(945 — 957)
Olga, Igor’s wife, wisely rules for the early childhood of her son Svyatoslav.
After revenge for the death of her husband, she pacified the Drevlyane, burned their city Korosten, near which her husband was killed, and imposed a great tribute to Drevlyane. Going around, accompanied by his squad and his son Svyatoslav, the conquered tribes, Olga created everywhere the court and the massacres and the tribes subordinate to her surrounded a proper tribute.
Olga left her memory among the people as the first Christian woman in the family of the grand-ducal family.
In 957, she traveled to Constantinople, but she did not know whether she accepted baptism there or was baptized earlier in Kiev, where there was already a church of St. Elijah, and went to Constantinople to worship shrines and to receive blessings from the patriarch.
Returning to Kiev, Olga also persuaded Svyatoslav to accept Christianity, but the young prince answered all the exhortations of the mother with a refusal, saying: “Can I accept a new covenant to make my squad laugh at me?”
In 969, Olga died, having transferred to Svyatoslav during his lifetime the reign of the principality. She was buried by the Christian rite.
Contemporaries called her wisest of wives. “She was a harbinger of Christianity in Russia. The Church called her Equal-to-the-Apostles.”