovich or Yaropolkovich, and known to history as Sviatopolk the Accursed or the Accursed Prince) succeeded
Grand Duke Saint Volodymir-Vladimir after 15 July 1015. Between 15 July 1015 and Yaroslav the Wise's accession in 1019 there was a new round of internecine wars, involving
now also the Polish on Sviatopolk's side and the Varangians (Nordic Vikings) or Yaroslav's side. Three of the victims of the fratricide were younger but favored sons of Vladimir
(and so brothers of Yaroslav and of Sviatopolk, if indeed Sviatopolk was Vladimir's son and not Yaropolk's son). These were Boris, Gleb and Stanislav, perhaps all Vladimir's sons
by his Bulgarian wife Adela. The three were murdered in 1015. Though there is some departure from the hagiography in other sources (Norse sagas), in the Church in Kyivan Rus',
Boris and Gleb – Борис і Гліб – Борис и Глеб are the first canonized saints. Saint Boris takes the Christian name of Roman – Роман and Saint Gleb takes the
Christian name of Давид – David.

Володимирський Собор в Корсуні – Cathedral of Saint Volodymir at dusk in Korsun on 3 August 2011

Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church do stand in a special position as regards the dialogues among the Oriental Orthodox, the Orthodox and the Catholics and as regards the process of Christian and ecclesiological re-unification, and this not only because in Realpolitik they are actually and potentially a whole lot more numerous than the Greeks. So too within European Christendom, the Russians are special, and they have a special and in important senses leadership role to play.

To many Descendants of European Christendom other than Russians the forgoing may seems strange. Indeed to play a holy role the Russians will need to rethink and change much within themselves, not least the mass fashion in recent decades of trying to view the atheist Communist period as somehow a continuation of and in continuity with — rather than an abominable interruption from — Russia's holy role within European Christendom and Christendom universal. Embracing evil in order to manufacture martyrs is not worthy of the least among Christian societies. Lapsed- or atheist- Jews may have started ... well, clearly did start and lead Bolshevism. Equally clear is that they could not have and did not do it alone. As difficult as it may be to acknowledge this about one's grandfathers and fathers, how can there be reconciliation, much less leadership, without truth?

...Forgiveness - Прощение.

...Святая Русь - Holy Rus.