This paper focuses on the depiction of Ol’ga’s baptism in the Povest’ vremennyx let. It will argue that (as in the depiction of Vladimir Svjatoslavič’s baptism and the conversion of Rus’) the chronicler wished to present Christianity in a strongly positive light without suggesting that Rus’ was in any way inferior to, or less advanced than, Byzantium. Such a depiction presented problems because Christianity came to Rus’ from Byzantium and Ol’ga herself was baptized in Constantinople. The solution was the anecdote recounting how Ol’ga agreed to marry the Byzantine emperor if he would sponsor her at baptism and how she thereafter pointed out that sponsors cannot marry their spiritual children. This anecdote not only depicts Ol’ga as outwitting the Byzantine emperor; it suggests that Ol’ga’s own understanding of Christianity (at least after her baptism) was superior to the emperor’s. Women of Kievan Rus’ were largely excluded from military activities, but in other respects they do not seem to have been regarded as men’s intellectual inferiors. Indeed, the depiction of an early medieval female ruler as skilled in diplomacy or trickery seems to have been roughly analogous to the depiction of an early medieval male ruler as a fine warrior. Thus, Ol’ga’s successful deception of the emperor is analogous to Vladimir Svjatoslavič’s conquest of Xerson, which is presented as allowing him to dictate the terms of his own conversion.