Historical Slavic religion

Slavic paganism or Slavic religion define the religious beliefs, godlores and ritual practices of the Slavs before the formal Christianisation of their ruling elites. The latter occurred at various stages between the 8th and the 13th century: The East Slavs came under the sphere of influence of Byzantine Orthodox Christianity, beginning with the latter's official adoption in 988 CE by Vladimir of Kievan Rus'; the West Slavs came under the sphere of influence of the Roman Catholic Church since the 12th century, and Christianisation for them went hand in hand with full or partial Germanisation, although Great Moravia had an earlier contact with Orthodox Christianity in the 860s; from Moravia, Orthodox Christianity spread to Bulgaria and to most South Slavs.

The Christianisation of the Slavic peoples was, however, a slow and—in many cases—superficial phenomenon, especially in what is today Russia. Christianisation was vigorous in western and central parts of what is today Ukraine, as they were closer to the capital Kiev, but even there, popular resistance led by volkhvs, pagan priests or shamans, recurred periodically for centuries. Also the West Slavs of the Baltic withstood tenaciously against Christianity until it was violently imposed on them through the Northern Crusades. In Bohemia, short after the country's official Christianisation in the late 9th century, a popular anti-Christian rebellion broke out. Among Poles and East Slavs, rebellion outbreaks occurred throughout the 11th century. Christian chroniclers reported that the Slavs regularly re-embraced their original religion (relapsi sunt denuo ad paganismus).

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