Chronicles say that after baptism, Vladimir changed: he was no longer seduced by long campaigns and bloody feats, he sat decorously on the throne in Kiev, was engaged in state affairs, built churches and distributed alms to the poor. True, he still loved feasts and on Sundays summoned the whole squad and all the "deliberate men" for a feast - the memory of these feasts was preserved for a long time in epics:
Ilya Muromets and Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich, all the famous heroes who guarded the southern borders from the attacks of the Pechenegs, who stood outposts "in an open field", feasted at that feast. They fought with the hordes of "Kalin the Tsar, the damned idol", with the "Nightingale the robber Odikhmantievich", with the "Serpent and Gorynych and with his son Tugarin Zmeevich and another Serpent of Pogany." Vladimir set up fortresses and cities on the borders of the steppe, sent squads there led by his sons - he had 12 sons, to whom he gave inheritances on the outskirts. After the death of Vladimir in 1015, strife broke out between his sons, and Svyatopolk, who seized power in Kiev, killed Boris, Gleb and Svyatoslav: he wanted to exterminate all rivals and reign in Russia without authority. However, Yaroslav, who ruled in Novgorod, opposed Svyatopolk with the city militia and a hired Varangian squad. Svyatopolk was defeated and turned to his father-in-law, the Polish king Boleslav the Brave, for help; The Poles occupied Kiev and returned the reign to Svyatopolk - but after their departure, he again had to flee from Yaroslav's squad.
Yaroslav became the "Grand Duke" who owned almost the entire Russian land - except for the Chernihiv region, where his brother Mstislav ruled until 1035. The new "Grand Duke" was unlike his warlike ancestors, the Varangians - he was a Christian sovereign who preferred spiritual and civil affairs to war. He was very devout, prayed a lot and read the Holy Bible at night; he was the first educated sovereign in Russia and could argue with the learned Greeks about faith and about the rules of Christian rule. The first undertaking of Yaroslav was the approval of the law - he ordered to collect Russian laws and publish "Russian Truth" - a written legislative code by which the princely governors would be judged.
“Russkaya Pravda” left for historians a picture of Russian society as it had developed by that time - regardless of the wishes of the Christian prince Yaroslav. The first place in this society was occupied by the boyars - the heads of the old druzhina families, descendants of the Varangians who came with Rorich and Helga. Boyars lived in vast fortified estates with high wooden towers - these estates occupied entire neighborhoods in cities, and tens and hundreds of people lived in them: younger relatives, slaves, servants, artisans, concubines. The boyars had their own small squads and their own ships, which every spring went to Constantinople, filled with slaves, furs, honey and wax. The princes gave the boyars the right to collect tribute from the villages or paid for the service with silver and marten skins, "kuns", which were used in Russia instead of money. There were many noble Vikings among the boyars,Khersirs and bonds, who came to Russia with their "people" - they were hired in the squad of the princes or went further, to Constantinople, to serve the "Emperor of the Romans". Those who remained in Russia took Slavic wives, and their descendants eventually became Slavs - just as the descendants of Roerich became Slavs.
The princes were the leaders of the boyar squad and lived the same life with it, feasted together with the squad and together with it "thought the thought." Together with the squad, they went on campaigns and collected tribute from peasants-smerds. All the states born of conquests were similar to each other, everywhere there were patrician boyars, enslaved slaves-clients and retained their freedom, but paid tribute plebeian smerds. According to Russkaya Pravda, the life of a boyar was estimated at 80 hryvnias, and the life of a smerd or slave-servant - at 5 hryvnias; it was the price of two horses. Just like the society of the Franks or the Anglo-Saxons, Russian society was based on force and oppression - and if anyone raised a voice in defense of justice, it was priests and monks. The monks gave shelter to fugitive slaves and distributed alms to the poor, widows, orphans. The priests tried to instruct the princes in the Christian faith,in mercy and love - and the princes bowed before the face of the Lord, as Louis the Holy and Yaroslav the Wise bowed.
Yaroslav was a great Christian sovereign who sacredly believed in God, who respected monks, was merciful to the poor, an educator, builder and defender of Russia. He defeated the Pechenegs so that they no longer appeared in Russia; he built the stone walls of Kiev with the Golden Gate; he built monasteries and churches, schools and libraries. He gathered many scribes and got them to translate Greek books - "and they wrote many books from which believers learn." The greatest creation of Yaroslav was St. Sophia of Kiev - the main temple and symbol of ancient Russia. In those days, Europe was still a country of barbarians, and Western monks and knights who came to Kiev marveled at the splendor of the huge temple. In Europe and in Russia then they did not know how to build large stone buildings - the temple was built by the Greek masters invited by the prince,taking samples from the majestic temples of Constantinople. The Greeks created frescoes and mosaics that decorated the walls - huge figures of the Mother of God, angels and the Grand Duke - the builder of Hagia Sophia, flooded with light streaming from above.
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The whole point of Yaroslav's activity was to adopt Greek culture - in the MODERNIZATION of barbarian Russia on the model of the most civilized country of the then world. Under Yaroslav, Greek fashion and Greek customs appeared in Russia, Greek laws appeared in Russian Truth, and Christian names began to be given to newborns: John (Ivan) or Jacob (Jacob). Yaroslav tried to cling to the wisdom of the Greeks - after all, Hagia Sophia means Holy Wisdom - and remained in the memory of descendants with the nickname of the Wise. “Yaroslav the same, as we said, loved books and, having copied many of them, put them in the Church of St. Sophia, which he created himself. He decorated it with gold, silver and church vessels, in it they offer prayers to God at the appointed time. And he set up other churches in cities and other places, supplying priests and giving them wages from his treasury, commanding them to teach people,because it is entrusted to them by God. And the number of priests and people of faith increased, and Yaroslav rejoiced, seeing the multitude of churches and believers, and the enemy complained about this, being defeated by the new believers …"
S. Nefedov