Russian hymnody

See also ‘Byzantine hymnody’*, ‘Byzantine rite’*, ‘Greek hymnody’*, ‘Rite of Constantinople’*, ‘Rite of Jerusalem’*, ‘Greek hymns, archaeology’*. Historical background Kievan Rus’ was the result of the coming together of the eastern Slavic tribes in the 9th century, under Count Oleg (879-912). Christianity had existed in Kiev at least from the mid-10th century (there is evidence of a community with a church at the time of Count Igor, where in 945 the Count’s troops made a contract with the Greeks). The constant traffic of goods between Byzantium and Scandinavia, passing through Kievan Rus’, and commercial contacts with Czechs and Moravians in the 9th century, and the Latin-rite Poles in...