Saint Vladimir I Svyatoslavich “The Great” (ca. 950 – 1015) Grand Prince of Kiev, Ruler of Kievan Rus’, First Christian Saint of Russia

Saint Vladimir Monument on Saint Vladimir Hill in Kyiv, near the place of the mass baptism of Kyiv people

St Volodymyr’s Cathedral Built during the mid 19th-century to commemorate the 900th anniversary of Vladimir the Great’s baptism.

The Pontic steppes, c. 1015

The Invitation of the Varangians by Viktor Vasnetsov: Rurik and his brothers Sineus and Truvor arrive at the lands of the Ilmen Slavs

Map showing the major Varangian trade routes: the Volga trade route (in red) and the Dnieper and Dniester routes (in purple). Other trade routes of the 8th–11th centuries shown in orange.

Vladimir I ruled Kievan Rus’ as a Slavic pagan during the first eight years of his thirty-five-year reign as the Grand Prince of Kyiv. Probably rightly sensing his realm was being viewed as barbaric sovereignty by neighboring nations, all of whom had adopted some form of Judeo-Christian religion, he converted to Eastern Christianity after hearing proposals from several religions, including Islam. He finally decided on Eastern Christianity because of reports from his emissaries as to the majesty of Hagia Sophia and the appealing grace and civility of its worship services. His was the last of the Norse-ruled sovereignties to adopt the Christian faith as a religion.

After his baptism, he set about to convert every one of his subjects to his new religion. His success was so accomplished he was canonized as an Eastern Christian saint.

His second great-grandson, Vladimir was an agnatic descendant of Varangian prince Rurik “The Viking” (830 – 879), Grand Prince of Novgorod, who was invited to rule the Rus’. He was the primogenitor and namesake of the Rurik dynasty or Rurikids that ruled in Russia until the death of Fyodor (1557 – 1598), son of Ivan IV “the Terrible” (1530 – 1584), the self-proclaimed first Tsar of Russia (1547).

An R1b YDNA haplogroup mutation, namely R1b-M269, emerged from its inception over 11,000 years ago from the Pontiff Steppes of present-day Ukraine, most likely from the northeast shoreline of the Black Sea. Today, over 80% of European and northern British Isles males belong to this YDNA haplogroup or its R1b-YDNA genetic predecessor.

By Steven Wood Collins

I spent most of my life unaware of my ancestral heritage. Sure, I knew of the personal history of my more immediate relatives; but beyond that, I never had any inkling as to my ancestral heritage. Then one day many years ago my sister said to me, “I sometimes wonder about our family background.” And so my quest to discover our genealogical roots commenced.

I started building my family tree with the very basic relationships, going back in time from my grandparents, one ancestor at a time. That initial effort proved to be the hardest part of the pursuit, mainly due to my lack of expertise as a novice genealogical researcher. As I gained familiarity with the databases and how to efficiently mine them, my progress gained ever-increasing momentum. Today, The Patricians! tree (Ancestry.com) contains nearly 120,000 individuals, stretching over 135 generations, 5,800 of which are my direct ancestors in a genealogical sense.

During this trek back in time, I encountered fascinating figures in both history and obscurity. This blog contains many stories about their genealogical relationship to me (and many of you). By far and away, as a student of history, the historically obscure individuals are of particular interest to me. I cite Baron “Blue Beard” Montmorency-Laval de Rais (1405 – 1440) as an example of a historically maligned personage whose real contribution to history, as both a playwright and hero of France, has yet to be properly recognized. Another example is Earl Edward de Vere (1550 – 1604), who’s yet to gain widespread recognition as the actual author of the body of literary work wrongly ascribed to William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616).

My life-long interest in international economics and finance continues unabated. I primarily demonstrate this professional involvement as a contributor to the Long Room, the members-only international finance professionals' forum hosted by the Financial Times of London.

I'm an avid recreational scuba diver who enjoys traveling to exotic dive sites. My love of the sea and marine life gives me an unbounded appreciation and support of “green” issues, especially those devoted to the conservation of endangered species and coral reefs.

He continually posts results of his personal genealogical research to his Goodreads Authors Blog. Entitled The Patricians - The Ancestral Heritage of Steven Wood Collins, the work represents thousand of hours of his research efforts and related commentary.

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