The adoption of Christianity by Russia is an event whose significance in the historical fate of the Russian people and Russia cannot be overestimated. Time has no power over him, and we can say with confidence that our life today, with its contradictions, the search for spiritual values, the desire to find meaning that is not destroyed by death, is most closely connected with that August day of 988, when Kievan Rus became Rus Christian. From whatever position we approach the fact of the Baptism of Rus', we cannot fail to recognize its decisive influence on Russian culture and Russian statehood; we cannot help but remember that the religious principle helped to gather national forces that threw off the khan’s yoke and preserved Russia during the years of the Troubles and the hard times of war.

988 was a natural result of the spiritual development of Rus'.