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THE CONVERSION OF RUS' 301emperors, although equals to Volodimer, are reduced to acting as instrumentsof Providence, agreeing to the marriage on the condition ofVolodimer's conversion. The prince informs them that he has already studiedtheir religion and is ready to be baptized. Anna objects, but nonethelessthe emperors send her to Kherson.After Anna's arrival in Kherson, Volodimer mysteriously loses hiseyesight. Upon his baptism, he is miraculously cured and says, "I havenow perceived the one true God." 37 Volodimer returns Kherson to theemperors as a dowry for Anna, and together with his new bride and clergymenfrom Kherson returns to Kiev, where the baptism of its inhabitantssoon takes place.Eastern Orthodox tenets and the role of Kherson in the conversion ofRus' are visibly accentuated. The terrestrial reasons that made Basil II askhis prospective brother-in-law to capture the rebellious city that supportedBardas Phokas are passed over in silence. 38 Instead of a punished city,Kherson is depicted as a fortunate one, chosen by God to be the baptismalsite of the ruler of Rus'. Volodimer's intent to marry a porphyrogenitebecomes evident only after the city is captured. Kherson becomes thefitting site for the wedding of the Rus' prince with the Byzantine princess.So, several scores of years after Kherson was left defeated and humiliated,a pillaged and half-burned city, it was transfomed into a site chosen by Providencefor glory. The Kherson legend implies that the city rendered goodservices both to the empire and to Rus'. For the small but influential groups(mostly clergy) from Kherson who followed Volodimer and Anna northward,Rus' became a new homeland. The legend, embellished by details ofvarying credibility, has held a durable place in the pragmatic exposition ofthe history of Rus' for nearly the last nine hundred years.The chronicle's version of the conversion, when compared to Ilarion's,not only diminishes Volodimer's role, but also indirectly puts into questionhis apostolic mission. An insertion into the chronicle at the turn of theeleventh century relates the legend of the apostle Andrew wanderingthrough Rus'. 39 The apostle's elevation of a cross on the hills that wouldbecome the site of Kiev has evident ecclesiastical and political overtones,because Andrew, according to tradition going back to the fourth century,was the first bishop of Byzantion, the city of Constantine. The cross raised37PSRL, 1: 111; Cross, Primary Chronicle, p. 113.38For more detail, see Poppe, "Background," pp. 221 -24, 238-40, 242; and idem, "Chersonand the Baptism of Rus'," Zapysky Naukovoho tovarystva im. Sevcenka (forthcoming).39PSRL, 1:7-9; Cross, Primary Chronicle, pp. 53-54. Cf. Podskalsky, Christentum, pp.1 Iff.; Miiller, Die Taufe Russlands, pp. 9-16.