... Alfred is compared to Basile Emperor of Constantinople, and Volodimir with Constantine.  "It was (says Mr. Le Clerc) after Constantine had made himself master of the eastern and western empire, that he put an end to all sorts of persecutions, and caused christianity to triumph over idolatry: it was after Volodimir had seized upon the sole sovereignty, and made tributary Russia, Poland, Gothland, Bulgaria, &c. that he embraced the Christian religion, and rendered more mild the arbitrary power he had assumed.
     "Constantine ordered that the children of the poor should be maintained at his own expense: Volodimir ordered them to be fed in his own palace.  Constantine permitted the Christians to build churches, and the expence to be defrayed by their respective districts: but Volodimir built them at his own expence..." (The European Magazine and London Review, v.4, 1783)