I was reading up on Vladimir the Great and I never understood why he decided to take on Eastern Orthodoxy over the Pope, while his biggest neighbours (Poland, Hungary, etc) were all Catholics.
Adding to the question, I just today read ("The Western Heritage since 1300 AP* Edition), that not only were there Catholic and Orthodox representatives plying for religious control of Russia, but there were also Jewish and Muslim representatives too. Was there any reason to choosing one over the other? Were Jews and Muslims stigmatized like they were in the rest Europe?
Perhaps a follow-up question is to what extent was the decision to adopt Eastern Christianity driven by political or cultural concerns or affinities, and to what extent was it driven by theological considerations? In other words, can we know if Vladimir accepted Eastern Christianity in whole or in part because he found it to be true religion?
Vladimir was baptized in 988, which was well before the Great Schism of 1054 and thus the separation between the churches of Byzantium and Rome. Thus, to speak of Vladimir's conversion to "Eastern Orthodoxy" is somewhat misleading, as it gives the impression that this separation was already a fait accompli.
That said, it is true that Vladimir was courted by missionaries commissioned by both Latin-speaking bishops and Greek-speaking ones. So, the question at hand is less a matter of Vladimir's choice of faith, but rather his choice of particular religious organizations.
The answer to that question lies in the relationship between each group of missionaries and political power. Vladimir was baptized in Byzantium in the course of making an alliance with the Byzantine Emperor and shortly before marrying a Byzantine princess. Had he chosen to be baptized by Latin speaking missionaries, or to go to Rome for the ceremony, he would not have been able to enjoy this sort of "package deal."
This said, it is worth noting that Vladimir's embrace of both the politics and religion of the Byzantine Empire, did not require any explicit rejection of either Latin-speaking Christianity or Western Europe. Vladimir, who was connected to Scandinavia by ties of both heritage and kinship, remained in close contact with that world for the rest of his life. He also arranged marriages between some of his children and princes in both Scandinavia and Germany.
By the way, it interesting to note that both the present-day Roman Catholic Church and the present-day Russian Orthodox Church consider Vladimir to be a saint.