This was a standing invitation for assassination and anarchy, and one which was not neglected.
Immediately upon the death of Vladimir there commenced a carnival of fraternal murders, which ended by leaving Yaroslaf to whom had been assigned the Principality of Novgorod, upon the throne at Kief.
The "Mother of Russian Cities" began to show the effect of Greek influences.

The Greek clergy had brought something besides Oriental Christianity into the land of barbarians.

They brought a desire for better living.

Learning began to be prized; schools were created.
Music and architecture, hitherto absolutely unknown, were introduced.
Kief grew splendid, and with its four hundred churches and its gilded cupolas lighted by the sun, was striving to be like Constantinople.
Not alone the Sacred Books of Byzantine literature, but works upon philosophy and science, and even romance, were translated into the Slavonic language.

Russia was no longer the simple, untutored barbarian, guided by unbridled impulses.