Church of Vladimir
the Equal-to-the-Apostles
in Otradnoe
The Church of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir in Otradnoe is located at 21B Severny Boulevard. Saint Vladimir lived and ruled at the turn of the X–XI centuries. Vladimir I Svyatoslavich was the son of Svyatoslav the Brave and the slave housekeeper Malusha. Born in the village of Budyatino around 960, Vladimir was soon taken from Malusha and the prince was raised together with his half-brothers Oleg and Yaropolk with his grandmother Princess Olga. In 969, Olga died, and Svyatoslav gave his sons the cities to manage: Yaropolk got Kiev, Vladimir got Novgorod, Oleg went to reign over the Drevlyans. This was the last meeting between Vladimir and his father – in the spring of 972, Svyatoslav was ambushed and killed by the Pechenegs on the Dnieper rapids. The first years of the brothers’ reign were peaceful, but in 977 the first civil strife in Russia began – the Kiev voivode Sveneld used his influence on Yaropolk and, in an effort to avenge Oleg for the death of his son, pushed the ruler of Kiev to war with his brother. Upon learning of Oleg’s death, Vladimir fled Novgorod, returning a few years later with a mercenary army of Varangians. After the humiliating refusal of the Polotsk princess from his proposed marriage, Vladimir took Polotsk by storm and made her his wife by force, then moved to Kiev. Having found a traitor among the commanders of Yaropolk, the prince tricked his brother out of the besieged fortress and ordered him to be killed, after which he began to rule in Kiev. In 988, Christianity became the state religion in Kievan Rus. A former pagan himself, Prince Vladimir actively spread the new faith among the Slavs. For this, he was nicknamed Vladimir the Baptist. The Church glorified Prince Vladimir in the face of saints as equal to the Apostles.
Address: Moscow, Severny Boulevard, 21B
