If Russia had chosen Judaism instead of Greek Orthodox, how might the medieval period have been different?

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1. MP says

   This is a very strange question. As things stand, Russia did not interact much with the West in medieval times. The one exception is the Vikings/Varangians who lived in Russia. However, Scandinavian peoples were late to accept Christianity, anyway. The alliance with the Byzantine empire that was helped by Orthodoxy did not really influence Russian military history much. The Northern Crusades by the Teutonic Knights, Mongol invasion, etc. would have pretty much looked the same whether Russians were Orthodox Christian or Jewish.

   However, Orthodoxy's influence on Russian culture was enormous. The alphabet is Greek-derived. The literary language is highly influenced by Old Church Slavonic, which originates in the Balkans (nowadays Bulgaria) and was used in the Orthodox church service; without Old Church Slavonic influence via religion, Russian would look a lot more like Ukrainian or a more "peasant tongue." When Byzantium fell, Russia took on its role as leader of Orthodoxy (the Third Rome) and later all Slavs of Europe. These factors played a big part in the Crimean war and WWI.

   However, in the medieval period, as relations were so scarce between Russia and Western Europe, it is doubtful that Russian Judaism vs. Eastern Orthodoxy would have made much of a difference in France or England in medieval times.

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2. ChinchillaChico says

   Russia would NEVER be a country of jews!

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3. Walter says

   The Russian alphabet and language would be different, first of all. Russian Cyrillic is largely derived from the Greek alphabet, and so is some of their vocabulary, so that connection probably never would've been made. Much of Russian culture in the Middle Ages was influenced by the Byzantine Empire (which included Greece as part of that empire) and that cultural exchange likely never would've taken place, had the Russians not adopted the Greek Orthodox religion. Classical Russian architecture was largely influenced by Byzantine architecture, so those funny-shaped domed buildings, like the Kremlin, probably would've taken on a different form had the two empires not been so closely connected.

   Since there was no official Jewish State in the Middle Ages (other than perhaps the Khazar Khaganate, in the Caucasus near the Black Sea), Russia would've lacked powerful allies, and would've had to face the Mongols and Germans alone. Both the Golden Horde and Teutonic Knights were constantly campaigning against them, and if they didn't adopt military strategy, and technology from Byzantium, both enemies would've likely savaged Russia for a longer period of time than they did. Plus, the Teutonic Knights would've been far more relentless in their crusades against them, had they not accepted Christ at all. The Baltic States (i.e. Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, etc…) were largely pagan at the time, and the Teutonic Knights were particularly brutal in their Crusades against them (they did manage to convert the Baltic States to Christianity, whereas they failed to convert the Russians to Catholicism). When they invaded Russia, they were eventually turned back by the legendary and much beloved Russian hero, Alexander Nevsky, at the infamous "Battle of the Ice" near Novgorod. Had the Russians practiced Judaism at the time, the Teutonic Knights probably wouldn't have given up on trying to convert them so easily… So perhaps in the long run, Russia ultimately would've ended up under the wing of the Catholic Church at Rome, had they initially converted to Judaism rather than to Greek Orthodoxy, in which case they would've adopted the Latin alphabet as well.

   The Russians didn't have much contact with the West (i.e. Britain and France) during the Middle-Ages, but it's probably safe to say there would've been even less of a relationship had they been non-Christians. However, a number of Czars throughout Russian history were of German descent, so it's quite possible that either all of their Czars, or none of their Czars, would've been German, depending on the outcome of the Teutonic Crusades.

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