What if the Kievan Rus converted to the Roman Catholic faith instead of the Orthodox faith? How would this affect the Byzantine Empire and the West's picture of Russia?
Two problems:
- When the Rus converted, there were not two churches.
- The Rus were too dependent on trade with Constantinople to go another way.
Given that the trade was established while they were still sacrificing people to thunder gods....
Bruce
Well, it's very possible that only the Varangians (and not the slavs) were sacrificing people to thunder gods, and even that may have been imported directly from Sweden by maybe Vladimir and not before. And then he decided to opt for sainthood instead.