Director of the Volgograd Institute of Art Education Nikolai Taranov has many titles: calligrapher, doctor of pedagogical sciences, candidate of art criticism, professor, member of the Union of Artists of Russia. But few people know that he is still studying symbols. And while doing this, he went on the "detective trail" and made an amazing discovery. Who invented the Slavic alphabet?

It would seem that everyone knows this: Cyril and Methodius, whom the Orthodox Church calls equal to the apostles for this merit. But what kind of alphabet did Kirill come up with - Cyrillic or Glagolitic? (Methodius, it is known and proven, supported his brother in everything, but it was the monk Kirill who was the “brain of the operation” and an educated person who knew many languages). This is still debated in the scientific world. Some Slavic researchers say: “Cyrillic! It is named after the creator. Others object: “Glagolitsa! The first letter of this alphabet looks like a cross. Cyril is a monk. It's a sign". It is also argued that before the work of Cyril, there was no written language in Rus'. Professor Nikolai Taranov categorically disagrees with this.

The assertion that there was no writing in Rus' before Cyril and Methodius is based on a single document - the "Tale of the Letters" by the Chernorite Khrabr, found in Bulgaria, says Nikolai Taranov. “There are 73 lists from this scroll, and in different copies, due to translation errors or scribal errors, completely different versions of the key phrase for us. In one version: "the Slavs before Cyril did not have books", in the other - "letters", but the author indicates: "they wrote with features and cuts." It is interesting that Arab travelers who visited Rus' back in the 8th century, that is, even before Rurik and even more so before Cyril, described the funeral of one Russian prince: “After the funeral, his soldiers wrote something on a white tree (birch) in honor of the prince, and then, having mounted their horses, they departed. And in the "Life of Cyril", known to the Russian Orthodox Church, we read: "In the city of Korsun, Kirill met a Rusyn (Russian), who had with him books written in Russian letters." Cyril (his mother was a Slav) took out some of his letters and with their help began to read those same Rusyn books. And these were not thin books. These were, as stated in the same "Life of Cyril", translated into Russian "Psalter" and "Gospel". There is a lot of evidence that Rus' had its own alphabet long before Cyril. And Lomonosov spoke about the same thing. He cited as evidence the testimony of Pope VIII, a contemporary of Cyril, which states that Cyril did not invent these letters, but rediscovered them.

The question arises: why did Cyril create the Russian alphabet, if it already existed? The fact is that the monk Cyril had a task from the Moravian prince - to create for the Slavs an alphabet suitable for translating church books. Which he did. And the letters in which church books are now written (and in a modified form - our today's printed creations) are the work of Cyril, that is, Cyrillic.

Was the verb destroyed on purpose?

There are 22 points that prove that the Glagolitic was older than the Cyrillic, says Taranov. There is such a concept among archaeologists and philologists - a palimpsest. This is the name of an inscription made on top of another destroyed, most often scraped with a knife, inscription. In the Middle Ages, parchment made from the skin of a young lamb was quite expensive, and in order to save money, scribes often destroyed “unnecessary” records and documents, and wrote something new on a scraped sheet. So: everywhere in Russian palimpsests the Glagolitic alphabet is erased, and on top of it there are inscriptions in Cyrillic. There are no exceptions to this rule.

There are only five monuments written in the Glagolitic alphabet left in the world. The rest were destroyed. Moreover, in my opinion, the notes in the Glagolitic alphabet were destroyed on purpose, - says Professor Nikolai Taranov. - Because the Glagolitic alphabet was not suitable for writing church books. The numerical value of the letters (and then the belief in numerology was very strong) in it was different than what was required in Christianity. Out of respect for the Glagolitic alphabet, Cyril left in his alphabet the same names of the letters as they were. And they are very, very difficult for an alphabet "born" in the 9th century, as claimed. Even then, all languages ​​were striving for simplification; letters in all alphabets of that time denote only sounds. And only in the Slavic alphabet are the names of the letters: “Good”, “People”, “Think”, “Earth”, etc. And all because the Glagolitic is very ancient. It has many signs of pictographic writing.

Pictographic writing is a type of writing, the signs of which (pictograms) designate the object depicted by them. The latest finds of archaeologists speak in favor of this version. So, tablets with Slavic writing were found, the age of which dates back to 5000 BC.

"Glagolitz was created by a genius"

All modern alphabets in Europe are descended from the alphabet of the Phoenicians. In it, the letter A, we were told, stands for the head of a bull, which then turned upside down.

And the ancient Greek historian Diodorus Siculus wrote: “These letters are called Phoenician, although it is more correct to call them Pelasgic, since they were used by the Pelasgians,” says Nikolai Taranov. “Do you know who the Pelasgians are?” These are the ancestors of the Slavs, the Proto-Slavic tribes. The Phoenicians stood out among the surrounding swarthy black-haired tribes of farmers, Egyptians and Sumerians with fair skin and red hair. Yes, even with their passion for travel: they were excellent sailors.

In the 12th century BC, the Pelasgians took part in the Great Migration of Peoples, and some of their groups of desperate conquerors of new lands wandered very far. What gives the Volgograd professor a version: the Phoenicians were familiar with the Slavs and borrowed the alphabet from them. Otherwise, why did an alphabetic alphabet suddenly form next to Egyptian hieroglyphs and Sumerian cuneiform?

Here they say: "The Glagolitic was too decorative, complex, so it was gradually replaced by a more rational Cyrillic." But Glagolitic is not so bad, Professor Taranov is sure. - I studied the earliest versions: the first letter of the Glagolitic alphabet does not mean a cross at all, but a person. That is why it is called "Az" - I. A person for himself is a starting point. And all the meanings of the letters in the Glagolitic alphabet are through the prism of human perception. I drew the first letter of this alphabet on transparent film. Look, if you put it on other letters of the Glagolitic alphabet, you get a pictogram! I believe that not every designer will come up with such a way that each grapheme falls into the grid. I am amazed at the artistic integrity of this alphabet. I think the unknown author of the Glagolitic alphabet was a genius! No other alphabet in the world has such a clear connection between a symbol and its digital and sacred meaning!



Glagolitic and numerology

Each sign in the Glagolitic alphabet has a sacred meaning and denotes a certain number.

The sign "Az" is a person, the number 1.
The sign “I know” is the number 2, the sign looks like eyes and a nose: “I see, so I know.”
The sign "Live" is the number 7, the life and reality of this world.
The sign "Zelo" is the number 8, the reality of a miracle and something supernatural: "too", "very" or "great".
The sign "Good" is the number 5, the only number that gives birth to its own kind or a decade: "Good begets good."
The sign "People" - the number 50, according to numerology - the world from where human souls come to us.
The sign "Our" - the number 70, symbolizes the connection between the heavenly and the earthly, that is, our world, given to us in sensations.
The sign "Omega" is the number 700, a certain divine world, the "Seventh Heaven".
The sign "Earth" - according to Taranov, means a picture: the Earth and the Moon are in the same orbit.

Sveta Evseeva-Fyodorova

Initially, Slavic writing arose in the first millennium of our era. When the tribal system reached a relatively high development. The existence of written language among the Slavs in the pre-Christian period is evidenced by the fact that the agreements between Oleg and Byzantium were concluded in two languages: Slavic and Greek.

The creators of the ordered Slavic alphabet were the brothers Cyril and his older brother Methodius.

They were originally from the Macedonian port city of Thessalonica. Both brothers were distinguished by learning, but Cyril had an excellent memory. And he studied in Byzantium, where he then began to work.

At the end of 862, an embassy arrived in Byzantium from the Moravian prince Rostislav. Who asked to send people who would preach not in Latin, but in an understandable Slavic language. And the emperor directs Cyril and Methodius. Already at the time of their arrival in Rus', the brothers had Slavic texts with them. Cyril developed the Slavic alphabet, with the help of which the brothers translated the main liturgical books.

There were two Slavic alphabets: Glagolitic and Cyrillic. Both have been used. But the question of which alphabet Cyril developed remains unresolved. Some scholars believe that Cyril developed the Glagolitic, and Cyrillic was created by his followers. The surviving Slavic manuscripts are written in both Glagolitic and Cyrillic. But the Glagolitic script is more complex and more archaic than the Cyrillic alphabet. Therefore, the second displaces the Glagolitic.

The formation of an early feudal state in the 9th century contributed to the unification of the East Slavic script. With the adoption of Christianity in Rus', the Cyrillic alphabet, uniform for the state, is approved everywhere. Writing and literacy in Rus' was widespread among the most diverse segments of the population. Of great scientific interest in this respect are birch-bark letters, found mainly in Novgorod. Their content was varied, from domestic to legal issues. Such letters were widely distributed throughout Rus' and were also found in Smolensk, Pskov, Vitebsk.

4. From handwritten to printed book. Palimpsests, incunabula, bookplates.

The handwritten book contributed to the emergence of such a phenomenon as a palimpsest.

A palimpsest is a manuscript on parchment over an old scraped text. This was due to the high cost of writing material, which led to its repeated use. The old text from parchment was washed off with special mixtures, for example, from milk, cheese and lime, scraped with pieces of pumice.

With the advent of Christianity, ancient texts written on parchment were destroyed by monks who considered them heretical. One of the first discoveries in the field of palimpsests was made in 1692, when a copy of the bible dating back to the fifth century was found under a manuscript of the 13th century. In the 19th century, various chemical methods were used to restore old texts on parchments, while valuable manuscripts were often damaged. Now photographic methods are used, one of which was developed by Russian photographer Evgeny Burinsky.

A developing society demanded for itself a variety of knowledge. This to some extent predetermined the emergence of book printing in Europe.

The first thing that contributed to the emergence of printing in general was the invention of paper in China, from where it then came to other countries. In the 12th and 13th centuries, paper mills appeared in Spain, where paper mass was made from rags ground with stone millstones.

The second is the principle of stamping. It was known as early as cuneiform cultures. To obtain an impression, the seal-roller was rolled over wet clay, and then the impression was subjected to an impression. The same principle was embodied in coinage.

Different countries of the ancient world had their own way of printing. So, Chinese chroniclers speak of a blacksmith named Bi Shen, who in the 11th century made letters from clay. Bronze letters made in the 15th century in Korea have also been preserved.

In China, from ancient times, hieroglyphs were also carved on stone steles. Then the text was wetted with paint and a sheet of paper was applied to it. Over time, the stone was replaced by a wooden board. And then came the woodcut. The first woodcut book, the Diamond Sutra, was made in 868.

In Europe, the woodcut book appeared after the Crusades. Its appearance was facilitated by the massive need for paper money, playing cards, papal indulgences. The woodcut technique was simple: an image or text was cut out on a wooden board in a mirror order, paint was applied to the relief, a sheet of paper was superimposed and pressed with a special pad (matzo). Separate sheets were glued first into scrolls, later collected into a book. The seal was placed first on one side of the sheet (anopistographic editions), and later on both sides (opistographic editions).

One of the most famous woodcut editions in Europe is the "Bible of the Poor", distributed in the Middle Ages. It consisted of sheets depicting biblical scenes and characters with explanatory inscriptions. But woodcut books will come to naught by the middle of the 16th century.

The idea of ​​type-setting printing, as it was seen, appeared in China in the 11th century, but it was only in the 15th century that it was possible to fully develop a really working typesetting mechanism from individual letters. This merit belongs to Johannes Gutenberg. In 1440 he made his first typographic experiments. And already in the 50s, he printed his first bible, called 42-line, because each page has 42 lines of text in two columns. Some were printed on paper, some on parchment. He created the first typographical equipment, invented a new way of making type and made a type mold. It was the time of incunabula and paleotypes, when printing was just beginning to develop.

Incunabula - books published in Europe from the beginning of printing to January 1, 1501. Editions of this period are very rare, since their circulation was 100-300 copies.

The practice of printing illustrations in the book begins. For this, woodcuts began to be used. One of Brant's first illustrated books, Ship of Fools. It was decorated with engravings by Albrecht Dürer. In Italy, copper engraving was invented, which is an old ancestor of intaglio printing.

In Venice, such books as Aldins appear. The owner of the printing house, Aldus Manutius, put the matter of preparing books on a scientific basis. His editions are famous for their careful preparation and design.

In general, the incunabula script resembled the handwriting of handwritten books. In the Alda printing house, the artists, imitating ancient images, came up with a simple and beautiful serif typeface. The Alds introduced the custom of highlighting this or that thought in the text in different fonts. So that these books could not be faked, Ald put a publishing sign (a dolphin wrapped around an anchor). The traditional circulation is 275 copies. In-folio or in-quarto format. Incunabulas were relatively inexpensive.

The first incunabula printed in Cyrillic appeared in Krakow at the end of the 15th century. Fiol was their printer. "Oktoih" and "Book of Hours" 1491. They were printed in two colors - black ink and cinnabar.

Ex-libris is a bookmark applied by library owners to a book, mainly on the inside of the binding. A kind of ex libris imprinted on the spine or side of the binding cover is called superex libris. Usually on the ex-libris the name, surname of the owner and a drawing that speaks of the profession and interests are indicated. Germany is considered its homeland, where it appeared after the start of printing.

If you follow the generally accepted version, writing among the Eastern Slavs appeared only in the 9th-10th centuries.

If we study the history of other countries, we will see that while any state system appeared, there was always a written language. If there is a state, but there is no written language, then this complicates, of course, all the processes taking place in it. How can any processes take place in a state without a written language? Don't you think this is strange? Therefore, the opinion that Cyril and Methodius are the founders of our writing is erroneous, there is evidence for this.

In the 9th-10th centuries, Kievan Rus was already a state. By this time, many large, for those times, cities, huge centers of trade, including with many other countries, had formed. A large number of different artisans lived in these cities (blacksmiths, wood carvers, potters, jewelers), these craftsmen made products from metal, clay, wood and precious metals at a very high level, which could compete with the products of craftsmen from other countries. In large cities, a wide selection of all kinds of goods from other countries was presented. And, therefore, foreign trade was at a high level. In the presence of developed trade, how were contracts concluded? All this proves that the appearance of writing in Rus' occurred even before the appearance of Cyril and Methodius.
Here it is also worth recalling Lomonosov, who wrote that the Slavs had a written language long before the new faith. In his evidence, he referred to ancient sources, including Nestor the Chronicler.

There are written sources where Catherine the Great argued that the ancient Slavs had their own written language even before Christianity and were taught to read and write in cities and small settlements. And she had a brilliant education for that time.

Creation of Slavic writing by Cyril and Methodius

The history of the creation of Slavic writing by Cyril and Methodius has acquired a large number of false facts, and now it is difficult to figure out where the truth is. Who were the brothers Cyril and Methodius? They were born into a noble family in the city of Saluni (Greece, Thessaloniki). Later they both became monks of the orthodox church. Now they would be called missionaries who carried a new religion to the masses. The monasteries were the centers of education, the monks were very educated people, so it is not surprising that they created the Slavic alphabet, which we know as the Cyrillic alphabet.

The creation of Slavic writing, Cyrillic, was necessary not in order to bring writing to Kievan Rus (our ancestors already had it), but in order to:

1. Translate into a language understandable to the Slavs all spiritual writings (the Gospel, the Psalter, the text of the Liturgy). What made them accessible to a huge number of people. It was much easier to translate them from Greek into Cyrillic. In Europe, spiritual books were written in Latin, so this caused certain difficulties and misunderstanding among the broad masses.
2. After the introduction of the new script, church services in the Orthodox Church were conducted in the Slavic language. What gave impetus to the speedy introduction of a new faith in the masses.

The beginning of the writing of Ancient Rus' in the 10th century, Cyrillic, helped spread the new religion among the Slavs, after that, it became the written language for the state and the church. This is, of course, the official version. Well, in fact, the introduction of Christianity was extremely difficult. The Slavs were extremely reluctant to leave paganism. Therefore, it is likely that Old Russian books in Old Russian were simply burned. This was destroyed in order to quickly make the Slavs of Kievan Rus Christians.

Slavic writing to Cyrillic

Now everything suggests that writing in Rus' before Cyril and Methodius already existed, it is no longer possible to ignore this. Presumably the old Russian script was Glagolitic. Evidence of its earlier appearance:

1. On parchment manuscripts (specially made leather) that have come down to us, we can see that the text originally applied was scraped off, and another superimposed on top. In those days, this technique was often resorted to, because leather processing was not an easy task. The text that was scraped off is written in Glagolitic. The text, which is printed on top, was Cyrillic. And to this day, not a single parchment has been found where the Glagolitic alphabet would be applied over the Cyrillic alphabet.
2. The oldest Slavic text that has come down to us is written in the Glagolitic alphabet.
3. There are many testimonies, subsidized by different centuries, and they say that the Slavs had a written language and an account even in pagan times.

There are several opinions about when the Glagolitic alphabet nevertheless appeared. The most famous opinion is that Cyril was the creator of the Glagolitic alphabet, and the Cyrillic alphabet was created, later, after the death of Cyril, by his student. Which of his students here also differ opinions.

But if we analyze the entire history of Ancient Rus', then the opinion that the Glagolitic alphabet is much older, and was created even before Cyril and Methodius, seems more plausible. Well, as for the more specific time of its origin, then everything is very confused. According to some unofficial data, this is approximately 3-5 centuries, and some are trying to argue that the Glagolitic alphabet was created much earlier.

It is also not clear to which of the language groups to attribute the Glagolitic. How did ancient Russian writing originate? All more ancient languages ​​in their origin were repelled from even more ancient ones, therefore each language is included in some kind of language group. The Glagolitic is not similar to any of the scripts and is not included in any of the language groups. Its origin is still not clear.

But also in historical circles there is a different opinion. Pre-Christian Rus' had its own written language, but it was neither Glagolitic nor Cyrillic. The Slavs have had a written language since ancient times, perhaps even for several thousand years. And she really looked like runes. Sometimes, during excavations, strange letters-symbols are found. But this happens extremely rarely. Why do we have a lot of written evidence from the Christian era, and extremely rarely from the pre-Christian era? Yes, because in order to eradicate Old Russian writing, they burned books, annals, birch bark letters. Just like they eradicated paganism.

Writing and literacy in Ancient Rus'

Even from school textbooks, we were taught that after the adoption of the Christian faith, the rise of culture in Rus' began. Prince Vladimir opened many schools where they taught literacy, where a large number of children were taken. Many schools were opened at the monasteries, where monks taught literacy. The princes themselves were highly educated people of their time, fluent in 4-5 languages, as well as many other sciences (Prince Vladimir, Yaroslav the Wise). In Kyiv, at one of the monasteries, a women's school was opened, where the girls were taught to read and write and other sciences.

But after all, long before Christianity in Rus', people were literate. Before the adoption of Christianity in Kievan Rus, literacy was of great importance. There were schools where children learned to write and count. In big cities and small settlements people were taught to read and write. And this is not even dependent on origin: noble and wealthy Slavs or ordinary artisans. Even women, for the most part, were literate. Kievan Rus was a strong and developed state, and the Slavs were literate.

And there is evidence of this in the form of many birch bark letters, which are subsidized long before the adoption of the Christian faith, there are even very ancient ones. They were written by both noble Slavs and ordinary artisans. There are letters written by women about the rules of housekeeping. But, what is most interesting, there is a birch bark written by a six-year-old child. That is, in those days, at such a young age, children knew how to read and write. Doesn't this prove that our ancestors in Ancient Rus' were never dark and illiterate?

Results

The history of the creation of Slavic writing for many centuries forcibly changed. Ancient Rus' was shown as a state that for a long time did not have its own written language, and most of the Slavs were illiterate and downtrodden. It was believed that women in general, regardless of what stratum of society they belonged to, were illiterate and dark. And literacy, allegedly, was inherent only to the upper class: princes and noble Slavs. But we are already seeing that this is far from the case. Rus' has never been a barbarian state without its own written language.
When writing appeared in Rus', it is now not known for certain. Perhaps someday historians and linguists will reveal this secret to us. But she appeared long before Cyril and Methodius. And this is a fact. They could not give us what our ancestors owned long before them. Indeed, by the 9th-10th centuries, Kievan Rus was already an established and quite influential state.
And it is quite possible that Old Russian writing is, in fact, very ancient. Perhaps someday we will know the truth about this.

There is a lot of evidence that there was writing in Rus' long before Cyril and Methodius. Moreover, the writing of our ancestors was more complexly organized and developed than it is now. Also important is the fact that Rus' was completely literate - everyone could read, count, write - from a peasant to a prince.

Here are some facts to support this claim:

- “The Slavs had a letter long before the birth of Christ,” - Catherine II.

- “Truly, the Slavs long before Christ and the Slavic-Russians actually had a letter before Vladimir, as many ancient writers testify to us ...”, - Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev.

- In Ancient Rus', almost every peasant was literate! And the Novgorod birch bark letters, which, in fact, are letters from ordinary people, are proof of this! And in medieval Europe, many kings and representatives of the nobility could not read and write at all ...

– In the USA, a Roseau stone with Russian inscriptions was found, which is more than 200,000 years old.

– Sanskrit is an Old Russian language frozen in time, which our ancestors passed on to the Indians more than 4,000 years ago. A professor from India, who came to Vologda and did not know Russian, refused an interpreter a week later. “I myself understand the Vologda residents quite well,” he said, “because they speak corrupted Sanskrit ...” (“Northern Cradle of Humanity” by Svetlana Zharnikova)

- Found gold plates with runic writing of the Slavic-Aryans in 1875 in Romania! They have a meaningful form of dialogue and were made several thousand years ago!

– The Ukrainian language is a dialect of the Russian language. It appeared in the 19th century, when T. Shevchenko wrote down the Little Russian dialect of the Russian language with the pre-revolutionary Russian alphabet. You will not find a single document in Ukrainian before the 19th century!

Introduction

slavic writing enlightener antique

Since childhood, we get used to the letters of our Russian alphabet and rarely think about when and how our writing arose. The creation of the Slavic alphabet is a special milestone in the history of every nation, in the history of its culture. In the depths of millennia and centuries, the names of the creators of the writing of a particular people or language family are usually lost. But the Slavic alphabet has an absolutely amazing origin. Thanks to a number of historical testimonies, we know about the beginning of the Slavic alphabet and about its creators - Saints Cyril and Methodius.

Language and writing are perhaps the most important cultural factors. If the people are deprived of the right or opportunity to speak their native language, then this will be the most severe blow to their native culture. If a person is deprived of books in his native language, then he will lose the most important treasures of his culture. An adult, for example, being abroad, probably will not forget his native language. But his children and grandchildren will have great difficulties in mastering the language of their parents and their people. The Russian emigration of the 20th century, based on their hard experience, to the question “What place do the native language and native literature occupy in the national culture?” gives a very unambiguous answer: "Paramount!".

Creation of the Slavic alphabet

The contemporaries and students of the first teachers of the Slavs compiled their lives in Church Slavonic. These biographies have been tested for authenticity for centuries, and to this day Slavists of all countries are recognized as the most important sources on the history of Slavic literature and culture. The best edition of the oldest lists of biographies of Cyril and Methodius, prepared jointly by Russian and Bulgarian scientists, was published in 1986. It contains lists of lives and laudatory words of Cyril and Methodius of the XII-XV centuries. The facsimile edition in this book of the most ancient lives of the Enlighteners of the Slavs gives it special significance. Facsimile - “accurately reproduced” (from Latin fac simile “do the same”). Reading the handwritten lives and words of praise to Cyril and Methodius, we penetrate deep into the centuries and approach the origins of the Slavic alphabet and culture.

In addition to hagiographic literature, the most interesting testimony of the ancient Bulgarian writer of the late 9th - early 10th century Chernorizets Khrabr, who wrote the first essay on the history of the creation of Slavic writing, has been preserved.

If you ask the Slavic literate people like this:

Who created the letters for you or translated the books,

Everyone knows that and, answering, they say:

Saint Constantine the Philosopher, named Cyril,

He created letters for us and translated books.

The birthplace of the brothers Constantine (that was the name of St. Cyril before he became a monk) and Methodius was the Macedonian region of Byzantium, namely the main city of the region - Thessaloniki, or Thessalonica in Slavic. The father of the future enlighteners of the Slavic peoples belonged to the highest stratum of Byzantine society. Methodius was the eldest and Constantine the youngest of his seven sons. The year of birth of each of the brothers is not exactly known. Researchers attribute the birth year of Methodius to the second decade of the 9th century. Konstantin learned to read very early and surprised everyone with his ability to master other languages. He received a comprehensive education at the imperial court in Constantinople under the guidance of the best mentors in Byzantium, among whom stood out the future Patriarch Photius of Constantinople - a connoisseur of ancient culture, the creator of a unique bibliographic code known as the Myriobiblion - and Leo Grammatik - a man who surprising compatriots and foreigners with his deep learning, a connoisseur of mathematics, astronomy and mechanics.

In the Life of Constantine, his education is reported: “In three months he studied all the grammar and took up other sciences. He studied Homer, geometry, and from Leo and Photius he studied dialectics and other philosophical teachings, in addition - rhetoric, arithmetic, astronomy, music and other Hellenic sciences. And so he studied all this, as no one else studied these sciences. The ancient heritage and all modern secular science were considered by the teachers of Constantine to be an indispensable preliminary stage to the comprehension of the highest wisdom - Theology.

This also corresponded to the ancient church Christian scientific tradition: the famous fathers of the Church of the 4th century, Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian, before entering the church service, were educated in the best educational institutions of Constantinople and Athens. Basil the Great even wrote a special instruction: "To young men, on how to benefit from pagan writings." “The Slavic alphabet taught by St. Cyril contributed not only to the development of an original Slavic culture, but was also an important factor in the development of young Slavic nations, their revival and liberation from spiritual guardianship, turning into oppression, foreign neighbors. What Saints Cyril and Methodius did served as the foundation on which the beautiful building of the current Slavic culture was built, which has taken its place of honor in the world culture of mankind ”Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov). From the speech “Equal to the Apostles”, delivered on the occasion of the 1100th anniversary of the death of St. Cyril. Hagiographic literature, which has preserved for us precious information about the life and scientific activities of the Thessalonica brothers, assigned to Constantine the name of Filos (i.e., “lover of wisdom”). In this regard, of particular interest is an episode from childhood, the future enlightener of the Slavs. As a seven-year-old boy, Konstantin had a dream that he told his father and mother. The stratig (head of the region), having gathered all the girls of Thessalonica, said to him: “Choose for yourself from among them, whoever you want, as a wife, to help (you) and your peer.” “But I,” Konstantin said, “having examined and examined them all, I saw one more beautiful than all, with a radiant face, adorned with golden necklaces and pearls and all beauty, her name was Sophia, that is, Wisdom, and her (I) chose." Having occupied the chair of philosophy at the Magnavra Higher School of Constantinople after completing the course of sciences, where he had previously studied himself, Konstantin the Philosopher also performed the duties of the patriarchal librarian. And, in the "books of diligence," he more and more rose from bookish wisdom to the highest Wisdom, preparing for a great mission - the enlightenment of the Slavic peoples.

Epochal significance for the entire Slavic world was the embassy of Constantine to Moravia in 863. The Moravian prince Rostislav asked the Byzantine emperor Michael III to send preachers who knew the Slavic language to him: “Our land is baptized, but we do not have a teacher who would instruct and teach us, and who explained the holy books. For we know neither Greek nor Latin; some teach us in this way, and others in another way, because of this we do not know either the outline of the letters or their meaning. And send us teachers who could tell about book words and their meaning.

“To teach without the alphabet and without books is like writing a conversation on the water,” Constantine the Philosopher answered Emperor Michael when he invited him to go on an educational mission to the Moravian Christians. Konstantin the Philosopher compiled the alphabet for the Slavs and, together with his brother, translated the first texts from the Gospel and the Psalter. Thus, the year 863 in the history of Slavic culture is marked as the year of the creation of the Slavic alphabet, which marked the beginning of Slavic enlightenment. The Gospel of John stands out from among all biblical books with an abundance of religious and philosophical concepts and categories. Through the Church Slavonic translation of this Gospel, made by Cyril and Methodius, many philosophical (ontological, epistemological, aesthetic, ethical) and other terms entered the Slavic language and everyday life of Slavic philosophy: “light”, “enlightenment”, “truth”, “man”, "grace", "life" ("belly"), "peace", "testimony", "power", "darkness", "fullness", "knowledge", "faith", "glory", "eternity" and many other. Most of these terms are firmly entrenched in the language and literature of the Slavic peoples.

The creation of Slavic writing was not only the invention of the alphabet with all the signs characteristic of the written expression of speech, and the creation of terminology. Colossal work was also done to create a new toolkit for Slavic writing. The books that Cyril and Methodius translated from Greek and wrote in Slavonic contained examples of a whole range of literary genres. For example, biblical texts included historical and biographical genres, monologues and dialogues, as well as samples of the most exquisite poetry. The Slavic liturgical texts that came out from the pen of the first teachers were mostly intended for chanting or even for choral performance, and thereby served to develop the musical culture of the Slavs. The first translations of patristic texts (creations of the Holy Fathers) into Slavonic included works of a philosophical nature. The very first ecclesiastical canonical Slavic collections contained translations of monuments of Byzantine legislation, that is, they laid the foundation for the legal literature of the Slavs.

Each literary genre has its own characteristics and requires its own verbal forms and visual means. To create a full-fledged toolkit of Slavic writing, which, on the one hand, would preserve the natural beauty of the Slavic language, and on the other hand, convey all the literary virtues and subtleties of the Greek originals, is truly a task for several generations. But historical sources testify that this huge philological work was done by the Thessalonica brothers and their direct students in an amazingly short time. This is all the more surprising because the Orthodox missionaries Cyril and Methodius, although they had an excellent knowledge of the Slavic dialect, had neither scientific grammar, nor dictionaries, nor samples of highly artistic Slavic writing.

Here is what is said in one of the many reviews of modern scientists about the philological feat of Cyril and Methodius: “Unlike other methods of recording Slavic speech practiced in that era, the Slavic writing of Constantine-Cyril was a special complete system, created with careful consideration of the specific features of the Slavic language. Translations of works in which Constantine and Methodius tried to find an adequate expression for all the features of these monuments meant not just the emergence of the literary language of the medieval Slavs, but its addition immediately in those mature, developed forms that were developed in the Greek text of the originals as a result of centuries of literary development ".

Maybe someone before Cyril and Methodius made experiments on the creation of Slavic writing, but there are only hypotheses on this score. And numerous historical sources testify specifically to Cyril and Methodius as the creators of the Slavic alphabet, writing and bookishness. However, the history of the creation of Slavic writing has one very interesting riddle. In the 9th century, the Slavs appeared almost simultaneously two writing systems: one was called Glagolitic, and the other - Cyrillic. Which alphabet - Cyrillic or Glagolitic - was invented by Constantine the Philosopher? Many scholars tend to believe that the Glagolitic was the first Slavic alphabet. Others believe that Saint Cyril invented the Cyrillic alphabet. Perhaps the first teachers of the Slavs created both of these writing systems, but later the Cyrillic alphabet became the most widespread, which became the basis of the modern Russian alphabet. But no matter how later these questions are resolved by science, the evidence of historical sources about the brothers Cyril and Methodius as the creators of Slavic writing and book culture remains unchanged. The Orthodox mission of Cyril and Methodius also became a decisive factor in the formation of a common cultural space of the Slavic peoples. In the 19th century, the famous Russian archaeographer, Archimandrite Leonid Kavelin, found and published the manuscript “The Word of our teacher Konstantin the Philosopher” in the book depository of the Hilendar (Serbian) monastery on Athos. In it, Konstantin the Philosopher addresses all Slavic peoples: the whole people ... Behold, all of us, brethren of Slovenia, contemplating, speak the light appropriately.

To whom was the word of the Enlighteners Cyril and Methodius addressed? To all the peoples of the Slavic world, which in the 9th century was not as divided linguistically as in subsequent centuries. From the Baltic Sea in the north to the Aegean Sea and the Adriatic in the south, from the Laba (Elbe) and the Alps in the west to the Volga in the east, Slavic tribes settled, the names of which were conveyed by our "initial chronicle": Moravians, Czechs, Croats, Serbs, Horutans, Glade, Drevlyans, Mazovshans, Pomeranians, Dregovichi, Polochans, Buzhans, Volhynians, Novgorodians, Dulebs, Tivertsy, Radimichi, Vyatichi. All of them spoke the “Slovenian language” and all received enlightenment and native literature from their first teachers.

Constantine the Philosopher, having accepted monasticism with the name Cyril shortly before his death, died in 869. Methodius outlived his younger brother by 16 years. Before his death, Cyril bequeathed to his brother: “You and I, like two oxen, led the same furrow. I am exhausted, but don’t you think to leave the work of teaching and retire again to the mountain (to the monastery).” Saint Methodius fulfilled the order of his brother and until the end of his earthly life worked on the translation of the Bible, liturgical books and church-legal collections. Methodius died in 885, leaving behind many successors who knew and loved Church Slavonic books.

“Translating a Byzantine text into Russian is a grateful and joyful work, because the modern translator is energetically assisted by his ancient predecessors; the historical fate of the Russian language opened it up to Byzantium-specific opportunities to link and intertwine words. In English or French, the same text can only be retold, recklessly sacrificing its verbal fabric, and even a German translation can only come close to the authentic warehouse of Hellenic ornateness at a respectful distance. The tradition of Russian culture embodied in the language is connected with the Byzantine heritage in a very tenacious, very real and concrete connection. We shouldn't forget about it."

The greatest merit of Cyril and Methodius before the Slavic world also consisted in the fact that they everywhere tried to leave their students - the successors of the cause of enlightenment of the Slavic peoples. Their disciples continued the Orthodox mission in Moravia and Panonnia, and through the next chain of successors, the Cyrillic and Methodian book traditions reached southern Poland, Slovenia, Croatia, and Bulgaria.

The Cyril and Methodius Orthodox missionary tradition, in contrast to the Western Catholic one, was characterized by the fact that the oral preaching of the Gospel, church services and schooling were all done in the native language of those peoples to whom the followers of Cyril and Methodius brought Orthodoxy and Orthodox culture. The introduction of the Slavic language into worship was of particular importance, because at that time the liturgical language was at the same time the language of literature. With the Baptism of Rus', books in the Slavic language began to spread very quickly in the Russian land. “In The Tale of Bygone Years, which is attentive to all the events of Russian culture, there are no names or dates associated with Russian writing proper. And this is undoubtedly because Cyril and Methodius were, in the minds of the scribes of Rus', the true creators of a single written language for all the Eastern and Southern Slavs. The Russian “Legend about translating books into the Slavic language”, placed in the “Tale of Bygone Years”, begins with the words: “There is one language Slovene”. Further in this "Tale" it is said: "But the Slovene language and Russian are one", - and a little lower it is repeated again: "... and the Slovene language is one"".

Currently, in Russian culture, the Church Slavonic language is most often recognized as the language of prayer and Orthodox worship. But its significance does not end there. “In general, the significance of the Church Slavonic language for Russian lies in the fact that it represents the entire history of the Russian language placed in one plane, for in Church Slavonic there are simultaneously functioning monuments dating back to the activities of the Slavic first teachers - St. Nestor, Metropolitan Hilarion, Cyril of Turov, St. Maxim Greek and beyond to the present day. M.V. wrote about the fateful significance of the Church Slavonic language and Church Slavonic writing for Russian culture in his “Foreword on the Usefulness of Church Books in the Russian Language”. Lomonosov: “The Russian language, in full strength, beauty and wealth, is not subject to change and decline, it will be established as long as the Russian Church is adorned with the praise of God in the Slovenian language.”

The Russian Orthodox Church to this day sacredly preserves the Church Slavonic language as the language of its worship. Consequently, the Russian language, despite all the trials, is not in danger of decline. The high cultural bar supported by the Church Slavonic language will help preserve the beauty, richness and strength of the Russian language and native literature.

Writing among the Slavs arose in the 60s. IX century, when the Slavic tribes settled in a large area of ​​Central, South-Eastern, Central Europe and created their own states. In the course of the struggle against the German princes, the Great Moravian prince Rostislav decided to rely on an alliance with Byzantium and sent an embassy to Byzantium to Emperor Michael III with a request to send such enlightenment teachers to Great Moravia who could preach the Christian religion in the Slavic language. The request corresponded to the interests of Byzantium, which sought to extend its influence to the Western Slavs.

Among the Greeks there was an educated person who knew Greek, Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, Slavic languages, at the same time he studied the Hebrew language. It was the librarian of the main Byzantine library Konstantin, nicknamed the Philosopher, who was also an experienced missionary (he baptized Bulgarians, won theological disputes in Asia Minor, traveled to the Khazars in the lower reaches of the Volga, etc.). He was helped by his older brother Methodius, who for a number of years was the ruler of the Slavic region in Byzantium, probably in the southeast, Macedonia. In the history of Slavic culture they are called Thessalonica brothers , or the lunar duo They were originally from the city of Thessalonica (Thessalonica), where Greeks and Slavs lived together. According to some reports, the enlighteners themselves were half Slavs (the Father, apparently, was a Bulgarian, and his mother was a Greek (A.M. Kamchatnov)).

Cyril and Methodius translated the Gospel, the Apostle, the Psalter into Old Bulgarian. Thus, the foundations were laid Inter-Slavic book literary language (Old Church Slavonic). With the help of this language, the Slavs became familiar with the values ​​of ancient and Christian civilization, and also got the opportunity to consolidate the achievements of their own culture in writing.

The question of existence writing There are two approaches to Cyril and Methodius:

1) the Slavs did not have a written language, because the letters themselves have not been found,

2) the Slavs had writing, moreover, it was quite perfect.

However, the question of the existence of Slavic writing before Cyril and Methodius has not yet been resolved.

Initially, the Slavs used two alphabets: Glagolitic And Cyrillic.

There is a lot of controversy and not fully resolved on the question of the ancient Slavic alphabets:

- Why did the Slavs use two alphabets?

- Which of the two alphabet is more ancient?

- Is one of the alphabets pre-Kirillian?

- How, when and where did it appear second alphabet?

- Which of them was created by Konstantin (Cyril)?

- Is there a connection between the alphabets?

- What is the basis of the Glagolitic and Cyrillic characters?

The solution of these questions is complicated by the fact that the manuscripts from the time of the activity of Constantine and Methodius (863-885) have not reached us. As well as well-known Cyrillic and Glagolitic monuments belong to the X-XI centuries. At the same time, both alphabets were used by the southern, and eastern, and western Slavs.

The existing theories can be summarized as follows:

1. Slavans before Cyril and Methodius were unwritten (they existed in science until the 40s of the 20th century).

2. Writing among the Slavs was to Cyril. There are references to pre-Cyrillic letters from foreign travelers and historians. (Which?)

3. More ancient is Cyrillic . And it was created by Konstantin (J. Dobrovsky, I.I. Sreznevsky, A.I. Sobolevsky, E.F. Karsky, etc.), and Glagolitic invented later as a kind of secret writing during the persecution of Slavic writing by the German clergy in Moravia and Pannonia.

4. Glagolitic created by Constantine. Cyrillic arose later - as a further improvement of the Glagolitic script based on the Greek statutory writing (M.A. Selishchev, P.I. Shafarik K.M. Shchepkin, P.I. Yagich, A. Vaillant, G. Dobner, V.F. Maresh , N.S. Tikhonravov and others) . According to one version, the Cyrillic alphabet was created by Kliment Ohridsky (V.Ya. Yagich, V.N. Shchepkin, A.M. Selishchev and others), according to another, Konstantin Bolgarsky (G.A. Ilyinsky).

5. Ancient Slavic by letter is Cyrillic , which is a modified Greek letter adapted to the phonetics of Slavic speech. Later Konstantin created Glagolitic (V.F. Miller, P.V. Golubovsky, E. Georgiev and others). Then the Glagolitic alphabet was supplanted by Cyrillic, a simpler and more perfect alphabet.

What alphabet did Cyril invent??

Cyrillic is historical alphabet, created on the basis of another letter: Greek→Cyrillic(cf. ancient egyptian → Phoenician→ Hebrew And Greek→ Latin).

Letter styles Glagolitic do not resemble the well-known alphabets of their time. At the same time, a number of 25 Glagolitic letters depend on Cyrillic letters, and in some of them - on Latin (6 - stylization of Latin letters), 3-symbolic constructions ( az, ilk, word), 4- are independent phonetic ligatures ( yusy And era), 2 – independent graphic compositions ( green And our). (A.M. Kamchatnov). Reverse imitation is excluded, because the dependence of the Cyrillic alphabet on the Greek alphabet is traced.

In Slavic studies, the question of Glagolitic sources. In separate Glagolitic letters at the end of the 18th - the first half of the 19th centuries. saw the modification of Greek letters. In the 80s of the nineteenth century. English paleographer I. Taylor tried to determine the source for the entire Glagolitic alphabet - Greek minuscule. This point of view was accepted by D.F. Belyaev, I.V. Yagich, who saw the Greek source in all signs - the letters minuscule letter and them combination(ligatures).

Slavist A.M. Selishchev noted that in addition to Greek signs used and elements non-Greek letters (Hebrew, in its Samaritan variety, Coptic writing). L. Geytler believed in 1883 that some signs of the Glagolitic alphabet are associated with not Greek, but with Albanian letter. And I. Ganush in the work of 1857 explains the letters of the Glagolitic alphabet from the Gothic runic script.

A number of its graphemes are in direct connection with the graphemes of other alphabets. (For example, one can see the connection of Slavic W, C and Hebrew signs, as well as a connection with a number of signs of their special systems (alchemical, cryptographic, etc.) (E.E. Granstrem).) In turn, M.I. Privalova claims that the Glagolitic alphabet “has quite distinct external and internal features that are absolutely alien to any modifications of the Greek-Byzantine or Latin script, but on the other hand ... are clearly visible in the system of both Georgian alphabets "(On the sources of the Glagolitic alphabet. UZ LGU. Series of philologists. 1960. V.52. P.19).

EAT. Vereshchagin and V.P. Vompersky believe that Kirill invented Glagolitic, which does not reveal a direct dependence on the Greek alphabet, although Cyril borrowed the general principle of the device and partially the order of the letters (RR. 1988. No. 3). But themselves Greek letters he is in the Slavic alphabet did not endure. The Glagolitic is original, not directly derivable from other alphabets, thought out to the details. Its elements are circles, semicircles, ovals, sticks, triangles, squares, crosses, crosshairs, loops, whorls, corners, hooks. The Glagolitic is well coordinated with the sound features of the Slavic language: signs have been created to fix typical Slavic sounds ( nasal, reduced, affricate, palatalized and some voiced consonants). The manuscripts written with these letters belong to Moravia and the Balkans and are among the most ancient. This Kyiv Glagolitic leaflets(there are West Slavic features), Prague Glagolitic excerpts(this is the Czech version of the Old Church Slavonic text). Among the Dolmatian Croats from the 12th-13th centuries. Until now, only the Glagolitic alphabet has been used, in Moravia the Glagolitic alphabet has also been used for a long time.

Cyrillic, with a few exceptions, is mirror image of the Glagolitic, but is directly close to the solemn (uninal) Greek letter (separate careful letter). This is the "dreaming Slavic alphabet."