Byzantine culture also had a great influence on ancient Russians. Around the end of the 9th century, Novgorod and the Ryurik dynasty in Kiev came into contact with Byzantium and advanced culture. During this period, Byzantine missionaries began to visit Kiev, and Cyrillic characters were also circulated in ancient Russia. Therefore, before Russians formally accepted Christianity, Byzantine Christianity had been quietly changing Russian polytheism belief. In 954 AD, Olga, the wife of Dagong Igor, converted to Eastern Christianity. Forty-five years later, a very important thing happened in Russian history. Archduke Vladimir (980- 10 15 reigned) forced all subjects to be baptized and accepted Christianity as the state religion. Since then, Russia has adopted Byzantine regime and widely accepted Byzantine culture. Therefore, Russian painting art and architectural style have gradually formed their own characteristics on the basis of Byzantine culture, and the thoughts of Byzantine church have gradually penetrated into the daily life of Russian people. Russian national literature takes Cyrillic characters as a tool, and on this basis, it gradually forms its uniqueness which is different from other countries' characters.

St. Dietrich Church in Vladimir, Russia (/KLOC-Byzantine architecture in the 0/2nd century).