What were the first Russian letters called? The emergence of Old Russian writing: Old Russian letters

The origin of writing in Russia, the time of its occurrence, its character is one of the most debatable problems of Russian history. For a long time, the traditional point of view was dominant, according to which writing was brought to Russia from Bulgaria in connection with the official adoption of Christianity in 988. But already in the middle of the last century, scientists became aware of certain facts, mainly of a literary nature, indicating the presence of Christianity and writing in Russia long before the official baptism.

In the legends of the Chernorizian Khrabr “About writings” (end of IX - beginning of X centuries) it is reported that “before, I didn’t have books, but with features and cuts I read tahu and reptiles.” The emergence of this primitive pictographic writing (“features and cuts”) is attributed by researchers to the first half of the 1st millennium. Its scope was limited. These were, apparently, the simplest counting signs in the form of dashes and notches, generic and personal signs property, signs for divination, calendar signs that served to date the dates of the start of various chores, pagan holidays, etc. Such a letter was unsuitable for recording complex texts, the need for which arose with the birth of the first Slavic states. The Slavs began to use Greek letters to record their native speech, but "without dispensation", that is, without adapting the Greek alphabet to the peculiarities of the phonetics of the Slavic languages.

All this is mentioned in the same “Tale of the Letters” by the Brave. According to Brave, the Slavs began to use Latin and Greek to write their speech after they adopted Christianity, but before the introduction of the alphabet developed by Cyril. At the same time, initially the Latin and Greek letters were used, according to Brave, "without dispensation", that is, without replenishing it with new letters necessary for special sounds Slavic speech. Brave attributes the revision of the Greek script in relation to the phonetics of the Slavic speech to Cyril. However, in reality the situation was more complicated. By the time Cyril created the alphabet, that is, by the middle of the 9th century, Greek letters had been used to record Slavic speech for a long time; This is also confirmed by the Brave, indicating that "I have been raging like this for many years." But over such a long period of time, Greek writing had to gradually adapt to the transmission of the Slavic language and, in particular, be replenished with new letters. This was necessary for the accurate recording of Slavic names in churches, in military lists, for recording Slavic geographical names, etc. The Greeks are teachers of the Slavs, in the 9th century. already adhered to known system when transmitting Slavic sounds in Greek letters. So, the sound "b" was transmitted by the Byzantine letter "vita", the sound "sh" - "sigma", "h" - a combination of "theta" with "zeta", "c" - a combination of "theta" with "sigma" , "y" - a combination of "omicron" with "upsilon". That's what the Greeks did. The Slavs undoubtedly moved even further along the path of adapting Greek writing to their speech. For this, ligatures were formed from Greek letters, Greek letters were supplemented with letters from other alphabets, in particular, from the Hebrew alphabet, which was known to the Slavs through the Khazars.

So, the "proto-Cyrillic" letter was gradually formed. If alphabetic writing had not existed among the Slavs long before they adopted Christianity, then the unexpected flourishing of Bulgarian literature at the end of the 9th - beginning of the 10th centuries would not have been understandable, and wide use literacy in the everyday life of the Eastern Slavs of the X-XI centuries, and the high skill that was achieved in Russia already in the XI century. the art of writing and book design (an example is the Ostromir gospel, copied for the Novgorod posadnik Ostromir in 1055-1057).

There are indications of the use of writing in Russia and the beginning of the 10th century. in the treaties of the Russian princes Oleg and Igor with Byzantium. So, in Oleg's agreement with the Greeks (911), there is an indication that Russians have written wills. Igor's treaty with the Greeks (944) speaks of gold and silver seals, and messenger letters, which were presented to Russian ambassadors and guests traveling to Byzantium. The inclusion in agreements with Byzantium of special clauses on wills, messengers, guest letters and seals proves not only that all this already existed in Russia at the beginning of the 10th century, but also that by the 10th century. it has become commonplace.

So, by the time Russia adopted Christianity, and with it writing, writing already existed in Russia in some rudimentary form, and this created the preconditions for the perception of the introduced written culture.

Creation Slavic alphabet associated with the names of the Byzantine monks Cyril and Methodius. But the oldest monuments of Slavic writing know two alphabets - Cyrillic and Glagolitic. In science, there have been disputes for a long time about which of these alphabets appeared earlier, the creators of which of them were the famous "Thessalonica brothers" (from Thessalonica, the modern city of Thessaloniki).

At present, it can be considered established that in the second half of the 9th century Cyril created the Glagolitic alphabet (Glagolitic), in which the first translations of church books were written for Slavic population Moravia and Pannonia. At the turn of the 9th-10th centuries, on the territory of the First Bulgarian Kingdom, as a result of the synthesis of the Greek script, which had long been widespread here, and those elements of the Glagolitic alphabet that successfully conveyed the features of the Slavic languages, an alphabet arose, later called Cyrillic. In the future, this easier and more convenient alphabet replaced the Glagolitic alphabet and became the only one among the southern and eastern Slavs.

The adoption of Christianity contributed to the widespread and rapid development of writing and written culture. It was essential that Christianity was adopted in its Eastern, Orthodox version, which, unlike Catholicism, allowed worship in national languages. This created favorable conditions for the development of writing in the native language.

The development of writing in the native language led to the fact that the Russian Church from the very beginning did not become a monopoly in the field of literacy and education. The spread of literacy among the democratic strata of the urban population is evidenced by birch bark letters discovered during archaeological excavations in Novgorod and other cities. These are letters, memos, study exercises, etc. The letter, therefore, was used not only to create books, state and legal acts, but also in everyday life. Often there are inscriptions on handicraft products. Ordinary citizens left numerous records on the walls of churches in Kyiv, Novgorod, Smolensk, Vladimir and other cities.

A new stage in the ancient Russian book culture is associated with the name of Yaroslav the Wise. The story about his educational activities and about his establishment of a translation center at the church of St. Sophia is dated in the "Tale of Bygone Years" to 1037, when the metropolis was founded in Kyiv:

(“And Yaroslav loved church statutes, he loved priests very much, especially monks, and loved books, reading them often at night and during the day. And he gathered many scribes, and translated from Greek into Slavic. And they wrote many books, learning from them believing people enjoy the teaching of the divine.")

All rewritten and translated books were kept, by order of Yaroslav, in the church of St. Sophia of Kyiv, created by him on the model of the famous St. Sophia of Constantinople. This book depository is considered the first library of Ancient Russia.

During the time of Yaroslav the Wise, not only translation work was carried out, but Old Russian chronicle writing already existed, brilliant oratorical works were compiled. Not earlier than 1037 and not later than 1050, the famous “Sermon on Law and Grace” by Metropolitan Hilarion was written.

In 1056-1057, the oldest surviving precisely dated Cyrillic manuscript on parchment was created - the Ostromir Gospel with an afterword by the book scribe Deacon Gregory. Gregory, together with his assistants, rewrote and decorated the book in 8 months for the Novgorod posadnik Ostromir (Joseph in baptism), whence the name of the Gospel comes from. The manuscript is luxuriously framed, written in a large calligraphic charter in two columns, and is a remarkable example of medieval book writing.

From other ancient East Slavic handwritten books should be called Svyatoslav's Izbornik of 1073 - a large-format folio with luxurious decoration, containing more than 380 articles of various content by 25 authors (including the essay "On Images", that is, about rhetorical figures and paths, by the Byzantine grammarian George Khirovoska), a small Izbornik 1076, the Archangel Gospel of 1092, service menaias written in Novgorod: for September - 1095--1096, for October - 1096 and for November - 1097.

These seven manuscripts exhaust the circle of ancient Russian books of the 11th century, which have the date of writing put down in them by the scribes themselves. The remaining manuscripts of the 11th century or do not have exact date, or preserved in later lists, as, for example, the book of 16 Old Testament prophets with interpretations, rewritten in Cyrillic in 1047 from the Glagolitic original by a Novgorod priest named Ghoul Likhoy, has come down to our time in the lists of the 15th century. (AT Ancient Russia the custom of giving two names, Christian and "worldly", was widespread not only in the world, compare above the name of Joseph-Ostromir, but also among the clergy and monasticism.)

Already in the oldest written monuments, the features of the Old Russian edition are reflected. Church Slavonic, distinguishing it from Old Slavonic. By the middle of the 11th century, adaptation Old Church Slavonic on Old Russian dialect soil was close to completion.

The appearance of writing, translations of the texts of the Holy Scriptures and liturgical texts, as well as some others, gave impetus to the formation of literature in the Church Slavonic language, which actively developed in the pre-Mongolian period. It is thanks to these factors that we now have information about the early stage of ancient Russian history, recorded in the Tale of Bygone Years.

In the history of the emergence of writing on the Old Russian soil, and with it the perception of a whole corpus of texts created in the literary language, had a huge impact on the development of the language, and the entire Old Russian, and then Russian culture as a whole.

AT popular science literature one can often read the opinion that writing in Russia appeared along with the adoption of Christianity by Prince Vladimir in 988. However, is this true, and when did Slavic writing really appear, we will consider in this article.

When did writing appear in Russia

The appearance of writing is closely connected with Christianity, but it happened before the official adoption of the new religion - at the beginning of the 10th century. At the court of the prince, during worship and even for domestic needs, writing was used before the adoption of Christianity. Writing came to Russia not thanks to Vladimir, but a few decades before him, this was facilitated by ties with Byzantium and contacts with Western and southern Slavs, who had already become acquainted with book culture.

Letters and contracts

The date of the appearance of writing was not just invented by historians. This is evidenced, although not numerous, but convincing texts. The Slavs wrote on various objects, for example, a poker with an inscription was found near Smolensk, they carried on business correspondence with neighbors, and of course, religious life was not complete without books. Letters and agreements of Russian merchants and ambassadors who arrived in Constantinople were written in two languages ​​- Church Slavonic and Greek. Evidence has been preserved of the existence of a Christian community in Kyiv, which could not do without liturgical books.

Vedas and Slavic writing

Alas, none. The Book of Veles and similar works are only the fruit of the work of the authors of the 19th century. Scientists have proven that they use late vocabulary, also the spelling does not match with any of the languages ​​​​(often letters are inserted and deleted arbitrarily without regard to any rules), and in a real language such random changes cannot occur.

Any language, including the ancient one, is a system that lives by the rules, and there are no rules in the Book of Veles and similar writings. The statement that writing came to Russia with the adoption of Christianity is almost true. Book culture was closely connected with religious life, but it was several decades ahead of the official adoption of the new religion, and the Slavic Vedas are only fiction!

Candidate of Art Criticism R. BAIBUROVA

AT early XXI centuries unimaginable modern life without books, newspapers, indexes, the flow of information, and the past - without an orderly history, religion - without sacred texts... The appearance of writing has become one of the most important, fundamental discoveries on the long path of human evolution. In terms of significance, this step can perhaps be compared with making fire or with the transition to growing plants instead of a long time of gathering. The formation of writing is a very difficult process that lasted for millennia. Slavic writing, the heir of which is our modern writing, stood in this row more than a thousand years ago, in the 9th century AD.

FROM WORD-DRAWING TO LETTER

Miniature from the Kyiv Psalter of 1397. This is one of the few surviving old manuscripts.

Fragment of the Facial Arch with a miniature depicting the duel of Peresvet with the Tatar hero on the Kulikovo field.

An example of pictographic writing (Mexico).

Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription on the stele of the "Great Steward of Palaces" (XXI century BC).

Assyro-Babylonian writing is an example of cuneiform writing.

One of the first alphabets on Earth is Phoenician.

The ancient Greek inscription demonstrates the two-way direction of the line.

Sample runic script.

Slavic apostles Cyril and Methodius with students. Fresco of the monastery "St. Naum", located near Lake Ohrid in the Balkans.

Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets compared with the Byzantine charter.

On a jug with two handles, found near Smolensk, archaeologists saw the inscription: "Goroukhsha" or "Goroushna".

The oldest inscription found in Bulgaria: it is made in Glagolitic (above) and Cyrillic.

A page from the so-called Izbornik of 1076, written in the Old Russian script, which is based on Cyrillic.

One of the oldest Russian inscriptions (XII century) on a stone on the Western Dvina (Polotsk principality).

An undeciphered pre-Christian Russian Alekanov inscription found by A. Gorodtsov near Ryazan.

And mysterious signs on Russian coins of the 11th century: personal and generic signs of Russian princes (according to A. V. Oreshnikov). the graphic basis of the signs indicates princely family, details - the identity of the prince.

The most ancient and simplest way of writing appeared, as it is believed, back in the Paleolithic - "story in pictures", the so-called pictographic writing (from the Latin pictus - drawn and from the Greek grapho - I write). That is, "I draw and write" (some American Indians still use pictographic writing in our time). This letter, of course, is very imperfect, because you can read the story in pictures in different ways. Therefore, by the way, not all experts recognize pictography as a form of writing as the beginning of writing. In addition, for the most ancient people, any such image was animated. So the "story in pictures", on the one hand, inherited these traditions, on the other hand, it required a certain abstraction from the image.

In IV-III millennia BC. e. in Ancient Sumer (Anterior Asia), in Ancient Egypt, and then, in II, and in Ancient China a different way of writing arose: each word was conveyed by a drawing, sometimes specific, sometimes conditional. For example, when it was about the hand, they drew the hand, and the water was depicted wavy line. A house, a city, a boat were also designated by a certain symbol ... The Greeks called such Egyptian drawings hieroglyphs: "hiero" - "sacred", "glyphs" - "carved in stone". The text, composed in hieroglyphs, looks like a series of drawings. This letter can be called: "I am writing a concept" or "I am writing an idea" (hence the scientific name of such a letter - "ideographic"). However, how many hieroglyphs had to be remembered!

An extraordinary achievement of human civilization was the so-called syllabary, the invention of which took place during the III-II millennium BC. e. Each stage of the formation of writing recorded a certain result in the advancement of mankind along the path of logical abstract thinking. First, this is the division of the phrase into words, then the free use of drawings-words, the next step is the division of the word into syllables. We speak in syllables, and children are taught to read in syllables. To arrange the record in syllables, it would seem that it could be more natural! Yes, and there are many fewer syllables than words composed with their help. But it took many centuries to come to such a decision. Syllabic writing was already used in the III-II millennium BC. e. in the Eastern Mediterranean. For example, the famous cuneiform script is predominantly syllabic. (They still write in a syllabic way in India, in Ethiopia.)

The next stage on the path of simplification of writing was the so-called sound writing, when each sound of speech has its own sign. But to think of such a simple and natural way turned out to be the most difficult. First of all, it was necessary to guess to divide the word and syllables into separate sounds. But when it finally happened new way showed clear benefits. It was necessary to memorize only two or three dozen letters, and the accuracy in reproducing speech in writing is incomparable with any other method. Over time, it was the alphabetic letter that began to be used almost everywhere.

FIRST ALPHABET

None of the writing systems almost never existed in pure form and does not exist even now. For example, most of the letters in our alphabet, like a B C and others, corresponds to one specific sound, but in letter-signs i, yu, yo- already several sounds. We cannot do without elements of ideographic writing, say, in mathematics. Instead of writing "two plus two equals four", we use conventional signs, we get a very short form: 2+2=4 . The same - in chemical and physical formulas.

And one more thing I would like to emphasize: the appearance of sound writing is by no means consistent, the next stage in the development of writing among the same peoples. It arose among historically younger peoples, who, however, managed to absorb the previous experience of mankind.

One of the first alphabetic sound letters began to be used by those peoples in whose language vowel sounds were not as important as consonants. So, at the end of the II millennium BC. e. the alphabet originated with the Phoenicians, the ancient Jews, the Arameans. For example, in Hebrew, when added to consonants To - T - L different vowels, a family of single-root words is obtained: KeToL- to kill KoTeL- murderer, KaTuL- killed, etc. It is always clear by ear that we are talking about the murder. Therefore, only consonants were written in the letter - the semantic meaning of the word was clear from the context. By the way, the ancient Jews and Phoenicians wrote lines from right to left, as if left-handers had come up with such a letter. This ancient way of writing is preserved among the Jews to this day, in the same way all peoples using the Arabic alphabet write today.

From the Phoenicians - the inhabitants of the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, sea traders and travelers - the alphabetic-sound writing passed to the Greeks. From the Greeks, this principle of writing penetrated into Europe. And from Aramaic writing, according to researchers, almost all the alphabetic-sound writing systems of the peoples of Asia lead their origin.

The Phoenician alphabet had 22 letters. They were in order from `alef, bet, gimel, dalet... before tav(see table). Each letter had a meaningful name: ʻalef- ox, bet- house, gimel- camel and so on. The names of the words, as it were, tell about the people who created the alphabet, reporting the most important thing about it: the people lived in houses ( bet) with doors ( Dalet), in the construction of which nails were used ( wav). He farmed using the power of oxen ( ʻalef), cattle breeding, fishing ( meme- water, nun- fish) or wandered ( gimel- camel). He traded tete- cargo) and fought ( zayn- weapon).

The researcher, who paid attention to this, notes: among the 22 letters of the Phoenician alphabet, there is not a single one whose name would be associated with the sea, ships or maritime trade. It was this circumstance that prompted him to think that the letters of the first alphabet were by no means created by the Phoenicians, recognized sailors, but, most likely, by the ancient Jews, from whom the Phoenicians borrowed this alphabet. But be that as it may, the order of the letters, starting with `alef, was set.

The Greek letter, as already mentioned, came from the Phoenician. In the Greek alphabet, there are more letters that convey all the sound shades of speech. But their order and names, which often did not have Greek no longer makes any sense, they have been preserved, although in a slightly modified form: alpha, beta, gamma, delta... First, in the ancient Greek monuments, the letters in the inscriptions, as in the Semitic languages, were arranged from right to left, and then, without interruption, the line "curled" from left to right and again from right to left. Time passed until the left-to-right variant of writing was finally established, now spreading over most of the globe.

Latin letters originated from Greek, and their alphabetical order has not fundamentally changed. At the beginning of the first millennium A.D. e. Greek and latin languages became the main languages ​​of the vast Roman Empire. All the ancient classics, to which we still turn with trepidation and respect, are written in these languages. Greek is the language of Plato, Homer, Sophocles, Archimedes, John Chrysostom... Cicero, Ovid, Horace, Virgil, Blessed Augustine and others wrote in Latin.

Meanwhile, even before the Latin alphabet spread in Europe, some European barbarians already had their own written language in one form or another. A rather original letter developed, for example, among the Germanic tribes. This is the so-called "runic" ("rune" in the Germanic language means "mystery") writing. It arose not without the influence of already existing writing. Here, too, each sound of speech corresponds to a certain sign, but these signs received a very simple, slender and strict outline - only from vertical and diagonal lines.

THE BIRTH OF SLAVIC WRITING

In the middle of the first millennium A.D. e. Slavs settled vast territories in Central, Southern and Eastern Europe. Their neighbors in the south were Greece, Italy, Byzantium - a kind of cultural standards of human civilization.

Young Slavic "barbarians" constantly violated the borders of their southern neighbors. To curb them, both Rome and Byzantium began to attempt to convert the "barbarians" to the Christian faith, subordinating their daughter churches to the main one - Latin in Rome, Greek in Constantinople. Missionaries were sent to the "barbarians". Among the envoys of the church, no doubt, there were many who sincerely and with conviction fulfilled their spiritual duty, and the Slavs themselves, living in close contact with the European medieval world, were increasingly inclined to the need to enter the bosom of the Christian church. At the beginning of the 9th century, the Slavs began to accept Christianity.

And then I got up new task. How to make available to new converts a huge layer of world Christian culture - sacred writings, prayers, epistles of the apostles, the works of the church fathers? The Slavic language, differing in dialects, remained the same for a long time: everyone understood each other perfectly. However, the Slavs did not yet have a written language. "Before, the Slavs, when they were pagans, did not have letters," says the Tale of the Chernorizet Khrabr "On Letters," but [counted] and guessed with the help of features and cuts. However, in trade transactions, when taking into account the economy, or when it was necessary to accurately convey a message, and even more so in a dialogue with the old world, it was unlikely that "features and cuts" were enough. There was a need to create Slavic writing.

“When [the Slavs] were baptized,” said the Chernoryets Khrabr, “they tried to write down Slavic speech in Roman [Latin] and Greek letters without order.” These experiments have partially survived to this day: they sound in Slavonic, but were recorded in the 10th century. with Latin letters the main prayers common among Western Slavs. Or another interesting monument - documents in which Bulgarian texts are written in Greek letters, moreover, from those times when the Bulgarians still spoke Turkic(later the Bulgarians will speak Slavic).

And yet, neither the Latin nor the Greek alphabet corresponded to the sound palette of the Slavic language. Words, the sound of which cannot be correctly conveyed in Greek or Latin letters, were already cited by the Chernorite Brave: belly, church, aspiration, youth, language other. But another side of the problem, the political one, also emerged. Latin missionaries did not at all seek to make the new faith understandable to believers. There was a widespread belief in the Roman Church that there were "only three languages ​​in which it is fitting to praise God with the help of (special) scripts: Hebrew, Greek and Latin." In addition, Rome firmly adhered to the position that the "secret" of Christian teaching should be known only to the clergy, and ordinary Christians need very few specially processed texts - the very beginnings of Christian knowledge.

In Byzantium, they looked at all this, apparently, in a slightly different way, here they began to think about the creation of Slavic letters. “My grandfather, and my father, and many others looked for them and did not find them,” Emperor Michael III will say to the future creator of the Slavic alphabet Constantine the Philosopher. It was Konstantin he called when, in the early 860s, an embassy from Moravia (part of the territory of modern Czech Republic) came to Constantinople. The tops of the Moravian society had already adopted Christianity three decades ago, but the Germanic church was active among them. Apparently, trying to gain complete independence, the Moravian prince Rostislav asked "the teacher to tell us the right faith in our language ...".

“No one can do this, only you,” the Caesar admonished Constantine the Philosopher. This difficult, honorable mission fell simultaneously on the shoulders of his brother, hegumen (rector) of the Orthodox monastery of Methodius. “You are the Thessalonians, and the Thessalonians all speak pure Slavic,” was another argument of the emperor.

Constantine (in vows Cyril) and Methodius ( secular name unknown) - two brothers who stood at the origins of Slavic writing. They really came from Greek city Thessalonica (its modern name is Thessaloniki) in northern Greece. South Slavs lived in the neighborhood, and for the inhabitants of Thessalonica, the Slavic language, apparently, became the second language of communication.

Konstantin and his brother were born in rich family where there were seven children. She belonged to a noble Greek family: the head of the family named Leo was revered as an important person in the city. Konstantin grew up younger. As a seven-year-old child (so tells his "Life"), he saw " prophetic dream": he had to choose his wife from all the girls in the city. And he pointed to the most beautiful: "her name was Sophia, that is, Wisdom." The boy's phenomenal memory and excellent abilities - he excelled everyone in teaching - amazed those around him.

It is not surprising that, having heard about the special giftedness of the children of the Thessalonica nobleman, the ruler of the Caesar called them to Constantinople. Here they received a brilliant education for that time. With knowledge and wisdom, Konstantin earned himself honor, respect and the nickname "Philosopher". He became famous for many of his verbal victories: in discussions with carriers of heresies, at a dispute in Khazaria, where he defended the Christian faith, knowledge of many languages ​​and reading ancient inscriptions. In Chersonese, in a flooded church, Constantine discovered the relics of St. Clement, and through his efforts they were transferred to Rome.

Brother Methodius often accompanied the Philosopher and helped him in his affairs. But the brothers received world fame and grateful gratitude from their descendants by creating the Slavic alphabet and translating sacred books into the Slavic language. Great work, which played an epochal role in the formation of the Slavic peoples.

So, in the 860s, an embassy of the Moravian Slavs came to Constantinople with a request to create an alphabet for them. However, many researchers rightly believe that they began to work on the creation of the Slavic script in Byzantium, apparently, long before the arrival of this embassy. And here's why: both the creation of an alphabet that accurately reflects the sound composition of the Slavic language, and the translation into Slavonic of the Gospel - the most complex, multi-layered, internally rhythmic literary work, which requires careful and adequate selection of words, is a colossal work. To fulfill it, even Constantine the Philosopher and his brother Methodius "with his henchmen" would need more than one year. Therefore, it is natural to assume that it was precisely this work that the brothers were doing back in the 50s of the 9th century in a monastery on Olympus (in Asia Minor on the coast of the Sea of ​​​​Marmara), where, according to the Life of Constantine, they constantly prayed to God, "engaging in just books."

And in 864, Constantine the Philosopher and Methodius were already received with great honors in Moravia. They brought here the Slavic alphabet and the Gospel translated into Slavonic. But there was still work to be done. Students were assigned to help the brothers and to train with them. "And soon (Konstantin) translated the entire church rite and taught them both matins, and the hours, and Mass, and Vespers, and Compline, and secret prayer."

The brothers stayed in Moravia for more than three years. The philosopher, already suffering from a serious illness, 50 days before his death, "put on a holy monastic image and ... gave himself the name Cyril ...". When he died in 869, he was 42 years old. Cyril died and was buried in Rome.

The eldest of the brothers, Methodius, continued the work they started. As the "Life of Methodius" reports, "... having planted shorthand writers from his students, he quickly and completely translated all the books (biblical), except for the Maccabees, from Greek into Slavonic." The time devoted to this work is indicated as incredible - six or eight months. Methodius died in 885.

The appearance of sacred books in the Slavic language had a powerful resonance in the world. All well-known medieval sources that responded to this event report how "some people began to blaspheme Slavic books", arguing that "no nation should have its own alphabet, except for the Jews, Greeks and Latins." Even the Pope intervened in the dispute, grateful to the brothers who brought the relics of St. Clement to Rome. church, the pope nevertheless condemned the blasphemers, saying, allegedly, quoting the Scriptures, thus: "Let all nations praise God."

WHAT WAS FIRST - GLAGOLIC OR CYRILLIC?

Cyril and Methodius, having created the Slavic alphabet, translated almost all the most important church books and prayers into the Slavic language. But not one Slavic alphabet has survived to this day, but two: Glagolitic and Cyrillic. Both existed in IX-X centuries. In both, to convey sounds reflecting the characteristics of the Slavic language, special signs were introduced, and not combinations of two or three basic ones, as was practiced in the alphabets of Western European peoples. The Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets almost coincide in letters. The order of the letters is also almost the same (see table).

As in the very first such alphabet - Phoenician, and then in Greek, Slavic letters were also given names. And they are the same in Glagolitic and Cyrillic. First letter BUT called az, which meant "I", the second B - beeches. Root of the word beeches goes back to the Indo-European, from which the name of the tree "beech" comes, and "book" - a book (in English), and Russian word"letter". (Or maybe, in some distant times, the beech tree was used to apply "features and cuts" or, perhaps, in pre-Slavic times there was some kind of writing with its own "letters"?) According to the first two letters of the alphabet, it was compiled, as you know , the name is "alphabet". Literally, this is the same as the Greek "alphabeta", that is, "alphabet".

Third letter AT-lead(from "to know", "to know"). It seems that the author chose the names for the letters in the alphabet with meaning: if you read the first three letters "az-buki-vedi" in a row, it turns out: "I know the letters." You can read the alphabet in this way further. In both alphabets, letters were also assigned numerical values.

However, the letters in the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets were completely different shape. Cyrillic letters are geometrically simple and convenient for writing. 24 letters of this alphabet are borrowed from the Byzantine statutory letter. Letters were added to them, conveying the sound features of Slavic speech. The added letters were built to maintain the general style of the alphabet.

For the Russian language, it was the Cyrillic alphabet that was used, which has been transformed many times and is now well-established in accordance with the requirements of our time. The oldest record in Cyrillic was found on Russian monuments dating back to the 10th century. During excavations of mounds near Smolensk, archaeologists found shards from a jug with two handles. On his "shoulders" there is a clearly readable inscription: "PEA" or "PEA" (it was read: "pea" or "pea"), which means either "mustard seed" or "mustard".

But the Glagolitic letters are incredibly intricate, with curls and eyelets. ancient texts, written in the Glagolitic alphabet, more in Western and southern Slavs. Oddly enough, sometimes both alphabets were used on the same monument. On the ruins of the Simeon Church in Preslav (Bulgaria), an inscription was found dating back to about 893. In it, the top line is in Glagolitic, and the bottom two are in Cyrillic.

The question is inevitable: which of the two alphabets did Constantine create? Unfortunately, it was not possible to answer it definitively. Researchers have looked at everything possible options, using every time as if a convincing system of evidence. Here are the options:

• Constantine created the Glagolitic alphabet, and the Cyrillic alphabet is the result of its later improvement on the basis of the Greek statutory script.
• Konstantin created the Glagolitic alphabet, and the Cyrillic alphabet already existed by this time.
• Konstantin created the Cyrillic alphabet, for which he used the already existing Glagolitic, "dressing" it according to the model of the Greek charter.
• Constantine created the Cyrillic alphabet, and the Glagolitic developed as "secret writing" when the Catholic clergy attacked books written in Cyrillic.
• And, finally, Cyrillic and Glagolitic existed among the Slavs, in particular among the Eastern, even in their pre-Christian period.

Perhaps, only the variant according to which both alphabets were created by Konstantin was not discussed, which, by the way, is also quite probable. Indeed, it can be assumed that at first he created the Glagolitic alphabet - when in the 50s, together with his brother and assistants, he sat in a monastery on Olympus, "dealing only with books." Then he could fulfill a special order of the authorities. Byzantium had long been plotting to bind the Slavic "barbarians", who were becoming more and more real threat, the Christian religion and thus bring them under the control of the Byzantine patriarchy. But this had to be done subtly and delicately, without arousing the enemy's suspicions and respecting the self-esteem of a young and asserting itself in the world people. Consequently, it was necessary to unobtrusively offer him his own written language, as it were, "independent" of the imperial one. It would be a typical "Byzantine intrigue".

The verb answered perfectly. necessary requirements: in content it is worthy of a talented scientist, and in form it expressed a definitely original writing. This letter was, apparently, without any solemn actions, as if gradually "put into circulation" and began to be used in the Balkans, in particular in Bulgaria, which was baptized in 858.

When, suddenly, the Moravian Slavs themselves turned to Byzantium with a request for a Christian teacher, the primacy of the empire, which now acted as a teacher, could and even was desirable to emphasize and demonstrate. Moravia was soon offered the Cyrillic alphabet and the Cyrillic translation of the Gospel. This work was also done by Konstantin. At a new political turn, the Slavic alphabet appeared (and this was very important for the empire) as the "flesh of the flesh" of the Byzantine statutory letter. There is nothing to be surprised at by the quick dates indicated in the Life of Constantine. Now it really did not take much time - after all, the main thing was done earlier. The Cyrillic alphabet has become a little more perfect, but in fact it is a Glagolitic script disguised as a Greek charter.

AND AGAIN ABOUT SLAVIC WRITING

A long scientific discussion around the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets forced historians to study the pre-Slavic period more carefully, to look for and peer into the monuments of pre-Slavic writing. At the same time, it turned out that we can talk not only about "features and cuts." In 1897, an earthenware vessel was discovered near the village of Alekanovo near Ryazan. On it - strange signs of intersecting lines and straight "sprouts" - clearly some kind of writing. However, they are not read today. The mysterious images on Russian coins of the 11th century are not clear. The field of activity for inquisitive minds is extensive. Perhaps someday the "mysterious" signs will speak, and we will get a clear picture of the state of pre-Slavic writing. Perhaps it continued to exist for some time along with the Slavic?

In search of answers to the questions of which of the alphabets Constantine (Cyril) created and whether the Slavs had written language before Cyril and Methodius, somehow less attention was paid to the colossal significance of their enormous work - the translation of Christian book treasures into Slavic. After all, we are actually talking about the creation of the Slavic literary language. Before the appearance of the works of Cyril and Methodius "with henchmen" in the Slavic language, there were simply no many concepts and words that could accurately and briefly convey sacred texts and Christian truths. Sometimes these new words had to be built using the Slavic root base, sometimes they had to leave the Hebrew or Greek ones (like "hallelujah" or "amen").

When in mid-nineteenth centuries, these same sacred texts were translated from Old Slavonic into Russian, it took a group of translators more than two decades! Although their task was much simpler, after all, the Russian language still came from Slavic. And Constantine and Methodius translated from the developed and refined Greek language into the still very "barbaric" Slavic! And the brothers coped with this task with honor.

The Slavs, who received both the alphabet and Christian books in their native language, and the literary language, had a sharp increase in the chance to quickly join the world's cultural treasury and, if not destroy, then significantly reduce the cultural gap between the Byzantine Empire and the "barbarians".

The Bulgarian writer of the 10th century Chernorizet (monk) Khrabr devoted a small (but for us, descendants, immeasurably valuable!) essay to the beginning of Slavic writing - “Tales of Letters”, that is, about letters.

Brave says that in ancient times, when the Slavs were still pagans, they did not have letters, they read and guessed "with devils and cuts." "Features" and "cuts" are a kind of primitive writing in the form of drawings and notches on a tree, known among other peoples in the early stages of their development. When the Slavs were baptized, Brave continues, they tried to write down their speech in Roman and Greek letters, but "without dispensation", without order. Such attempts were doomed to failure, since neither the Greek nor the Latin alphabet was suitable for conveying many of the special sounds of Slavic speech. “And so it was for many years,” notes the first historian of Slavic writing. So it was until the time of Cyril and Methodius.

Cyril (secular name Constantine) and his older brother Methodius were born in the Byzantine city of Thessaloniki on the coast Aegean Sea(now Thessaloniki in Greece), which the Slavs called Thessalonica. Therefore, Cyril and Methodius are often called Thessalonica brothers . Thessalonica was the largest city Byzantine Empire, many Slavs have long lived in its vicinity, and, obviously, even in childhood, the boys got acquainted with their customs and speech.

The father of the brothers, Leo, was a middle-ranking commander in the imperial troops and was able to give children a good education. Methodius (about 815 - 6. IV. 885), having brilliantly completed his studies, was appointed governor in one of the Slavic regions of Byzantium in his youth. As the pages of the "Life of Methodius" tell, he learned there "all Slavic customs." However, "having learned the many chaotic unrest of this life," he abandoned his secular career, took the vows as a monk around 852, and later became abbot of the Polychron monastery in Asia Minor.

Cyril (about 827 - 14. II. 869) from a young age was distinguished by a craving for science and exceptional philological abilities. He was educated in the capital of the empire, Constantinople, from the greatest scientists of his time - Leo the Grammarian and the future Patriarch Photius. After completing his studies, he served as a librarian in the richest patriarchal book depository in the Cathedral of St. Sophia and taught philosophy.

In medieval sources, Constantine is often referred to as the Philosopher.

Highly appreciating the learning of Constantine, the Byzantine government entrusted him with responsible tasks. As part of diplomatic missions, he traveled to preach Christianity in the Baghdad caliphate in 851-852. And around 861, together with Methodius, he went to Khazaria, a state of Turkic-speaking tribes who converted to Judaism. The capital of Khazaria was located on the Volga, above modern Astrakhan.

The ancient "Life of Cyril", created by a man who knew the brothers well, tells us about the activities of the enlighteners, about the circumstances of the emergence of Slavic literature. On the way to Khazaria, in the city of Chersonesos, the center of the Byzantine possessions in the Crimea (within the boundaries of modern Sevastopol), Cyril found the Gospel and the Psalter, written in “hand writing”, met a man who spoke that language, and in a short time mastered the "rushka" language. This mysterious place in life has given rise to various scientific hypotheses. It was believed that "rushkie letters" are writing of the Eastern Slavs, which Cyril later used to create the Old Slavonic alphabet. However, it is most likely that in the original text of the life there were “Sura”, that is, Syrian, letters, which the later scribe mistakenly understood as “Rushka”.

In 862 or 863, ambassadors from the prince of Great Moravia, Rostislav, arrived in the capital of Byzantium, Constantinople. They conveyed to the Byzantine emperor Michael III the request of Rostislav: “Although our people have rejected paganism and adhere to the Christian law, we do not have such a teacher to expound the right Christian faith in our language ... So send us, Vladyka, a bishop and a teacher of this.”

Great Moravia was in the 9th century a strong and extensive state of the Western Slavs. It included Moravia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, as well as part of modern Slovenia and other lands. However, Great Moravia was under the influence of the Roman Church, and the dominant language of church literature and worship in Western Europe was Latin. The so-called "trilinguals" recognized only three languages ​​as sacred - Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Prince Rostislav pursued an independent policy: he strove for the cultural independence of his country from the Holy Roman Empire and the German clergy, who performed church services in Latin, incomprehensible to the Slavs. That is why he sent an embassy to Byzantium, which permitted worship in other languages.

In response to the request of Rostislav, the Byzantine government sent (no later than 864) a mission to Great Moravia led by Cyril and Methodius.

By that time, Cyril, having returned from Khazaria, had already begun work on the Slavic alphabet and the translation of Greek church books into Slavic. Even before the Moravian embassy, ​​he created an original alphabet well adapted to recording Slavic speech - Glagolitic. Its name comes from the noun verb, which means word, speech. The Glagolitic is distinguished by graphic harmony. Many of its letters have a loop-like pattern. Some scholars deduced the Glagolitic alphabet from the Greek minuscule (cursive) writing, while others looked for its source in the Khazar, Syrian, Coptic, Armenian, Georgian and other ancient alphabets. Cyril borrowed some letters of the Glagolitic alphabet from the Greek (sometimes mirrored) and Hebrew (mostly in its Samaritan variety) alphabets. The order of letters in the Glagolitic alphabet is oriented to the order of letters in the Greek alphabet, which means that Cyril did not at all abandon the Greek basis of his invention.

However, when creating his own alphabet, Cyril himself invents whole line new letters. For this, he uses the most important Christian symbols and their combinations: the cross is a symbol of Christianity, atonement for sins and salvation; the triangle is a symbol of the Holy Trinity; the circle is a symbol of eternity, etc. It is no coincidence az , the first letter of the ancient Slavic alphabet (modern a ), created specifically for recording sacred Christian texts, has the shape of a cross -

, letters izhei and word (our and , with ) received the same inscriptions connecting the symbols of trinity and eternity: respectively, and etc.

The Glagolitic was used at the site of its original use in Moravia in the 60s-80s of the 9th century. From there, it penetrated into western Bulgaria (Macedonia) and Croatia, where it became most widespread. Glagolitic church books were published by Croats-verbals as early as the 20th century. But in Ancient Russia, the Glagolitic alphabet did not take root. In the pre-Mongolian period, it was used here occasionally, and could be used as a kind of secret writing.

Here comes the time of the second oldest Slavic alphabet - Cyrillic. It was created after the death of Cyril and Methodius by their students in Eastern Bulgaria at the end of the 9th century. In terms of composition, arrangement and sound meaning of the letters, the Cyrillic alphabet almost completely coincides with the Glagolitic alphabet, but differs sharply from it in the shape of the letters. This alphabet is based on the Greek solemn letter - the so-called charter. However, the letters necessary to convey the special sounds of Slavic speech that are absent in the Greek language were taken from the Glagolitic alphabet or compiled according to its patterns. Thus, Cyril is directly related to this alphabet, and its name Cyrillic quite justified. In a slightly modified form, it is still used by Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Serbs, Bulgarians, Macedonians and other peoples.

What books were the first to be translated into Slavonic?

The first book translated by the brothers, presumably before the Moravian embassy, ​​was the Gospel. She was followed by the Apostle, the Psalter, and gradually the entire rite of church services was dressed in a new outfit - Slavic. During the translation process, a the first common Slavic literary language, which is usually called Old Church Slavonic. This is the language of Slavic translations of Greek church books made by Cyril, Methodius and their students in the second half of the 9th century. The manuscripts of that distant era have not survived to our time, but their later Glagolitic and Cyrillic copies of the 10th-11th centuries have been preserved.

The folk basis of the Old Church Slavonic language was the South Slavic dialect of the Thessalonica Slavs (Macedonian dialects of the Bulgarian language of the 9th century), which Cyril and Methodius met in childhood in their hometown Thessalonica. “After all, you are the Solunians, and the Solunians all speak pure Slavic,” with these words Emperor Michael III sent the brothers to Great Moravia. We also learn about this from the Life of Methodius.

From the very beginning, the Old Church Slavonic language, as well as the rich translated and original literature created on it, had above national and international character. Old Slavonic literacy existed in different Slavic lands, it was used by Czechs and Slovaks, Bulgarians, Serbs and Slovenes, and later our ancestors, East Slavs. The continuation of the Old Slavonic language was its local varieties - out of the water, or editorial. They were formed from the Old Slavonic language under the influence of live folk speech. There are Old Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, Croatian Glagolitic, Czech, Romanian versions. The differences between different versions of the Church Slavonic language are small. Therefore, works created in one language area were easily read, understood and copied in other lands.

The generally accepted date for the emergence of writing among the Slavs is 863, but some researchers argue that they knew how to write in Russia before.

Closed topic

The theme of pre-Christian writing in Ancient Russia was considered in Soviet science if not forbidden, then quite closed. Only in recent decades There have been a number of works devoted to this problem.

For example, in the fundamental monograph "History of Writing" N. A. Pavlenko offers six hypotheses for the origin of the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets, moreover, he argues that both the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets were among the Slavs in pre-Christian times.

Myth or reality

Historian Lev Prozorov is sure that there is more than enough evidence of the existence of writing before the appearance of the Cyrillic alphabet in Russia. He argues that our distant ancestors could not only write individual words, but also draw up legal documents.

As an example, Prozorov draws attention to the conclusion of an agreement with Byzantium by Oleg the Prophet. The document deals with the consequences of the death of a Russian merchant in Constantinople: if the merchant dies, then one should “treat with his property as he wrote in his will.” True, in what language such wills were written is not specified.

In the "Lives of Methodius and Cyril", compiled in the Middle Ages, it is written about how Cyril visited Chersonese and saw Holy books, written in "Russian letters". However, many researchers tend to be critical of this source. For example, Viktor Istrin believes that the word "Russian" should be understood as "Sour" - that is, Syriac scripts.

However, there is other evidence confirming that the pagan Slavs still had a written language. This can be read in the chronicles of Western authors - Helmold from Bosau, Titmar of Merseburg, Adam of Bremen, who, when describing the shrines of the Baltic and Polabian Slavs, mention inscriptions on the bases of the statues of the Gods.

The Arab chronicler Ibn-Fodlan wrote that he saw with his own eyes the burial of the Rus and how a memorial mark was placed on his grave - a wooden pillar on which the name of the deceased himself and the name of the king of the Rus were carved.

Archeology

Indirectly, the presence of writing among the ancient Slavs is confirmed by the excavations of Novgorod. On the site of the old settlement, writings were found - rods with which the inscription was applied to wood, clay or plaster. The finds date back to the middle of the 10th century, despite the fact that Christianity penetrated Novgorod only at the end of the 10th century.

The same writing was found in Gnezdovo during the excavations of ancient Smolensk, moreover, there is archaeological evidence of the use of rods for writing. In a mound of the middle of the 10th century, archaeologists unearthed a fragment of an amphora, where they read the inscription made in Cyrillic: “Pea dog”.

Ethnographers believe that "Pea" is a protective name that was given by our ancestors so that "grief is not attached."

Also among the archaeological finds of ancient Slavic settlements are the remains of swords, on the blades of which blacksmiths engraved their name. For example, on one of the swords found near the village of Foshchevata, one can read the name "Ludot".

"Features and cuts"

If the appearance of samples of Cyrillic writing in pre-Christian times can still be disputed, in particular, explained by the incorrect dating of the find, then writing with “features and cuts” is a sign of a more ancient culture. This method of writing, still popular among the Slavs even after being baptized, was mentioned in his treatise “On Letters” (beginning of the 10th century) by the Bulgarian monk Chernorizets Brave.

By “features and cuts”, according to scientists, most likely they meant a kind of pictographic-tamga and counting writing, also known among other peoples in early stages their development.

Attempts to decipher the inscriptions made according to the type of "features and cuts" were made by the Russian amateur decryptor Gennady Grinevich. In total, he examined about 150 inscriptions found in the territory of the settlement of the Eastern and Western Slavs (IV-X centuries AD). Upon careful study of the inscriptions, the researcher identified 74 basic signs, which, in his opinion, formed the basis of the ancient Slavic syllabic writing.

Grinevich also suggested that some samples of the Proto-Slavic syllabary were made using pictograms. For example, the image of a horse, dog or spear means that you need to use the first syllables of these words - “lo”, “so” and “ko”.
With the advent of the Cyrillic alphabet, the syllabary, according to the researcher, did not disappear, but began to be used as a secret script. So, on the cast-iron fence of the Sloboda Palace in Moscow (now the building of the Moscow State Technical University named after Bauman), Grinevich read how "the Hasid Domenico Gilardi has the cook Nicholas I in his power."

"Slavic runes"

Some researchers are of the opinion that Old Slavic writing this is an analogue of the Scandinavian runic letter, which allegedly confirms the so-called "Kiev letter" (a document dating from the 10th century), issued to Jacob Ben Hanukkah by the Jewish community of Kyiv. The text of the document is written in Hebrew, and the signature is made in runic characters that have not yet been able to read.
The German historian Konrad Schurzfleisch writes about the existence of runic writing among the Slavs. His thesis of 1670 refers to the schools of the Germanic Slavs, where children were taught the runes. As proof, the historian cited a sample of the Slavic runic alphabet, similar to the Danish runes of the 13th-16th centuries.

Writing as a Witness to Migration

Grinevich, mentioned above, believes that with the help of the Old Slavic syllabic alphabet one can also read the Cretan inscriptions of the XX-XIII centuries. BC, Etruscan inscriptions of the 8th-2nd centuries. BC, Germanic runes and ancient inscriptions from Siberia and Mongolia.
In particular, according to Grinevich, he was able to read the text of the famous "Phaistos Disc" (Crete Island, XVII century BC), which tells about the Slavs who found a new home in Crete. However, the bold conclusions of the researcher cause serious objection from the academic community.

Grinevich is not alone in his research. Back in the first half of the 19th century, the Russian historian E.I. Klassen wrote that “the Slavic Russians, as a people educated earlier than the Romans and Greeks, left many monuments in all parts of the Old World, testifying to their stay there and to the most ancient writing.”

The Italian philologist Sebastiano Ciampi showed in practice that there was a certain connection between the ancient Slavic and European cultures.

To decipher the Etruscan language, the scientist decided to try to rely not on Greek and Latin, but on one of the Slavic languages ​​that he was fluent in - Polish. Imagine the surprise of the Italian researcher when some Etruscan texts began to lend themselves to translation.