Organized pagan cult in Kievan Rus'. The invention of foreign elite or evolution of the local tradition

Abstract

The article attempts to address a common notion in the English speaking world that the pre-Christian Slavic religion was basically animistic. And that personified and anthropomorphic Slavonic deities,known from medieval sources, were a foreign invention.In particular this arti- cle focuses on the pagan Kievan cult of the late 10th century as institutionalized by Vladimir the Great. As the Eastern Slavic religion did not evolve in a vacuum, the article analyses it within the broader Slavic and Indo-European context.