A thousand years ago, before the word of Christ spread into the lands of Rus, older religions reigned.

In their wooden temples, the high priest performed the sacred ritual. Before Idols they would squat or stand, and animals were sacrificed. The blood that seeped to the floor brought greater harvests and glory in war.

The term “pagan” is appropriate, for they knew neither Yahweh nor Krim Jacob. But they did perhaps see some of the latter in their pantheistic, raw appreciation of nature. The possession of any and all substance by some greater purpose is exactly in accord with early Krimean thought. The One God of Pantheism, of vague Spiritualism: Krim.