The generally accepted date for the emergence of writing among the Slavs is 863, but some researchers argue that they knew how to write in Russia before.

Closed topic

The topic of pre-Christian writing in Ancient Russia was considered in Soviet science, if not forbidden, then quite closed. Only in recent decades, a number of works devoted to this problem have appeared.

For example, in the fundamental monograph "The History of Writing" N.A. Pavlenko offers six hypotheses for the origin of the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets, and argues that both the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets were among the Slavs in pre-Christian times.

Myth or reality

Historian Lev Prozorov is sure that there is more than enough evidence of the existence of writing before the appearance of the Cyrillic alphabet in Russia. He argues that our distant ancestors could not only write individual words, but also draw up legal documents.

As an example, Prozorov draws attention to the conclusion of an agreement with Byzantium by Oleg the Prophet. The document deals with the consequences of the death of a Russian merchant in Constantinople: if the merchant dies, then one should “treat with his property as he wrote in his will.” True, in what language such wills were written is not specified.

In the "Lives of Methodius and Cyril", compiled in the Middle Ages, it is written about how Cyril visited Chersonesos and saw there the Holy Books written in "Russian letters". However, many researchers tend to be critical of this source. For example, Viktor Istrin believes that the word "Russian" should be understood as "Sour" - that is, Syriac scripts.

However, there is other evidence confirming that the pagan Slavs still had a written language. This can be read in the chronicles of Western authors - Helmold from Bosau, Titmar of Merseburg, Adam of Bremen, who, when describing the shrines of the Baltic and Polabian Slavs, mention inscriptions on the bases of the statues of the Gods.

The Arab chronicler Ibn-Fodlan wrote that he saw with his own eyes the burial of the Rus and how a memorial mark was placed on his grave - a wooden pillar on which the name of the deceased himself and the name of the king of the Rus were carved.

Archeology

Indirectly, the presence of writing among the ancient Slavs is confirmed by the excavations of Novgorod. On the site of the old settlement, writings were found - rods with which the inscription was applied to wood, clay or plaster. The finds date back to the middle of the 10th century, despite the fact that Christianity penetrated Novgorod only at the end of the 10th century.

The same writing was found in Gnezdovo during excavations of ancient Smolensk, moreover, there is archaeological evidence of the use of rods for writing. In a mound of the middle of the 10th century, archaeologists unearthed a fragment of an amphora, where they read the inscription made in Cyrillic: “Pea dog”.

Ethnographers believe that "Pea" is a protective name that was given by our ancestors so that "grief is not attached."

Also among the archaeological finds of ancient Slavic settlements are the remains of swords, on the blades of which blacksmiths engraved their name. For example, on one of the swords found near the village of Foshchevata, one can read the name "Ludot".

"Features and cuts"

If the appearance of samples of Cyrillic writing in pre-Christian times can still be disputed, in particular, explained by the incorrect dating of the find, then writing with “features and cuts” is a sign of a more ancient culture. This method of writing, still popular among the Slavs even after being baptized, was mentioned in his treatise “On Letters” (beginning of the 10th century) by the Bulgarian monk Chernorizets Brave.

Under "features and cuts", according to scientists, they most likely meant a kind of pictographic-tamga and counting writing, also known among other peoples in the early stages of their development.

Attempts to decipher the inscriptions made according to the type of "features and cuts" were made by the Russian amateur decryptor Gennady Grinevich. In total, he examined about 150 inscriptions found in the territory of the settlement of the Eastern and Western Slavs (IV-X centuries AD). Upon careful study of the inscriptions, the researcher identified 74 basic signs, which, in his opinion, formed the basis of the ancient Slavic syllabic writing.

Grinevich also suggested that some samples of the Proto-Slavic syllabary were made using pictograms. For example, the image of a horse, dog or spear means that you need to use the first syllables of these words - “lo”, “so” and “ko”.
With the advent of the Cyrillic alphabet, the syllabary, according to the researcher, did not disappear, but began to be used as a secret script. So, on the cast-iron fence of the Sloboda Palace in Moscow (now the building of the Moscow State Technical University named after Bauman), Grinevich read how "the Hasid Domenico Gilardi has the cook Nicholas I in his power."

"Slavic runes"

A number of researchers have an opinion that the Old Slavonic writing is an analogue of the Scandinavian runic writing, which allegedly confirms the so-called "Kiev Letter" (a document dating from the 10th century), issued to Yaakov Ben Hanukkah by the Jewish community of Kyiv. The text of the document is written in Hebrew, and the signature is made in runic characters that have not yet been able to read.
The German historian Konrad Schurzfleisch writes about the existence of runic writing among the Slavs. His thesis of 1670 refers to the schools of the Germanic Slavs, where children were taught the runes. As proof, the historian cited a sample of the Slavic runic alphabet, similar to the Danish runes of the 13th-16th centuries.

Writing as a Witness to Migration

Grinevich, mentioned above, believes that with the help of the Old Slavic syllabic alphabet one can also read the Cretan inscriptions of the XX-XIII centuries. BC, Etruscan inscriptions of the 8th-2nd centuries. BC, Germanic runes and ancient inscriptions from Siberia and Mongolia.
In particular, according to Grinevich, he was able to read the text of the famous "Phaistos Disc" (Crete Island, XVII century BC), which tells about the Slavs who found a new home in Crete. However, the bold conclusions of the researcher cause serious objection from the academic community.

Grinevich is not alone in his research. Back in the first half of the 19th century, the Russian historian E. I. Klassen wrote that “the Slavic Russians, as a people educated earlier than the Romans and Greeks, left many monuments in all parts of the Old World, testifying to their stay there and to the most ancient writing.”

The Italian philologist Sebastiano Ciampi showed in practice that there was a certain connection between the ancient Slavic and European cultures.

To decipher the Etruscan language, the scientist decided to try to rely not on Greek and Latin, but on one of the Slavic languages ​​that he was fluent in - Polish. Imagine the surprise of the Italian researcher when some Etruscan texts began to lend themselves to translation.

It is no secret that the formation of ancient Russian church literature began after such a process as Christianization. According to certain data, literacy in Russia appeared thanks to Bulgaria, after the well-known religious act took place in 998. This version was not entirely correct. Historians have proven that the Old Russian letters, as well as Old Russian writing, appeared thanks to Cyril and Methodius.

Many people know that in Russia before 988 they already had to write, and this is a recognized fact. Some researchers argue that writing began to appear as early as the Bronze Age. According to the treatise Chernorizets the Brave, which is dedicated to the emergence of ancient Slavic writing, this process had several main stages. One of the main stages was the adoption of the letters of the Greek and Latin alphabets. That is why the Old Russian letters have well-known origins.

http://artgarmony.ru/

Features of the development of writing in Russia

The signs of many local peoples also influenced the development of writing. If we talk about the total number of basic such signs, then there were about two hundred of them. According to historians, the bearers of the so-called Chernyakhov culture maintained fairly good relations with the Greeks and Romans. Many representatives of this culture often visited ancient cities, where they acquired certain writing skills.

In the Cathedral of St. Sophia, the Sophian alphabet was discovered, which was drawn on the wall with sufficient quality and in large expressive letters. According to some researchers, this alphabet is an ordinary Cyrillic alphabet. The main difference can only be called that the Sofia alphabet is unfinished. By the way, the Old Russian letters are depicted quite neatly here. This suggests that the Sofia alphabet deserves every right to be called pre-Cyrillic, it perfectly reflects the initial stage of the emergence of Slavic writing.

Creation of the first library

It is worth noting that in the 11th century, Yaroslav the Wise created a cultural and educational center in Kyiv, where the first library appeared. In this library, according to historians,
very important political documents, various texts of treaties, etc. were kept. Also here you can see a large number of books, mostly literate translations of Christian literature, church documentation, etc.

Modern research has learned that East Slavic writing appeared solely due to the missions of Cyril.

http://hvrax.ru/

Sources of Old Russian writing

The main source of the emergence of ancient Russian writing nevertheless served as Greek sources. Old Russian symbols also contributed to this. The first Cyrillic alphabet had several variants. One version consisted of 38 letters, and the other 43 letters. Many historians are trying to answer the following question: what exactly was the alphabet that Cyril invented?

If we talk about the Glagolitic alphabet, then this is one of the most mysterious problems of the entire period of the formation of Old Russian writing. By the way, the origin of the Glagolitic alphabet is still unknown. Today, the Old Russian alphabet, inscription and reading, is also a kind of mystery for researchers.

Most importantly, scientists have proven that Cyril put a lot of effort into the appearance in Russia of the first alphabet, alphabet and writing. Of course, this topic has been discussed enough for many decades, since, unfortunately, there are not many facts about the origin of the writing of Ancient Russia.

Video: The history of the birth of Slavic writing

Read also:

• 

  Monuments of the artistic culture of Ancient Russia are a collection of amazing architecture, which is distinguished by its special beauty, as well as amazing designs. It is worth noting that the cultural monuments of the times of ancient Russia, which will be discussed in our article, are the most

• 

  It is no secret that ancient civilizations existed for several thousand years, during which time they significantly influenced the scientific and cultural development of mankind. It is worth noting that the cultural heritage of ancient civilizations is quite rich, as well as material culture. If speak about

• 

  Ancient Russia is a state where various types of art originated and developed, which will be discussed in our article. We will try to tell what was the applied art of ancient Russia, what are its features, etc.

Officially, it is historically considered that writing in Russia arose during the period of the baptism of Kievan Rus in 988. According to this version, writing was introduced by the brothers Cyril and Methodius from Bulgaria. This theory of the origin of writing is confirmed by numerous records on the coins of Prince Vladimir, as well as on the walls of the Kiev Cathedral. The period of occurrence of these records is attributed to the end of the X century.

Despite the fact that the pre-Christian period does not provide us with such facts of the existence of writing, many researchers adhere to the point of view of the earlier emergence of writing on the territory of ancient Russia. According to this version, writing in Russia appeared before the Christianization of the population of Kievan Rus. Evidence of this are the writing tools of that time - "wrote". Also, in favor of this version are the data in the Russian chronicles. The writing of that time was available only to a limited number of people. Of course, it makes no sense to talk about any book culture of the 9th century, on the grounds that not a single book of that time has survived to our time.

The studies of Chudinov Valery Alexandrovich are very curious. According to which, writing in Russia arose long before Cyril and Methodius, and it was called a runic. But after the baptism of Kievan Rus, they tried to destroy all runic writing. And one of the oldest runes in Russia was the runes of the Sort. But official science does not recognize the existence of the Runes, much less classify them as writing. At best, the Runes will be attributed to the ornaments of that time.

Candidate of Art Criticism R. BAIBUROVA

At the beginning of the 21st century, it is unthinkable to imagine modern life without books, newspapers, indexes, the flow of information, and the past without an ordered history, religion without sacred texts... The appearance of writing has become one of the most important, fundamental discoveries on the long path of human evolution. In terms of significance, this step can perhaps be compared with making fire or with the transition to growing plants instead of a long time of gathering. The formation of writing is a very difficult process that lasted for millennia. Slavic writing, the heir of which is our modern writing, stood in this row more than a thousand years ago, in the 9th century AD.

FROM WORD-DRAWING TO LETTER

Miniature from the Kiev Psalter of 1397. This is one of the few surviving old manuscripts.

Fragment of the Facial Arch with a miniature depicting the duel of Peresvet with the Tatar hero on the Kulikovo field.

An example of pictographic writing (Mexico).

Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription on the stele of the "Great Steward of Palaces" (XXI century BC).

Assyro-Babylonian writing is an example of cuneiform writing.

One of the first alphabets on Earth is Phoenician.

The ancient Greek inscription demonstrates the two-way direction of the line.

Sample runic script.

Slavic apostles Cyril and Methodius with students. Fresco of the monastery "St. Naum", located near Lake Ohrid in the Balkans.

Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets compared with the Byzantine charter.

On a jug with two handles, found near Smolensk, archaeologists saw the inscription: "Goroukhsha" or "Goroushna".

The oldest inscription found in Bulgaria: it is made in Glagolitic (above) and Cyrillic.

A page from the so-called Izbornik of 1076, written in the Old Russian script, which is based on Cyrillic.

One of the oldest Russian inscriptions (XII century) on a stone on the Western Dvina (Polotsk principality).

An undeciphered pre-Christian Russian Alekanov inscription found by A. Gorodtsov near Ryazan.

And mysterious signs on Russian coins of the 11th century: personal and generic signs of Russian princes (according to A. V. Oreshnikov). the graphic basis of the signs indicates the princely family, the details - the personality of the prince.

The most ancient and simplest way of writing appeared, as it is believed, back in the Paleolithic - "story in pictures", the so-called pictographic writing (from the Latin pictus - drawn and from the Greek grapho - I write). That is, "I draw and write" (some American Indians still use pictographic writing in our time). This letter, of course, is very imperfect, because you can read the story in pictures in different ways. Therefore, by the way, not all experts recognize pictography as a form of writing as the beginning of writing. In addition, for the most ancient people, any such image was animated. So the "story in pictures", on the one hand, inherited these traditions, on the other hand, it required a certain abstraction from the image.

In IV-III millennia BC. e. in ancient Sumer (Anterior Asia), in ancient Egypt, and then, in II, and in ancient China, a different way of writing arose: each word was conveyed by a pattern, sometimes specific, sometimes conditional. For example, when it was about the hand, they drew the hand, and the water was depicted with a wavy line. A house, a city, a boat were also designated by a certain symbol ... The Greeks called such Egyptian drawings hieroglyphs: "hiero" - "sacred", "glyphs" - "carved in stone". The text, composed in hieroglyphs, looks like a series of drawings. This letter can be called: "I am writing a concept" or "I am writing an idea" (hence the scientific name of such a letter - "ideographic"). However, how many hieroglyphs had to be remembered!

An extraordinary achievement of human civilization was the so-called syllabary, the invention of which took place during the III-II millennium BC. e. Each stage in the formation of writing recorded a certain result in the advancement of mankind along the path of logical abstract thinking. First, this is the division of the phrase into words, then the free use of drawings-words, the next step is the division of the word into syllables. We speak in syllables, and children are taught to read in syllables. To arrange the record in syllables, it would seem that it could be more natural! Yes, and there are many fewer syllables than words composed with their help. But it took many centuries to come to such a decision. Syllabic writing was already used in the III-II millennium BC. e. in the Eastern Mediterranean. For example, the famous cuneiform script is predominantly syllabic. (They still write in a syllabic way in India, in Ethiopia.)

The next stage on the path of simplification of writing was the so-called sound writing, when each sound of speech has its own sign. But to think of such a simple and natural way turned out to be the most difficult. First of all, it was necessary to guess to divide the word and syllables into separate sounds. But when this finally happened, the new method showed undeniable advantages. It was necessary to memorize only two or three dozen letters, and the accuracy in reproducing speech in writing is incomparable with any other method. Over time, it was the alphabetic letter that began to be used almost everywhere.

FIRST ALPHABET

None of the writing systems almost never existed in its pure form and does not exist even now. For example, most of the letters in our alphabet, like a B C and others, corresponds to one specific sound, but in letter-signs i, yu, yo- already several sounds. We cannot do without elements of ideographic writing, say, in mathematics. Instead of writing the words "two plus two equals four", we use conventional signs to get a very short form: 2+2=4 . The same - in chemical and physical formulas.

And one more thing I would like to emphasize: the appearance of sound writing is by no means consistent, the next stage in the development of writing among the same peoples. It arose among historically younger peoples, who, however, managed to absorb the previous experience of mankind.

One of the first alphabetic sound letters began to be used by those peoples in whose language vowel sounds were not as important as consonants. So, at the end of the II millennium BC. e. the alphabet originated with the Phoenicians, the ancient Jews, the Arameans. For example, in Hebrew, when added to consonants To - T - L different vowels, a family of single-root words is obtained: KeToL- to kill KoTeL- murderer, KaTuL- killed, etc. It is always clear by ear that we are talking about murder. Therefore, only consonants were written in the letter - the semantic meaning of the word was clear from the context. By the way, the ancient Jews and Phoenicians wrote lines from right to left, as if left-handers had come up with such a letter. This ancient way of writing is preserved among the Jews to this day, in the same way all peoples using the Arabic alphabet write today.

From the Phoenicians - the inhabitants of the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, sea traders and travelers - the alphabetic-sound writing passed to the Greeks. From the Greeks, this principle of writing penetrated into Europe. And from Aramaic writing, according to researchers, almost all the alphabetic-sound writing systems of the peoples of Asia lead their origin.

The Phoenician alphabet had 22 letters. They were in order from `alef, bet, gimel, dalet... before tav(see table). Each letter had a meaningful name: ʻalef- ox, bet- house, gimel- camel and so on. The names of the words, as it were, tell about the people who created the alphabet, reporting the most important thing about it: the people lived in houses ( bet) with doors ( Dalet), in the construction of which nails were used ( wav). He farmed using the power of oxen ( ʻalef), cattle breeding, fishing ( meme- water, nun- fish) or wandered ( gimel- camel). He traded tete- cargo) and fought ( zayn- weapon).

The researcher, who paid attention to this, notes: among the 22 letters of the Phoenician alphabet, there is not a single one whose name would be associated with the sea, ships or maritime trade. It was this circumstance that prompted him to think that the letters of the first alphabet were by no means created by the Phoenicians, recognized sailors, but, most likely, by the ancient Jews, from whom the Phoenicians borrowed this alphabet. But be that as it may, the order of the letters, starting with `alef, was set.

The Greek letter, as already mentioned, came from the Phoenician. In the Greek alphabet, there are more letters that convey all the sound shades of speech. But their order and names, which often no longer had any meaning in the Greek language, have been preserved, although in a slightly modified form: alpha, beta, gamma, delta... First, in the ancient Greek monuments, the letters in the inscriptions, as in the Semitic languages, were arranged from right to left, and then, without interruption, the line "curled" from left to right and again from right to left. Time passed until the left-to-right variant of writing was finally established, now spreading over most of the globe.

Latin letters originated from Greek, and their alphabetical order has not fundamentally changed. At the beginning of the first millennium A.D. e. Greek and Latin became the main languages ​​of the vast Roman Empire. All the ancient classics, to which we still turn with trepidation and respect, are written in these languages. Greek is the language of Plato, Homer, Sophocles, Archimedes, John Chrysostom... Cicero, Ovid, Horace, Virgil, Blessed Augustine and others wrote in Latin.

Meanwhile, even before the Latin alphabet spread in Europe, some European barbarians already had their own written language in one form or another. A rather original letter developed, for example, among the Germanic tribes. This is the so-called "runic" ("rune" in the Germanic language means "mystery") writing. It arose not without the influence of already existing writing. Here, too, each sound of speech corresponds to a certain sign, but these signs received a very simple, slender and strict outline - only from vertical and diagonal lines.

THE BIRTH OF SLAVIC WRITING

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, both 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 messengers of the church, no doubt, there were many who sincerely and with conviction 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 accept 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 taking into account the economy, or when it was necessary to accurately convey some message, and even more so in a dialogue with the old world, it was unlikely that "features and cuts" were enough. There was a need to create Slavic writing.

“When [the Slavs] were baptized,” said the Chernoryets Khrabr, “they tried to write down Slavic speech in Roman [Latin] and Greek letters without order.” These experiments have partially survived to this day: the main prayers that sound in Slavic, but were written in Latin letters in the 10th century, are common among Western Slavs. Or another interesting monument - documents in which Bulgarian texts are written in Greek letters, moreover, from those times when the Bulgarians spoke the Turkic language (later the Bulgarians will speak Slavic).

And yet, neither the Latin nor the Greek alphabet corresponded to the sound palette of the Slavic language. Words, the sound of which cannot be correctly conveyed in Greek or Latin letters, were already cited by the Chernorite Brave: belly, church, aspiration, youth, language other. But another side of the problem, the political one, also emerged. 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 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) of the Orthodox monastery of Methodius. “You are the Thessalonians, and the Thessalonians all speak pure Slavic,” was another argument of the emperor.

Constantine (in tonsure Cyril) and Methodius (his secular name is unknown) are two brothers who stood at the origins of Slavic writing. They 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.

Konstantin and his brother 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 (so tells his "Life"), 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 a brilliant education for that time. 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.

So, in the 860s, an embassy of the Moravian Slavs came to Constantinople with a request to create an alphabet for them. However, many researchers rightly believe that they began to work on the creation of the Slavic script in Byzantium, apparently, long before the arrival of this embassy. And here's why: both the creation of an alphabet that accurately reflects the sound composition of the Slavic language, and the translation into Slavic of the Gospel - a complex, multi-layered, internally rhythmic literary work that requires careful and adequate selection of words - is a colossal work. To fulfill it, even Constantine the Philosopher and his brother Methodius "with his henchmen" would need more than one year. Therefore, it is natural to assume that it was precisely this work that the brothers 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 Slavonic. 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 rite and taught them both 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. Cyril died and was buried in Rome.

The eldest of the brothers, Methodius, continued the work they started. As the "Life of Methodius" reports, "... having planted shorthand writers from his students, he quickly and completely translated all the books (biblical), except for the Maccabees, from Greek into Slavonic." The time devoted to this work is indicated as incredible - six or eight months. Methodius died in 885.

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 condemned the detractors, saying, allegedly, quoting Scripture, as follows: "Let all peoples praise God."

WHAT WAS FIRST - GLAGOLIC OR CYRILLIC?

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 characteristics 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 (see table).

As in the very first such alphabet - Phoenician, and then in Greek, Slavic letters were also given names. And they are the same in Glagolitic and Cyrillic. First letter BUT called az, which meant "I", the second B - beeches. Root of the word beeches goes back to the Indo-European, from which the name of the tree "beech", and "book" - a book (in English), and the Russian word "letter" come from. (Or maybe, in some distant times, the beech tree was used to apply "features and cuts" or, perhaps, in pre-Slavic times there was some kind of writing with its own "letters"?) According to the first two letters of the alphabet, it was compiled, as you know , the name is "alphabet". Literally, this is the same as the Greek "alphabeta", that is, "alphabet".

Third letter AT-lead(from "to know", "to know"). It seems that the author chose the names for the letters in the alphabet with meaning: if you read the first three letters "az-buki-vedi" in a row, it turns out: "I know the letters." You can read the alphabet in this way further. In both alphabets, letters were also assigned numerical values.

However, the letters in Glagolitic and Cyrillic had completely different shapes. Cyrillic letters are geometrically simple and convenient for writing. 24 letters of this alphabet are borrowed from the Byzantine statutory letter. Letters were added to them, conveying the sound features of Slavic speech. The added letters were built to maintain the general style of the alphabet.

For the Russian language, it was the Cyrillic alphabet that was used, which has been transformed many times and is now well-established in accordance with the requirements of our time. The oldest record in Cyrillic was found on Russian monuments dating back to the 10th century. During excavations of mounds near Smolensk, archaeologists found shards from a jug with two handles. On his "shoulders" there is a clearly readable inscription: "PEA" or "PEA" (it was read: "pea" or "pea"), which means either "mustard seed" or "mustard".

But the Glagolitic letters are incredibly intricate, with curls and eyelets. There are more ancient texts written in the Glagolitic alphabet among the Western and Southern Slavs. Oddly enough, sometimes both alphabets were used on the same monument. On the ruins of the Simeon Church in Preslav (Bulgaria), an inscription was found dating back to about 893. In it, the top line is in Glagolitic, and the bottom two are in Cyrillic.

The question is inevitable: which of the two alphabets did Constantine create? Unfortunately, it was not possible to answer it definitively. Researchers have reconsidered, it seems, all possible options, each time using a seemingly convincing system of evidence. Here are the options:

• Constantine created the Glagolitic alphabet, and the Cyrillic alphabet is the result of its later improvement on the basis of the Greek statutory script.
• Konstantin created the Glagolitic alphabet, and the Cyrillic alphabet already existed by this time.
• Konstantin created the Cyrillic alphabet, for which he used the already existing Glagolitic, "dressing" it according to the model of the Greek charter.
• Constantine created the Cyrillic alphabet, and the Glagolitic developed as "secret writing" when the Catholic clergy attacked books written in Cyrillic.
• And, finally, Cyrillic and Glagolitic existed among the Slavs, in particular among the Eastern, even in their pre-Christian period.

Perhaps, only the variant according to which both alphabets were created by Konstantin was not discussed, which, by the way, is also quite probable. Indeed, it can be assumed that at first he created the Glagolitic alphabet - when in the 50s, together with his brother and assistants, he sat in a monastery on Olympus, "dealing only with books." Then he could fulfill a special order of the authorities. Byzantium had long been planning to bind the Slavic "barbarians", who were becoming an ever more real threat to it, with the Christian religion and thereby bring them under the control of the Byzantine patriarchy. But this had to be done subtly and delicately, without arousing the enemy's suspicions and respecting the self-esteem of a young and asserting itself in the world people. Consequently, it was necessary to unobtrusively offer him his own written language, as it were, "independent" of the imperial one. It would be a typical "Byzantine intrigue".

The Glagolitic alphabet fully met the necessary requirements: in content it was worthy of a talented scientist, and in form it expressed a definitely original writing. This letter was, apparently, without any solemn actions, as if gradually "put into circulation" and began to be used in the Balkans, in particular in Bulgaria, which was baptized in 858.

When suddenly the Moravian Slavs themselves turned to Byzantium with a request for a Christian teacher, the primacy of the empire, which now acted as a teacher, could and even was desirable to emphasize and demonstrate. Moravia was soon offered the Cyrillic alphabet and the Cyrillic translation of the Gospel. This work was also done by Konstantin. At a new political turn, the Slavic alphabet appeared (and this was very important for the empire) as the "flesh of the flesh" of the Byzantine statutory letter. There is nothing to be surprised at by the quick dates indicated in the Life of Constantine. Now it really did not take much time - after all, the main thing was done earlier. The Cyrillic alphabet has become a little more perfect, but in fact it is a Glagolitic script disguised as a Greek charter.

AND AGAIN ABOUT SLAVIC WRITING

A long scientific discussion around the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets forced historians to study the pre-Slavic period more carefully, to look for and peer into the monuments of pre-Slavic writing. At the same time, it turned out that we can talk not only about "features and cuts." In 1897, an earthenware vessel was discovered near the village of Alekanovo near Ryazan. On it - strange signs of intersecting lines and straight "sprouts" - clearly some kind of writing. However, they have not been read until today. The mysterious images on Russian coins of the 11th century are not clear. The field of activity for inquisitive minds is extensive. Perhaps someday the "mysterious" signs will speak, and we will get a clear picture of the state of pre-Slavic writing. Perhaps it continued to exist for some time along with the Slavic?

In search of answers to the questions of which of the alphabets Constantine (Cyril) created and whether the Slavs had written language before Cyril and Methodius, somehow less attention was paid to the colossal significance of their enormous work - the translation of Christian book treasures into Slavic. After all, we are actually talking about the creation of the Slavic literary language. Before the appearance of the works of Cyril and Methodius "with henchmen" in the Slavic language, there simply did not exist many concepts and words that could accurately and briefly convey sacred texts and Christian truths. Sometimes these new words had to be built using the Slavic root base, sometimes they had to leave the Hebrew or Greek ones (like "hallelujah" or "amen").

When the same sacred texts were translated from Old Church Slavonic into Russian in the middle of the 19th century, it took a group of translators more than two decades! Although their task was much simpler, after all, the Russian language still came from Slavic. And Constantine and Methodius translated from the developed and refined Greek language into the still very "barbaric" Slavic! And the brothers coped with this task with honor.

The Slavs, who received both the alphabet and Christian books in their native language, and the literary language, had a sharp increase in the chance to quickly join the world's cultural treasury and, if not destroy, then significantly reduce the cultural gap between the Byzantine Empire and the "barbarians".

Encyclopedia of Organisms.

Electronic Slavic Encyclopedia

Writing in Russia in the 9th - 10th centuries

A.A. Medyntseva

The origin of writing in Russia, the time of its occurrence, its character is one of the most debatable problems of Russian history. For a long time, the traditional point of view was dominant, according to which writing was brought to Russia from Bulgaria in connection with the official adoption of Christianity in 988. But already in the middle of the last century, scientists became aware of certain facts, mainly of a literary nature, indicating the presence of Christianity and writing in Russia long before the official baptism. At the same time, the penetration of writing into Russia is usually associated with its Christianization, which, according to most researchers, was not a one-time event. O.M. Rapova.

The first set of more reliable information is associated with the era of the Byzantine Patriarch Photius (60s of the 9th century), who initiated the enlightenment of the southern Slavs and inspired the mission of Cyril and Methodius. In some sources relating to the time of his activity, there is separate information about the baptism of "Rus". One such evidence is the legend according to which the Byzantine emperor Basil the Macedonian sent an archbishop in 866 to baptize the Russians. The same archbishop introduced a modified Greek script to the newly converted pagans.

The Eastern Metropolitan's "District Epistle", written by Photius in 867, says that the Russians changed "the Hellenic and godless faith ... to pure Christian teaching ... and accepted a shepherd and perform Christian rites with great care" . There is no consensus on the ethnicity of the Russians, a number of scholars attribute this information to Russia not of Kiev, but of the Azov-Black Sea, others associate them with the missionary activities of one of the Thessalonica brothers, others call Russia Gothic, Norman, etc. , but the very fact of the baptism of the "Russian" squad is beyond doubt. In the Russian chronicle, in the legend of Prince Askold, it is also reported. That Basil the Macedonian made peace with the "prejudiced Russ and apply them to Christianity".

A whole discussion that continues to this day was caused by the publication of a message about “Russian letters” contained in the VIII chapter of the Life of Cyril, which has come down to us in a variety of relatively late lists. According to this source, Constantine, while traveling to the Khazars, stopped in the Crimea, in Chersonesos, and found there the Gospel and the Psalter, written in "Russian letters", as well as a person who speaks Russian, and from him he quickly learned to read and understand this letter, than bit many. A number of scientists believed and still believe that these "Russian letters" are the letters of the Eastern Slavs, which served as the basis for the alphabet later invented by Constantine, others - that they mean the translation of the Bible into the Gothic language, others define them as "Sura" - those. Syriac letters, etc. . The latest version is the most common today, but this place from the Life of Constantine still remains mysterious, because. Each of the hypotheses has its pros and cons. However, this source connects the presence of writing in the Crimea (in Chersonese) with Christianity.

A number of information about ancient writing in Russia is available from Arab and European writers and travelers of the 10th century. The message of Ibn Fadlan, who traveled to the Volga in 920-921, is widely known; who, in the story about the funeral of a noble Rus, mentions that after the burial in the middle of the mound a pillar of a “white poplar” was erected and the name of the deceased and the name of the king of the Rus were written on it. The Arab geographer Al-Massudi, who died in 956, reports that he saw a prophecy inscribed in one of the "Russian temples" on a stone. The Arab scientist Ibn el-Nedim, in his work “The Book of the Painting of Sciences,” conveys the message he heard from one of the Caucasian princes that the Russians have letters carved on wood, and attaches a sample of this letter in his sketch. German historian n. XI century. Titmar of Merzenburg writes that he saw idols with inscribed names in a Slavic pagan temple. E.F. Karsky in 1928, long before the discovery of birch bark, but, unfortunately, without a specific indication of the source, wrote that permits, passports, according to the information of Arab writers of the 10th century, were written on white tree bark.

Unfortunately, all these literary sources contain only fragmentary information and do not provide samples of this "Russian" writing, which allows for various interpretations. Only Ibn-el-Nedim gives his own sketch of the inscription “on a piece of white wood”, while noting that he himself does not know whether it represents words or individual letters. But this inscription is so distorted, stylized as an Arabic letter, that it has not yet been deciphered. It is impossible to even attribute it to a specific graphics system. Attempts have been made to find common features of this inscription with the Scandinavian runes, to declare it as a model of pre-Christian Slavic writing, or to consider it a pictographic route map. An extensive literature exists on the geographic and ethnic definition of "Rus".

The existence of pre-Christian writing in Russia is also contained in Russian chronicles. First of all, the very beginning of the weather record in the Tale of Bygone Years begins in 852, which makes us assume that the chronicler of the 11th century. used some earlier records. As part of the chronicle, the texts of the treaties of the Kiev princes with Byzantium - Oleg (911) and Igor (944) - were also preserved. The practice of formalizing interstate relations with the help of written documents indicates the presence of writing. The texts of the treaties themselves contain specific indications of the use of writing. According to the diplomatic practice of that time, the agreements were concluded in two copies “about double harat”, and one copy was certified by the Byzantine emperor and transferred to the Russian ambassadors, the other, on which the Russian ambassadors swore, was transferred to the Byzantine side. In one of the articles of the agreement there is an indication of the written wills that Russian merchants made: if they were available, the heirs of the Russian merchant who died in Byzantium received the property: “to whom he would write to inherit his estate.”

Igor's treaty of 944 refers to the negotiation procedure. Russian ambassadors were brought to the Greek boyars and dignitaries, and the speeches of both sides were recorded "on haratya." The text of the treaty itself mentions that Russian ambassadors and merchants must henceforth present letters issued by the Grand Duke and addressed to the Byzantine emperor. Previously, seals were used as identification - gold for ambassadors and silver for merchants. In conclusion, the text of the oath is given, from which it follows that among the Russian ambassadors and merchants there were already not only pagans, but also Christians: Christians swear by the church of St. Elijah and the “honest cross” do not violate “everything that is written”, and the pagan part of the embassy swears by custom and Perun. Thus, the texts of treaties unequivocally point to the developed practice of writing interstate relations as early as the 10th century. But what was this writing, in what language were the contracts written? The chronicles are silent about this. Since the texts of the treaties themselves were preserved in later lists, there is a long-standing controversy about the time of their inclusion in the annals, the language and alphabet in which they were written, the composition of the treaties and the time of their translation, and even their authenticity. In the middle of the nineteenth century. such a prominent philologist and connoisseur of the Old Russian language as I.I. Sreznevsky, came to the conclusion that both contracts were written in Greek and then translated into Russian, later many researchers expressed doubts about the time of the translation. For example, V.M. Istrin believed that barbaric and unliterate Russia could not be an equal partner of Byzantium. The treaties were translated from the Greek original, but not in the tenth, but in the eleventh century, probably at the court of Yaroslav Vladimirovich. Arguing with the above opinion, S.P. Obnorsky, as a result of studying the language of treaties, came to the conclusion that the appearance of texts of treaties translated from Greek should approximately coincide with the time of their actual conclusion. Based on the analysis of the linguistic features of the treaty of 911, he believed that the translation from Greek was made by a Bulgarian, and the final version was made by a Russian scribe. In contrast to this treaty, Igor's treaty of 944 is translated more efficiently, international terms are given in Greek, without translation, the Bulgarian language element is less noticeable.

These are the main literary evidence of the "Russian" writing of the 9th - 10th centuries. Each of them has already been known to many generations of researchers, and for each of the information given there is an extensive literature containing the most diverse interpretations of them. It is beyond the scope of this work to analyze them specifically. A brief list of literary information about "Russian" writing shows a certain limitation of these data, which have come down in later lists and allow for different interpretations, although their complex undoubtedly indicates the use of some kind of writing in the Russian early feudal state association already in the 9th - 10th centuries.

These separate facts about the use of writing in pre-Christian Russia in the last century were generally regarded as some curious facts, outside the process of historical development. Usually, the appearance of writing was associated only with the activities of Byzantine or other missionaries to spread Christianity, isolated from the socio-economic processes that characterized the formation of the early feudal state of Ancient Russia.

The merit of the scientists of the Soviet period is to raise the question of the appearance of writing in Russia in connection with the general socio-economic development, with the internal needs of the emerging state. F. Engels in his work “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State” notes that the urgent need for writing (meaning a developed letter writing) arises at the stage of decomposition of the tribal system and the transition to the state. Soviet researchers approached the question of the appearance of writing in Russia from these positions. Based on data on the socio-economic development of the IX-X centuries. early feudal Russian state and written sources, they came to the conclusion that writing in Russia existed even before the official adoption of Christianity. The works of such scientists as B.D. Grekov, M.N. Tikhomirov, B.A. Rybakov, D.S. Likhachev, L.V. Cherepnin found out that the formation and strengthening of the state principle, the formation of the early feudal state in Russia was actively taking place already in the 9th - 10th centuries. M.N. Tikhomirov and D.S. Likhachev. D.S. Likhachev connected the question of the beginning of Russian writing with the question of the beginning of Russian statehood, considering the appearance of writing as one of the facts of historical development. Evaluating the already known data on writing in Russia (treaties with Byzantium in 911 and 944, evidence from Eastern authors, chronicle data and the Gnezdov inscription recently discovered at that time), D.S. Likhachev comes to the conclusion that the use of writing in Russia was widely used in addition to church liturgical literature even before official baptism, which by the tenth century. writing has already come a relatively long way of development. He considered polyalphabetism to be a characteristic feature of the most ancient stage in the development of writing. According to the hypothesis of D.S. Likhachev, Cyrillic, Glagolitic or letters of the Greek alphabet, or any other. M.N. Tikhomirov assumed that Cyrillic was already the dominant alphabet at that time (according to the Gnezdov inscription), and the “Russian letters” mentioned in the Life of Cyril, in his opinion, were a combination of Greek letters with some additional signs.

In line with the general foreign policy tasks, the above-mentioned agreements between Russia and Byzantium are also considered. As a result of consideration and comparative historical analysis and study of Russian and foreign sources, A.N. Sakharov comes to the conclusion that in the 9th - 10th centuries, at the birth of the ancient Russian early feudal state, its foreign policy was formed, reflecting the interests of the feudalizing nobility. Along with the formation of the ancient Russian state, the ancient Russian diplomatic system took shape and developed. In the light of these studies, the data on writing, following from the texts of the treaties of 911 and 944, cease to raise doubts and bewilderment. On the contrary, the time of writing diplomatic relations with Byzantium and other countries should be significantly older, at least until the ninth century. (treaty of "peace and love" in 860, concluded as a result of the campaign of the Russians against Constantinople).

Medyntseva A.A. ()

Literature:

1. Medyntseva A.A., Literacy in Ancient Russia (According to epigraphic monuments of the 10th - the first half of the 13th century). - M.: Nauka, 2000. - 291 p., ill.
2. Sreznevsky I.I., Ancient Slavic writings // ZhMNP. Ch. LIX, sec. II, 1848.
3. Grigorovich V.I., On the ancient writing of the Slavs // ZhMNP. Ch. LXXIII, sec. II, 1852.
4. Rapov O.M., Russian Church in the IX - the first third of the XII centuries. M. 1988.
5. Bodyansky O.M., About the time of the origin of the Slavic tribes. M. 1855.
6. Sakharov A.M., Diplomacy of Ancient Russia. M. 1980.
7. Complete collection of Russian chronicles: Patriarchal or Nikon Chronicle, vol. IX, -M.:, 1965.
8. Lavrov P.A., Materials on the history of the emergence of ancient Slavic writing // Tr. Slavic Commission. L. T. 1, 1930.
9. Gorsky A.V., About St. Cyril and Methodius // Muscovite. No. 6. Part III, 1843.
10. Florya, Legends about the beginning of Slavic writing / Ed. Ed. Korolyuk V.D. Intro. article, translation and comments by B.N. Flory, - M.:, 1981.
11. Garkavi A.Ya., Legends of Muslim writers about the Slavs and Russians (from the half of the 7th century to the end of the 10th century AD). St. Petersburg, 1870.
12. Karsky E.F., Slavic Kirillov paleography. - M.:, 1979.
13. Istrin V.A., Development of writing. - M.:, 1961.
14. The Tale of Bygone Years, / Ed. V.P. Adrianova-Peretz. – M.: Ch. I, 1950.
15. Sreznevsky I.I., Treaties with the Greeks // Izv. ORAS. T III, 1854.
16. Istrin V.A., Treaties between Russians and Greeks of the 10th century. // Izv. ORAS. T. XXIX. - M.:, 1924.
17. Obnorsky S.P., The language of agreements between Russians and Greeks // Language and thinking. - M .: L. Issue. VI-VII, 1936.
18. Engels F., The origin of the family, private property and the state. – M.: 1952.
19. Tikhomirov M.N., The beginning of Slavic writing and Ancient Russia // Tikhomirov M.N. Historical relations of Russia with the Slavic countries and Byzantium. – M.: 1969.
20. Likhachev D.S., Historical prerequisites for the emergence of Russian writing and Russian literature // Questions of history. No. 12, 1951, ill.
21. Likhachev D.S., The emergence of Russian literature. – M.:, L., 1952.

Additional literature:

1. Tyunyaev A.A., On the creation of the Old Slavonic alphabet in the book. The history of the emergence of world civilization, - M .:, 2006 - 2007.
2. Chudinov V.A., Cyril and Methodius are not enlighteners of the Slavs, Electronic Slavic Encyclopedia, 2006 - 2007.