Hello everyone. Today we have an interview with Professor Sergei Ivanov, a Russian professor

of Byzantine studies. We're going to be talking about the relationship between Byzantium

and the Rus, and then the later Russian world. This is another belated reward for a kickstart

abacker, in this case listener TK, who has family connections to the Ukraine, and was

interested to hear more about Byzantine influence on the region. Speaking of the kickstarter,

I now have only three more scripts to write, and the videos of Istanbul will finally be

done. I then have two more Byzantine stories to produce before the narrative can resume,

so the end is in sight. Now let's talk about Professor Sergei Ivanov, our guest today.

Professor Ivanov is a Russian scholar who has been studying Byzantium for many decades.

He currently works in the Institute of Oriental and Ancient Studies at the National Research

University, high school of economics in Moscow. He has written several books about Byzantium,

as well as contributing hundreds of articles to the field. His areas of study include Byzantine

religious missions, the cultural influence of Byzantium on the Rus, Holy Fools, and Constantinople

itself. He has also taken part in public lectures and debates on the legacy of Byzantium in

modern Russia. To see his full list of publications, visit the history of

Byzantium.com, and I've put links up on the page for this episode. His books, Holy Fools

in Byzantium and Beyond, and Pearls before Swine, Missionary Work in Byzantium, have

been translated into English, which is excellent news, as have a number of other articles and

book chapters, which you can find in his full list of publications.

As usual with the interviews I do, I will be butting in in between questions to add

some needed context. Since the main source of Byzantine influence on the Rus came through

the church, I began by asking Professor Ivanov about the general Byzantine attitude towards

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