WI: Vladimir the Great Had Converted to Judaism?

Fairly simple premise. The conversion of Vladimir the Great, ruler of the Kievan Rus, to Christianity in 988 was a pivotal event in the Christianization of Eastern Europe. However, prior to the conversion, Vladimir, who had hitherto been a pagan, had apparently considered a number of different religions and denominations, including Christianity. So what if, for whatever reason, Vladimir had become so strongly convinced that Judaism was the true faith that he decides to convert to that religion instead, at roughly the same time that he had converted to Christianity IOTL?

What would have been the effects of this change? Would Judaism have been adopted by the general populace in his realms, or would it have been largely confined to the nobility? Would the common people have remained pagan, or would they have adopted some form of Christianity anyway, if at a latter date and in a slower, more incomplete process? Would the Kievan Rus and its successor states have stayed Jewish long term, or would some ruler have likely still adopted Christianity (or maybe, if the butterflies are sufficient, Islam or some other faith with a stronger record of proselytizing) at some point in history?

What would the effects on the wider world have been? IOTL, Vladimir probably converted to Christianity, at least in part, to curry favor with the Byzantine Empire (again, we're assuming that he has a strong, personal religious experience that causes him to convert to Judaism instead). Now, would relations have been anymore strained between the Byzantines and a Jewish Rus than they were with a pagan Rus? Would Vladimir's decision have potentially prompted others in Eastern Europe to adopt Judaism as well - or at the very least, would it have slowed or stopped the process of Christianization for the peoples there who were still pagan?

In general, how would history have unfolded differently in such a world?
 
Fairly simple premise. The conversion of Vladimir the Great, ruler of the Kievan Rus, to Christianity in 988 was a pivotal event in the Christianization of Eastern Europe. However, prior to the conversion, Vladimir, who had hitherto been a pagan, had apparently considered a number of different religions and denominations, including Christianity. So what if, for whatever reason, Vladimir had become so strongly convinced that Judaism was the true faith that he decides to convert to that religion instead, at roughly the same time that he had converted to Christianity IOTL?

What would have been the effects of this change? Would Judaism have been adopted by the general populace in his realms, or would it have been largely confined to the nobility? Would the common people have remained pagan, or would they have adopted some form of Christianity anyway, if at a latter date and in a slower, more incomplete process? Would the Kievan Rus and its successor states have stayed Jewish long term, or would some ruler have likely still adopted Christianity (or maybe, if the butterflies are sufficient, Islam or some other faith with a stronger record of proselytizing) at some point in history?

What would the effects on the wider world have been? IOTL, Vladimir probably converted to Christianity, at least in part, to curry favor with the Byzantine Empire (again, we're assuming that he has a strong, personal religious experience that causes him to convert to Judaism instead). Now, would relations have been anymore strained between the Byzantines and a Jewish Rus than they were with a pagan Rus? Would Vladimir's decision have potentially prompted others in Eastern Europe to adopt Judaism as well - or at the very least, would it have slowed or stopped the process of Christianization for the peoples there who were still pagan?

In general, how would history have unfolded differently in such a world?

So this is a very large question enfolding other very large questions.

We only have on real example for comparison: the Khazar khaganate. Any Jewish Rus would be modelling itself even more heavily on that than OTL. So. Despite being ruled by Jewish converts, the Khazars mostly had good relations with the Byzantines and poor ones with the Caliphate. I wouldn't really expect Rus to be different in that respect: they'd still want to trade with Constantinople, and they'd still let mercenaries transit south to serve the Emperors. There may even be some intermarriages provided tactical conversions/heterodox side-branches are allowed.

The Khazar people stayed largely pagan, and there were lots of Muslims, including the influential Arsiyah guards. Same kind of elites-only Christianization happened to all the North Caucasian peoples (Kasogians/Kabarda/Circassians, Yassians/Alans, Dzurdzukians/Nakhs, Sarir/Avars etc). Volga Bulgaria probably had similar levels of superficial Islamisation outside the core territory around Bulgar itself. So that's very possible as a model IMO without direct Greek influence and Christian fervour.

Pressures to Christianize would remain:

1. Other Slavic states are already Christinanizing. Slavic writing has been devised by Christian missionaries. Slavic populations maintained various levels of contacts with each other.
2. Franks, Hungarians are already Christian and Varangians are also Christianizing. Any western influence into Rus would put that pressure on them.
3. Christianity was useful diplomatically, and useful to recruit bureaucrats and educated people. Judaism would be too, but there's a smaller pool without a state backer for that. Rus would have to start producing its own Jewish scholars very quickly probably from an immigrant population. It's much easier to import educated people from (Danube) Bulgaria in the short term.
 
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So this is a very large question enfolding other very large questions.

We only have on real example for comparison: the Khazar khaganate. Any Jewish Rus would be modelling itself even more heavily on that than OTL. So. Despite being ruled by Jewish converts, the Khazars mostly had good relations with the Byzantines and poor ones with the Caliphate. I wouldn't really expect Rus to be different in that respect: they'd still want to trade with Constantinople, and they'd still let mercenaries transit south to serve the Emperors. There may even be some intermarriages provided tactical conversions/heterodox side-branches are allowed.

The Khazar people stayed largely pagan, and there were lots of Muslims, including the influential Arsiyah guards. Same kind of elites-only Christianization happened to all the North Caucasian peoples (Kasogians/Kabarda/Circassians, Yassians/Alans, Dzurdzukians/Nakhs, Sarir/Avars etc). Volga Bulgaria probably had similar levels of superficial Islamisation outside the core territory around Bulgar itself. So that's very possible as a model IMO without direct Greek influence and Christian fervour.

Pressures to Christianize would remain:

1. Other Slavic states are already Christinanizing. Slavic writing has been devised by Christian missionaries. Slavic populations maintained various levels of contacts with each other.
2. Franks, Hungarians are already Christian and Varangians are also Christianizing. Any western influence into Rus would put that pressure on them.
3. Christianity was useful diplomatically, and useful to recruit bureaucrats and educated people. Judaism would be too, but there's a smaller pool without a state backer for that. Rus would have to start producing its own Jewish scholars very quickly probably from an immigrant population. It's much easier to import educated people from (Danube) Bulgaria in the short term.

Even if Christianization is essentially inevitable, how long could the process have been delayed by?

And what would've been the impact for the larger Jewish community that an important European power had adopted their faith, albeit one somewhat distant from the rest of the powers? So long as the Rus or any meaningful successors stay Jewish, would there be an incentive for any countries around them to tone down antisemitic persecutions?
 
What @RGB said.
Even if Christianization is essentially inevitable, how long could the process have been delayed by?

And what would've been the impact for the larger Jewish community that an important European power had adopted their faith, albeit one somewhat distant from the rest of the powers? So long as the Rus or any meaningful successors stay Jewish, would there be an incentive for any countries around them to tone down antisemitic persecutions?
Around that age, antisemitic persecutions weren't as intense as in the Late Middle ages anyway.
 
Very important thing would have been Rus state relations with radhanite traders. If done correctly, russia can early implement a Eurasian focus. Russia could possibly be an European gunpowder state later on.

If this happens, expect Russia to possibly take up the slack if Christian states refuse to trade with Islamic ones like otl.
 

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raharris1973

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Would diaspora and Russian convert Jews regard each other as legit, or would they schism over who was "really" Jewish?
 
There are a lot of influences driving Russia Christian, and really none towards Judaism. Having said that, top down conversions from Paganism were not uncommon. Perhaps the biggest issue is that converting from Pagan to Jewish can add more "restrictions" than going Christian - circumcision, Kosher food, and host of other rules that Christianity had sidelined by saying that the arrival of Christ and his assumption of sin had negated the need for those rules. As far as the alphabet goes, Cyrillic, while derived from Greek, is not Greek. You could actually use the Hebrew alphabet for Russian pretty directly. After all, look at Persian, Turkish, Urdu, etc which all use Arabic characters.
 
I wonder what could've enabled a lasting conversion of the Slavs to Manicheanism or one of it's Gnostic offshoots before Christianity could sweep in?
 
I wonder what could've enabled a lasting conversion of the Slavs to Manicheanism or one of it's Gnostic offshoots before Christianity could sweep in?

That is much much harder and probably much earlier than the Rus state appears; probably needs one of the steppe Empire to convert like the Uighurs did, and then be quite extraordinarily successful in their westward conquests.
 

raharris1973

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They would definitely see each other as "legit," if they converted properly.

Well what was the "proper" standard for conversion to Judaism in the tenth century? Was it universal from the Rhineland to Spain to Baghdad?

Conversion is notoriously difficult in modern Orthodox Judaism. Ancient tradition was probably closer to Orthodox than any of the other modern interpretations. But even modern Orthodoxy as practiced comes from an evolving tradition reacting against modernity.
 
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