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We're you can't yeah, Welcome to the Russian rulers history podcast. I'm your host Mark Shouse.

Episode number two, Vladimir the Great

and Siata Polk, the Accursed.

Last episode, we talked briefly about who the Rus were and we met their first leaders, starting

with Rurik and ending with the victory of Vladimir the first over his brother, the ill-fated

Yarropolk. the ill-fated Yara-pulk.

Today's episode, we're going to cover two Russian rulers,

Vladimir the Great and Siata Polk be accursed.

Two vastly different men. One who improved and molded his country.

The other set the stage for the eventual end of the influence of Kiev and the onset of the Russian Dark Ages.

A few of my historian friends wondered why I wouldn't just do an episode on Vladimir

alone since his influence on Russian history was as great as anyone who would come

after him.

My thoughts are to show the differences between these two and point out how these differences helped make Russia what it would become.

Or as Winston Churchill once said about it, it's a riddle wrapped in a mystery and side an enigma.

Vladimir Sviata Slavic, known as Vladimir the Great, or Voldimir, as the Vikings would call

him, was born in 958 as the result of a liaison between his father, Sviatislav the first,

and a housekeeper, Malusha.

Sometimes in history the term the Great following someone's name is oftentimes

...