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Historian S. F. Platonov believes that the main reasons for the baptism of Russia were economic. It was difficult for the state to subjugate many Slavic communities, Russia was baptized in order to strengthen the role of the state and subjugate a completely cohesive people. One of the reasons is trade, Christian peoples did not want to communicate and trade with pagans, Russia risked remaining isolated. With acceptance Russia became on a par with other European states, Europeans began to conduct a dialogue with them and no longer looked at them as Russian barbarians. Because Christianity in Russia was Orthodox and came from Byzantium, Russia, felt isolated, because Catholicism prevailed in Western Europe at that time. The prince did not know that after the baptism, Kievan Rus would remain the only Orthodox state, and Greek Byzantium would soon fall.

With the adoption of Christianity, the prince stopped supporting pagan cultures, and they began to be destroyed everywhere. Religious buildings, idols and temples, which were especially revered by pagans, were destroyed. Pagan holidays and rituals were strongly condemned by the clergy.