Till nowadays the historians can not agree with the date of the foundation of this cathedral. Some of them believe that the first stone of the Church of St. Sophia was founded in 1037. The main source of the information for them is the Story of the Passing years (the Primary chronicles). However, the other chronicles indicate that the construction was started 20 years before this date, in 1017. Written sources of the history of the XI century inform that Yaroslav the Wise only continued the work of his father, Volodymyr the Great. Such information puts into the question not only the year of the foundation 1017 or 1037, but also the identity of the person, who made an order for the construction of the main shrine of the country. Modern scholars believe that the cathedral was built in the years 1011-1018 ( https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/30184855.html). In fact, in the official historical circles it is assumed that it was Yaroslav who founded the temple.
Since the first years of its existence, the Cathedral of St. Sophia has become not only the main spiritual, cultural, but also political center of Kievan Rus. On the square in front of it the foreign ambassadors were met, the Chamber was conducted. There they gathered for the "landing" of the princes to the throne. The first library was collected precisely in the basements of the sanctuary. According to eyewitness' descriptions, it contained more than 1,000 books.
However, in 1240, the capital was burned by the forces of Batu. The main religious building of the country was looted. Though the cathedral was acting, at the same time it came to desolation: the vault was ruined, the mosaics, including Oranta, fell down. Even though the church union was signed in 1596 and the temple buildings were handed over to the Uniate, the buildings came to a real decay, and the ceiling was torn down. In the 30s and 40s of the seventeenth century Petro Mogyla, the Metropolitan of Kiev, returned the Sofia to the Kyiv Orthodox Church. This way the process of a revival was launched.