For a long time. This year we celebrate our 1150th anniversary! Let's remember how it was?

“Our land is baptized, but we have no teacher who would instruct and teach us, and explain the holy books. After all, we don’t know any Greek. No Latin. And send us teachers who could tell us about book words and their meaning.” This is how the Slavic princes turned to the Byzantine basileus Michael.

We find these lines in the “Tale of Bygone Years” - the main document ancient Russian history. Then Michael summoned two learned brothers - Constantine, who took the name Cyril at tonsure, and Methodius - and sent them to the Slavic lands. In Bulgaria, the brothers improved the Slavic alphabet. This happened in 863. With the help of brother Methodius and his disciples, Constantine translated the main liturgical books from Greek into Bulgarian. This is where Slavic writing originates. In the melody of the Slavic language, Kirill was able to catch the main sounds and find for each of them letter designations. In a short time, Cyril and Methodius translated the Holy Scriptures and other liturgical books into Slavic. In Orthodoxy, “Slovenian teachers” are revered as saints, equal to the apostles.

There is an opinion among theologians that praise to God can only be given in the three languages ​​in which the inscription on the Cross of the Lord was made: Hebrew, Greek and Latin. Therefore, Constantine and Methodius were perceived as heretics and summoned to Rome. There they hoped to find support in the fight against the German clergy, who did not want to give up their positions in the South Slavic lands and hindered the spread of Slavic writing.
But the wrong one was attacked. Constantine handed over to Pope Adrian II the relics of Saint Clement, which he had found on his Chersonesos journey, he approved the service in the Slavic language, and ordered the translated books to be placed in Roman churches. I note that M. Luther, translator of the Bible into German, even in the 16th century he fought for worship to be conducted in the language of the people to whom they preach. In our country, worship, and, consequently, education, has been carried out in our native language since the adoption of Christianity.

Please note - the whole world comes to life in the names of Cyrillic letters. Not like X, Y, Z - the angular Latin Cartesian world.

Vedi - Indian Vedas, vedat, sorcerers, Magi (Volkhovs), the Volkhov River - the center and beginning of Russian democracy.

The verb is “to burn the hearts of people with a verb.” Neither subtract nor add.

Good, not evil, should rule the world.

There is - everything that exists - is - exists, but it’s also good to eat... in moderation.
If you live, be fruitful, multiply.

The Earth is both a planet and a soil. And there are People on it.

Think - think - preferably not for three, although this is not always bad either.

Peace - we need to sleep every day, but we only dream of eternal peace.
The Word – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Firmly - we stand on the ground and for the ground.

Dick - even a phallic symbol of fertility is present here.

The alphabets of eight Slavic languages ​​were created on the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet - Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Ruthenian, Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian, Montenegrin; and a number of non-Slavic ones - Dungan, Moldavian, Nivkh, Tajik, Gypsy, Chukchi, Shugnan, Yaghnobi. In addition, 20 Caucasian, 4 Mongolian, 9 Tungus-Manchu, 27 Turkic, 12 Uralic languages ​​use the Cyrillic alphabet.

There is no need to talk about the importance of writing - we read this magazine in Cyrillic. With the help of writing, it became possible to record and accumulate knowledge and transmit it vertically from generation to generation. Books, and now the Internet, make it possible to dramatically speed up the horizontal transmission of information, but, again, on the basis of writing.

Since 1863, Russia has celebrated the memory of Saints Cyril and Methodius on May 11 (May 24, new style). Now it is the Day of Slavic Literature and Culture.

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

Allegedly, there was no written language in Kievan Rus until the 9-10 centuries and there could not have been. But this erroneous and dead-end conclusion has been refuted many times.

If we study the history of other countries, we will see that while any state system appeared, it always had its own 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 writing? 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 (blacksmiths, woodcarvers, potters, jewelers) lived in these cities; these craftsmen made products from metal, clay, wood and precious metals at very high prices. high level, which could well compete with the products of masters from other countries. In large cities there was a wide selection of all kinds of goods from other countries. And that means international trade was at a high level. In the presence of developed trade, how were contracts concluded? This all proves that the appearance of writing in Rus' occurred even before the appearance of Cyril and Methodius.
Here it is also worth remembering Lomonosov, who wrote that the Slavs had writing 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 an excellent 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 false facts, and now it’s 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 brought a new religion to the masses. Monasteries were centers of education, 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, the Cyrillic alphabet, was necessary not in order to bring writing to Kievan Rus (our ancestors already had it), but in order to:

1. Translate all spiritual scriptures (Gospel, Psalter, text of the Liturgy) into a language understandable to the Slavs. Which made them accessible to a huge number of people. Translating them from Greek into Cyrillic was much easier. 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 written language, church services in the Orthodox Church were conducted in the Slavic language. Which gave impetus to the speedy introduction of a new faith into the masses.

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

Slavic writing before Cyrillic

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

1. On the parchment manuscripts (specially tanned leather) that have come down to us, we can see that the original text was scraped off and another was placed on top. In those days, they often resorted to this technique, because processing leather was not an easy task. The text that was scraped off is written in Glagolitic alphabet. The text on top was Cyrillic. And to this day, not a single parchment has been found where the Glagolitic alphabet was written on top of the Cyrillic alphabet.
2. The oldest Slavic text that has come down to us is written in Glagolitic alphabet.
3. There is a lot of evidence subsidized different centuries, and they say that the Slavs had writing and counting back in pagan times.

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

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, everything is very confusing. 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 unclear which language group the Glagolitic alphabet belongs to. How did Old Russian writing originate? More and more ancient languages, in their origin, started from even more ancient ones, so each language is included in some kind of language group. The Glagolitic alphabet 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 there is also a different opinion in historical circles. Pre-Christian Rus' had its own written language, but it was not Glagolitic or Cyrillic. The Slavs have had writing since ancient times, perhaps even for several thousand years. And it really looked like runes. Sometimes during excavations strange writing-symbols are found. But this happens extremely rarely. Why do we have a lot of written evidence of the Christian era, and extremely rarely pre-Christian era? Yes, because to eradicate ancient Russian writing, books, chronicles, and birch bark letters were burned. 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 they brought a large number of children. 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, a girls’ school was opened at one of the monasteries, where girls were taught literacy and other sciences.

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

And there is confirmation of this in the form of many birch bark letters, which were 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 letter 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 has been forcibly changed for many centuries. Ancient Rus' was shown as a state that for a long time did not have its own written language, and the majority of the Slavs were illiterate and downtrodden. It was believed that women in general, no matter what level of society they belonged to, were illiterate and dark. And literacy, supposedly, was inherent only to the upper class: princes and noble Slavs. But we already see that this is far from the case. Rus' has never been a barbaric state without its own written language.
When writing appeared in Rus' is now unknown 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. After all, 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 we will find out the truth about this someday.

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, and write - from the peasant to the prince.

Here are some facts to support this statement:

- “The Slavs had letters long before the Nativity of Christ,” - Catherine II.

- “Indeed, 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 Novgorod birch bark letters, which, in fact, are letters ordinary people, this is proof! And in medieval Europe, many kings and representatives of the nobility could not read and write at all...

– A Roseau stone with Russian writing was found in the USA, which is more than 200,000 years old.

– Sanskrit is an ancient Russian language frozen in time, which our ancestors transmitted to the Hindus more than 4000 years ago. A professor from India, who came to Vologda and did not know Russian, refused a translator a week later. “I myself understand the Vologda residents quite well,” he said, “since they speak corrupted Sanskrit...” (“Northern Cradle of Humanity” Svetlana Zharnikova)

– Gold plates with the runic script of the Slavic-Aryans were found in 1875 in Romania! They have a meaningful form of dialogue and were made several thousand years ago!

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

At the director of the Volgograd Institute art education Nikolai Taranov has many titles: calligrapher, doctor of pedagogical sciences, candidate of art history, 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 a “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, this 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). About this in scientific world There are still disputes. Some Slavic researchers say: “Cyrillic alphabet! It is named after its creator.” Others object: “Glagolitic! The first letter of this alphabet looks like a cross. Kirill is a monk. It's a sign". It is also argued that before Cyril’s work there was no written language in Rus'. Professor Nikolai Taranov categorically disagrees with this.

The assertion that there was no written language in Rus' before Cyril and Methodius is based on one single document - the “Tale of Writing” by the monk Khrabra, found in Bulgaria, says Nikolai Taranov. — There are 73 copies from this scroll, and in different copies, due to translation errors or scribe 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 lines 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, mounting their horses, they departed.” And in the “Life of Cyril,” known to the Russian Orthodox Church, we read: “In the city of Korsun, Cyril met a Rusyn (Russian), who had with him books written in Russian characters.” Kirill (his mother was Slavic) took out some of his letters and with their help began to read those same Rusyn books. Moreover, these were not thin books. These were, as stated in the same “Life of Cyril,” the “Psalter” and “Gospel” translated into Russian. 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 writings, but rediscovered them.

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

Was the Glagolitic alphabet destroyed on purpose?

There are 22 points that prove that the Glagolitic alphabet was older than the Cyrillic alphabet, says Taranov. Archaeologists and philologists have such a concept - palimpsest. This is the name of an inscription made on top of another destroyed, most often scraped out 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 the scraped sheet. So: everywhere in Russian palimpsests the Glagolitic alphabet is erased, and on top of it are inscriptions in Cyrillic. There are no exceptions to this rule.

There are only five monuments left in the world written in Glagolitic alphabet. The rest were destroyed. Moreover, in my opinion, the records in the Glagolitic alphabet were destroyed deliberately,” says Professor Nikolai Taranov. — Because the Glagolitic alphabet was not suitable for recording church books. The numerical meaning of the letters (and then the belief in numerology was very strong) in it was different from what was required in Christianity. Out of respect for the Glagolitic alphabet, Kirill left in his alphabet the same letter names as they were. And they are very, very complex for an alphabet that was “born” in the 9th century, as stated. Even then, all languages ​​strived for simplification; the letters in all alphabets of that time denoted only sounds. And only in the Slavic alphabet are the names of the letters: “Good”, “People”, “Think”, “Earth”, etc. And all because the Glagolitic alphabet is very ancient. It has many features of pictographic writing.

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

“The Glagolitic alphabet was created by a genius”

All modern alphabets in Europe originate from the Phoenician alphabet. In it, the letter A, as we were told, represents the head of a bull, which then turned over with its horns down.

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

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

They say: “The Glagolitic alphabet was too decorative and complex, so it was gradually replaced by the more rational Cyrillic alphabet.” But the Glagolitic alphabet 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 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 superimpose it on other letters of the Glagolitic alphabet, you get a pictogram! I believe: not every designer will come up with such a way that every grapheme falls into the grid. I am amazed by the artistic integrity of this alphabet. I think the unknown author of the Glagolitic alphabet was a genius! In no other alphabet in the world is there such a clear connection between a symbol and its digital and sacred meaning!



Glagolitic alphabet and numerology

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

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

Sveta Evseeva-Fedorova

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 writing of a particular people or language family. But the Slavic alphabet has an absolutely amazing origin. Thanks to a whole series of historical evidence, 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 culture-forming factors. If a people is deprived of the right or opportunity to speak their native language, this will be the most severe blow to their native culture. If books in their native language are taken away from a person, he will lose the most important treasures of his culture. An adult, for example, who finds himself abroad, will probably not forget his native language. But his children and grandchildren will have great difficulties mastering the language of their parents and their people. Russian emigration of the 20th century, based on their arduous experience, answered the question “What place do the native language and native literature in national culture? gives a very clear answer: “Primary!”

Creation of the Slavic alphabet

Contemporaries and students of the first teachers of the Slavs compiled their lives in Church Slavonic. These biographies have been tested for centuries for authenticity and to this day are recognized by Slavists of all countries as the most important sources on the history of Slavic writing and culture. Best edition ancient lists biography of Cyril and Methodius, prepared jointly by Russian and Bulgarian scientists, was published in 1986. Here are lists of lives and words of praise for Cyril and Methodius of the 12th-15th centuries. The facsimile edition in this book of the most ancient lives of the Slavic enlighteners gives it special significance. Facsimile - “exactly reproduced” (from the Latin fac simile “do like”). Reading handwritten lives and words of praise to Cyril and Methodius, we penetrate back centuries and get closer to the origins of the Slavic alphabet and culture.

In addition to hagiographic literature, the most interesting evidence has been preserved of the ancient Bulgarian writer of the late 9th and early 10th centuries, Monk Khrabra, who wrote the first essay on the history of the creation of Slavic writing.

If you ask the Slavic literati like this:

Who wrote your letters or translated your books,

Everyone knows and, answering, they say:

Saint Constantine the Philosopher, named Cyril,

He created letters for us and translated books.

The homeland 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 main city region - Thessaloniki, or in Slavic Thessaloniki. 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 exact year of birth of each brother is not known. Researchers place the year of birth of Methodius in 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 of Constantinople Photius, an expert ancient culture, the creator of a unique bibliographic collection known as the “Miriobiblion” - and Lev the Grammar - a man who surprised compatriots and foreigners with his deep learning, an expert in mathematics, astronomy and mechanics.

The Life of Constantine reports on his education: “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 to rhetoric, arithmetic, astronomy, music and other Hellenic sciences. And so he studied all this, as no one else had studied these sciences.” The ancient heritage and all modern secular science were considered by Constantine's teachers to be a necessary preliminary stage to the comprehension of the highest wisdom - Theology.

This was also consistent with the ancient church Christian scientific tradition: the famous church fathers of the 4th century, Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian, before entering church service, received education at the best educational institutions 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 Saint Cyril contributed not only to the development of a unique Slavic culture, but was also an important factor in the development of young Slavic nations, their revival and liberation from the spiritual tutelage, which turns into oppression, of foreign neighbors. What Saints Cyril and Methodius did served as the foundation on which the beautiful edifice of the current Slavic culture was built, which has taken its honorable place in the world culture of mankind.” Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov). From the speech “Equal to the Apostles,” delivered on the 1100th anniversary of the death of St. Cyril. Hagiographic literature, which has preserved for us precious information about life and scientific activity Thessalonica brothers, assigned to Constantine the name Filosov (i.e. “lover of wisdom”). In this regard, an episode from the childhood of the future educator of the Slavs is of particular interest. As a seven-year-old boy, Konstantin had a dream, which he told his father and mother. The strategist (head of the region), having gathered all the girls of Thessalonica, told him: “Choose from among them whomever you want as your wife, to help (you) and your peer.” “I,” said Constantine, “having examined and examined them all, saw one more beautiful than all, with a shining face, decorated with gold necklaces and pearls and all beauty, her name was Sophia, that is, Wisdom, and her (I) chose." After completing a course in science, he took the department of philosophy at the Magnavra High School of Constantinople, where he had previously studied, Constantine the Philosopher also served as the patriarchal librarian. And, in the “books of diligence,” he rose more and more from book wisdom to the highest Wisdom, preparing for the great mission - the enlightenment of the Slavic peoples.

Constantine's embassy to Moravia in 863 was of epochal significance for the entire Slavic world. The Moravian prince Rostislav asked the Byzantine Emperor Michael III to send to him preachers who spoke the Slavic language: “Our land is baptized, but we do not have a 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.”

“Teaching without the alphabet and without books is like writing a conversation on water,” answered Constantine the Philosopher to Emperor Michael when he invited him to go on an educational mission to the Moravian Christians. Konstantin the Philosopher composed the alphabet for the Slavs and, together with his brother, translated the first texts from the Gospel and 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 the Slavic enlightenment. The Gospel of John stands out from among all biblical books for its 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” (“life”), “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 Slavic contained examples of a number of literary genres. For example, biblical texts included historical and biographical genres, monologues and dialogues, as well as examples of the most exquisite poetry. The liturgical Slavic texts that came from the pen of the first teachers were mostly intended to be chanted or even chorally performed and thereby served the development of the musical culture of the Slavs. The first translations of patristic texts (works of the holy fathers) into the Slavic language included the works philosophical nature. The first church-canonical Slavic collections contained translations of monuments of Byzantine legislation, that is, they laid the foundation for the legal literature of the Slavs.

Every literary genre has its own characteristics and requires its own verbal forms and visual arts. 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, convey all the literary merits and subtleties of the Greek originals, is truly a task for several generations. But historical sources indicate that this enormous philological work was done by the Thessaloniki brothers and their immediate 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 examples 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 letter of Constantine-Cyril was a special complete system, created with careful consideration specific features 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 composition immediately in those mature, developed forms that were developed in the Greek text of the originals as a result of centuries-old literary development "

Maybe someone before Cyril and Methodius did experiments on creating Slavic writing, but there are only hypotheses on this matter. And numerous historical sources testify specifically to Cyril and Methodius as the creators of the Slavic alphabet, writing and books. However, the history of the creation of Slavic writing has one very interesting riddle. In the 9th century, the Slavs developed almost simultaneously two writing systems: one was called the Glagolitic alphabet, and the other, the Cyrillic alphabet. Which alphabet - Cyrillic or Glagolitic - was invented by Constantine the Philosopher? Many scientists are inclined to believe that the first Slavic alphabet was the Glagolitic 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 most widespread, which became the basis of the modern Russian alphabet. But no matter how science subsequently resolves these questions, evidence 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 for the formation of a single cultural space Slavic peoples. In the 19th century, the famous Russian archaeographer Archimandrite Leonid Kavelin found and published the manuscript “The Word of our teacher Constantine the Philosopher” in the book depository of the Hilendar (Serbian) monastery on Mount Athos. In it, Constantine the Philosopher addresses all Slavic peoples: “In the same way, hear the Slovenes of all... Hear, Slovenian the whole people... Behold, all of us, brothers of Slovenia, conspiring, speak 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 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 and to the Volga in the east, Slavic tribes settled, the names of which were conveyed by our “initial chronicle”: Moravians, Czechs, Croats, Serbs, Horutans, Polyans, Drevlyans , Mazovians, Pomorians, Dregovichi, Polochans, Buzhanians, Volynians, Novgorodians, Dulebs, Tivertsy, Radimichi, Vyatichi. They all spoke the “Slovenian language” and all received education 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, Kirill bequeathed to his brother: “You and I, like two oxen, plowed the same furrow. I am exhausted, but don’t think about leaving the work of teaching and retiring to the mountain (to the monastery) again.” Saint Methodius fulfilled his brother’s order and until the end of his earthly life he worked on translating the Bible, liturgical books and collections of church law. Methodius died in 885, leaving behind many successors who knew and loved church Slavic books.

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

The greatest service of Cyril and Methodius to the Slavic world was that they tried to leave their students everywhere - continuers of the work of enlightening the Slavic peoples. Their disciples continued the Orthodox mission in Moravia and Panonia, and through the next line of successors, the Cyril and Methodius 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 service And schooling- all this was 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 especially important, because at that time the liturgical language was also the language of literature. With the Baptism of Rus', books in the Slavic language began to spread very quickly on Russian soil. “In The Tale of Bygone Years, which is attentive to all the events of Russian culture, there are neither names nor dates associated with Russian writing itself. And this, undoubtedly, is because Cyril and Methodius were in the minds of the scribes of Rus' the true creators of a single writing system for all eastern and southern Slavs. The Russian “Tale of the Translation of Books into the Slavic Language,” placed in the “Tale of Bygone Years,” begins with the words: “There is no single Slovenian language.” Further in this “Legend” it is said: “And the Slovenian language and the Russian language are one,” and a little lower it is repeated again: “... and the Slovenian language is one.”

Currently in Russian culture Church Slavonic is most often perceived 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 is that it represents the entire history of the Russian language placed on one plane, for in Church Slavonic at the same time there are monuments that go back to the activities of the Slavic first teachers - St. Nestor, Metropolitan Hilarion, Cyril of Turov, St. Maxim Greek and further to the present day." On the fateful significance of the Church Slavonic language and Church Slavonic writing for national culture wrote in his “Preface on the benefits of church books in the Russian language” M.V. Lomonosov: " Russian language in full strength, beauty and wealth, 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.”

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

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” to the 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 I stood up new task. How to make accessible to converts the vast wealth of the world's Christian culture- sacred scriptures, prayers, letters of the apostles, works of the church fathers? The Slavic language, differing in dialects, remained united for a long time: 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 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, really came from Greek city 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 complex, multi-layered, internally rhythmic literary work that 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 was contrary to 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 a constant, 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 literary languages other Slavic peoples.
Finally, evaluating educational activities 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 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.