The Byzantine Empire and the Russians, or rather Kievan Russ at the beginning, had very close ties, and the main reason was that they traded a lot between each other, and traditionally had good relations. Because there was constant contact, the Russians started to adopt numerous things from the Byzantines as they were much more advanced. The Russians were pagans, but that all changed with the introduction of the Orthodox Christianity by the Byzantines, which they accepted it as their religion, and has been very important part of their identity ever since. The politics also got influenced, as the Russians started to use the code of laws from Byzantium, which resulted in much better organized and structured society. The literacy also came from Byzantium, as the emperor ordered the Macedonian brothers Cyril and Methodius which created a Slavic alphabet, to spread it among the Slavic people, including the Russians.
