The emergence of Slavic writing originates in IXcentury ad. In the 50s or early 60s of this century, the Moravian prince Rostislav decided that an alphabet specially developed for the Slavs would contribute to a more convenient conduct of Christian ceremonies. In Moravia (eastern part of the Czech Republic), Christianity was new at that time, and therefore it had to be spread quickly, until the small centers of the Christian faith went out under the onslaught of paganism.
With this thought, the prince Rostislav asked the emperor Byzantium of Michael III equip someone to compile such an alphabet, and then translate some church books into this new language.
Michael III agreed. If the Slavs had their own written language, the spread of Christianity among the Slavic peoples would have happened faster. Thus, not only Moravia would join the Christian camp, but also the rest of the Slavs (at that time the languages of the Slavs were still quite similar). At the same time, the Slavs would have adopted the eastern, Orthodox form of this religion, which would only strengthen the position of Byzantium, which was the center of Eastern Christianity until the 15th century. Therefore, he agreed to fulfill the request of Rostislav.
The emperor received the task of compiling such writing to two monks from Greece - brothers Cyril and Methodius. AT 863
brothers formed the Slavic alphabet based on the Greek alphabet. The Cyrillic alphabet, familiar to us and still used today, appeared a little later. The first version of the Old Slavonic language was called Glagolitic. It differed from the Cyrillic alphabet in writing letters (often they were very different from their Greek counterparts).
The Greeks tried to instill the Glagolitic alphabet into the Moravian Slavs in their missions, but they did not succeed there. It happened because of the Catholic protest. It is known that Catholicism strictly obliges parishioners to conduct services in Latin. Therefore, in Catholic Germany, which was close to Moravia, the practice of worship in the local language was immediately condemned. The King of Germany invaded Moravia and began radically inculcating Catholic rites. The Catholic tradition is still strong in the Czech Republic thanks to this pivotal event.
But the case of Cyril and Methodius did not perish. Immediately after the creation of the Cyrillic alphabet Tsar Boris I of Bulgaria decided to found the world's first Slavic book school - Book school in Preslav. This institution was engaged in translating Christian letters from Greek into Slavonic.
Being a Christian, Boris wished, by all means, to spread his faith to all pagan Bulgaria, in order to find an ally in the person of Byzantium. He managed to do it soon. Bulgaria became the center of Slavic writing, from here the Old Slavonic language spread to Rus', to Serbia, and then to many other Slavic countries. In, for example, Poland and the Czech Republic, the Latin alphabet is used, which has become entrenched in everyday life thanks to the deep Catholic tradition of these countries.
Church Slavonic(the Russian version of the Cyrillic alphabet, which did not change at all for a long time) was fully used in Rus' until the 18th century, when Peter I introduced a new standardized script to replace the outdated church script. He extracted several letters from the alphabet, redrawn the spelling and introduced many other rules. Peter the Great actually founded the Russian language, which we still use in a very shabby form of time. Church Slavonic, however, is still used in churches today. Watch and listen to how they talked about Ancient Rus', you can in any church during the service.
Cyril and Methodius for their mission were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as a saint. They are still one of the most popular saints in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, even today's youth knows these historical figures.
May 24 Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of Saints Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius.
The name of these saints is known to everyone from school, and it is to them that all of us, native speakers of the Russian language, owe our language, culture, and writing.
Incredibly, all European science and culture was born within the walls of the monastery: it was at the monasteries that the first schools were opened, children were taught to read and write, and vast libraries were collected. It was for the enlightenment of peoples, for the translation of the Gospel, that many writing systems were created. So it happened with the Slavic language.
The holy brothers Cyril and Methodius came from a noble and pious family that lived in the Greek city of Thessalonica. Methodius was a warrior and ruled the Bulgarian principality of the Byzantine Empire. This gave him the opportunity to learn the Slavic language.
Soon, however, he decided to leave the secular way of life and became a monk in a monastery on Mount Olympus. Constantine from childhood expressed amazing abilities and received an excellent education together with the young emperor Michael III at the royal court
Then he took monastic vows in one of the monasteries on Mount Olympus in Asia Minor.
His brother Konstantin, who took the name Cyril in monasticism, from an early age was distinguished by great abilities and perfectly comprehended all the sciences of his time and many languages.
Soon the emperor sent both brothers to the Khazars for the gospel sermon. According to legend, on the way they stopped in Korsun, where Konstantin found the Gospel and the Psalter, written in "Russian letters", and a man who spoke Russian, and began to learn to read and speak this language.
When the brothers returned to Constantinople, the emperor again sent them on an educational mission - this time to Moravia. The Moravian prince Rostislav was oppressed by the German bishops, and he asked the emperor to send teachers who could preach in their native language for the Slavs.
The first of the Slavic peoples who converted to Christianity were the Bulgarians. In Constantinople, the sister of the Bulgarian prince Bogoris (Boris) was held as a hostage. She was baptized with the name Theodora and was brought up in the spirit of holy faith. Around the year 860, she returned to Bulgaria and began to persuade her brother to accept Christianity. Boris was baptized, taking the name Michael. Saints Cyril and Methodius were in this country and by their preaching they greatly contributed to the establishment of Christianity in it. From Bulgaria, the Christian faith spread to neighboring Serbia.
To fulfill the new mission, Constantine and Methodius compiled the Slavonic alphabet and translated the main liturgical books (Gospel, Apostle, Psalter) into Slavonic. This happened in 863.
In Moravia, the brothers were received with great honor and began to teach Divine Liturgy in the Slavic language. This aroused the anger of the German bishops, who celebrated divine services in Latin in the Moravian churches, and they filed a complaint with Rome.
Taking with them the relics of St. Clement (the Pope), discovered by them back in Korsun, Constantine and Methodius set off for Rome.
Upon learning that the brothers were carrying holy relics, Pope Adrian met them with honor and approved worship in the Slavic language. He ordered the books translated by the brothers to be placed in Roman churches and to celebrate the liturgy in the Slavic language.
Saint Methodius fulfilled his brother's will: having returned to Moravia already in the rank of archbishop, he worked here for 15 years. From Moravia Christianity penetrated into Bohemia during the life of Saint Methodius. The Bohemian prince Borivoj received holy baptism from him. His example was followed by his wife Lyudmila (who later became a martyr) and many others. In the middle of the 10th century, the Polish prince Mieczyslaw married the Bohemian princess Dąbrowka, after which he and his subjects adopted the Christian faith.
Subsequently, these Slavic peoples, through the efforts of Latin preachers and German emperors, were cut off from the Greek Church under the rule of the Pope, with the exception of the Serbs and Bulgarians. But among all the Slavs, despite the past centuries, the memory of the great Equal-to-the-Apostles Enlighteners and the Orthodox faith that they tried to plant among them is still alive. The sacred memory of Saints Cyril and Methodius serves as a connecting link for all Slavic peoples.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
emergence Slavic writing turns 1155 years old. In 863, according to the official version, the brothers Cyril (in the world Constantine the Philosopher, born in 826-827) and Methodius (worldly name unknown, presumably Michael, born before 820) created the basis of the modern Cyrillic alphabet.
The acquisition of written language by the Slavic peoples had the same historical and geopolitical significance as the discovery of America.
In the middle of the first millennium A.D. e. Slavs settled vast territories in Central, Southern and Eastern Europe. Their neighbors in the south were Greece, Italy, Byzantium - a kind of cultural standards of human civilization.
Young Slavic "barbarians" constantly violated the borders of their southern neighbors. To curb them, Rome and Byzantium began to attempt to convert the "barbarians" to the Christian faith, subordinating their daughter churches to the main one - Latin in Rome, Greek in Constantinople. Missionaries were sent to the "barbarians". Among the envoys of the church, no doubt, there were many who sincerely and confidently fulfilled their spiritual duty, and the Slavs themselves, living in close contact with the European medieval world, were increasingly inclined to the need to enter the bosom of the Christian church. At the beginning of the 9th century, the Slavs began to actively adopt Christianity.
And then a new challenge arose. How to make available to new converts a huge layer of world Christian culture - sacred writings, prayers, epistles of the apostles, the works of the church fathers? The Slavic language, differing in dialects, remained the same for a long time: everyone understood each other perfectly. However, the Slavs did not yet have a written language. “Before, the Slavs, when they were pagans, did not have letters,” says the Tale of the Chernorizet Khrabr “On Letters” - but [counted] and guessed with the help of features and cuts. However, in trade transactions, when accounting for the economy, or when it was necessary to accurately convey a message, it was unlikely that “devils and cuts” were enough. There was a need to create Slavic writing.
“When [the Slavs] were baptized,” said the Chernoryets Khrabr, “they tried to write down Slavic speech in Roman [Latin] and Greek letters without order.” These experiments have partially survived to this day: the main prayers that sound in Slavic, but were written in Latin letters in the 10th century, are common among Western Slavs. Or another interesting monument - documents in which Bulgarian texts are written in Greek letters, moreover, from those times when the Bulgarians spoke the Turkic language (later the Bulgarians will speak Slavic).
Yet neither Latin nor Greek alphabets did not correspond to the sound palette of the Slavic language. Words, the sound of which cannot be correctly conveyed in Greek or Latin letters, were already cited by the Chernoryets Brave: belly, church, aspiration, youth, language, and others. But there was another side of the problem - the political one. Latin missionaries did not at all seek to make the new faith understandable to believers. There was a widespread belief in the Roman Church that there were “only three languages in which it is fitting to praise God with the help of (special) scripts: Hebrew, Greek and Latin.” In addition, Rome firmly adhered to the position that the “secret” of Christian teaching should be known only to the clergy, and ordinary Christians only need very few specially processed texts - the very beginnings of Christian knowledge.
In Byzantium, they looked at all this, apparently, in a slightly different way, here they began to think about the creation of Slavic letters. “My grandfather, and my father, and many others looked for them and did not find them,” Emperor Michael III will say to the future creator of the Slavic alphabet Constantine the Philosopher. It was Konstantin he called when, in the early 860s, an embassy from Moravia (part of the territory of modern Czech Republic) came to Constantinople. The tops of the Moravian society had already adopted Christianity three decades ago, but the Germanic church was active among them. Apparently, trying to gain complete independence, the Moravian prince Rostislav asked "the teacher to tell us the right faith in our language ...".
“No one can do this, only you,” the Caesar admonished Constantine the Philosopher. This difficult, honorable mission fell simultaneously on the shoulders of his brother, hegumen (rector) Orthodox monastery Methodius. “You are Thessaloniki, and the Thessalonians all speak pure Slavic” - was another argument of the emperor.
Cyril and Methodius, two brothers, really came from the Greek city of Thessalonica (its modern name is Thessaloniki) in northern Greece. South Slavs lived in the neighborhood, and for the inhabitants of Thessalonica, the Slavic language, apparently, became the second language of communication.
Constantine and Methodius were born into a large wealthy family with seven children. She belonged to a noble Greek family: the head of the family named Leo was revered as an important person in the city. Konstantin grew up younger. As a seven-year-old child (as his “Life” tells), he saw a “prophetic dream”: he had to choose his wife from all the girls in the city. And he pointed to the most beautiful: "her name was Sophia, that is, Wisdom." The phenomenal memory and excellent abilities of the boy - in teaching he excelled everyone - amazed those around him.
It is not surprising that, having heard about the special giftedness of the children of the Thessalonica nobleman, the ruler of the Caesar called them to Constantinople. Here they received an excellent education. With knowledge and wisdom, Konstantin earned himself honor, respect and the nickname "Philosopher". He became famous for many of his verbal victories: in discussions with carriers of heresies, at a dispute in Khazaria, where he defended the Christian faith, knowledge of many languages and reading ancient inscriptions. In Chersonese, in a flooded church, Constantine discovered the relics of St. Clement, and through his efforts they were transferred to Rome.
Brother Methodius often accompanied the Philosopher and helped him in his affairs. But the brothers received world fame and grateful gratitude from their descendants by creating the Slavic alphabet and translating sacred books into the Slavic language. Great work, which played an epochal role in the formation of the Slavic peoples.
However, many researchers rightly believe that work on the creation of the Slavic script in Byzantium began to work, 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 Slavonic of the Gospel - the most complex, multi-layered, internally rhythmic literary work, which requires careful and adequate selection of words, is a colossal work. To fulfill it, even Constantine the Philosopher and his brother Methodius "with his henchmen" would need more than one year. Therefore, it is natural to assume that it was precisely this work that the brothers were doing back in the 50s of the 9th century in a monastery on Olympus (in Asia Minor on the coast of the Sea of Marmara), where, according to the Life of Constantine, they constantly prayed to God, “engaging in just books."
And in 864, Constantine the Philosopher and Methodius were already received with great honors in Moravia. They brought here the Slavic alphabet and the Gospel translated into Slavic. But there was still work to be done. Students were assigned to help the brothers and to train with them. “And soon (Konstantin) translated the entire church order and taught them both morning, and hours, and Mass, and Vespers, and Compline, and secret prayer.”
The brothers stayed in Moravia for more than three years. The philosopher, already suffering from a serious illness, 50 days before his death, "put on a holy monastic image and ... gave himself the name Cyril ...". When he died in 869, he was 42 years old. Cyril died and was buried in Rome.
The eldest of the brothers, Methodius, continued the work they started. According to the "Life of Methodius", "... having planted shorthand writers from his students, he quickly and completely translated all the books (biblical), except for the Maccabees, from Greek into Slavic." The time devoted to this work is indicated as incredible - six or eight months. Methodius died in 885.
Monument to St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius in Samara
Photo by V. Surkov
The appearance of sacred books in the Slavic language had a powerful resonance in the world. All well-known medieval sources that responded to this event report how "some people began to blaspheme Slavic books", arguing that "no nation should have its own alphabet, except for Jews, Greeks and Latins." Even the Pope intervened in the dispute, grateful to the brothers who brought the relics of St. Clement to Rome. Although the translation into a non-canonized Slavic language was contrary to the principles of the Latin Church, the pope, nevertheless, did not condemn the detractors, saying, allegedly, quoting Scripture, like this: "Let all peoples praise God."
Cyril and Methodius, having created the Slavic alphabet, translated almost all the most important church books and prayers into the Slavic language. But not one Slavic alphabet has survived to this day, but two: Glagolitic and Cyrillic. Both existed in the IX-X centuries. In both, to convey sounds reflecting the features of the Slavic language, special signs were introduced, and not combinations of two or three main ones, as was practiced in the alphabets of Western European peoples. The Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets almost coincide in letters. The order of the letters is also almost the same.
The merits of Cyril and Methodius in the history of culture are enormous. Firstly, they developed the first ordered Slavic alphabet and this marked the beginning of the widespread development of Slavic writing. Secondly, many books were translated from Greek, which was the beginning of the formation of the Old Slavonic literary language and Slavic book business. There is evidence that Cyril created, in addition, original works. Thirdly, for many years Cyril and Methodius carried out great educational work among the Western and Southern Slavs and greatly contributed to the spread of literacy among these peoples. In the course of all their activities in Moravia and Pannonia, Cyril and Methodius, in addition, waged an unceasing selfless struggle against the attempts of the German Catholic clergy to ban the Slavic alphabet and books. Fourthly: Cyril and Methodius were the founders of the first literary and written language of the Slavs - the Old Slavonic language, which in turn was a kind of catalyst for the creation of the Old Russian literary language, Old Bulgarian and the literary languages of other Slavic peoples.
Finally, when evaluating the educational activities of the Thessalonica brothers, it should be borne in mind that they did not engage in the Christianization of the population as such (although they contributed to it), because Moravia was already a Christian state by the time they arrived. Cyril and Methodius, having compiled the alphabet, translating from Greek, teaching literacy and familiarizing the local population with Christian and encyclopedic literature rich in content and forms, were precisely the teachers of the Slavic peoples.
Slavic monuments of the X-XI centuries that have come down to us. testify that, starting from the era of Cyril and Methodius, for three centuries the Slavs used, in principle, a single literary language with a number of local variants. The Slavic language world was rather uniform when compared with the modern one. Thus, Cyril and Methodius created an international, inter-Slavic language.
Koloskova Kristina
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Cyril and Methodius. The work was done by a student of 4 "a" class MOU " secondary school No. 11, Kimry, Tver Region Koloskova Christina
"And native Rus' will glorify the Holy Apostles of the Slavs"
Page I “In the beginning was the word…” Cyril and Methodius Cyril and Methodius, Slavic educators, creators of the Slavic alphabet, preachers of Christianity, the first translators of liturgical books from Greek into Slavonic. Cyril (before becoming a monk in 869 - Constantine) (827 - 02/14/869) and his older brother Methodius (815 - 04/06/885) were born in Thessalonica in the family of a military leader. The boys' mother was Greek, and their father was Bulgarian, so from childhood they had two native languages - Greek and Slavic. The characters of the brothers were very similar. Both read a lot, loved to study.
Holy Brothers Cyril and Methodius, Enlighteners of the Slavs. In the years 863-866 the brothers were sent to Great Moravia to expound Christian doctrine in a language understandable to the Slavs. The great teachers translated the books of the Holy Scriptures, based on the Eastern Bulgarian dialects, and created a special alphabet - Glagolitic - for their texts. The activities of Cyril and Methodius had a common Slavic significance and influenced the formation of many Slavic literary languages.
Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril (827 - 869), nicknamed the Philosopher, Slovenian teacher. When Konstantin was 7 years old, he saw a prophetic dream: “Father gathered everyone beautiful girls Thessalonica and ordered to choose one of them as his wife. After examining everyone, Konstantin chose the most beautiful; her name was Sophia (Greek wisdom). So even in childhood, he became engaged to wisdom: for him, knowledge, books became the meaning of his whole life. Constantine received an excellent education at the imperial court in the capital of Byzantium - Constantinople. He quickly learned grammar, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, knew 22 languages. Interest in the sciences, perseverance in learning, diligence - all this made him one of the most educated people in Byzantium. It is no coincidence that he was called the Philosopher for his great wisdom. Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril
Methodius of Moravia Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Methodius Methodius entered the military early. For 10 years he was the ruler of one of the regions inhabited by Slavs. Around 852, he took monastic vows, renouncing the rank of archbishop, and became hegumen of the monastery. Polychron on the Asian coast of the Sea of Marmara. In Moravia, he was imprisoned for two and a half years, in severe frost they dragged him through the snow. The Enlightener did not renounce serving the Slavs, and in 874 he was released by John VIII and restored to the rights of a bishopric. Pope John VIII forbade Methodius to celebrate the Liturgy in the Slavic language, but Methodius, visiting Rome in 880, succeeded in lifting the ban. In 882-884 he lived in Byzantium. In the middle of 884 Methodius returned to Moravia and was busy translating the Bible into Slavonic.
Glagolitic is one of the first (along with Cyrillic) Slavic alphabets. It is assumed that it was the Glagolitic alphabet that was created by the Slavic educator St. Konstantin (Kirill) Philosopher for recording church texts in Slavonic. Glagolitic
The Old Slavonic alphabet was compiled by the scientist Cyril and his brother Methodius at the request of the Moravian princes. That's what it's called - Cyrillic. This is the Slavic alphabet, it has 43 letters (19 vowels). Each has its own name, similar to ordinary words: A - az, B - beeches, C - lead, G - verb, D - good, F - live, Z - earth and so on. Alphabet - the name itself is formed from the name of the first two letters. In Rus', the Cyrillic alphabet became widespread after the adoption of Christianity (988). The Slavic alphabet turned out to be perfectly adapted to accurately convey the sounds of the Old Russian language. This alphabet is the basis of our alphabet. Cyrillic
In 863, the word of God sounded in the Moravian cities and villages in their native, Slavic language, letters and secular books were created. Slavic chronicle writing began. The Soloun brothers devoted their entire lives to teaching, knowledge, and serving the Slavs. They did not attach much importance to either wealth, or honors, or fame, or career. The younger one, Konstantin, read a lot, meditated, wrote sermons, and the older one, Methodius, was more of an organizer. Konstantin translated from Greek and Latin into Slavonic, wrote, having created the alphabet, in Slavonic, Methodius - "published" books, led the school of students. Konstantin was not destined to return to his homeland. When they arrived in Rome, he fell seriously ill, took tonsure, received the name Cyril, and died a few hours later. With this name, he remained to live in the bright memory of his descendants. Buried in Rome. The beginning of the Slavic chronicle.
The spread of writing in Rus' In ancient Rus', reading and writing and books were revered. Historians and archaeologists believe that the total number of handwritten books before the 14th century was approximately 100,000 copies. After the adoption of Christianity in Rus' - in 988 - writing began to spread faster. The liturgical books were translated into Old Church Slavonic. Russian scribes rewrote these books, adding features of their native language to them. Thus, the Old Russian literary language was gradually created, the works of Old Russian authors appeared, (unfortunately, often unnamed) - "The Tale of Igor's Campaign", "Instructions of Vladimir Monomakh", "The Life of Alexander Nevsky" and many others.
Yaroslav the Wise Grand Duke Yaroslav “loved books, read them often both at night and during the day. And he gathered many scribes and they translated from Greek into Slavic and they wrote many books ”(Chronicle of 1037) Among these books were chronicles written by monks, old and young, secular people, these are “lives”, historical songs, “teachings” , "messages". Yaroslav the Wise
“They teach the alphabet in the whole hut they shout” (V.I. Dal “ Dictionary living Great Russian language") V.I. Dal There were no textbooks in Ancient Rus' yet, education was based on church books, one had to memorize huge texts-psalms - instructive chants. The names of the letters were learned by heart. When learning to read, the letters of the first syllable were first called, then this syllable was pronounced; then the letters of the second syllable were called, and the second syllable was pronounced, and so on, and only after that the syllables formed a whole word, for example BOOK: kako, ours, ilk - KNI, verb, az - GA. That's how hard it was to learn to read.
Page IV “The Revival of the Slavic Holiday” Macedonia Ohrid Monument to Cyril and Methodius Already in the 9th-10th centuries, the first traditions of glorification and veneration of the creators of Slavic writing began to emerge in the homeland of Cyril and Methodius. But soon the Roman Church began to oppose the Slavic language, calling it barbaric. Despite this, the names of Cyril and Methodius continued to live among the Slavic people, and in the middle of the XIV century they were officially ranked among the saints. In Russia it was different. The memory of the Enlightenment Slavs was already celebrated in the 11th century; here they were never considered heretics, that is, atheists. But still, only scientists were more interested in it. Broad festivities of the Slavic word began in Russia in the early 60s of the last century.
On the holiday of Slavic writing on May 24, 1992, in Moscow on Slavyanskaya Square, the grand opening of the monument to Saints Cyril and Methodius by the sculptor Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Klykov took place. Moscow. Slavyanskaya Square
Kyiv Odessa
Soloniki Mukachevo
Chelyabinsk Saratov The monument to Cyril and Methodius was opened on May 23, 2009. Sculptor Alexander Rozhnikov
On the territory of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, near the Far Caves, a monument was erected to the creators of the Slavic alphabet Cyril and Methodius.
Monument to Saints Cyril and Methodius The holiday in honor of Cyril and Methodius is a public holiday in Russia (since 1991), Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the Republic of Macedonia. In Russia, Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia, the holiday is celebrated on May 24; in Russia and Bulgaria it bears the name of the Day of Slavic Culture and Literature, in Macedonia - the Day of Saints Cyril and Methodius. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the holiday is celebrated on July 5th.
Thank you for your attention!
The alphabet is also a set of symbols used to convey writing in a certain language, otherwise - the alphabet; and a book for mastering the alphabet and the basics of written literacy.
Wikimedia Commons()
Therefore, answering the question, what was the name of the first Slavic alphabet, one should speak about both the symbolic corpus and the book.
Cyrillic or Glagolitic?
Traditionally, the Cyrillic alphabet is called the first Slavic alphabet. We use it to this day. Also, the official version says that the creators of the first Slavic alphabet were Methodius and Constantine (Cyril) Philosopher - Christian preachers from the Greek city of Thessaloniki.
In 863, presumably, they streamlined the Old Slavonic writing system and, with the help of a new alphabet - Cyrillic (named after Cyril) - began to translate Greek religious texts into Slavic (Old Bulgarian). This activity of theirs led to a significant spread of Orthodoxy.
For a long time it was believed that the brothers created the alphabet, which became the basis for 108 modern languages- Russian, Montenegrin, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Serbian, a number of Caucasian, Turkic, Ural and others. However, now most scientists consider the Cyrillic alphabet a later formation, and its predecessor - the Glagolitic.
It was the Glagolitic alphabet that Cyril the Philosopher developed to translate religious texts (“books without which Divine services are not performed”) into Old Church Slavonic. There are several proofs for this:
- Glagolitic inscription of 893 (exact date) in the church of Preslavl; 
Wikimedia Commons / Lapot ()
- palimpsests - parchment manuscripts, on which the old - Glagolitic - text was scraped off, and the new one was already written in Cyrillic: parchments were very expensive, therefore, for the sake of economy, more important things were written down, scraping off records that had lost their relevance;
- the absence of palimpsests, on which the Cyrillic alphabet is the first layer;
- the presence of negative references to the Glagolitic alphabet in the context of the need to replace it with “Slavic pimens”, in which there are “more holiness and honor”, for example, in the work of Chernorizets Brave “On Writings”.
In ancient Russian writing, as a later Glagolitic script, it was used extremely rarely, usually as cryptography or separate inclusions in Cyrillic texts.
Who is the author of the Cyrillic alphabet?
According to scientists, the creator of the Cyrillic alphabet is Clement Ohridsky, a student of Cyril the Philosopher, a resident of the Bulgarian city of Ohrid (now Macedonia). In 893, a popular council in Veliky Preslavl unanimously voted for the election of Clement "bishop of the Slavic language" - this is another evidence in favor of his authorship of the Cyrillic alphabet.
The first printed alphabet
The first printed alphabets, or primers, appeared in the 16th century. In 1574, the pioneer printer Ivan Fedorov published his "ABC" in Lvov, the addressee of the book is "beloved honest Christian Russian people." 
The circulation, together with the second building - Ostroh, amounted to about 2,000 copies. The second edition contained not only letters (symbols), but also exercises for practicing reading.
Only three books from the first ABCs of Fedorov have survived. One "ABC" of 1574 belonged to S. P. Diaghilev (1872 - 1929) - a Russian theatrical figure, organizer of the Parisian "Russian Seasons" and the "Russian Ballet of Diaghilev". When the owner died, the relic became the property of the Harvard University Library.
Two other "ABCs" of 1578 are kept in the Copenhagen Royal Library and the State Library in the Goths in Germany.
The "ABC" of Ivan Fedorov is built on the Roman and Greek subjunctive learning system. First, it contains an alphabet of 46 letters. Further - the reverse (from "izhitsa" to "az") alphabet, the alphabet in eight vertical columns. Behind him are syllables of two letters, syllables of three letters (possible combinations of all vowels with all consonants).
Such an arrangement of material in the book reflects the system of teaching literacy, in which images and names of symbols were first firmly memorized, then syllables, and only after that the student began to read texts taken from the Bible.
The texts were not just religious, but always instructive, educative. We must pay tribute to the first printer, the teachings were addressed not only to children, but also to parents, for example: do not irritate your children. Perhaps this to some extent determined the general direction of Russian literature to this day. 
Wikimedia Commons/Anntinomy()
In 1596, the first primer "Science to Reading ..." by Lavrenty Zizania was published in Vilna. In 1634, Vasily Burtsov published in Moscow "A Primer of the Slovenska Language". Since then, the printing of ABCs has become massive.
