Why did Orthodoxy have such success in spreading to the Russian

>>2168349

What the hell are you talking about OP? Asides from Poland, Croatia and a few others, like all slavic countries are Orthodox majority. Or like at least a strong minority

south slavs are all orthodox. As for west slavs, russia supposedly converted as a kievan ruler liked the ceremonies of orthodoxy, thus choosing it over catholicism or islam.

>>2168349
It's a matter of who was there first.

the Eastern Roman Empire had the monopoly of power in the Balkans so naturally those areas are more orthodox, and the Russians married into the Imperial Court and accepted Orthodoxy through there.

that said, it's worth noting that Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia and the rest of Eastern Europe beyond Poland are very much Orthodox because of the Byzantine's pervasive influence in the region.

>>2168363
>The Bulgarians attempted to convert Vladimir I of Kiev to Islam; however Vladimir rejected the notion of Rus' giving up wine, which he declared was the "very joy of their lives".[7]

>Of the Muslim Bulgarians of the Volga the envoys reported there is no joy among them; only sorrow and a great stench. In the gloomy churches of the Germans his emissaries saw no beauty; but at Hagia Sophia, where the full festival ritual of the Byzantine Church was set in motion to impress them, they found their ideal: "We no longer knew whether we were in heaven or on earth," they reported, "nor such beauty, and we know not how to tell of it."[8]

>The Primary Chronicle reports that, in the year 986, Vladimir met with representatives from several religions. The result is amusingly described in the following apocryphal anecdote. Upon the meeting with Muslim Bulgarians of the Volga, Vladimir found their religion unsuitable due to its requirement to circumcise and taboos against alcoholic beverages and pork; supposedly, Vladimir said on that occasion: "Drinking is the joy of the Rus." He also consulted with Jewish envoys (who may or may not have been Khazars), questioned them about their religion but ultimately rejected it, saying that their loss of Jerusalem was evidence of their having been abandoned by God.[7]

so they went the way the 'other' Bulgarians did, orthodox, some literature as well as priests and missionaries came from Bulgaria to teach about christianity, the alphabet and all that

>>2168404

>saying that their loss of Jerusalem was evidence of their having been abandoned by God

Holy shit, Russia ever with the bants