Cyril and Methodius are Slavic first teachers, great preachers of Christianity, canonized not only by the Orthodox, but also by the Catholic Church.

The life and work of Cyril (Constantine) and Methodius is reproduced in sufficient detail on the basis of various documentary and chronicle sources.

Cyril (826-869) received this name when he was tonsured into the schema 50 days before his death in Rome; he lived his whole life with the name Constantine (Constantine the Philosopher). Methodius (814-885) - the monastic name of the saint, his secular name is unknown, presumably his name was Michael.

Cyril and Methodius are siblings. They were born in the city of Thessaloniki (Thessaloniki) in Macedonia (now a territory of Greece). Since childhood, they have mastered the Old Church Slavonic language - Old Bulgarian. From the words of Emperor Michael III, “Thessalonians” - everyone speaks purely Slavic.

Both brothers lived a mainly spiritual life, striving to embody their beliefs and ideas, attaching no importance to sensual joys, wealth, career, or fame. The brothers never had wives or children, they wandered all their lives, never creating a home or permanent shelter for themselves, and even died in a foreign land.

Both brothers went through life, actively changing it in accordance with their views and beliefs. But all that remained as traces of their deeds were the fruitful changes they made to folk life, and vague stories of lives, traditions, and legends.

The brothers were born into the family of Leo the Drungaria, a mid-ranking Byzantine military commander from the city of Thessalonica. There were seven sons in the family, with Methodius the eldest and Cyril the youngest.

According to one version, they came from a pious Slavic family who lived in the Byzantine city of Thessaloniki. From large number historical sources, mainly from the “Short Life of Clement of Ohrid”, it is known that Cyril and Methodius were Bulgarians. Since in the 9th century the First Bulgarian Kingdom was multinational state It is not entirely possible to determine exactly whether they were Slavs or Proto-Bulgarians, or even had other roots. The Bulgarian kingdom consisted mainly of the ancient Bulgarians (Turks) and Slavs, who were already forming a new ethnos - the Slavic Bulgarians, who retained the old name of the ethnos, but were already a Slavic-Turkic people. According to another version, Cyril and Methodius were of Greek origin. There is an alternative theory of the ethnic origin of Cyril and Methodius, according to which they were not Slavs, but Bulgars (proto-Bulgarians). This theory also refers to the assumptions of historians that the brothers created the so-called. Glagolitic - an alphabet more similar to ancient Bulgarian than to Slavic.

Little is known about the first years of Methodius' life. There was probably nothing outstanding in the life of Methodius until it crossed with the life of his younger brother. Methodius entered early military service and was soon appointed governor of one of the Slavic-Bulgarian regions subject to Byzantium. Methodius spent about ten years in this position. Then he left the military-administrative service, which was alien to him, and retired to a monastery. In the 860s, having renounced the rank of archbishop, he became abbot of the Polychron monastery on the Asian shore of the Sea of ​​Marmara, near the city of Cyzicus. Constantine also moved here, to a quiet shelter on Mount Olympus, for several years, in the interval between his travels to the Saracens and Khazars. The elder brother, Methodius, walked through life on a straight, clear path. Only twice did he change its direction: the first time by going to a monastery, and the second time by returning again under the influence of his younger brother to active work and struggle.

Kirill was the youngest of the brothers; from infancy he showed extraordinary mental abilities, but was not distinguished by health. The eldest, Mikhail, even in childhood games defended the youngest, weak with a disproportionately large head, with small and short arms. He will protect his little brother until his death - both in Moravia, and at the Council in Venice, and before the papal throne. And then he will continue his brotherly work in written wisdom. And, holding hands, they will go down in the history of world culture.

Kirill was educated in Constantinople at the Magnavra School, the best educational institution Byzantium. Secretary of State Teoktist himself took care of Cyril’s education. Before reaching the age of 15, Kirill had already read the works of the most profound father of the church, Gregory the Theologian. The capable boy was taken to the court of Emperor Michael III, as a fellow student of his son. Under the guidance of the best mentors - including Photius, the future famous Patriarch of Constantinople - Cyril studied ancient literature, rhetoric, grammar, dialectics, astronomy, music and other “Hellenic arts”. The friendship of Cyril and Photius largely predetermined future fate Kirill. In 850, Cyril became a professor at the Magnavra school. Having abandoned a profitable marriage and a brilliant career, Kirill accepted the priesthood, and after secretly entering a monastery, he began teaching philosophy (hence the nickname Konstantin - “Philosopher”). The closeness with Photius affected Cyril’s struggle with the iconoclasts. He wins a brilliant victory over the experienced and ardent leader of the iconoclasts, which undoubtedly gives Constantine wide fame. The wisdom and strength of faith of the still very young Constantine were so great that he managed to defeat the leader of the iconoclast heretics, Annius, in a debate. After this victory, Constantine was sent by the emperor to debate about the Holy Trinity with the Saracens (Muslims) and also won. Having returned, Saint Constantine retired to his brother Saint Methodius on Olympus, spending time in unceasing prayer and reading the works of the holy fathers.

The “Life” of the saint testifies that he knew Hebrew, Slavic, Greek, Latin and Arabic well. Refusing a profitable marriage, as well as an administrative career offered by the emperor, Kirill became the patriarchal librarian at the Hagia Sophia. Soon he secretly retired to a monastery for six months, and upon his return he taught philosophy (external - Hellenic and internal - Christian) at the court school - the highest educational institution of Byzantium. Then he received the nickname “Philosopher”, which remained with him forever. It was not for nothing that Constantine was nicknamed the Philosopher. Every now and then he would escape from noisy Byzantium somewhere into solitude. I read and thought for a long time. And then, having accumulated another supply of energy and thoughts, he generously squandered it in travel, disputes, disputes, in scientific and literary creativity. Kirill's education was highly valued in high circles Constantinople, he was often involved in various diplomatic missions.

Cyril and Methodius had many students who became their true followers. Among them I would especially like to mention Gorazd Ohrid and Saint Naum.

Gorazd Ohridski - a disciple of Methodius, the first Slavic archbishop - he was the archbishop of Mikulčica, the capital of Great Moravia. Revered by the Orthodox Church in the ranks of saints, commemorated on July 27 (according to the Julian calendar) in the Cathedral of Bulgarian Enlighteners. In 885-886, under Prince Svatopluk I, a crisis arose in the Moravian Church; Archbishop Gorazd entered into a dispute with the Latin clergy, headed by Wichtig, Bishop of Nitrava, against whom St. Methodius imposed an anathema. Wichtig, with the approval of the pope, expelled Gorazd from the diocese and 200 priests with him, and he himself took his place as archbishop. At the same time, Kliment of Ohrid fled to Bulgaria. They took with them the works created in Moravia and settled in Bulgaria. Those who did not obey - according to the testimony of the Life of St. Clement of Ohrid - were sold into slavery to Jewish merchants, from which they were redeemed by the ambassadors of Emperor Basil I in Venice and transported to Bulgaria. In Bulgaria, students created world-famous literary schools in Pliska, Ohrid and Preslavl, from where their works began to travel throughout Rus'.

Naum is a Bulgarian saint, especially revered in modern Macedonia and Bulgaria. Saint Naum, together with Cyril and Methodius, as well as with his ascetic Clement of Ohrid, is one of the founders of Bulgarian religious literature. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church includes Saint Naum among the Seven. In 886-893 he lived in Preslav, becoming the organizer of a local literary school. Afterwards he created a school in Ohrid. In 905 he founded a monastery on the shores of Lake Ohrid, today named after him. His relics are also kept there.

Mount St. Naum on the island of Smolensk (Livingston) is also named after him.

In 858, Constantine, at the initiative of Photius, became the head of the mission to the Khazars. During the mission, Constantine replenishes his knowledge of the Hebrew language, which was used by the educated elite of the Khazars after they adopted Judaism. On the way, during a stop in Chersonese (Korsun), Constantine discovered the remains of Clement, Pope of Rome (1st-2nd centuries), who died, as they thought then, here in exile, and took part of them to Byzantium. The journey deep into Khazaria was filled with theological disputes with the Mohammedans and Jews. Constantine subsequently outlined the entire course of the dispute in Greek for reporting to the patriarch; Later, this report, according to legend, was translated by Methodius into the Slavic language, but, unfortunately, this work has not reached us. 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). The emperor called Saint Constantine and told him: “You need to go there, because no one will do this better than you.” Saint Constantine, with fasting and prayer, began a new feat. Constantine goes to Bulgaria, converts many Bulgarians to Christianity; according to some scientists, during this trip he begins his work on the creation of the Slavic alphabet. Constantine and Methodius arrived in Great Moravia speaking the southern Slavic dialect of Soluni (now Thessalonica), i.e. the center of that part of Macedonia, which from time immemorial and up to our time belonged to Northern Greece. In Moravia, the brothers taught literacy and involved in translation activities, and not just rewriting books, people who undoubtedly spoke some kind of northwestern Slavic dialects. This is directly evidenced by lexical, word-formation, phonetic and other linguistic discrepancies in the oldest Slavic books that have come down to us (in the Gospel, Apostle, Psalter, Menaion of the 10th-11th centuries). Indirect evidence is the later practice of Grand Duke Vladimir I Svyatoslavich, described in the Old Russian Chronicle, when he introduced Christianity in Rus' as the state religion in 988. It was the children of his “deliberate children” (i.e., the children of his courtiers and the feudal elite) that Vladimir attracted for “book training,” sometimes even doing this by force, since the Chronicle reports that their mothers cried over them as if they were dead.

After completing the translation, the holy brothers were received with great honor in Moravia, and began to teach Divine services in the Slavic language. This aroused the anger of the German bishops, who performed divine services in Latin in the Moravian churches, and they rebelled against the holy brothers, arguing that divine services could only be performed in one of three languages: Hebrew, Greek or Latin. Saint Constantine answered them: “You recognize only three languages ​​worthy of glorifying God in them. But David cries: Sing to the Lord, all the earth, praise the Lord, all nations, let every breath praise the Lord! And in the Holy Gospel it is said: Go and learn all languages...” The German bishops were disgraced, but became even more embittered and filed a complaint to Rome. The holy brothers were called to Rome to resolve this issue.

To be able to preach Christianity in the Slavic language, it was necessary to translate the Holy Scriptures into the Slavic language; however, there was no alphabet capable of conveying Slavic speech at that moment.

Constantine began to create the Slavic alphabet. With the help of his brother Saint Methodius and the disciples Gorazd, Clement, Savva, Naum and Angelar, he compiled the Slavic alphabet and translated into Slavic the books without which the Divine service could not be performed: the Gospel, the Apostle, the Psalter and selected services. All these events date back to 863.

The year 863 is considered the year of birth of the Slavic alphabet

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; until now, scientists 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 Slavic. The Slavs were given the opportunity to read and write in their own language. The Slavs not only had their own Slavic alphabet, but also the first Slavic alphabet was born literary language, many of whose words still live in Bulgarian, Russian, Ukrainian and other Slavic languages.

Cyril and Methodius were the founders of the literary and written language of the Slavs - the Old Church 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.

The younger brother wrote, the older brother translated his works. The younger created the Slavic alphabet, Slavic writing and bookmaking; the older one practically developed what the younger one created. The younger was a talented scientist, philosopher, brilliant dialectician and subtle philologist; the eldest is a capable organizer and practical activist.

Constantine, in the quiet of his refuge, was probably busy completing the work that was in connection with his not new plans for the conversion of the pagan Slavs. He compiled a special alphabet for the Slavic language, the so-called Glagolitic alphabet, and began translating the Holy Scriptures into Old Bulgarian. The brothers decided to return to their homeland and, in order to consolidate their business in Moravia, take with them some of the students, the Moravians, for education in the hierarchical ranks. On the way to Venice, which lay through Bulgaria, the brothers stayed for several months in the Pannonian principality of Kotsela, where, despite its ecclesiastical and political dependence, they did the same as in Moravia. Upon his arrival in Venice, Constantine had a violent clash with the local clergy. Here, in Venice, unexpectedly for the local clergy, they are given a kind message from Pope Nicholas with an invitation to Rome. Having received the papal invitation, the brothers continued their journey with almost complete confidence in success. This was further facilitated by the sudden death of Nicholas and the accession to the papal throne of Adrian II.

Rome solemnly greeted the brothers and the shrine they brought, part of the remains of Pope Clement. Adrian II approved not only the Slavic translation Holy Scripture, but also Slavic worship, consecrating the Slavic books brought by the brothers, allowing the Slavs to perform services in a number of Roman churches, and ordaining Methodius and his three disciples as priests. The influential prelates of Rome also reacted favorably to the brothers and their cause.

All these successes did not come easily to the brothers, of course. A skilled dialectician and an experienced diplomat, Constantine skillfully used for this purpose the struggle of Rome with Byzantium, and the vacillations of the Bulgarian prince Boris between the Eastern and Western churches, and the hatred of Pope Nicholas for Photius, and Adrian’s desire to strengthen his shaky authority by acquiring the remains of Clement. At the same time, Byzantium and Photius were still much closer to Constantine than Rome and the popes. But during the three and a half years of his life and struggle in Moravia, the main, only goal of Constantine was to strengthen the Slavic writing, Slavic bookmaking and culture that he created.

For almost two years, surrounded by sugary flattery and praise, combined with hidden intrigues of temporarily quiet opponents of Slavic worship, Constantine and Methodius lived in Rome. One of the reasons for their long delay was Constantine’s increasingly deteriorating health.

Despite weakness and illness, Constantine composed two new literary works in Rome: “The Discovery of the Relics of St. Clement” and a poetic hymn in honor of the same Clement.

The long and difficult journey to Rome, the intense struggle with the irreconcilable enemies of Slavic writing, undermined Constantine’s already weak health. At the beginning of February 869, he went to bed, took the schema and the new monastic name Cyril, and died on February 14. Going to God, Saint Cyril commanded his brother Saint Methodius to continue their common cause - the enlightenment of the Slavic peoples with the light of the true faith.

Before his death, Kirill told his brother: “You and I, like two oxen, drove the same furrow. I am exhausted, but don’t think about leaving the work of teaching and retiring to your mountain again.” Methodius outlived his brother by 16 years. Enduring hardships and reproaches, he continued his great work - translating sacred books into Slavic, preaching Orthodox faith, baptism of the Slavic people. Saint Methodius begged the Pope to allow his brother's body to be taken away for burial in native land, but the pope ordered the relics of St. Cyril to be placed in the church of St. Clement, where miracles began to be performed from them.

After the death of St. Cyril, the pope, following the request of the Slavic prince Kocel, sent St. Methodius to Pannonia, ordaining him to the rank of Archbishop of Moravia and Pannonia, to the ancient throne of St. Apostle Andronikos. After the death of Cyril (869), Methodius continued his educational activities among the Slavs in Pannonia, where the Slavic books also included features of local dialects. Subsequently, the Old Church Slavonic literary language was developed by the students of the Thessaloniki brothers in the area of ​​Lake Ohrid, then in Bulgaria proper.

With the death of a talented brother, for the modest, but selfless and honest Methodius, a painful, truly path of the cross begins, strewn with seemingly insurmountable obstacles, dangers and failures. But lonely Methodius stubbornly, in no way inferior to his enemies, follows this path to the very end.

True, on the threshold of this path, Methodius relatively easily achieves new great success. But this success gives rise to an even greater storm of anger and resistance in the camp of the enemies of Slavic writing and culture.

In the middle of 869, Adrian II, at the request of the Slavic princes, sent Methodius to Rostislav, his nephew Svyatopolk and Kocel, and at the end of 869, when Methodius returned to Rome, he elevated him to the rank of Archbishop of Pannonia, allowing worship in the Slavic language. Inspired by this new success, Methodius returns to Kotsel. With the constant help of the prince, he, together with his students, began a large and vigorous work to spread Slavic worship, writing and books in the Principality of Blaten and in neighboring Moravia.

In 870, Methodius was sentenced to prison, having been accused of violating hierarchical rights in Pannonia.

He remained in prison, under the most difficult conditions, until 873, when the new Pope John VIII forced the Bavarian episcopate to release Methodius and return him to Moravia. Methodius is prohibited from Slavic worship.

He continues the work of the church structure of Moravia. Contrary to the pope's prohibition, Methodius continues to worship in the Slavic language in Moravia. Methodius this time also involved other Slavic peoples neighboring Moravia in the circle of his activities.

All this prompted the German clergy to take new actions against Methodius. German priests turn Svyatopolk against Methodius. Svyatopolk writes a denunciation to Rome against his archbishop, accusing him of heresy, of violating the canons catholic church and in disobedience to the pope. Methodius manages not only to justify himself, but even to win over Pope John to his side. Pope John allows Methodius to worship in the Slavic language, but appoints Viching, one of Methodius’s most ardent opponents, to be his bishop. Viching began to spread rumors about the condemnation of Methodius by Pope, but was exposed.

Extremely tired and exhausted by all these endless intrigues, forgeries and denunciations, feeling that his health was constantly weakening, Methodius went to rest in Byzantium. Methodius spent almost three years in his homeland. In mid-884 He returns to Moravia. Returning to Moravia, Methodius in 883. started translating into Slavic full text canonical books of Holy Scripture (except the Maccabees). Having finished his hard work, Methodius weakened even more. IN last years During his lifetime, Methodius' activities in Moravia took place under very difficult conditions. The Latin-German clergy in every way prevented the spread of the Slavic language as the language of the church. In the last years of his life, Saint Methodius, with the help of two disciple-priests, translated the entire Old Testament into Slavic, except for the Maccabean books, as well as the Nomocanon (Rules of the Holy Fathers) and the patristic books (Paterikon).

Anticipating the approach of his death, Saint Methodius pointed to one of his disciples, Gorazd, as a worthy successor. The saint predicted the day of his death and died on April 6, 885 at the age of about 60 years. The funeral service for the saint was performed in three languages ​​- Slavic, Greek and Latin. He was buried in the cathedral church of Velehrad.

With the death of Methodius, his work in Moravia came close to destruction. With the arrival of Viching in Moravia, the persecution of the disciples of Constantine and Methodius began, and the destruction of their Slavic church. Up to 200 clergy disciples of Methodius were expelled from Moravia. The Moravian people gave them no support. Thus, the cause of Constantine and Methodius died not only in Moravia, but also among the Western Slavs in general. But it received further life and flourishing among the Southern Slavs, partly among the Croats, more so among the Serbs, especially among the Bulgarians and, through the Bulgarians, among the Russians and Eastern Slavs, who united their destinies with Byzantium. This happened thanks to the disciples of Cyril and Methodius, expelled from Moravia.

From the period of activity of Constantine, his brother Methodius and their closest disciples, no written monuments have reached us, except for the relatively recently discovered inscriptions on the ruins of the church of King Simeon in Preslav (Bulgaria). It turned out that these ancient inscriptions were made not with one, but with two graphic varieties of Old Church Slavonic writing. One of them received the conventional name “Cyrillic” (from the name Cyril, adopted by Constantine when he was tonsured a monk); the other received the name “glagolitic” (from the Old Slavonic “verb”, which means “word”).

In their alphabetic composition, the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets were almost identical. Cyrillic, according to the manuscripts of the 11th century that have reached us. had 43 letters, and the Glagolitic alphabet had 40 letters. Of the 40 Glagolitic letters, 39 served to convey almost the same sounds as the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet. Like the letters of the Greek alphabet, Glagolitic and Cyrillic letters had, in addition to sound, also a digital meaning, i.e. were used to designate not only speech sounds, but also numbers. At the same time, nine letters served to designate units, nine - for tens and nine - for hundreds. In Glagolitic, in addition, one of the letters denoted a thousand; in Cyrillic, a special sign was used to designate thousands. In order to indicate that a letter stands for a number and not a sound, the letter was usually highlighted on both sides with dots and a special horizontal line was placed above it.

In the Cyrillic alphabet, as a rule, only letters borrowed from the Greek alphabet had digital values: each of 24 such letters was assigned the same digital value that this letter had in the Greek digital system. The only exceptions were the numbers “6”, “90” and “900”.

Unlike the Cyrillic alphabet, in the Glagolitic alphabet the first 28 letters in a row received a numerical value, regardless of whether these letters corresponded to Greek or served to convey special sounds of Slavic speech. Therefore, the numerical value of most Glagolitic letters was different from both Greek and Cyrillic letters.

The names of the letters in the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabet were exactly the same; However, the time of origin of these names is unclear. The order of letters in the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets was almost the same. This order is established Firstly, based on the digital meaning of the letters of the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabet, secondly, based on the acrostics of the 12th-13th centuries that have come down to us, thirdly, based on the order of letters in the Greek alphabet.

Cyrillic and Glagolitic were very different in the shape of their letters. In the Cyrillic alphabet, the shape of the letters was geometrically simple, clear and easy to write. Of the 43 letters of the Cyrillic alphabet, 24 were borrowed from the Byzantine charter, and the remaining 19 were constructed more or less independently, but in compliance with the uniform style of the Cyrillic alphabet. The shape of the Glagolitic letters, on the contrary, was extremely complex and intricate, with many curls, loops, etc. But the Glagolitic letters were graphically more original than the Kirillov ones, and were much less like the Greek ones.

The Cyrillic alphabet is a very skillful, complex and creative reworking of the Greek (Byzantine) alphabet. As a result of careful consideration of the phonetic composition of the Old Church Slavonic language, the Cyrillic alphabet had all the letters necessary for the correct transmission of this language. The Cyrillic alphabet was also suitable for accurately transmitting the Russian language in the 9th-10th centuries. The Russian language was already somewhat different phonetically from Old Church Slavonic. The correspondence of the Cyrillic alphabet to the Russian language is confirmed by the fact that for a thousand extra years only two new letters needed to be introduced into this alphabet; Multi-letter combinations and superscript symbols are not needed and are almost never used in Russian writing. This is precisely what determines the originality of the Cyrillic alphabet.

Thus, despite the fact that many letters of the Cyrillic alphabet coincide in form with Greek letters, the Cyrillic alphabet (as well as the Glagolitic alphabet) should be recognized as one of the most independent, creatively and innovatively constructed letter-sound systems.

The presence of two graphic varieties of Slavic writing still causes great controversy among scientists. After all, according to the unanimous testimony of all chronicles and documentary sources, Constantine developed one Slavic alphabet. Which of these alphabets was created by Constantine? Where and when did the second alphabet appear? These questions are closely related to others, perhaps even more important. Didn’t the Slavs have some kind of written language before the introduction of the alphabet developed by Constantine? And if it existed, what was it?

A number of works by Russian and Bulgarian scientists were devoted to evidence of the existence of writing in the pre-Cyrillic period among the Slavs, in particular among the eastern and southern ones. As a result of these works, as well as in connection with the discovery ancient monuments Slavic writing, the question of the existence of writing among the Slavs can hardly raise doubts. This is evidenced by many ancient literary sources: Slavic, Western European, Arabic. This is confirmed by the instructions contained in the treaties of the Eastern and Southern Slavs with Byzantium, some archaeological data, as well as linguistic, historical and general socialist considerations.

Fewer materials are available to resolve the question of what the ancient Slavic letter was and how it arose. Pre-Cyrillic Slavic writing, apparently, could only be of three types. Thus, in the light of the development of general patterns of development of writing, it seems almost certain that long before the formation of ties between the Slavs and Byzantium, they had various local varieties of the original primitive pictographic writing, such as the “traits and cuts” mentioned by Brave. The emergence of Slavic writing of the “devils and cuts” type should probably be attributed to the first half of the 1st millennium AD. e. True, the oldest Slavic letter could only have been a very primitive letter, which included a small, unstable and different assortment of simple figurative and conventional signs among different tribes. There was no way this writing could turn into any developed and ordered logographic system.

The use of the original Slavic script was also limited. These were, apparently, the simplest counting signs in the form of dashes and notches, family and personal signs, signs of ownership, signs for fortune telling, perhaps primitive route diagrams, calendar signs that served to date the start of various agricultural works, pagan holidays and so on. In addition to sociological and linguistic considerations, the existence of such writing among the Slavs is confirmed by quite numerous literary sources of the 9th-10th centuries. And archaeological finds. Having originated in the first half of the 1st millennium AD, this letter was probably preserved by the Slavs even after Cyril created an orderly Slavic alphabet.

The second, even more undoubted type of pre-Christian writing of the Eastern and Southern Slavs was a letter that can be conditionally called the “Proto-Cyril” letter. A letter of the “devils and cuts” type, suitable for indicating calendar dates, for fortune telling, counting, etc., was unsuitable for recording military and trade agreements, liturgical texts, historical chronicles and other complex documents. And the need for such records should have appeared among the Slavs simultaneously with the emergence of the first Slavic states. For all these purposes, the Slavs, even before they adopted Christianity and before the introduction of the alphabet created by Cyril, undoubtedly used Greek in the east and south, and Greek and Latin letters in the west.

The Greek script, used by the Slavs for two or three centuries before their official adoption of Christianity, had to gradually adapt to the transmission of the unique phonetics 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 Slavs have come a long way towards adapting Greek writing to more accurately convey their speech. To do this, ligatures were formed from the corresponding Greek letters, the Greek letters were supplemented with letters borrowed from other alphabets, in particular from the Hebrew, which was known to the Slavs through the Khazars. This is how the Slavic “Proto-Cyril” letter was probably formed. The assumption about such a gradual formation of the Slavic “proto-Cyril” letter is also confirmed by the fact that the Cyrillic alphabet in its later version that has come down to us was so well adapted for the accurate transmission of Slavic speech that this could only be achieved as a result of its long development. These are two undoubted varieties of pre-Christian Slavic writing.

The third, although not undoubted, but only a possible variety, can be called “proto-glagolic” writing.

The process of formation of the supposed proto-glagolic letter could occur in two ways. Firstly, this process could have taken place under the complex influence of Greek, Jewish-Khazar, and possibly also Georgian, Armenian and even runic Turkic writing. Under the influence of these writing systems, Slavic “lines and cuts” could gradually also acquire a letter-sound meaning, while partially retaining their original form. Secondly, and some Greek letters could have been graphically modified by the Slavs in relation to the usual forms of “lines and cuts”. Like the Cyrillic alphabet, the formation of proto-glagolic writing could also have begun among the Slavs no earlier than the 8th century. Since this letter was formed on the primitive basis of the ancient Slavic “traits and cuts”, by the middle of the 9th century. it was supposed to remain even less precise and orderly than the Proto-Cyril letter. Unlike the Proto-Cyrillic alphabet, the formation of which took place throughout almost the entire Slavic territory, which was under the influence of Byzantine culture, the Proto-Glagolitic letter, if it existed, was apparently first formed among the Eastern Slavs. In conditions of insufficient development in the second half of the 1st millennium AD. political and cultural connections between the Slavic tribes, the formation of each of the three supposed types of pre-Christian Slavic writing would have occurred in different tribes in different ways. Therefore, we can assume the coexistence among the Slavs not only of these three types of writing, but also of their local varieties. In the history of writing, cases of such coexistence were very frequent.

Currently, the writing systems of all the peoples of Russia are built on the Cyrillic basis. Writing systems built on the same basis are also used in Bulgaria, partly in Yugoslavia and Mongolia. A script built on the Cyrillic basis is now used by peoples who speak more than 60 languages. The greatest vitality Apparently, the Latin and Cyrillic groups of writing systems have. This is confirmed by the fact that more and more new peoples are gradually switching to the Latin and Cyrillic basis of writing.

Thus, the foundations laid by Constantine and Methodius more than 1100 years ago continue to be continuously improved and successfully developed up to the present day. At the moment, most researchers believe that Cyril and Methodius created the Glagolitic alphabet, and the Cyrillic alphabet was created on the basis of the Greek alphabet by their students.

From the turn of the X-XI centuries. Kyiv, Novgorod, and the centers of other ancient Russian principalities became the largest centers of Slavic writing. The oldest Slavic-language handwritten books that have come down to us, having the date of their writing, were created in Rus'. These are the Ostromir Gospel of 1056-1057, the Izbornik of Svyatoslav of 1073, the Izbornik of 1076, the Archangel Gospel of 1092, the Novgorod Menaions dated to the 90s. The largest and most valuable fund of ancient handwritten books dating back to the written heritage of Cyril and Methodius, like those named, is located in the ancient repositories of our country.

The unbending faith of two people in Christ and in their ascetic mission for the good of the Slavic peoples - that’s what it was driving force the penetration, in the end, of writing into Ancient Rus'. The exceptional intellect of one and the stoic courage of the other - the qualities of two people who lived very long before us, turned out to be the fact that we now write them in letters, and put together our picture of the world according to their grammar and rules.

It is impossible to overestimate the introduction of writing into Slavic society. This is the greatest Byzantine contribution to the culture of the Slavic peoples. And he was created by Saints Cyril and Methodius. Only with the establishment of writing does it begin true story people, the history of their culture, the history of the development of their worldview, scientific knowledge, literature and art.

Cyril and Methodius never, in their life collisions and wanderings, found themselves in the lands Ancient Rus'. They lived more than a hundred years before they were officially baptized here and their letters were accepted. It would seem that Cyril and Methodius belong to the history of other nations. But it was they who radically changed the existence of the Russian people. They gave him the Cyrillic alphabet, which became the blood and flesh of his culture. And this greatest gift people of an ascetic person.

In addition to the invention of the Slavic alphabet, during the 40 months of their stay in Moravia, Constantine and Methodius managed to solve two problems: some liturgical books were translated into Church Slavonic (ancient Slavic literary) language and people were trained who could serve using these books. However, this was not enough to spread Slavic worship. Neither Constantine nor Methodius were bishops and could not ordain their disciples as priests. Cyril was a monk, Methodius was a simple priest, and the local bishop was an opponent of Slavic worship. To give their activities official status, the brothers and several of their students went to Rome. In Venice, Constantine entered into a debate with opponents of worship in national languages. In Latin spiritual literature, the idea was popular that worship could only be performed in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. The brothers' stay in Rome was triumphant. Constantine and Methodius brought with them the relics of St. Clement, Pope of Rome, who, according to legend, was a disciple of the Apostle Peter. Clement's relics were a precious gift, and Constantine's Slavic translations were blessed.

The disciples of Cyril and Methodius were ordained priests, while the Pope sent a message to the Moravian rulers in which he officially allowed the services to be performed in the Slavic language: “After reflection, we decided to send to your countries our son Methodius, ordained by us, with his disciples, a perfect man reason and true faith, so that he enlightens you, as you yourself asked, explaining to you in your language the Holy Scripture, the entire liturgical rite and the Holy Mass, that is, services, including baptism, as the philosopher Constantine began to do with God's grace and by prayers of Saint Clement."

After the death of the brothers, their activities were continued by their students, expelled from Moravia in 886, in the South Slavic countries. (In the West, the Slavic alphabet and Slavic literacy did not survive; Western Slavs - Poles, Czechs ... - still use the Latin alphabet). Slavic literacy was firmly established in Bulgaria, from where it spread to the countries of the southern and eastern Slavs (9th century). Writing came to Rus' in the 10th century (988 - the baptism of Rus'). The creation of the Slavic alphabet was and still is of great importance for the development of Slavic writing, Slavic peoples, Slavic culture.

The merits of Cyril and Methodius in the history of culture are enormous. Kirill developed the first ordered Slavic alphabet and thus marked the beginning of the widespread development of Slavic writing. Cyril and Methodius translated many books from Greek, which was the beginning of the formation of the Old Church Slavonic literary language and Slavic bookmaking. For many years, Cyril and Methodius carried out a great educational work and greatly contributed to the spread of literacy among these peoples. There is information that Kirill also created original works. 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. Throughout all their activities in Moravia and Panionia, Cyril and Methodius also waged a constant, selfless struggle against the attempts of the German Catholic clergy to ban the Slavic alphabet and books.

Cyril and Methodius were the founders of the first literary and written language of the Slavs - the Old Church 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. The Old Church Slavonic language was able to fulfill this role primarily due to the fact that it initially did not represent something rigid and stagnant: it itself was formed from several Slavic languages or dialects.

Finally, when assessing the educational activities of the Thessaloniki brothers, it should be borne in mind that they were not missionaries in the generally accepted sense of the word: they were not involved in the Christianization of the population as such (although they contributed to it), for Moravia by the time of their arrival was already a Christian state.

The 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 writing by the Slavic peoples had the same historical and geopolitical significance as the discovery of America.
In the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. The 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 make attempts to convert the "barbarians" into Christian faith, subordinating their daughter churches to the main one - the Latin one in Rome, the Greek one in Constantinople. Missionaries began to be sent to the “barbarians.” Among the messengers 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 fold of the Christian church. At the beginning of the 9th century, the Slavs began to actively accept Christianity.
And then a new task arose. How to make accessible to converts a huge layer of world Christian culture - sacred scriptures, prayers, letters of the apostles, works of the church fathers? Slavic language, differing in dialects, for a long time remained united: everyone understood each other perfectly. However, the Slavs did not yet have writing. “Before, the Slavs, when they were pagans, did not have letters,” says the Legend of the Monk Brave “On Letters,” “but they [counted] and told fortunes with the help of features and cuts.” However, during trade transactions, when accounting for the economy, or when it was necessary to accurately convey some message, it is unlikely that “hells and cuts” were enough. There was a need to create Slavic writing.
“When [the Slavs] were baptized,” said the Monk 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, sounding in Slavic, but written in Latin letters in the 10th century, were common among the Western Slavs. Or another interesting monument - documents in which Bulgarian texts are written in Greek letters, from those times when the Bulgarians still 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 whose sound cannot be correctly conveyed in Greek or Latin letters were already cited by the Monk Brave: belly, tsrkvi, aspiration, youth, tongue and others. But another side of the problem has also emerged - political. Latin missionaries did not at all strive to make the new faith understandable to believers. In the Roman Church there was a widespread belief that there were “only three languages ​​in which it is proper to glorify God with the help of (special) writing: 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 that for ordinary Christians, very few specially processed texts were enough - the very beginnings of Christian knowledge.
In Byzantium they looked at all this, apparently, somewhat differently; here they began to think about creating 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 Constantine who he called upon when an embassy from Moravia (part of the territory of modern Czech Republic) came to Constantinople in the early 860s. The top of Moravian society adopted Christianity three decades ago, but the German church was active among them. Apparently, trying to gain complete independence, the Moravian prince Rostislav asked “a teacher to explain to us the right faith in our language...”.
“No one can accomplish this, only you,” the Tsar admonished Constantine the Philosopher. This difficult, honorable mission fell simultaneously on the shoulders of his brother, abbot (abbot) of the Orthodox monastery Methodius. “You are Thessalonians, and the Solunians all speak pure Slavic,” was another argument of the emperor.
Cyril and Methodius, two brothers, actually came from the Greek city of Thessaloniki (its modern name is Thessaloniki) in northern Greece. The southern 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 rich 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 the youngest. As a seven-year-old child (as his Life tells it), 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 one: “Her name was Sophia, that is, Wisdom.” The boy's phenomenal memory and excellent abilities - he surpassed everyone in learning - amazed those around him.
It is not surprising that, having heard about the special talent of the children of Thessalonica nobleman, the ruler of the Tsar summoned them to Constantinople. Here they received an excellent education. With his knowledge and wisdom, Konstantin earned himself honor, respect and the nickname “Philosopher”. He became famous for his many verbal victories: in discussions with bearers of heresies, at a debate in Khazaria, where he defended the Christian faith, knowledge of many languages ​​and reading ancient inscriptions. In Chersonesus, 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 business. But the brothers gained world fame and the grateful gratitude of their descendants by creating the Slavic alphabet and translating sacred books into the Slavic language. The work is enormous, which played an epoch-making role in the formation of the Slavic peoples.
However, many researchers rightly believe that work on the creation of a Slavic script in Byzantium began, 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 the Slavic language of the Gospel - a very complex, multi-layered, internally rhythmic literary work, which requires a careful and adequate selection of words, is a colossal job. To complete it, even Constantine the Philosopher and his brother Methodius “with his henchmen” would have taken more than one year. Therefore, it is natural to assume that it was precisely this work that the brothers performed 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, as the Life of Constantine reports, they constantly prayed to God, “doing only 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 here the work had yet to be continued. Students were assigned to help the brothers and teach them. “And soon (Constantine) translated the entire church rite and taught them 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. Kirill died and was buried in Rome.
The eldest of the brothers, Methodius, continued the work they had begun. As the Life of Methodius reports, “...having appointed cursive writers from among his two priests, he quickly and completely translated all the books (biblical), except the Maccabees, from Greek into Slavic.” The time devoted to this work is stated to be 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 known medieval sources that responded to this event report how “certain people began to blaspheme Slavic books,” arguing that “no people should have their own alphabet, except 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. Although the translation into the uncanonized Slavic language contradicted the principles of the Latin Church, the pope, nevertheless, did not condemn the detractors, allegedly saying, quoting Scripture, this way: “Let all nations praise God.”
Cyril and Methodius, having created the Slavic alphabet, translated almost all the most important church books and prayers into Slavic. But not one Slavic alphabet has survived to this day, but two: Glagolitic and Cyrillic. Both existed in the 9th-10th centuries. In both, special characters were introduced to convey sounds reflecting the features of the Slavic language, rather than combinations of two or three main ones, as was practiced in the alphabets of Western European peoples. Glagolitic and Cyrillic almost have the same 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 Church Slavonic literary language and Slavic bookmaking. There is information that Kirill also created original works. Thirdly, Cyril and Methodius for many years carried out great educational work among the Western and Southern Slavs and greatly contributed to the spread of literacy among these peoples. Throughout all their activities in Moravia and Pannonia, Cyril and Methodius also waged an incessant, selfless struggle against the attempts of the German Catholic clergy to ban the Slavic alphabet and books. Fourth: Cyril and Methodius were the founders of the first literary and written language of the Slavs - the Old Church 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 assessing the educational activities of the Thessaloniki brothers, it should be borne in mind that they were not involved in the Christianization of the population as such (although they contributed to it), for Moravia by the time of their arrival was already a Christian state. Cyril and Methodius, having compiled the alphabet, translated from Greek, taught literacy and introduced the local population to Christian and encyclopedic literature rich in content and form, were precisely the teachers of the Slavic peoples.
Slavic monuments of the 10th-11th centuries that have reached us. indicate that, starting from the era of Cyril and Methodius, for three centuries the Slavs used, in principle, a single bookish literary language with a number of local variants. The Slavic linguistic world was quite uniform when compared with the modern one. Thus, Cyril and Methodius created an international, inter-Slavic language.

Cyril and Methodius are saints, equal to the apostles, Slavic educators, creators of the Slavic alphabet, preachers of Christianity, the first translators of liturgical books from Greek into Slavic. Cyril was born around 827, died on February 14, 869. Before taking monasticism at the beginning of 869, he bore the name Constantine. His elder brother Methodius was born around 820 and died on April 6, 885. Both brothers were originally from Thessalonica (Thessaloniki), 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 Slavic alphabet and, with the help of Methodius, translated several liturgical books from Greek into Slavic: selected readings from the Gospel, apostolic epistles. Psalms, 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, at the call of Pope Nicholas I, headed to Rome, and on the way they visited the Principality of Blaten in Pannonia, where they also distributed Slavic literacy and introduced worship in the Slavic language. After arriving in Rome, Kirill became seriously ill and died. Methodius was ordained archbishop of Moravia and Pannonia and in 870 returned from Rome to Pannonia. In mid-884, Methodius returned to Moravia and worked on translating the Bible into Slavic. With 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 MEFODIUS - EDUCATION 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 the Slavic language. The Moravian prince Rostislav strove for the independence of the Slavic church and had already made a similar request to Rome, but was refused. Michael III and Photius, just as in Rome, reacted to Rostislav’s request formally and, having sent missionaries to Moravia, did not ordain any of them as bishops. Thus, Constantine, Methodius and their associates could only conduct educational activities, but did not have the right to ordain their students to the priesthood and deaconship. This mission could not succeed and have of great importance, if Constantine had not brought the Moravians a perfectly developed and convenient alphabet for transmitting Slavic speech, as well as a translation into Slavic of the main liturgical books. Of course, the language of the translations brought by the brothers was phonetically and morphologically different from the living one. spoken language, spoken by the Moravians, but the language of the liturgical books was initially perceived as a written, bookish, sacred, model 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 Slavic at services, and the people reached out to their brothers and to Christianity. Constantine and Methodius diligently taught their students the Slavic alphabet, divine services, and continued their translation activities. Churches where services were conducted in Latin were emptying, and the Roman Catholic priesthood was losing influence and income in Moravia. Since Constantine was a simple priest, and Methodius a monk, they did not have the right to place their students in church positions. 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, took under his care the divine service in the Slavic language, ordered to put Slavic books in one of the Roman churches and perform a divine service over them. The Pope ordained Methodius as a priest, and his disciples as presbyters and deacons, and in a letter to princes Rostislav and Kotsel he legitimized the Slavic translation of the Holy Scriptures and the celebration of worship in the Slavic language.

The brothers spent almost two years in Rome. One of the reasons for this is Konstantin’s increasingly deteriorating health. At the beginning of 869, he accepted the schema and the new monastic name Cyril, and died on February 14. 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 as Archbishop of Moravia and Pannonia. Returning to Pannonia, Methodius began vigorous activity to spread Slavic worship and writing. However, after the removal of Rostislav, Methodius did not have strong political support left. In 871, German authorities arrested Methodius and put him on trial, accusing the archbishop of invading the domain 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 replaced the deceased Adrian II, in 873 Methodius was released and restored to all rights, but Slavic worship became not the main one, but only an additional one: the service was conducted in Latin, and sermons could be delivered in Slavic.

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

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-Mikhail, a friend of Methodius, supported his students. A new center of Slavic writing emerges in Ohrid (the territory of modern Macedonia). However, Bulgaria is under strong cultural influence from Byzantium, and one of Constantine's students (most likely Clement) creates a writing system similar to Greek writing. This happens at the end of the 9th - beginning of the 10th century, during the reign of Tsar Simeon. It is this system that receives the name Cyrillic in memory of the person who first attempted to create an alphabet suitable for recording Slavic speech.

QUESTION ABOUT THE INDEPENDENCE OF SLAVIC ABCs

The question of the independence of the Slavic alphabets is caused by the very nature of the outlines of the letters of the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabet and their sources. What were the Slavic alphabet - a new writing system or just a variation of the Greek-Byzantine letter? When 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 arose completely independently, without the influence of previous writing systems. Thus, Phoenician writing arose on the basis of 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. In this case, 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 was in this regard that the creators of Slavic writing showed great philological flair, a deep understanding of the phonetics of the Old Church Slavonic language, as well as great graphic taste.

THE ONLY STATE-CHURCH HOLIDAY

PRESIDIUM OF THE SUPREME COUNCIL 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 educators Cyril and Methodius, the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR decides:

Chairman

Supreme Council 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 spoken about 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 language.”

And the second anniversary. In 1863, 150 years ago, the Russian Holy Synod determined: in connection with the celebration of the millennium of the Moravian mission of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Brothers, an annual celebration in honor of the Venerable Methodius and Cyril should be established on May 11 (24 AD).

In 1986, on the initiative of writers, especially the late Vitaly Maslov, the first Writing Festival was held in Murmansk, and the next 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 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 Rus'.

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

A feature of the culture of the Slavs was that among all European peoples, only the Slavs saw the creation of their own written language and the adoption of Christianity accompany each other; and since then, book education has been inseparable from the spiritual nourishment of the people, being the work of the Church in close cooperation with the state authorities.

The process of creating Slavic writing was long and complex.

Research last decades proved that 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 letter was very limited.

The fact that the ancient Slavs had some kind of their own writing is evidenced by the ancient Bulgarian writer of the late 9th - early 10th centuries. "Chernorizets Brave", author of the first essay on the history of Slavic writing - "The Legend of Writings". Brave in the “Tale” pointed out two types of writing among the ancient Slavs - features And cuts which the Slavs I read And gadahu(that is, they read, counted and guessed) . These were probably the simplest counting signs in the form of dashes, notches, etc., family and personal signs, signs of ownership, calendar symbols and signs for fortune telling.

In addition to the testimony of Chernorizets Khrabr, the existence of the “devils and cuts” type of writing among the ancient Slavs is confirmed by archaeological finds, as well as written messages from the 9th-10th centuries. peoples neighboring the Slavs. Among this evidence, the most significant are the following:

1. The Arab traveler Ibn Fadlan, who visited the Volga Bulgars in 921, described the burial ritual of the Rus that he saw there: “ First they made a fire and burned the body on it, - says Ibn Fadlan, - and then they built something like a round hill and placed a large piece of wood in the middle of it/carved from/ poplars, wrote on it the name of this husband and the name of the Tsar of the Rus and left».

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

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

4. The Arabic teachings of Ibn el Nedim in his work “The Book of Painting of 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 whose veracity 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 writings carved into wood. He 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 differs from Greek, and from Latin, and from Glagolitic, and from Cyrillic writing.

The “names” recorded on Slavic idols (according to Thietmar 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 about “lines and cuts” for fortune telling. As for the inscription copied by Ibn el Nedim, some researchers assumed that it was a distorted Arabic spelling, while others saw in them similarities with Scandinavian runes. However, the majority of Russian and Bulgarian scientists (P.Ya. Chernykh, D.S. Likhachev, E. Georgiev, etc.) consider Ibn el Nedim’s inscription to be a monument to pre-Cyrillic writing of the “devils and cuts” type. However, a hypothesis has also been 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, El Massudi, Ibn el Nedim, and Ibn Fadlan were familiar with the Latin and Greek alphabets.

The presence of a writing system of the “devils and cuts” type among the Slavs 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 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 type of ancient Slavic “traits and cuts”.

A letter of the “devils and cuts” type was convenient for keeping a calendar, for fortune telling, counting, etc., but was completely unsuitable for writing complex documentary texts such as orders, contracts, etc. The need for this kind of records undoubtedly arose among the Slavs (as well as among all other historical peoples) simultaneously with 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 Greek in the east and south, and Greek and Latin alphabets in the west. A monument to the recording of Slavic speech in Latin letters are the so-called “Freisingen excerpts” (10th century), where individual words of Slavic speech interspersed in Greek texts were found written in Greek letters.

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 “Monk Brave”. According to him, having adopted Christianity and become familiar with the culture of the Roman Empire, the Slavs tried to record their speech in “Roman and Greek letters,” i.e. using the letters of the Latin and Greek alphabets, but “without arrangement,” that is, without special device them to Slavic speech. So, for example, the sound b transmitted by the Greek letter "vita", the sound w- “sigma”, h- a combination of “theta” and “zeta”, ts- a combination of “theta” and “sigma”, at- a combination of “omicron” with “upsilon”. This is what the Greeks did. The Slavs, according to the Bulgarian linguist E. Georgiev, undoubtedly moved even further along the path of adapting the Greek letter 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, which was known to the Slavs through the Khazars. “And so it went on for many years,” testifies the Brave. An indication of the use of letters from different alphabets is evidence that attempts to create a Slavic script 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 9th century. a more advanced 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 script were the children of the Drungaria 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-Kirill, who received a brilliant classical education and was nicknamed the Philosopher for his scholarship. One of the mentors of the future enlightener of the Slavs was, in particular, the famous Patriarch Photius. IN early years During his teaching career, he worked seriously in the field of philology. Photius's early work "Lexica" is a huge collection of lexical and grammatical notes and materials. And just during the period of Photius’s work on the Lexicon, Constantine, who soon became the largest philologist of his time, studied with him.

There is no reason to believe that the idea of ​​​​creating a special Slavic script - that is, scientifically organizing the already existing writing systems of the Slavs - originated with Patriarch Photius himself or in his entourage. The intellectuals of the Photius circle were precisely convinced of the exceptional properties of Greek culture and the Greek language. And this conviction led them to a complete reluctance to know about what cultural processes are taking place in the world around them. Photius himself, despite his encyclopedic education, apparently did not know any other language other than Greek, and in his correspondence and writings he never mentioned the existence of a special “Slavic letter,” although he lived to see the time when books 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 broad political plans Byzantine state and the Church of the 9th century, aimed at bringing new territories, including Slavic states, into the sphere of influence of Byzantium. Constantine the Philosopher took a direct part in the implementation of these plans - for example, as part of the Byzantine diplomatic missions to states neighboring the Empire - Khazaria and 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, Crimea, North Caucasus and Eastern Europe. There, the preaching of Christianity was carried out for pagan and semi-pagan peoples with the goal of creating a church apparatus in these lands, subordinate to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. This opened up opportunities for the involvement of such states as the First Bulgarian Kingdom, the Khazar Khaganate, and 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, which, according to the commandment of Christ, strives to “go and teach all nations” the Truth of salvation, for which it was necessary to “be all things to all in order to save at least some.” .

These tasks prompted Constantine, who apparently had long wanted to create a special Slavic writing system, to intense philological studies. In preparation for missionary activity for the benefit of the Church, he studied a number of Semitic languages ​​and their writing systems, examined the translation experience of some non-orthodox authors (apparently, translators of the Gospel into Syriac), justifying this practice by citing the authority of St. Cyril of Alexandria, who taught that “ not everything, as much as evil verbs are said, there is a way to run away and sweep away" Having received theoretical philological knowledge from Photius, Constantine the Philosopher was able to use it to analyze and compare systems different languages, which the educated Byzantine elite considered beneath their dignity to study. This meticulous work prepared Constantine to create an original writing system for the Slavs.

Life of St. Constantine-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 Moravans the truths of Christian teaching in their native Slavic language. The choice fell on Constantine - not only because he was famous for his extraordinary theological and philological knowledge, but also because Constantine came from Thessaloniki. The entire territory adjacent to this city was occupied by Slavic tribes, and its inhabitants spoke Slavic fluently. As a native of Thessaloniki, Konstantin was well acquainted with the Slavic language 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, 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 whether the Moravians had their own written language, because otherwise it would be very difficult to complete the task. The emperor said to this: “My grandfather, and my father, and many others searched... and did not find it,” which once again confirms the repeated attempts to create a special letter for the vast Slavic ecumene. The Emperor, who knew the Philosopher’s philological abilities, invited him to create such a letter himself. Constantine turned to God for help, and with the help of grace, the Slavic alphabet was created. Constantine translated the Gospel for the Slavs and headed to Moravia...

However, even if the alphabet accurately reflecting the phonetic features of Slavic speech was graciously revealed to the Equal-to-the-Apostles Enlightenment, the translation of such a complex work as the Gospel was hardly possible in those few months during which the Life of St. Konstantin-Kirill is reserved for such work. Most likely, work on the creation of Slavic writing and translation into Slavic of liturgical texts began long before the arrival of the Moravian embassy in Constantinople, apparently even on Bithynian Olympus (in Asia Minor), where Constantine and his older brother Methodius lived for several years in the 50s years of the 9th century, “engaging only in books,” as evidenced by the Life of Constantine-Cyril.

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

The work begun by Constantine was continued by him and his brother in Moravia. In 864–867 the brothers translated the Apostle, also a type of short aprakos. To the same time should probably be attributed the translations of the Parema and Psalms, the texts of the Liturgy, the Service Book, the Breviary, the Book of Hours, the Octoechos, the General Menaion - in general, as determined by the author of the Life of Constantine-Cyril, who attributes this merit only to the youngest of the brothers, “ soon the entire church rank was transferred».

The significance that the Slavic first teachers and their students attached to this act is indicated by the paraphrase of a quote from the book of the prophet Isaiah placed after this message: “ the ears of the deaf were opened so that the words of the book could be heard, and the speech of those who were tongue-tied became clear" This meant that only with the establishment of worship in the Slavic language did Moravian Christians have the opportunity to consciously profess Christian teaching.

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

Having provided the flock with the necessary liturgical texts, the Slavic first teachers hastened to provide it with spiritual nourishment - they translate “The Writing of the Right Faith,” one of the sections of the treatise “The Great Apologetics” by Patriarch Nicephorus I of Constantinople, that is, they set out in the Slavic language the main dogmas and rules of the Orthodox faith. The appearance of this translation marked the beginning of the creation of philosophical and theological terminology in the Slavic language.

Another translation was also completed, absolutely necessary for the full life of the young Moravian Church - the translation of the Nomocanon, a collection of decrees church councils, defining the norms of intra-church life. The so-called “Nomocanon of John Scholasticus” was taken as a basis, greatly abbreviated during translation, apparently in order to make it easier for the Slavs to assimilate the necessary minimum of basic legal norms and adapt the Byzantine manual to more simple conditions life of the Slavs.

The compilation of the Penance Book entitled “The Commandments of the Holy Fathers” should probably be attributed to this time, 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 Thessaloniki brothers and the Moravian nobility is the most ancient monument of Slavic law - “The Law of Judgment for People.”

Thus, while upon request Prince of Kyiv Askold, the Byzantine emperor sent him a bishop to baptize Rus' (around 866); in the Slavic lands neighboring Russia, a complete corpus of liturgical and doctrinal texts in the Slavic language already existed and was successfully used, and clergy from the Slavs were also trained. According to some Church historians, Bishop Michael, then sent to Rus' by the Patriarch of Constantinople, could have been a pupil of Constantine and Methodius...

After the death of Constantine-Cyril († 869), Methodius and his students continued to create a corpus of Slavic books. In the early 80s of the 9th 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 this day, but played a 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. Waldensian heretics, and translations of the Bible into other Romanesque and Germanic languages belong to an even later time.

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

Through many years of selfless service to the Church and their people, Saints Cyril and Methodius, Equal-to-the-Apostles, created not only a writing system that adequately reflected Slavic speech, not only Slavic written language, capable of the same high level, both Greek and Latin, serve all spheres of spiritual and social life, but also a body of texts in the Slavic language necessary for Christian worship and the spiritual nourishment of Slavic believers.

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

Based on the Cyrillic alphabet, Bulgarian (late 9th century), Old Russian (11th century), Serbian (12th century) with a local Bosnian variant, Slavic-language Wallachian and Moldavian (XIV-XV centuries), Romanian (16th century, in 1864 translated into Latin script) and other scripts. In the field of office work, the Cyrillic alphabet 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 based on the Cyrillic alphabet for use in business writing and secular printing. Graphically, it is as close as possible to the styles of book italics, which were formed in the last third of the 17th century. under the influence of Ukrainian-Belarusian handwriting and fonts, influenced by Latin and Greek traditions. The quantitative and qualitative composition of this alphabet was determined by the 1918 reform.

During the 2nd half of the XVIII– beginning of the 20th century modernized at the beginning of the 18th century. The Russian version of the Cyrillic alphabet formed (taking into account local characteristics) the basis of the modern alphabets of the Orthodox Slavic countries: Serbia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Belarus and Macedonia. As a result of centuries-old labors of the clergy, philologists, teachers, and 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 the “Cyrillic alphabet,” another one called the “glagolitic alphabet” was also quite common. The differences between them were that if in the Cyrillic alphabet 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 the Glagolitic alphabet for all the sounds of the Slavic language, special styles were invented that had no analogies (with the exception of individual graphemes reminiscent of the corresponding styles of Greek minuscule letters) 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 (11th century), both alphabets are represented. There are known monuments where both types of writing are used in one codex - for example, the so-called Reims Gospel (XIV century).

However, it has been proven that in fact Constantine 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 Soluni 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 alphabet occurred as it spread to other South Slavic lands, where they had their own pronunciation features.

As the only Slavic alphabet, the Glagolitic alphabet existed for no more than a third of a century. Already at the end of the 9th century. on the territory of the First Bulgarian Kingdom, where after the death of St. Methodius († 885) - due to the persecution of Slavic worship and writing in Great Moravia - students of Slavic enlighteners moved, a new alphabet was created, which over time received the name Cyrillic. It was based on the Greek uncial script; the Greek alphabet was supplemented by those letters of the alphabet brought from Moravia that conveyed sounds specific to the Slavic language; but these letters also underwent 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 Bulgarian dialects, and those graphemes of the Glagolitic alphabet that reflected characteristics West Slavic dialects of Pannonia and Moravia. At the same time, the Cyrillic alphabet also included letters that convey specific sounds of the Greek language used in borrowed words (“fita”, “xi”, “psi”, “izhitsa”, etc.); numeric value Cyrillic letters, with rare exceptions, are determined by the order of the Greek alphabet.

The Cyrillic alphabet, which was simpler in style, forced out of use in the eastern regions of the First Bulgarian, where the Greek language was widely used, the Glagolitic alphabet, the active use of which ceased in the Bulgarian lands at the turn of the 12th–13th centuries. In the X–XI centuries. (until 1096) the Glagolitic alphabet was used as a writing system for 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 media (as a result of the activities of Emperor Charles IV of Luxembourg), Glagolitic in the XIV-XV centuries. again gained fame in individual monastic centers in the Czech Republic (Emmau Monastery “on the Slavs” in Prague), as well as in Poland (Olesnitsky Monastery in Silesia and “on Klepaza” in Krakow).

The alphabet, created on the basis of the Greek uncial, which spread in the eastern regions of the First Bulgarian Kingdom, was transferred to Rus', where it completely prevailed. Being the only known Slavic alphabet here, it began to be called after the Equal-to-the-Apostles Enlightener of the Slavs " Cyrillic"(although initially this name was attached to the alphabet, which is now called Glagolitic). In the same territories where the Glagolitic alphabet was established, its original name (after the name of the creator) for various reasons could not resist: 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"...

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Introduction. Short story letters

1. The origins of Russian writing

1.1 Slavic alphabet and Greek alphabet

1.2 How and where did our alphabet come from and why is it called Cyrillic?

1.3 How Cyril and Methodius created the alphabet

2. “The Tale of Bygone Years” about the beginning of Slavic writing

3. From the lives of Cyril and Methodius

4. Cyrillic letters and their names

5. Composition of the Russian alphabet

Conclusion

Literature

Introduction

A Brief History of Letters

When we try to imagine the beginning of Russian literature, our thought necessarily turns to the history of writing. The importance of writing in the history of the development of civilization can hardly be overestimated. Language, like a mirror, reflects the whole world, our whole life. And reading written or printed texts, it’s as if we are getting into a time machine and can be transported to both recent times and the distant past.

The possibilities of writing are not limited by time or distance. But people did not always master the art of writing. This art has been developing for a long time, over many millennia.

First, picture writing (pictography) appeared: some event was depicted in the form of a picture, then they began to depict not the event, but individual objects, first maintaining the similarity with what was depicted, and then in the form of conventional signs (ideography, hieroglyphs), and, finally, learned to depict not objects, but to convey their names with signs (sound writing). Initially, only consonant sounds were used in sound writing, and vowels were either not perceived at all, or were indicated by additional symbols (syllabic writing). Syllabic writing was used by many Semitic peoples, including the Phoenicians.

The Greeks created their alphabet based on the Phoenician letter, but significantly improved it by introducing special signs for vowel sounds. The Greek letter formed the basis of the Latin alphabet, and in the 9th century the Slavic letter was created by using letters of the Greek alphabet.

The great work of creating the Slavic alphabet was accomplished by the brothers Constantine (who took the name Cyril at baptism) and Methodius. The main merit in this matter belongs to Kirill. Methodius was his faithful assistant. Compiling the Slavic alphabet, Kirill was able to discern in the sound of the Slavic language he had known since childhood (and this was probably one of the dialects of the ancient Bulgarian language) the basic sounds of this language and find letter designations for each of them. When reading Old Church Slavonic, we pronounce the words as they are written. In the Old Church Slavonic language we will not find such a discrepancy between the sound of words and their pronunciation, as, for example, in English or French.

The Slavic book language (Old Church Slavonic) became widespread as a common language for many Slavic peoples. It was used by the Southern Slavs (Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats), Western Slavs (Czechs, Slovaks), Eastern Slavs (Ukrainians, Belarusians, Russians).

In memory of the great feat of Cyril and Methodius, the Day of Slavic Literature is celebrated all over the world on May 24. It is celebrated especially solemnly in Bulgaria. There are festive processions with the Slavic alphabet and icons of the holy brothers. Since 1987, a holiday of Slavic writing and culture began to be held in our country on this day. The Russian people pay tribute to the memory and gratitude of “the teachers of the Slavic countries...”

writing alphabet cyrillic slavic

1. The origins of Russian writing

1.1 SlavsChinese alphabet and Greek alphabet

Do you know how Russian writing originated? If you don't know, we can tell you. But first answer this question: how does the alphabet differ from the alphabet?

The word “alphabet” comes from the names of the first two letters of the Slavic alphabet: A (az) and B (buki):

ABC: AZ + BUKI

and the word “alphabet” comes from the name of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet:

ALPHABET: ALPHA + VITA

The alphabet is much older than the alphabet. In the 9th century there was no alphabet, and the Slavs did not have their own letters. And therefore there was no writing. The Slavs could not write books or even letters to each other in their language.

1.2 How and where did our alphabet come from and why is it called Cyrillic?

In the 9th century in Byzantium, in the city of Thessaloniki (now the city of Thessaloniki in Greece), two brothers lived - Constantine and Methodius. They were wise and very educated people and knew the Slavic language well. The Greek king Michael sent these brothers to the Slavs in response to the request of the Slavic prince Rostislav. (Rostislav asked to send teachers who could tell the Slavs about the holy Christian books, book words unknown to them and their meaning).

And so the brothers Constantine and Methodius came to the Slavs to create the Slavic alphabet, which later became known as the Cyrillic alphabet. (In honor of Constantine, who, having become a monk, received the name Cyril).

1.3 HowCyril and Methodius created the alphabet

Cyril and Methodius took the Greek alphabet and adapted it to the sounds of the Slavic language. So our alphabet is a “daughter” of the Greek alphabet.

Many of our letters are taken from Greek, which is why they look similar to them.

2. "The Tale of Bygone Years" aboutthe beginning of Slavic writing

From our main witness to the initial history of Rus' - “The Tale of Bygone Years” - we learn that one day the Slavic princes Rostislav, Svyatopolk and Kotsel sent ambassadors to the Byzantine Tsar Michael with the following words:

“Our land is baptized, but we have no teacher who would instruct and teach us, and explain the holy books. After all, we do not know either Greek or Latin; Some teach us this way, and others teach us differently, so we don’t know either the shape of the letters or their meaning. And send us teachers who could tell us about book words and their meaning.”

Then Tsar Michael summoned two learned brothers, Constantine and Methodius, and “The king persuaded them and sent them to the Slavic land to Rostislav, Svyatopolk and Kotsel. When these brothers arrived, they began to compile the Slavic alphabet and translated the Apostle and the Gospel.”

This happened in 863. This is where Slavic writing originates.

However, there were people who began to blaspheme Slavic books and said that “No people should have their own alphabet, except the Jews, Greeks and Latins, as in the inscription of Pilate, who wrote on the cross of the Lord only in these languages.”

To protect Slavic writings, the brothers Constantine and Methodius went to Rome. The Bishop of Rome condemned those who complained about Slavic books, saying: “Let the word of Scripture be fulfilled: “Let all nations praise God!” That is, let every nation pray to God in its own way native language". So he approved the Divine service in the Slavic language.

3. Frombiographies of Cyril and Methodius

Among the oldest monuments of Slavic writing, a special and honorable place is occupied by the biographies of the creators of Slavic literature - Saints Cyril and Methodius, such as “The Life of Constantine the Philosopher”, “The Life of Methodius” and “Eulogy to Cyril and Methodius”.

From these sources we learn that the brothers were from the Macedonian city of Thessaloniki. Now it is the city of Thessaloniki on the shores of the Aegean Sea. Methodius was the eldest of seven brothers, and the youngest was Constantine. He received the name Cyril when he was tonsured a monk just before his death. The father of Methodius and Constantine held the high position of assistant to the city manager. There is an assumption that their mother was Slavic, because from childhood the brothers knew the Slavic language as well as Greek.

The future Slavic educators received an excellent upbringing and education. From infancy, Konstantin discovered extraordinary mental gifts. While studying at the Thessaloniki school and not yet reaching the age of fifteen, he had already read the books of the most thoughtful of the Church Fathers - Gregory the Theologian (IV century). The rumor about Constantine's talent reached Constantinople, and then he was taken to court, where he studied with the emperor's son the best teachers capital of Byzantium. Constantine studied ancient literature with the famous scientist Photius, the future Patriarch of Constantinople. He also studied philosophy, rhetoric ( oratory), mathematics, astronomy and music. A brilliant career at the imperial court, wealth and marriage to a noble woman awaited Constantine. beautiful girl. But he preferred to retire to the monastery “to Olympus to his brother Methodius,” says his biography, “he began to live there and constantly pray to God, occupied only with books.”

However, Konstantin was unable to spend long periods of time in solitude. As the best preacher and defender of Orthodoxy, he is often sent to neighboring countries to participate in disputes. These trips were very successful for Konstantin. Once, traveling to the Khazars, he visited Crimea. Having baptized up to two hundred people and taking with him the captive Greeks who had been released, Constantine returned to the capital of Byzantium and began to continue his scientific works there.

Poor health, but imbued with a strong religious feeling and love of science, Konstantin from childhood dreamed of solitary prayer and book studies. His whole life was filled with frequent difficult trips, severe hardships and very hard work. Such a life undermined his strength, and at the age of 42 he became very ill. Anticipating his approaching end, he became a monk, changing his worldly name Konstantin to the name Cyril. After that he lived another 50 days, last time He read the confessional prayer himself, said goodbye to his brother and disciples, and died quietly on February 14, 869. This happened in Rome, when the brothers Once again They came to seek protection from the Pope for their cause - the spread of Slavic writing.

Immediately after the death of Cyril, his icon was painted. Cyril was buried in Rome in the Church of St. Clement.

4. Cyrillic letters and their names

Figure 1 - "Cyrillic letters and their names"

The Cyrillic alphabet, shown in Figure 1, has undergone gradual improvement as it has been used in the Russian language.

The development of the Russian nation at the beginning of the 18th century and the emerging needs for the printing of civil books necessitated the need to simplify the lettering of the Cyrillic alphabet.

In 1708, a Russian civil font was created, and Peter I himself took an active part in making sketches of letters. In 1710, a sample of a new alphabet font was approved. This was the first reform of Russian graphics. The essence of Peter's reform was to simplify the composition of the Russian alphabet by excluding from it such outdated and unnecessary letters as “psi”, “xi”, “omega”, “izhitsa”, “earth”, “izhe”, “yus small”. However, later, probably under the influence of the clergy, some of these letters were restored to use. The letter E (“E” is reverse) was introduced in order to distinguish it from the yotized letter E, as well as the letter Y instead of the small yotized yus.

In the civil font, uppercase (capital) and lowercase (small) letters are established for the first time.

The letter Y (and a short one) was introduced by the Academy of Sciences in 1735. The letter Y was first used by N.M. Karamzin in 1797 to designate the sound [o] under stress after soft consonants, for example: palate, dark.

In the 18th century in the literary language, the sound denoted by the letter Ъ (yat) coincided with the sound [ uh]. Bush's Kommersant, thus, turned out to be practically unnecessary, but according to tradition, it is still long time remained in the Russian alphabet until 1917-1918.

Spelling reform 1917-1918 two letters that duplicated each other were excluded: “yat”, “fita”, “and decimal”. The letter b (er) was retained only as a dividing sign, b (er) - as a dividing sign and to indicate the softness of the preceding consonant. Regarding Yo, the decree contains a clause on the desirability, but not obligatory nature, of using this letter. Reform 1917-- 1918 simplified Russian letter and thus facilitated learning to read and write.

5. Composition of the Russian alphabet

The Russian alphabet has 33 letters, of which 10 indicate vowels, 21 consonants, and 2 letters do not indicate special sounds, but serve to convey certain sound features. The Russian alphabet, shown in Table 1, has uppercase (capital) and lowercase (small) letters, printed and handwritten letters.

Table 1 - Russian alphabet and letter names

Conclusion

Throughout the history of the Russian alphabet, there was a struggle with “extra” letters, culminating in a partial victory during the reform of graphics by Peter I (1708-1710) and a final victory during the spelling reform of 1917-1918.

In my work, I understood the historical role of Cyril and Methodius in the creation of Slavic writing. Comparing the Cyrillic alphabet and the modern Russian alphabet, I saw different styles of letters and their location, different quantities letters, discovered doublet letters, observed the history of the loss of individual letters from the alphabet and the appearance of new letters in it.

Literature

1. Vetvitsky V.G. Modern Russian writing. /V.G. Vetvitsky//- M.: Education, 1994. -143 p.

2. Vetvitsky V.G. Modern Russian writing. Optional course. Manual for students / V.G. Vetvitsky//- M.: Education, 1999. -127 p.

3. Gorbachevich K.S. Russian language. Past. The present. The future: a book for extracurricular reading(8-10 grade) /K.S.Gorbachevich// - M.: Education, 1996. - 191s.

4. Dal V.I. Dictionary of the living Great Russian language. In four volumes./V.I. Dahl. - M.: AST-ASTREL, 2009. - 834 p.

5. Kolesov V.V. History of the Russian language in stories / V.V. Kolesov//- M.: “Enlightenment”, 1996-175 p.

6. Lyustrova Z.N., Skvortsov L.I., Deryagin V.Ya. Conversations about the Russian word / Z.N. Lyustrova, L.I. Skvortsov, V.Ya. Deryagin//- M.: “Knowledge”, 1976-144p.

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Written culture of the pre-Christian period, prerequisites for the adoption of written culture by the Old Russian state. The history of the creation of the Slavic alphabet. Distribution of writing in Ancient Rus'. Cultural changes that arose after the adoption of Christianity.

course work, added 04/22/2011


Peter I as the creator of the modern civil alphabet. Acquaintance with the history of the appearance of the letter “Y”, consideration of the peculiarities of its use. The influence of the 1917 reform on the Russian alphabet. General characteristics of the basic rules for spelling the letter "Ё".

abstract, added 05/06/2015


The significance of the invention of writing for the development of culture in general and for office work in particular. The main stages of the development of writing. Ideographic, verbal-syllabic, syllabic and alphabetic types of writing. The origin of Slavic writing.

course work, added 03/15/2014


Writing of the Slavs in the pre-Christian period. Slavic alphabet of Cyril and Methodius. With the Central Slavic language, Rus' accepted and absorbed the richness of Greek Byzantine culture. With the advent of writing in Rus', new genres of literature appeared.

course work, added 03/20/2011


History of the alphabet in Rus'. Types of Russian alphabet and their distinctive features. The relationship between Russian phonetics and graphics. Specifics of Russian graphics and its historical formation. Cursive writing and its functional significance at the present stage.