Battles for the History of the St. Sophia: Overcoming Obstacles and Stereotypes.

This article discusses the current problem of overcoming numerous artificial obstacles to the study of our main national shrine – St. Sophia in Kyiv, as well as traditional stereotypes in the science of it, which still weigh on the conclusions of many researchers who in their various works to some extent, architecture and content of mosaics and frescoes. The dating of St. Sophia in Kyiv is a big, complex and very controversial issue, to which we have devoted many publications. Here we outline only its main parameters. According to the results of our latest research, the cathedral was built in 1011–1018, at the end of the reign of Volodymyr the Great – at the beginning of the reign of his son Yaroslav the Wise. This conclusion was reached by the study at a new level of written sources, architecture, mosaics and frescoes, the oldest graffiti inscriptions (especially dated) on the walls of the church.