Creation of the Slavic alphabet. “I am no longer a servant of either the king or anyone else on earth; only God the Almighty was and will be forever, ”Kirill will now write

Cyril and Methodius - saints, equal to the apostles, Slavic enlighteners, creators of the Slavic alphabet, preachers of Christianity, the first translators of liturgical books from Greek into Slavonic. Cyril was born around 827, died on February 14, 869. Before becoming a monk at the beginning of 869, he bore the name Constantine. His older brother Methodius was born around 820, died on April 6, 885. Both brothers were from Thessalonica (Thessalonica), their father was a military leader. In 863, Cyril and Methodius were sent by the Byzantine emperor to Moravia in order to preach Christianity in the Slavic language and assist the Moravian prince Rostislav in the fight against the German princes. Before leaving, Cyril created the Slavonic alphabet and, with the help of Methodius, translated several liturgical books from Greek into Slavonic: selected readings from the Gospel, apostolic letters. Psalter, etc. There is no consensus in science on the question of which alphabet Cyril created - Glagolitic or Cyrillic, but the first assumption is more likely. In 866 or 867, Cyril and Methodius, on the call of Pope Nicholas I, went to Rome, on the way they visited the Blaten Principality in Pannonia, where they also distributed the Slavic letter and introduced worship in the Slavic language. After arriving in Rome, Cyril fell seriously ill and died. Methodius was consecrated Archbishop of Moravia and Pannonia and in 870 returned from Rome to Pannonia. In the middle of 884, Methodius returned to Moravia and was busy translating the Bible into Slavonic. Through their activities, Cyril and Methodius laid the foundation for Slavic writing and literature. This activity was continued in the South Slavic countries by their students, who were expelled from Moravia in 886 and moved to Bulgaria.

CYRIL AND METHODIUS - ENLIGHTENERS OF THE SLAVIC PEOPLES

In 863, ambassadors from Great Moravia from Prince Rostislav arrived in Byzantium to Emperor Michael III with a request to send them a bishop and a person who could explain the Christian faith in Slavonic. The Moravian prince Rostislav strove for the independence of the Slavic Church and had already applied to Rome with a similar request, but was refused. Michael III and Photius, just as in Rome, reacted to the request of Rostislav formally and, having sent missionaries to Moravia, did not ordain any of them as bishops. Thus, Constantine, Methodius and their entourage could only conduct educational activities, but did not have the right to ordain their disciples to the priestly and deacon ranks. This mission could not be crowned with success and be of great importance if Constantine had not brought to the Moravans an alphabet perfectly developed and convenient for the transmission of Slavic speech, as well as a translation into Slavonic of the main liturgical books. Of course, the language of the translations brought by the brothers differed phonetically and morphologically from the living spoken language spoken by the Moravans, but the language of liturgical books was initially perceived as a written, bookish, sacred, sample language. It was much more understandable than Latin, and a certain dissimilarity to the language used in everyday life, gave it greatness.

Constantine and Methodius read the Gospel in Slavonic at divine services, and the people reached out to the brothers and to Christianity. Konstantin and Methodius diligently taught the students the Slavic alphabet, worship, continued their translation activities. Churches where the service was conducted in Latin were empty, the Roman Catholic priesthood was losing influence and income in Moravia. Since Constantine was a simple priest, and Methodius was a monk, they did not have the right to put their students in church positions themselves. To solve the problem, the brothers had to go to Byzantium or Rome.

In Rome, Constantine handed over the relics of St. Clement to the newly ordained Pope Adrian II, so he received Constantine and Methodius very solemnly, with honor, accepted worship in the Slavonic language under his guardianship, ordered to put Slavic books in one of the Roman churches and perform worship over them. The Pope ordained Methodius as a priest, and his disciples as presbyters and deacons, and in a letter to the princes Rostislav and Kotsel, he legitimizes the Slavic translation of the Holy Scripture and the celebration of worship in the Slavic language.

The brothers spent almost two years in Rome. One reason for this is Constantine's deteriorating health. At the beginning of 869, he took the schema and the new monastic name Cyril, and on February 14 he died. By order of Pope Adrian II, Cyril was buried in Rome, in the church of St. Clement.

After the death of Cyril, Pope Adrian ordained Methodius to the rank of Archbishop of Moravia and Pannonia. Returning to Pannonia, Methodius launched a vigorous activity to spread Slavic worship and writing. However, after the removal of Rostislav, Methodius did not have strong political support left. In 871, the German authorities arrested Methodius and held a trial against him, accusing the archbishop of having invaded the possessions of the Bavarian clergy. Methodius was imprisoned in a monastery in Swabia (Germany), where he spent two and a half years. Only thanks to the direct intervention of Pope John VIII, who succeeded the deceased Adrian II, in 873 Methodius was released and restored to all rights, but the Slavic service became not the main one, but only an additional one: the service was conducted in Latin, and sermons could be delivered in Slavonic.

After the death of Methodius, the opponents of the Slavic worship in Moravia became more active, and the worship itself, which rested on the authority of Methodius, was first oppressed, and then completely faded. Some of the students fled to the south, some were sold into slavery in Venice, some were killed. The closest disciples of Methodius Gorazda, Clement, Naum, Angellarius and Lawrence, imprisoned in iron, kept in prison, and then expelled from the country. The writings and translations of Constantine and Methodius were destroyed. This explains the fact that their works have not survived to this day, although there is a lot of information about their work. In 890, Pope Stephen VI anathematized Slavic books and Slavic worship, finally banning them.

The work begun by Constantine and Methodius was nevertheless continued by his disciples. Clement, Naum and Angellarius settled in Bulgaria and were the founders of Bulgarian literature. Orthodox Prince Boris-Michael, a friend of Methodius, supported his students. A new center of Slavic writing appears in Ohrid (the territory of modern Macedonia). However, Bulgaria is under a strong cultural influence of Byzantium, and one of Constantine's students (most likely Clement) creates a script similar to the Greek script. This happens at the end of the 9th - beginning of the 10th century, during the reign of Tsar Simeon. It is this system that gets the name Cyrillic in memory of the person who first attempted to create an alphabet suitable for recording Slavic speech.

THE QUESTION OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE SLAVIC ALPHABETs

The question of the independence of the Slavic alphabets is caused by the very nature of the outlines of the Cyrillic and Glagolitic letters, their sources. What were the Slavic alphabets - a new writing system or just a kind of Greek-Byzantine writing? In deciding this issue, the following factors must be taken into account:

In the history of writing, there was not a single letter-sound system that would have arisen completely independently, without the influence of previous writing systems. So, the Phoenician letter arose on the basis of the ancient Egyptian (although the principle of writing was changed), ancient Greek - on the basis of Phoenician, Latin, Slavic - on the basis of Greek, French, German - on the basis of Latin, etc.

Consequently, we can only talk about the degree of independence of the writing system. At the same time, it is much more important how accurately the modified and adapted original writing corresponds to the sound system of the language that it intends to serve. It is in this respect that the creators of Slavic writing showed a great philological flair, a deep understanding of the phonetics of the Old Slavonic language, as well as a great graphic taste.

THE ONLY STATE CHURCH HOLIDAY

PRESIDIUM OF THE SUPREME SOVIET OF THE RSFSR

RESOLUTION

ABOUT THE DAY OF SLAVIC WRITING AND CULTURE

Attaching great importance to the cultural and historical revival of the peoples of Russia and taking into account the international practice of celebrating the day of the Slavic enlighteners Cyril and Methodius, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR decides:

Chairman

Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR

In 863, 1150 years ago, the Equal-to-the-Apostles brothers Cyril and Methodius began their Moravian mission to create our written language. It is mentioned in the main Russian chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years": "And the Slavs were glad that they heard about the greatness of God in their own language."

And a second anniversary. In 1863, 150 years ago, the Holy Synod of Russia decided: in connection with the celebration of the millennium of the Moravian Mission of the Holy Brothers Equal to the Apostles, to establish an annual celebration in honor of St. Methodius and Cyril on May 11 (24 CE).

In 1986, at the initiative of writers, especially the late Vitaly Maslov, the first Writing Festival was first held in Murmansk, and the following year it was widely celebrated in Vologda. Finally, on January 30, 1991, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR adopted a resolution on the annual holding of the Days of Slavic Culture and Literature. Readers do not need to be reminded that May 24 is also the name day of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.

Logically, it seems that the only state-church holiday in Russia has every reason to acquire not only a national sound, as in Bulgaria, but also a pan-Slavic significance.

The creators of the Slavic alphabet Methodius and Cyril.

At the end of 862, the prince of Great Moravia (the state of the Western Slavs) Rostislav turned to the Byzantine emperor Michael with a request to send preachers to Moravia who could spread Christianity in the Slavic language (sermons in those parts were read in Latin, unfamiliar and incomprehensible to the people).

Emperor Michael sent the Greeks to Moravia - the scientist Constantine the Philosopher (the name Cyril Constantine received when he became a monk in 869, and with this name he went down in history) and his older brother Methodius.

The choice was not random. The brothers Constantine and Methodius were born in Thessalonica (in Greek, Thessaloniki) in the family of a military commander, received a good education. Cyril studied in Constantinople at the court of the Byzantine emperor Michael III, knew Greek, Slavic, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic languages ​​well, taught philosophy, for which he received the nickname Philosopher. Methodius was in military service, then for several years he ruled one of the regions inhabited by the Slavs; subsequently retired to a monastery.

In 860, the brothers had already made a trip to the Khazars for missionary and diplomatic purposes.
In order to be able to preach Christianity in the Slavic language, it was necessary to make a translation of the Holy Scripture into the Slavic language; however, the alphabet capable of conveying Slavic speech did not exist at that moment.

Constantine set about creating the Slavic alphabet. Methodius, who also knew the Slavic language well, helped him in his work, since a lot of Slavs lived in Thessalonica (the city was considered half-Greek, half-Slavic). In 863, the Slavic alphabet was created (the Slavic alphabet existed in two versions: the Glagolitic alphabet - from the verb - “speech” and the Cyrillic alphabet; scientists still do not have a consensus which of these two options was created by Cyril). With the help of Methodius, a number of liturgical books were translated from Greek into Slavonic. The Slavs got the opportunity to read and write in their own language. The Slavs not only had their own, Slavic, alphabet, but also the first Slavic literary language was born, many of whose words still live in Bulgarian, Russian, Ukrainian and other Slavic languages.

The mystery of the Slavic alphabet
The Old Slavonic alphabet got its name from a combination of two letters “az” and “beeches”, which denoted the first letters of the alphabet A and B. An interesting fact is that the Old Slavonic alphabet was graffiti, i.e. graffiti scrawled on the walls. The first Old Slavonic letters appeared on the walls of churches in Pereslavl around the 9th century. And by the 11th century, ancient graffiti appeared in St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. It was on these walls that the letters of the alphabet were indicated in several styles, and below was the interpretation of the letter-word.
In 1574, an important event took place, which contributed to a new round in the development of Slavic writing. The first printed ABC appeared in Lvov, which was seen by Ivan Fedorov, the man who printed it.

ABC structure
If you look back, you will see that Cyril and Methodius created not just an alphabet, they opened a new path for the Slavic people, leading to the perfection of man on earth and the triumph of a new faith. If you look at historical events, the difference between which is only 125 years, you will understand that in fact the path of establishing Christianity in our land is directly related to the creation of the Slavic alphabet. Indeed, literally in one century, the Slavic people eradicated archaic cults and adopted a new faith. The connection between the creation of the Cyrillic alphabet and the adoption of Christianity today is beyond doubt. The Cyrillic alphabet was created in 863, and already in 988, Prince Vladimir officially announced the introduction of Christianity and the overthrow of primitive cults.

Studying the Old Slavonic alphabet, many scientists come to the conclusion that in fact the first "ABC" is a cryptography that has a deep religious and philosophical meaning, and most importantly, that it is built in such a way that it is a complex logical and mathematical organism. In addition, comparing many finds, the researchers came to the conclusion that the first Slavic alphabet was created as a holistic invention, and not as a creation that was created in parts by adding new letter forms. It is also interesting that most of the letters of the Old Slavonic alphabet are letters-numbers. Moreover, if you look at the entire alphabet, you will see that it can be conditionally divided into two parts, which are fundamentally different from each other. In this case, we will conditionally call the first half of the alphabet the “higher” part, and the second “lower”. The upper part includes letters from A to F, i.e. from “az” to “fert” and is a list of letter-words that carry a meaning understandable to the Slav. The lower part of the alphabet begins with the letter "sha" and ends with "izhitsa". The letters of the lower part of the Old Slavonic alphabet do not have a numerical value, unlike the letters of the higher part, and carry a negative connotation.

In order to understand the secret writing of the Slavic alphabet, it is necessary not only to skim through it, but to read each letter-word. After all, each letter-word contains a semantic core that Konstantin put into it.

Literal truth, the highest part of the alphabet
Az- this is the initial letter of the Slavic alphabet, which denotes the pronoun I. However, its root meaning is the word “originally”, “begin” or “beginning”, although in everyday life the Slavs most often used Az in the context of the pronoun. Nevertheless, in some Old Slavonic writings one can find Az, which meant “one”, for example, “I will go to Vladimir”. Or, “starting from the basics” meant “starting from the beginning.” Thus, with the beginning of the alphabet, the Slavs denoted the entire philosophical meaning of being, where without beginning there is no end, without darkness there is no light, and without good there is no evil. At the same time, the main emphasis in this is placed on the duality of the dispensation of the world. Actually, the alphabet itself is built on the principle of duality, where it is conditionally divided into two parts: the highest and the lowest, positive and negative, the part located at the beginning and the part that is at the end. In addition, do not forget that Az has a numerical value, which is expressed by the number 1. Among the ancient Slavs, the number 1 was the beginning of everything beautiful. Today, studying Slavic numerology, we can say that the Slavs, like other peoples, divided all numbers into even and odd. At the same time, odd numbers were the embodiment of everything positive, kind and bright. In turn, even numbers represented darkness and evil. At the same time, the unit was considered the beginning of all beginnings and was very revered by the Slavic tribes. From the point of view of erotic numerology, it is believed that 1 is a phallic symbol, from which the continuation of the family begins. This number has several synonyms: 1 is one, 1 is one, 1 is times.

Beeches(Beeches) - the second letter-word in the alphabet. It has no digital meaning, but it has no less deep philosophical meaning than Az. Beeches - means "to be", "will be" was most often used in turnovers in the future form. For example, “bodie” means “let it be”, and “bowdo”, as you probably already guessed, means “future, upcoming”. In this word, our ancestors expressed the future as an inevitability that could be both good and rosy, or gloomy and terrible. It is still not known for certain why Bukam Constantine did not give a numerical value, but many scholars suggest that this is due to the duality of this letter. Indeed, by and large, it denotes the future, which each person imagines for himself in a rainbow light, but on the other hand, this word also denotes the inevitability of punishment for committed low deeds.

Lead- the most interesting letter of the Old Slavonic alphabet, which has a numerical value of 2. This letter has several meanings: to know, to know and to own. When Constantine put this meaning into Vedi, he meant secret knowledge, knowledge as the highest divine gift. If you add Az, Buki and Vedi into one phrase, you will get a phrase that means "I will know!". Thus, Constantine showed that a person who discovered the alphabet created by him would subsequently have some kind of knowledge. No less important is the numerical load of this letter. After all, 2 - two, two, a couple were not just numbers among the Slavs, they took an active part in magical rituals and in general were symbols of the duality of everything earthly and heavenly. The number 2 among the Slavs meant the unity of heaven and earth, the duality of human nature, good and evil, etc. In a word, the deuce was a symbol of the confrontation between the two sides, heavenly and earthly balance. Moreover, it is worth noting that the Slavs considered the two to be a devilish number and attributed to it a lot of negative properties, believing that it was the two that opened the number series of negative numbers that brought death to a person. That is why the birth of twins in Old Slavic families was considered a bad sign, which brought illness and misfortune to the family. In addition, among the Slavs, it was considered a bad sign to rock the cradle together, two people to dry themselves with one towel and generally perform any action together. Despite such a negative attitude towards the number 2, the Slavs recognized its magical power. So, for example, many rituals of exorcism were carried out with the help of two identical objects or with the participation of twins.

Having considered the upper part of the alphabet, one can state the fact that it is a secret message of Constantine to the descendants. "Where is it seen?" - you ask. And now you try to read all the letters, knowing their true meaning. If you take several subsequent letters, then phrases-edifications are added:
Lead + The verb means "lead the teaching";
Rtsy + Word + Firmly can be understood as the phrase "speak the true word";
Firmly + Ouk can be interpreted as "strengthen the law."
If you look closely at other letters, you can also find the secret script that Constantine the Philosopher left behind.
Have you ever wondered why the letters in the alphabet are in this order, and not some other? The order of the "higher" part of the Cyrillic letters can be considered from two positions.
Firstly, the fact that each letter-word is formed into a meaningful phrase with the next one may mean a non-random pattern that was invented to quickly memorize the alphabet.
Secondly, the Old Slavonic alphabet can be considered from the point of view of numbering. That is, each letter is also a number. Moreover, all letters-numbers are arranged in ascending order. So, the letter A - “az” corresponds to one, B - 2, G - 3, D - 4, E - 5, and so on up to ten. The letter K begins with tens, which are listed here in the same way as units: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 70, 80 and 100.

In addition, many scientists have noticed that the outlines of the letters of the "higher" part of the alphabet are graphically simple, beautiful and convenient. They perfectly suited cursive writing, and the person did not experience any difficulties in depicting these letters. And many philosophers see in the numerical arrangement of the alphabet the principle of the triad and spiritual harmony, which a person achieves, striving for goodness, light and truth.
Having studied the alphabet from the very beginning, we can come to the conclusion that Constantine left his descendants the main value - a creation that encourages us to strive for self-improvement, learning, wisdom and love, remembering the dark paths of malice, envy and enmity.

Now, opening the alphabet, you will know that the creation that came into being thanks to the efforts of Constantine the Philosopher is not just a list of letters that begin words that express our fear and indignation, love and tenderness, respect and delight.

In the 10th century, Bulgaria became the center for the dissemination of Slavic writing and books. It is from here that the Slavic letter and the Slavic book come to the Russian land. The oldest Slavic written monuments that have survived to this day are written not by one, but by two varieties of Slavic writing. These are two alphabets that existed at the same time: CYRILLIC(by the name of Cyril) and VERB(from the word "verb", i.e. "to speak").

The question of what kind of alphabet Cyril and Methodius created has occupied scientists for a very long time, but they did not come to a consensus. There are two main hypotheses. According to the first, Cyril and Methodius created the Cyrillic alphabet, and the Glagolitic alphabet arose in Moravia after the death of Methodius during the period of persecution. The disciples of Methodius came up with a new alphabet, which became the Glagolitic alphabet. It was created on the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet by changing the spelling of letters in order to continue the work of spreading the Slavic script.

Adherents of the second hypothesis believe that Cyril and Methodius were the authors of the Glagolitic alphabet, and the Cyrillic alphabet appeared already in Bulgaria as a result of the activities of their students.

The question of the ratio of the alphabets is also complicated by the fact that not a single source that tells about the activities of the Solun brothers contains examples of the writing system that they developed. The first inscriptions in Cyrillic and Glagolitic that have come down to us date back to the same time - the turn of the 9th-10th centuries.

An analysis of the language of the oldest Slavic written monuments showed that the first Slavic alphabet was created for the Old Church Slavonic language. Old Church Slavonic is not the spoken language of the Slavs of the 9th century, but a language specially created for translating Christian literature and creating their own Slavic religious works. It differed from the living spoken language of that time, but was understandable to everyone who spoke the Slavic languages.

The Old Church Slavonic language was created on the basis of the dialects of the southern group of Slavic languages, then it began to spread to the territory of the Western Slavs, and by the end of the 10th century, the Old Church Slavonic language also fell into the East Slavic territory. The language spoken by the Eastern Slavs at that time is usually called Old Russian. After the baptism of Russia, two languages ​​already “live” on its territory: the living spoken language of the Eastern Slavs - Old Russian and the literary written language - Old Slavonic.

What were the first Slavic alphabets? Cyrillic and Glagolitic are very similar: they have almost the same number of letters - 43 in Cyrillic and 40 in Glagolitic, which are named the same and arranged in the same alphabet. But the style (image) of the letters is different.

Glagolitic letters are characterized by many curls, loops and other complex elements. Only those letters that were specially created to convey the special sounds of the Slavic language are close in form to the Cyrillic alphabet. The Glagolitic alphabet was used among the Slavs in parallel with the Cyrillic alphabet, and in Croatia and Dalmatia it existed until the 17th century. But the simpler Cyrillic replaced the Glagolitic in the east and south, and in the west it was replaced by the Latin alphabet.

Cyrillic letters are based on several sources. First, the Greek alphabet (Greek was the official language of the Byzantine Empire). Greek writing in Byzantium had two forms: the strict and geometrically correct uncial and the faster cursive. It was the uncial that formed the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet, 26 letters were borrowed from it. Oh, and this alphabet was complicated, if we compare it with our modern alphabet!

The letter "H" (ours) was written as "N", and the letter "I" (like) as "H". And several identical sounds were designated by two different letters. So the sound "Z" was transmitted by the letters "Earth" and "Zelo", the sound "I" - the letters "Izhe" "I", the sound "O" - "He" "Omega", two letters "Firt" and "Fita" gave "F" sound. There were letters to designate two sounds at once: the letters "Xi" and "Psi" meant a combination of the sounds "KS" and "PS". And another letter could give different sounds: for example, "Izhitsa" meant in some cases "B", in some it conveyed the sound "I". Four letters for the Cyrillic alphabet were created from the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. These letters denoted hissing sounds that did not exist in Greek. These are the letters "Worm", "Tsy", "Sha" and "Scha" for the sounds "Ch, C, Sh, Shch". Finally, several letters were created individually - “Buki”, “Live”, “Er”, “Ery”, “Yer”, “Yat”, “Yus small” and “Yus big”. The table shows that each Cyrillic letter had its own name, some of them formed interesting semantic rows. The students memorized the alphabet like this: Az Buki Vedi - I know the letters, i.e. I know the Verb Good Is; Kako People Think, etc.

Many modern Slavic alphabets were created on the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet, while the Glagolitic alphabet was gradually replaced and became a “dead” alphabet, from which none of the modern writing systems “grew”.

emergence Slavic writing turns 1155 years old. In 863, according to the official version, the brothers Cyril (in the world Constantine the Philosopher, born in 826-827) and Methodius (worldly name unknown, presumably Michael, born before 820) created the basis of the modern Cyrillic alphabet.
The acquisition of written language by the Slavic peoples had the same historical and geopolitical significance as the discovery of America.
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, 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 confidently 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 actively adopt Christianity.
And then a new challenge arose. 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 accounting for the economy, or when it was necessary to accurately convey a message, it was unlikely that “devils 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: the main prayers that sound in Slavic, but were written in Latin letters in the 10th century, are 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 spoke the Turkic language (later the Bulgarians will speak Slavic).
And yet, neither the Latin nor the Greek alphabets 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 Chernoryets Brave: belly, church, aspiration, youth, language, and others. But there was another side of the problem - the political one. 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 doctrine should be known only to the clergy, and ordinary Christians only 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 simultaneously fell on the shoulders of his brother, hegumen (rector) of the Orthodox monastery of Methodius. “You are Thessaloniki, and the Thessalonians all speak pure Slavic” - was another argument of the emperor.
Cyril and Methodius, two brothers, really came from the Greek city of 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.
Constantine and Methodius were born into a large wealthy family with 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 (as his “Life” tells), he saw a “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 phenomenal memory and excellent abilities of the boy - in teaching he excelled everyone - 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 an excellent education. 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.
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 the Moravian 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 Slavic of the Gospel - a complex, multi-layered, internally rhythmic literary work that 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 did 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 Slavic. 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 order and taught them both morning, and 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. According to the "Life of Methodius", "... having planted shorthand writers from his students, he quickly and completely translated all books (biblical), except for the Maccabees, from Greek into Slavic." The time devoted to this work is indicated as incredible - six or eight months. Methodius died in 885.

Monument to St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius in Samara
Photo by V. Surkov

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 Jews, Greeks and Latins." Even the Pope intervened in the dispute, grateful to the brothers who brought the relics of St. Clement to Rome. Although the translation into a non-canonized Slavic language was contrary to the principles of the Latin Church, the pope, nevertheless, did not condemn the detractors, saying, allegedly, quoting Scripture, like this: "Let all peoples praise God."
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 the IX-X centuries. In both, to convey sounds reflecting the features of the Slavic language, special signs were introduced, and not combinations of two or three main 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.
The merits of Cyril and Methodius in the history of culture are enormous. Firstly, they developed the first ordered Slavic alphabet and this marked the beginning of the widespread development of Slavic writing. Secondly, many books were translated from Greek, which was the beginning of the formation of the Old Slavonic literary language and Slavic book business. There is evidence that Cyril created, in addition, original works. Thirdly, for many years Cyril and Methodius carried out great educational work among the Western and Southern Slavs and greatly contributed to the spread of literacy among these peoples. In the course of all their activities in Moravia and Pannonia, Cyril and Methodius, in addition, waged an unceasing selfless struggle against the attempts of the German Catholic clergy to ban the Slavic alphabet and books. Fourthly: Cyril and Methodius were the founders of the first literary and written language of the Slavs - the Old Slavonic language, which in turn was a kind of catalyst for the creation of the Old Russian literary language, Old Bulgarian and the literary languages ​​of other Slavic peoples.
Finally, when evaluating the educational activities of the Thessalonica brothers, it should be borne in mind that they did not engage in the Christianization of the population as such (although they contributed to it), because Moravia was already a Christian state by the time they arrived. Cyril and Methodius, having compiled the alphabet, translating from Greek, teaching literacy and familiarizing the local population with Christian and encyclopedic literature rich in content and forms, were precisely the teachers of the Slavic peoples.
Slavic monuments of the X-XI centuries that have come down to us. testify that, starting from the era of Cyril and Methodius, for three centuries the Slavs used, in principle, a single literary language with a number of local variants. The Slavic language world was rather uniform when compared with the modern one. Thus, Cyril and Methodius created an international, inter-Slavic language.

A feature of the culture of the Slavs was that among all European peoples only for the Slavs the creation of their own writing and the adoption of Christianity accompanied each other; and since then, book enlightenment has been inseparable from the spiritual nourishment of the people, being the work of the Church in close cooperation with state power.

The process of creating Slavic writing was long and complicated.

The studies of the last decades have proved that the Slavic writing actually arose even before the division of the common Slavic language into branches, i.e. no later than the middle of the 1st millennium AD. True, it was primitive - it included a small set of simple signs that varied among different tribes. Therefore, the use of the original Slavic writing was very limited.

The fact that the ancient Slavs had some kind of writing of their own is evidenced by the ancient Bulgarian writer of the late 9th - early 10th century. "Chernorizet Brave", the author of the first essay on the history of Slavic writing - "The Legend of the Letters". Brave in the "Tale" pointed out two types of writing among the ancient Slavs - traits and cuts, which the Slavs chtehu and bastard(that is, they read, counted and guessed) . These were probably the simplest counting signs in the form of dashes, notches, etc., generic and personal signs, signs of property, calendar symbols and signs for divination.

In addition to the evidence of Chernorizets the Brave, the existence of a letter of the “features and cuts” type among the ancient Slavs is confirmed by archaeological finds, as well as written reports of the 9th-10th centuries. peoples neighboring with the Slavs. Among these testimonies, the most significant are the following:

1. The Arab traveler Ibn Fadlan, who visited the Volga Bulgarians in 921, described the rite of burial of the Rus that he saw there: “ First they lit a fire and burned the body on it, says Ibn Fadlan, - and then they built something like a round hill and put a big piece of wood in the middle of it/carved from/ poplars, they wrote on it the name of this husband and the name of the king of the Rus and retired».

2. A contemporary of Ibn Fadlan, the Arab writer El Massudi (d. 956), in his work “Golden Meadows”, indicates that in one of the “Russian temples” he discovered a prophecy inscribed on a stone.

3. The Western European historian Bishop Titmar of Merseburg (976-1018) left a message that in the pagan temple of the city of Retra, their names were inscribed with special signs on Slavic idols.

4. The Arabic teachings of Ibn el Nedim in the work “The Book of Painting the Sciences” conveys the story of the ambassador of one of the Caucasian princes, who visited the prince of the Rus, dating back to 987: “ I was told by one on the veracity of which I rely, - writes Ibn el Nedim - that one of the kings of Mount Kabk sent him to the king of the Rus; he claimed that they have writing carved on wood. He also showed me a piece of white wood, on which were depicted, I don’t know, words or individual letters". Ibn el Nedim even sketched this inscription. It was not possible to decipher it; in terms of graphics, it is different from Greek, and from Latin, and from Glagolitic, and from Cyrillic writing.

The “names” written on Slavic idols (according to Titmar of Merseburg), the names of the late Rus and his “king” (reported by Ibn Fadlan), were probably conventional personal signs; similar signs were often used by Russian princes of the 10th-11th centuries. on their coins and seals. But the mention of a prophecy inscribed on a stone in the "temple of the Rus" (which El Massoudi mentioned) makes one think of "features and cuts" for divination. As for the inscription copied by Ibn el Nedim, some researchers assumed that this was a distorted Arabic spelling, while others saw them as similar to Scandinavian runes. However, the majority of Russian and Bulgarian scientists (P.Ya. Chernykh, D.S. Likhachev, E. Georgiev and others) consider the inscription of Ibn el Nedim to be a monument of pre-Cyrillic writing of the “devils and cuts” type. However, a hypothesis was also put forward that this inscription is nothing more than a pictographic route map. But in any case, the possibility of using Latin or Greek writing for all the mentioned inscriptions, even if adapted to Slavic speech, is completely excluded. After all, Titmar, and El Massoudi, and Ibn el Nedim, and Ibn Fadlan were familiar with the Latin and Greek alphabets.

The presence among the Slavs of writing such as "features and cuts" is also confirmed by archaeological finds. For example, signs on a vase intended for ritual purposes (found in Lepesovka inside a pagan sanctuary). The wide side of the vase is divided into 12 sectors corresponding to the 12 months of the year. Each of the sectors is filled with symbolic images, the content and sequence of which correspond to the monthly sequence of the pagan holidays of the ancient Slavs and the calendar of agricultural work in the area. According to B.A. Rybakov, these signs (they are also present on other objects of the so-called "Chernyakhov culture") are a kind of ancient Slavic "features and cuts".

A letter like "damn and cuts" was convenient for keeping a calendar, for divination, counting, etc., but completely unsuitable for writing complex documentary texts such as orders, contracts, etc. The need for such records undoubtedly appeared among the Slavs (as well as among all other historical peoples) at the same time as the emergence of the Slavic states. Therefore, even before the adoption of Christianity and before the creation of the alphabet by Constantine the Philosopher, the Slavs used the Greek alphabets in the east and south, and the Greek and Latin alphabets in the west. The monument of recording Slavic speech in Latin letters is the so-called "Freisingen passages" (X century), where a record in Greek letters of individual words of Slavic speech, interspersed in Greek texts, was found.

The fact that with the adoption of Christianity by the Slavic countries, repeated attempts were made to create their own Slavic script is evidenced by the same “Chernorizet Brave”. According to him, having adopted Christianity and joined the culture of the Roman Empire, the Slavs tried to write down their speech in "Roman and Greek scripts", i.e. with the help of the letters of the Latin and Greek alphabets, but "without dispensation", that is, without their special adaptation to Slavic speech. So, for example, the sound b was transmitted by the Greek letter "vita", the sound w- "sigma", h- a combination of "theta" with "zeta", c- a combination of "theta" with "sigma", at- a combination of "omicron" with "upsilon". That's what the Greeks did. The Slavs, according to the Bulgarian linguist E. Georgiev, undoubtedly moved even further along the path of adapting Greek writing to their speech. To do this, they formed ligatures from Greek letters, and also supplemented the Greek alphabet with letters from other alphabets, in particular, from the Hebrew alphabet, which was known to the Slavs through the Khazars. “And so it went on for many years,” testifies Brave. An indication of the use of letters of different alphabets is evidence that attempts to create a Slavic letter were made simultaneously in different Slavic territories bordering both the Carolingian Empire and the Byzantine Empire.

However, the use of foreign alphabets to convey the sounds of Slavic speech, of course, could not be successful. Therefore, in the middle of the IX century. a more perfect writing system was created, reflecting all the phonetic features of Slavic pronunciation. It arose not in the Slavic countries, but in Byzantium, although in the territory inhabited by the Slavs. The creators of the Slavic writing were the children of the "drungar" from Thessalonica (present-day Thessaloniki) Constantine (in the schema Cyril) and Methodius.

Tradition assigns the main role in the creation of Slavic writing to St. Konstantin-Cyril, who received a brilliant classical education and for his scholarship, was nicknamed the Philosopher. One of the mentors of the future enlightener of the Slavs was, in particular, the famous Patriarch Photius. In the early years of teaching, he worked seriously in the field of philology. The early work of Photius "Lexicon" is a huge summary of lexical and grammatical notes and materials. And just during the period of Photius's work on the Lexicon, Konstantin studied with him, who soon became the greatest philologist of his time.

There is no reason to believe that the idea of ​​​​creating a special Slavonic script - that is, the scientific ordering of the already existing writing systems among the Slavs - originated with Patriarch Photius himself or in his entourage. The intellectuals of the Fotievsky circle were just convinced of the exceptional properties of Greek culture and the Greek language. And this conviction led them to a complete unwillingness to know what cultural processes are taking place in the world around them. Photius himself, despite his encyclopedic education, apparently did not know any other language than Greek, and in his correspondence and writings he never mentioned the existence of a special “Slavic writing”, although he lived to the time when bookishness in the Slavic language spread widely.

At the same time, the idea of ​​creating a special letter for the Slavs was one of the manifestations of the broad political plans of the Byzantine state and the Church of the 9th century, aimed at drawing new territories, including the Slavic states, into the Byzantine sphere of influence. Constantine the Philosopher was directly involved in the implementation of these plans - for example, as part of the Byzantine diplomatic missions to the neighboring states of the Empire - Khazaria and the Arab Caliphate. During these embassies, he entered into discussions with Jewish and Arab scholars, victoriously repelling their attacks on Christianity.

Another direction of Byzantine policy was the Balkans, the Crimea, the North Caucasus and Eastern Europe. There, the preaching of Christianity was carried out for pagan and semi-pagan peoples with the aim of creating a church apparatus on these lands, subordinate to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. This opened up opportunities for involving such states as the First Bulgarian Kingdom, the Khazar Khaganate, the power of the "Rus" on the Dnieper into the orbit of Byzantine influence.

The geopolitical plans of the Byzantine kings in this case completely coincided with the missionary tasks of the Eastern Christian Church, striving, according to the commandment of Christ, "to go and teach all peoples" the Truth of salvation, for which it was necessary "to be everything for everyone in order to save at least some" .

These tasks prompted Konstantin, who had apparently long wanted to create a special Slavic script, to intense philological studies. In preparation for missionary work for the benefit of the Church, he studied a number of Semitic languages ​​and their writing systems, studied the translation experience of some unbelieving authors (apparently translators of the Gospel into Syriac), substantiating this practice with reference to the authority of St. Cyril of Alexandria, who taught that " not all, if they say evil things, it’s lepo to run away and sweep away". Having received theoretical philological knowledge from Photius, Constantine the Philosopher was able to use them to analyze and compare the systems of different languages, which the educated Byzantine elite considered to study below their dignity. This meticulous work prepared Konstantin to create an original writing system for the Slavs.

Life of St. Constantina-Cyril describes the creation of the Slavic alphabet as an act that did not require much time: an embassy from Great Moravia arrived in Constantinople with a request to send a teacher who could explain to the Moravians the truths of Christian teaching in their native Slavic language. The choice fell on Constantine - not only because he was famous for his outstanding theological and philological knowledge, but also because Constantine came from Thessalonica. The entire territory adjacent to this city was occupied by Slavic tribes, and its inhabitants spoke Slavic fluently. As a native of Thessalonica, Konstantin, the Slavic language was well known from childhood; there is even evidence (though not considered absolutely reliable) that the mother of Constantine and Methodius was of Slavic origin. And the father of the future enlighteners of the Slavs led one of the Slavic provinces of Byzantium, and therefore, of course, he had to be fluent in the language of his subordinates.

When the emperor turned to Constantine with a request to take on an educational mission in Moravia, the Philosopher asked if the Moravans had their own script, otherwise it would be very difficult to complete the task. The emperor said to this: “My grandfather, and my father, and many others sought ... and did not find,” which once again confirms the repeated attempts to create a special letter for the vast Slavic ecumene. The emperor, who knew the philological abilities of the Philosopher, suggested that he himself create such a letter. Constantine turned to God for help, the Slavic alphabet was created with grace-filled assistance. Constantine translated the Gospel for the Slavs and went to Moravia...

However, even if the alphabet, which accurately reflects the phonetic features of Slavic speech, was gracefully revealed to the Enlightener Equal to the Apostles, the translation of such a complex work as the Gospel was hardly possible in the few months that the Life of St. Constantine-Cyril assigns for such work. Most likely, work on the creation of the Slavic script and the translation of liturgical texts into the Slavic language began long before the arrival of the Moravian embassy in Constantinople, apparently still on the Bithynian Olympus (in Asia Minor), where Constantine and his elder brother Methodius lived for several years in the 50s years of the 9th century, "dealing only with books", as evidenced by the Life of Constantine-Cyril.

So, the first, even before leaving for Moravia, was the Gospel of the short aprakos type. In "Pr about voice" - a large verse preface to the translation of the Gospel - Constantine convinces: " soul is letterless(that is, a person who is not familiar with the text of Holy Scripture) - is dead"And with enthusiasm calls on the Slavs to accept the word of Divine Wisdom, set forth in a language they understand, written down in letters of the Slavic alphabet specially created for this.

The work begun by Constantine was continued by him and his brother already in Moravia. In 864–867 the brothers translated the Apostle, also of the short aprakos type. The translations of the Paremeinik and the Psalter, the texts of the Liturgy, the Missal, the Trebnik, the Book of Hours, the Octoechos, the Common Menaion should probably be attributed to the same time - in general, as the author of the Life of Constantine-Cyril determined, attributing this merit only to the youngest of the brothers, " soon the whole church order translated».

The significance that the Slavic primary teachers and their students attached to this act is indicated by the paraphrase of a quotation from the book of the prophet Isaiah placed after this message: “ the ears of the deaf were opened to hear the words of the book, and the speech of the tongue-tied became clear". This meant that only with the establishment of worship in the Slavic language did Moravian Christians get the opportunity to consciously confess Christian doctrine.

After that, Constantine and Methodius began work together on a complete translation of the books included in the biblical canon.

Having provided the flock with the necessary liturgical texts, the Slavic primary teachers hurried to provide it with spiritual nourishment as well – they translate the “Writing on the Right Faith”, one of the sections of the treatise “Great Apologetics” of Patriarch Nicephorus I of Constantinople, that is, they expound in the Slavic language the main dogmas and rules of Orthodox dogma. The appearance of this translation marked the beginning of the creation of philosophical and theological terminology in the Slavic language.

Another translation was also made, absolutely necessary for the full life of the young Moravian Church, - the translation of the Nomocanon, a collection of resolutions of church councils that determine the norms of intrachurch life. The so-called “Nomocanon of John Scholasticus” was taken as a basis, greatly abridged in translation, obviously to make it easier for the Slavs to assimilate the necessary minimum of basic legal norms and to adapt the Byzantine manual to the simpler conditions of life of the Slavs.

By this time should probably be attributed to the compilation of the Penance Book under the title "Commandments of the Holy Fathers", the text of which was preserved with other texts of Great Moravian origin in one of the oldest Glagolitic manuscripts - the so-called "Sinai breviary" of the 11th century.

An important fruit of the joint cooperation of the Thessalonica brothers and the Moravian nobility is the oldest monument of Slavic law - "The Law Judgment of People".

Thus, at the time when, at the request of the Kyiv prince Askold, the Byzantine emperor sent a bishop to him for the baptism of Russia (about 866), a complete corpus of liturgical and doctrinal texts in the Slavic language already existed and was successfully used in the Slavic lands neighboring Russia, and clergy from the Slavs were also trained. According to some historians of the Church, Bishop Michael, who was then sent to Russia by the Patriarch of Constantinople, could have been a pupil of Constantine and Methodius...

After the death of Constantine-Cyril († 869), Methodius and his disciples continued to create a body of Slavic literature. In the early 80s of the ninth century. Methodius completed the translation of the bulk of the canonical books of the Old and entire New Testaments. This translation has not survived to our time, but played its role as a stimulus for the resumption of work on translations of biblical books in Bulgaria at the end of the 9th-10th centuries. - in the so-called "golden age" of ancient Bulgarian culture.

Note that the first translations of individual parts of the Bible, for example, into Old French were undertaken only in the second half of the 12th century. heretics, the Waldensians, and translations of the Bible into other Romance and Germanic languages ​​belong to an even later time.

In Moravia, and then in Bulgaria, where, after the death of Methodius († 885), the disciples of the Slavic enlighteners had to flee from the persecution of the German clergy, they translated the so-called "father's books" - either a collection of the lives of the saints, or a collection of the works of the "Church Fathers " - early Christian writers.

By many years of selfless service to the Church and their people, Saints Cyril and Methodius created not only a writing system that adequately reflected Slavic speech, not only a Slavonic written language capable of serving all spheres of spiritual and social life at the same high level as Greek and Latin, but and a corpus of texts in the Slavic language necessary for Christian worship and spiritual nourishment of believing Slavs.

On the Russian lands, on the basis of the Russian translation of the Slavic (actually Old Church Slavonic) language of the Cyril and Methodius translations, over time, the Church Slavonic language developed, which was the main language of writing in Russia until the end of the 17th century and is still the language of Orthodox worship in the East Slavic cultural area.

On the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet, Bulgarian (the end of the 9th century), Old Russian (the 11th century), Serbian (the 12th century) with a local Bosnian variant, the Slavic-speaking Wallachian and Moldavian (14th–15th centuries), Romanian (the 16th century, c. 1864 translated into Latin script) and other scripts. In the field of office work, Cyrillic was also used in the offices of Dalmatia (XIV-XVII centuries) and Albania (XIV-XV centuries).

In 1708–1710 By order of Peter I, a civil font was created on the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet for use in business writing and secular printing. Graphically, it is as close as possible to the styles of the book cursive, which was formed in the last third of the 17th century. under the influence of Ukrainian-Belarusian handwriting and fonts, influenced by the Latin and Greek traditions. The quantitative and qualitative composition of this alphabet was determined by the reform of 1918.

During the 2nd half of the 18th - early 20th centuries. modernized at the beginning of the 18th century. the Russian version of the Cyrillic alphabet (taking into account local features) formed the basis of the modern alphabets of the Orthodox Slavic countries: Serbia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Belarus and Macedonia. As a result of the centuries-old work of the clergy, philologists, teachers, state administration, a single cultural area of ​​Greek-Slavic writing was formed, including different national languages ​​and cultural traditions.

It is known that the Slavic alphabet is called Cyrillic named after its creator, St. Kirill. However, it is also known that in the Middle Ages two alphabets were used to record Slavic speech: along with the one that we now call "Cyrillic", another one called "Glagolitic" was also quite common. The differences between them were that if in Cyrillic letters of the Greek alphabet were used to convey sounds that coincided with the sounds of the Greek language, and letters of special styles were introduced only to convey those sounds that were absent in the Greek language, then in Glagolitic for all sounds of the Slavic language, special inscriptions were invented that had no analogies (with the exception of individual graphemes resembling the corresponding inscriptions of the letters of the Greek minuscule) in the alphabets of other peoples. At the same time, the continuity between the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets is obvious, since the styles of some letters in them coincide or are very similar. In the earliest surviving monuments of Slavic writing (XI century), both alphabets are presented. Monuments are known where both types of writing are used in one code - for example, the so-called Reims Gospel (XIV century).

However, it has been proven that, in fact, Konstantin the Philosopher created not the Cyrillic, but the Glagolitic alphabet. Moreover, its creation was the result of a rather long process: developed on the basis of the dialects of the Slavic population of the Solun region, this alphabet already in Great Moravia underwent a number of changes caused by the need to take into account and reflect the peculiarities of local pronunciation; the following changes in the "Glagolitic" occurred during its distribution in other South Slavic lands, where there were their own peculiarities of pronunciation.

As the only Slavic alphabet, the Glagolitic existed for no more than a third of a century. Already at the end of the IX century. on the territory of the First Bulgarian Kingdom, where after the death of St. Methodius († 885) - as a result of the persecution of Slavic worship and writing in Great Moravia - the students of the Slavic enlighteners moved, a new alphabet was created, which eventually received the name Cyrillic. Its basis was the Greek uncial script; the Greek alphabet was supplemented by those letters of the alphabet brought from Moravia, which conveyed sounds specific to the Slavic language; but even these letters have undergone changes in accordance with the statutory nature of the letter. At the same time, a number of new graphemes were introduced to convey sounds characteristic of the Bulgarian dialects, and those graphemes of the Glagolitic alphabet that reflected the characteristic features of the West Slavic dialects of Pannonia and Moravia were omitted. At the same time, the Cyrillic alphabet also included letters that convey the specific sounds of the Greek language used in borrowed words (“fita”, “ksi”, “psi”, “izhitsa”, etc.); the numerical value of the Cyrillic letters, with rare exceptions, is determined by the order of the Greek alphabet.

In the eastern regions of the First Bulgarian, where the Greek language was widely used, the Cyrillic alphabet, which was simpler in style, replaced the Glagolitic alphabet from use, the active use of which ceased on the Bulgarian lands by the turn of the 12th-13th centuries. In the X-XI centuries. (until 1096) Glagolitic was used as a system for writing liturgical books in the Czech Republic. Later, Glagolitic writing was preserved only in Croatia, where it was used by local Benedictine monks in liturgical books and in business writing until the beginning of the 20th century. Through Croatian mediation (as a result of the activities of Emperor Charles IV of Luxembourg), the Glagolitic in the XIV-XV centuries. again gained fame in individual monastic centers of the Czech Republic (Emmau Monastery "on the Slavs" in Prague), as well as in Poland (Olesnitsky Monastery in Silesia and "on Klepazh" in Krakow).

The alphabet, which spread in the eastern regions of the First Bulgarian Kingdom, created on the basis of the Greek uncial, was transferred to Russia, where it completely prevailed. Being the only known Slavic alphabet here, it began to be called by the name of the Equal-to-the-Apostles Enlightener of the Slavs " Cyrillic"(although initially this name was attached to the alphabet, which is now called the Glagolitic alphabet). In the same territories where the Glagolitic alphabet was established, its original name (after the name of the creator) could not be retained for various reasons: for example, the Croatian clergy, trying to achieve from the Roman curia of consent to the use of a special Slavic letter, attributed its invention to the early Christian writer of the 4th century Blessed Jerome - the famous translator of the Bible into Latin. Under these conditions, a neutral (in the sense of indicating authorship) name was established for the alphabet created by Constantine-Cyril " Glagolitic"...

The May issue of the Resurrection newspaper is posted in the newspaper archive section.

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