Answer: As such, some scholars suggest that Olga's conversion to Christianity was her way of maintaining her people's alliance with the Byzantine empire without relinquishing her political autonomy.
Step-by-step explanation:
Following Olga’s subjugation of the Drevlians, records indicate that she returned to Kiev and ruled peacefully for a number of years. Using her authority as regent, the queen established trading posts all over the region and set up a system of centralized administration. Olga also made changes to the tribute system of the Kievan Rus that constituted some of the first legal reforms in eastern Europe. In 948 CE, the Medieval queen visited Constantinople in the Byzantine Empire, which was then ruled by Emperor Constantine VII at the time. According to the Primary Chronicle, Emperor Constantine proposed to Olga and offered to let her rule beside him. However, Olga replied that she could not marry him because she was a pagan, so Emperor Constantine baptized her and gave her the name Helena. After baptism, the emperor prosed to the queen of the Kievan Rus again. This time, however, Olga replied that she was technically Constantine’s “daughter” by faith because he had baptized her and, an incestuous marriage was considered a sin in Christianity, so she could not marry him. The Chronicle states that Emperor Constatine then admitted that Olga had bested him, and he sent her home with gifts of gold, silver, silks, and other valuable objects. After returning home, Olga spent much of her remaining life championing the adoption of Christianity among her people, and tried to convince her son to convert. Although Sviatoslav refused to convert because he felt that his people would mock him for it, he did agree not to persecute anyone who converted. With this support, Olga successfully built churches in several cities, such as Kiev and her hometown of Pskov. In 968 CE, Olga defended Kiev from an attacking Bulgarian army that had come to take Sviatoslav’s throne while he was away on a campaign. A year later, the formidable queen died of illness in 969 CE.