Short answers, pulled from the story.
Vladimir ordered the official state baptism in spring 988 after defeating Bardas Phokas and marrying Anne. The Rus army defeated Phokas alongside imperial forces that same year to secure the agreement for conversion.
Patriarch Photius sent an encyclical letter in early 867 stating that the Rus people were converting enthusiastically following the Rus-Byzantine War of 860. Constantine VII later claimed his ancestor Basil the Macedasian persuaded the Rus to abandon paganism through persuasive words and rich gifts.
Vladimir ordered all pagan idols removed and destroyed upon returning to Kyiv after taking the throne in 980. The statue of Perun was thrown into the Dnieper river after being hacked or burnt while residents entered the water to be baptized.
Locals in Novgorod could be baptized only in 989 after fierce clashes occurred one year after Kyiv's baptism. Instances of pagan reaction persisted almost a century after baptism in places like Rostov Land where the northeastern part remained particularly hostile.
In 1988 faithful of Eastern Catholic and Orthodox churches celebrated a millennium of Eastern Slavic Christianity. Great celebrations in Moscow changed the relationship between the Soviet state and the church for the first time since 1917.