ABSTRACT
In 988 the East Slays converted to Christianity. Life changed for all Christians in 1237-40 when the Mongol armies conquered Kievan Rus and drove as far as the Adriatic Sea, bringing devastation with them. The Mongols eventually pulled back to the historical lands of Kievan Rus and there set up a satellite state called the Golden Horde. The Muscovite government was so powerful that it eventually reduced the Church to a department of government, thus reducing Orthodoxy's ability to reform itself and society. In 1480 the Muscovite state threw off the Mongol yoke. In the eighteenth century Russia was at a crossroads. It needed to modernize. Peter the Great put Russia on the road to ideology. To move toward Catholicism, however, the Russian government will need strong leadership, someone of the caliber of Peter the Great, to overcome the tradition of anti-Catholicism.
