Editing Sviatoslav I (section)

==Religious beliefs==
Sviatoslav's mother, [[Olga of Kiev|Olga]], converted to Orthodox Christianity at the court of the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] Emperor [[Constantine Porphyrogenitus]] in 957.<ref>Based on his analysis of ''[[De Ceremoniis]]'', [[Alexander Nazarenko]] hypothesizes that Olga hoped to orchestrate a marriage between Sviatoslav and a Byzantine princess. If her proposal was peremptorily declined (as it most certainly would have been), it is hardly surprising that Sviatoslav would look at the Byzantine Empire and her Christian culture with suspicion. Nazarenko 302.</ref> Sviatoslav remained a [[Paganism|pagan]] all of his life. In the treaty of 971 between Sviatoslav and the Byzantine emperor John I Tzimiskes, the Rus' swore by the gods [[Perun]] and [[Veles (god)|Veles]].<ref name="Balzer1992">{{cite book|last1=Froianov|first1=I. Ia.|author2=A. Iu. Dvornichenko|author3=Iu. V. Krivosheev|editor=Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer|title=Russian Traditional Culture: Religion, Gender, and Customary Law|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YJmqeYPEbdwC&pg=PA4|access-date=19 February 2017|year=1992|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=978-1-56324-039-3|page=4|chapter=The Introduction of Christianity in Russia and the Pagan Traditions}}</ref> According to the ''Primary Chronicle'', he believed that his warriors (''[[druzhina]]'') would lose respect for him and mock him if he became a Christian.<ref>Primary Chronicle _____.</ref> The allegiance of his warriors was of paramount importance in his conquest of an empire that stretched from the Volga to the Danube.