The writing of the Slavs before Cyril and Methodius. Scientists have proven the presence of writing among the Slavs before Cyril and Methodius Slavic cuneiform

These words, written in the 9th century by the Bulgarian monk Khrabr, are now often quoted and interpreted as evidence that the Slavs did not know writing before the missionary activity of Cyril and Methodius.

But is this what Brave is talking about? Even this evidence indicates the existence of a certain writing “devils and cuts” among the Slavs (that is, runic writing).

And we know that Velesovitsa and Boyanovitsa part of their characters resemble the Greek or Latin alphabet, which is not surprising, since these alphabets have a single source (Pelasgian or Etruscan writing or more ancient writing systems). It is this writing that Brave is talking about here.

And what did the Thessaloniki brothers themselves do? Why are Cyril and Methodius credited with the honor of creating Slavic writing? Why do the Slavs begin counting their written history and culture from them, that is, from 863, when they began to preach in Moravia, and still celebrate the days of these Christian preachers? Not so long ago, according to UNESCO, the year 863 was recognized as the year of the creation of Slavic writing.

The reason here is ideological. This is also stated in the tablets of the “Book of Veles”: “They (the Greeks) said that they established writing among us so that we would accept it and lose ours. But remember that Cyril, who wanted to teach our Children and had to hide in our Houses so that we would not know that he was teaching our letters and how to make sacrifices to our Gods” (Trojan 2:12).

This text of the tablets means that the Greek Constantine himself (baptized Cyril), according to his life (“Pannonian Life”, 9th century), in fact, even before the “invention of writing”, studied in Chersonesus (Russian Korsun) Slavic letters from a certain Rus.

“I found here (in the Room) the Gospel and the Psalter, written in Russian letters, and I found a man speaking that language, and talked with him and understood the meaning of that speech, comparing it with my language, distinguished the letters vowels and consonants, and, making a prayer God soon began to read and expound (them), and many were surprised at him, praising God” (Quoted from the book “Tales of the Beginning of Slavic Writing”. M., 1981).

Photos from open sources

As noted by many scientists, such as E. Klassen, F. Volansky, V. Georgiev, P. Chernykh, V. Istrin, V. Chudinov, G. Belyakova, S. Lesnoy, A. Asov, G. Rinevich, M. Bor , A. Ivanchenko, N. Tarasov and others, the Slavic tribes and ancient Rus had their own writing in the form of “lines and cuts” or “Slavic runitsa” long before the “creators of Slavic writing”, the Byzantine monks Cyril and Methodius, came to Rus'.

And it is not at all by chance that the famous Bulgarian monk Chernorirets Khrabr wrote in his “Tale of Letters”: “Before, the Slovenians did not name books, but with lines and cuts, chetehu and gadakha (i.e., read and guessed), the real trash (i.e., while still pagans). Having been baptized, I needed to write (write) Slovenian letters in Roman and Greek letters speech without dispensation... And so I raged for many years. Then God, the lover of mankind... sent them Saint Constantine the Philosopher, called Cyril, a righteous and true man, and created in his name 30 letters and osm, after all, according to the order of Greek letters, ova. according to Slovenian speech."

Thus, even Christian monks recognize the presence of writing among the Slavs before the baptism of Rus' - “runitsa”. But “runitsa” was not the only ancient Russian writing. There was also the Glagolitic alphabet, written in which the Gospels and Psalter were discovered in Crimea in 869 by Cyril and Methodius. It was this “glagolitic” that they reformed, transforming it into the “Cyrillic”. The essence of this reform has already been written many times before, and therefore this time we will dwell in more detail on the Slavic (Old Russian) runitsa.

Here is what O. Miroshnichenko writes about it in his book “Secrets of the Russian Alphabet”: “Currently, the most ancient monuments of writing on planet Earth are clay tablets found during excavations in 1961 on the territory of Romania in the village of Terteria, and tablets from the town of Vinca (Serbia) in Yugoslavia, dating back to the 5th millennium BC.

The famous Yugoslav scientist R. Pesic, based on archaeological finds on the right bank of the Danube near the Iron Gate, dating back to the 7th - 10th millennium BC, carried out the first systematization of the Vincan script. R. Pesic looked at it through the prism of the Etruscan-Pelasgian alphabet, adhering to the Slavic method of reading this writing, according to which the old Slavic language has its roots in Etruscan soil.

The same point of view was shared by remarkable Russian and Western European researchers, such as Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Fine Sciences, State Councilor Yegor Klassen (1856), the outstanding Polish linguist and ethnographer Thaddeus Wolansky, who deciphered the inscription on the grave of Aeneas, the leader of the Trojans (1846), and in our days - the Slovenian scientist Matej Bor, G.S. Belyakova, many of whose works are devoted to this topic, G.S. Grinevich, A.S. Ivanchenko, A. Asov and some others.

Huge work on systematization and decipherment of runic signs and inscriptions dating back to the era of the Tripoli Slavic archaeological culture (III - XI millennium BC), clay tablets from the island of Crete, numerous Etruscan inscriptions and texts, writing of Ancient India, Yenisei runic inscriptions and much more were done by the modern outstanding Russian scientist G.S. Grinevich.

Runic writings, similar to those that were discovered in the town of Vincha, were found in Tripoli in the layers of the 3rd - 11th millennium BC. and later in Troy, in Sumer, on the island of Crete, in Etruria, Parthia, on the Yenisei, in Scandinavia. The same letter existed in the Caucasus, as well as in North Africa and America. In short, there is reason to believe that we have before us, as it were, the first alphabet, or rather the proto-alphabet, which served as the basis for a number of well-known alphabets: Phoenician, ancient Greek, Celtic, Gothic, Proto-Indian, Latin, Hebrew, Cyrillic and Glagolitic.

The Slavic runica, like all ancient writing, was a syllabic letter in which a stable set of syllabic signs was used, and these signs conveyed syllables of only one type - open, consisting of combinations of consonant + vowel (C + G), or from one vowel ( G). This type of writing did not allow double consonants. But since the sound structure of the language of the ancient Slavs was still somewhat more complex, they used a special sign - an oblique stroke - viram (a sign that now exists in the Indian syllabary writing "Devangari" - "language of the gods"), which signaled double syllables, double consonants type SG + SG = SSG.

The remarkable Russian scientist G.S. Grinevich, who managed to decipher this ancient writing, proves that the oldest monuments on planet Earth are the monuments of Proto-Slavic writing. He emphasizes that among the written monuments discovered in our century, the most interesting are the inscriptions made using the “draw and cut” method, otherwise known as “Slavic runes”, because they are the most ancient on Earth.

Among the written monuments deciphered by G.S. Grinevich, dating back to the period of the Trypillian culture and made with “Slavic runes”, attention is drawn to numerous inscriptions on household items, pots, spinning wheels, etc., for example, an inscription on a spindle whorl from the village of Letskany (348 AD), an inscription on a pot from the village of Ogurtsovo (VII century AD), pots from Alekanov (IX-X centuries AD), etc. etc.

Another scientist who proves the existence of writing before the arrival of Cyril and Methodius is Professor N. Tarasov, who notes: “The assertion that there was no writing in Rus' before Cyril and Methodius is based on one single document - the “Tale of Writings” by the monk Brave, found in Bulgaria. 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 another - “. letters,” but at the same time the author indicates: “they wrote with strokes 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...

There are 22 points that prove that the Glagolitic alphabet was older than the Cyrillic alphabet. 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. 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; 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."

So, not only the Slavs, but also the ancient Rus, long before the arrival of Christianity in Rus', had “runitsa” and “gragolitsa” as writing. Thus, the Christian myth that it was allegedly Byzantine monks who taught the “dark” and “wild” Vedic Rus to write is one of the many falsifications that make up the entire official version of history.

Inscriptions of the “devils and cuts” type, or “Slavic runes”, are dated within the time interval covering the 4th - 10th centuries. AD Thus, the existence of writing before Cyril and Methodius is actually proven. This writing, relatively recent, has its roots in the writing of Tripoli from the 3rd - 11th millennia BC. and even further, into the pictographic writing of the Vinca-Turdashi culture, which is the most ancient on planet Earth."

According to UNESCO, the year 863, the first year of Cyril and Methodius’ stay in Moravia, is recognized as the year of the creation of the Slavic alphabet.

At the same time, it is considered generally known that previously the Slavs did not have any other letter.

Although this opinion was not substantiated by anyone, it has long turned into an undeniable dogma.

Scientific journals did not accept for publication articles that proved the existence of writing among the Slavs before Cyril and Methodius. The authors of such works were looked upon as charlatans in science, similar to the inventors of a perpetual motion machine.

But the idea of ​​a perpetual motion machine contradicts the law of conservation of energy and matter, which is valid for all mechanisms and machines without exception.

And the hypothesis about the existence of Proto-Slavic writing does not contradict anything at all, except that it does not agree with the idea of ​​​​the supposed general backwardness of the Slavs in comparison with other peoples. But this is more politics than science. Science must operate with objective facts and documents.

In the process of working on the book “Language in Natural Sciences and Higher Education” (Mn., 1999), I completely unexpectedly discovered that the question of pre-Cyrillic writing was raised already at the time of the invention of the Slavic alphabet. Who else, if not Kirill's students, knows better than others how the Cyrillic alphabet (or Glagolitic alphabet) was created?

So, they, in the “Pannonian Life” (Kirill), claim that Cyril, long before “he created the alphabet, visited the Crimea, Karsuni (Chersonese), and brought from there the Gospel and the Psalter, written in Russian letters.”

The message about the books from Karsuni is contained in all 23 lists of the “Life”, both East and South Slavic.

It has now become known from Arab sources that already in the 40s of the 9th century. Among the Eastern Slavs there were baptized people, and it was for them that the sacred books were written in Russian letters. There is a known diploma of Pope Leo IV (pope from 847 to 855), written in Cyrillic before its “invention”.

Catherine II in her “Notes on Russian History” wrote: “... the Slavs ancient than Nestor had a written language, but they were lost and have not yet been found and therefore have not reached us. The Slavs had letters long before the birth of Christ.”

Pavlenko N.A. in the fundamental monograph “History of Writing” (Mn., 1987), he discusses six hypotheses of the origin of the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabet, and argues in favor of the fact that both the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabet were among the Slavs in pre-Christian times.

Russian historian of the 19th century, Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Fine Sciences Klassen E.I. noted that “The Slavic Russians, as a people educated earlier than the Romans and Greeks, left behind in all parts of the old world many monuments testifying to their presence there and to ancient writing, arts and enlightenment. The monuments will remain forever as indisputable evidence...”

The numerous names of Slavic tribes and their settlement over large territories are discussed in the book of Archbishop of Belarus Georgy Koninsky, “The History of the Russians or Little Russia,” published at the beginning of the 19th century.
Soviet historians had very limited access to foreign repositories of rare books, museums and other sources of information.

Many valuable written monuments were unknown to them. The poor awareness of Soviet historians and linguists in matters of Proto-Slavic writing is convincingly shown in S. Lesny’s ​​book “Where are you from, Rus'?” (Rostov-on-Don, 1995).

Information about the presence of some kind of writing among the Slavs in the pre-Cyril era is contained in the works of Arab authors Ibn Fodlan and El Massudi, the Persian historian Fakhr ad Din and other scientists and travelers. In the “Tale of Writings” by the Bulgarian monk Monk Khrabra, who lived at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries, it is mentioned that the Slavs had a runic script: “Before, the Slovenes did not name books, but with features and cuts of the devil and the devil, the real trash.”

Indeed, there are no books or large works written in runes. These are mainly inscriptions on gravestones, on road signs, on weapons, ceramic dishes and other household items, on jewelry, coins, and rock inscriptions. They are scattered throughout Scandinavia, Denmark, England, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine, Greenland and even on the Atlantic coast of America.

In the science of runes (runology), a distinction is made between Scandinavian, Germanic and some other runes. It is believed that the Slavs did not have runic writing. Perhaps because of this, the achievements of runology are very modest.

Many inscriptions are declared incomprehensible, unreadable, enigmatic, mysterious, magical. On them we can only read supposedly some ancient names of people, names of clans about which nothing is now known, meaningless spells.

Therefore, a real discovery in the history of language were the results of many years of work by a senior researcher at the Department of World History of the Russian Physical Society Grinevich G.S., which showed that already 7 thousand years ago the Slavs had an original script, which was used to fill Terterian inscriptions (5th millennium BC), Proto-Indian inscriptions (XXV-XVIII centuries BC), Cretan inscriptions (XX-XIII centuries BC) centuries BC), Etruscan inscriptions (VIII-II centuries BC), so-called Germanic runes and ancient inscriptions of Siberia and Mongolia.

For decades, venerable runologists did not allow articles by G.S. Grinevich to be published, which cannot in any way be explained by concern for the development of modern historical science. Now there is an opportunity to get acquainted in full with the discovery of G.S. Grinevich. according to his two-volume monograph “Proto-Slavic Writing. Results of decipherment" (Vol. I, M., 1993, Vol. II, M., 1999) and a large review "How many millennia of Slavic writing (On the results of deciphering Proto-Slavic runes)" (M, 1993).

The first years of his scientific activity Grinevich G.S. dedicated to collecting inscriptions written in the “devils and cuts” type of writing, published in various, sometimes hard-to-find, publications. In total, 150 inscriptions on objects found in the territory of settlement of the Eastern and Western Slavs and dating back to the 4th-10th centuries were taken into consideration. AD At this time, the Slavic languages ​​still differed little from each other...

The greatest achievement of Grinevich G.S. was the reading of the letter of the Phaistos Disc (Crete, 17th century BC), which had previously been the subject of unsuccessful study by scientists all over the world.

From the inscription (241 characters in total) it follows that the lynx tribe (i.e. Slavs) was forced to leave their land to the “lynx”, where they suffered a lot of suffering and grief. The lynxes found a new land in Crete. The author of the text calls to preserve and protect this land. This corresponds to historical data about the exodus of Trypillians from the Dnieper region at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC.

Some of the 2,000 known Etruscan texts were also deciphered and it was shown that they were written in the Proto-Slavic syllabary. The Etruscans once inhabited the Apennine Peninsula and created the oldest civilization on it, many of whose achievements were inherited by the Romans and other peoples of Europe.

The so-called “Germanic” runic inscriptions were read, the ancient writing of Siberia and Mongolia was deciphered.

With the advent of Cyrillic writing among the Slavs, syllabic writing fell out of widespread use, but did not disappear completely, but began to be used as secret writing.

Grinevich G.S. cites and deciphers several examples of secret writing, namely the secret writing of the Baryatinsky princes (1675), in which Uncle Osip Fedorovich, betraying the Tsar, calls on his nephew Mikhail Petrovich to support Ukraine’s fight for its independence.

Cast iron signs in the fence of the Slobodsky Palace in Moscow (the building of the Moscow Higher Technical School named after N.E. Bauman), meaning that “the Hasid Domenico Gilardi has the cook of Nicholas I in his power”; inscription on the wall of the room where Emperor Nicholas II and his family were killed. It stands for: “You are slaves of neti,” i.e. you are slaves (servants) of Satan.

The text on the label attached to the main relic of the Templar Order - two skull bones stored in a large head made of gilded silver - has also been deciphered...

The discovery of Proto-Slavic syllabic writing and the deciphering of a large number of texts can not only significantly enrich the history of Indo-European languages, but also have a huge impact on the development of the history of the ancient peoples of the world.

According to Grinevich, the Proto-Slavs were involved in the creation of the most ancient cultures: Vinca-Turdash, Trypillians, on the island of Crete, on the Apennine Peninsula (Etruscans), in Siberia, Mongolia and other places.

Although this is an extraordinary finding, it is not entirely new. The very fact of the existence of numerous Proto-Slavic tribes was known and talked about long before Grinevich.

The names of E.I. Klassen, Georgy Koninsky, Arab and Persian authors were mentioned above. Let us refer to another very authoritative and respectable source.

Archimandrite of Ragusa M.R. Orbini (M.R. Orbini) in 1606 in Italy published a book translated into Russian by decree of Peter I in 1722 under the title “Book of historygraphy of the beginning of the name, glory and expansion of the Slavic people and their Kings and rulers under many names and with many Realms, Kingdoms and Provinces."

Based on a study of numerous historical sources, M. Orbini asserts that the Slavic “people embittered almost all the peoples in the Universe with their weapons; he ravaged Pereida, controlled Asia and Africa, fought with the Egyptians and the great Alexander; conquered Greece and Macedonia.

Illeric land; took possession of Moravia, the land of Schlaen, Czech, Polish and the shores of the Baltic Sea, went to Italy, where he fought against the Romans for a long time.” This book, in particular, accurately describes the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380.

Many unusual statements can be found in more ancient sources. Everyone knows “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” But not everyone knows that another monument from the early Christian period has survived. The pagan (more correctly said: “Vedic”) poet Slavomysl wrote the poem “Song about the slaughter of the Jewish Khazaria by Svetoslav Khorobre.”

The poet, in particular, claims that such outstanding Greeks as Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Democritus, Herodotus and others were of Slavic origin.

“The list of Greek names that hides the Slavs is great; among others, it also includes Aristar, who at one time lived on Samos, and Archimedes, a Syracusan, who read the tablets of Svarozhia and who knew the movement of the bodies of Svarog.” (Svarog among the Slavs is the one heavenly god, the grandfather of the gods, also known as Triglav, Trinity, Universe).

The ancient Greeks elevated all these most worthy and wisest Slavs (or semi-Slavs) into Hellenes equal to God and recreated their faces in stone sculptures. Without being embarrassed that in appearance they are like gods - Scythians-barbarians”...

In short, the traditional history of the ancient peoples of the world needs to be revised because it is not consistent with large amounts of old and new information...

Slavic writing

It is not known exactly when the Slavs learned writing. Many researchers associate the emergence of Slavic writing with the adoption of Christianity. All information about the ancient Slavs of the pre-literate era was extracted by historians from the meager lines of historical and geographical works belonging to ancient Roman and Byzantine authors.

Glagolitic

Old Russian writing, “bookishness,” developed in parallel with oral folk art. There is reason to believe that it arose in Rus' long before the adoption of Christianity.

Back in the middle of the 9th century. Constantine the Philosopher (Kirill), during his Khazar mission, saw the Gospel and the Psalter in Chersonesos near the “ruin” “written in psano letters.” Knowing the Slavic language, this Thessalonian Greek, to the amazement of those gathered, quickly began to read and translate the Psalter and Gospel, written in signs unknown to him, but in a language he understood. What did this ancient Russian letter look like? Chernorizets Khrabr reports that in ancient times the Slavs had “features and cuts” with which they “chtyahu and gadahu.” Then they began to borrow Latin and Greek letters, but since they lacked a number of sounds that were present in the Slavic languages ​​(zh, ch, sh, shch, etc.), Slavic writing was created.

We can observe these ancient Russian “features and cuts” on the fragments of pottery of the 9th–10th centuries, found in the lands of the Vyatichi and Krivichi, on polished bones discovered in the land of the northerners near Chernigov, in the work of Ibn-Abn-Yakub-El-Nedim, an Arab writer of the 10th century, who carefully copied a Russian inscription on a piece of wood.

Ibn Fadlan saw the inscription on a pillar erected by the Russians on the burial mound.

Already Oleg’s agreement with the Greeks was translated into Russian, and from the time of Igor the prince supplied all Russian ambassadors and merchants heading to Constantinople with special letters.

There is reason to believe that these Russian “lines and cuts”, adapted to the sounds of Slavic speech, acquired by him during the Khazar mission, Constantine the Philosopher, introducing writing among the Moravian Slavs, laid the basis for the Slavic letter, the famous “Cyrillic alphabet”.

Birch bark documents from excavations in Novgorod

Slavic writing arose on the basis of Old Russian writing, and Rus' did not borrow the writing, but itself created and spread it.

This is confirmed by Fakhr ad-Din Mubarak Shah (13th century), who reports that the Khazars borrowed their script from the Russians. “They write from left to right, the letters are not connected to each other. There are only 22 letters." And as the basis for his alphabet, numbering “thirty osm” letters, Cyril based this alphabet, which is related to Russian and Khazar writing.

The adoption of Christianity contributed to the spread of writing and “bookishness” in Rus', but Old Russian writing originated long before the official baptism of Rus'.

Its influence on the writing of neighboring Slavic and non-Slavic peoples is very great.

The last page of the Ostromir Gospel. 1056

This text is an introductory fragment.

From the author's book

The writing of Hieroglyphics was practically forgotten for more than thirteen centuries. Interest in the study of hieroglyphs arose among European scientists only after the appearance of Athanasius Kircher’s treatise in Coptic in 1636. However, the main motivating factor

From the author's book

Writing and the calendar As is known, the appearance of stone carved steles with calendar dates recorded according to the “long count” system is considered the most important sign of the classical Mayan civilization. Therefore, the search for the origins of writing and the calendar has always occupied

From the author's book

Where did Slavic writing come from? Bylinas introduce us to the unique world of Ancient Rus'. The glorious cities of Kyiv and Novgorod with white stone churches flaunt in it; the people's meeting is raging; heroic swords knock and red-hot arrows whistle; stand guard over their native land

From the author's book

Language and Writing The first characteristic feature that strikes the imagination of Europeans when they become interested in China is the originality of Chinese writing. It is writing, more than the language itself, that plays a significant role in the development of Chinese

In history there are several varieties of writing among the Slavs. Slavic writing was used to conclude contracts, transmit notes and for other purposes. For example, you can find information about this from Archimandrite Leonid Kavelin in his Collection: “On the homeland and origin of the Glagolitic alphabet and its relationship to the Cyrillic alphabet” (1891). There is a special day dedicated to Slavic writing. Today it is celebrated by Russians as a day of veneration of Cyril and Methodius, although it is known that neither Cyril nor Methodius invented the Russian alphabet. They just transformed it - shortened it and adapted it to make it easier to translate Christian manuscripts from Greek. For example, from the historian Dobner (Czech Republic), you can find a whole study on the topic: “Is the now so-called Cyrillic alphabet really an invention of the Slavic ap. Kirill? (1786 edition).

Writing, as a derivative of the famous Christian saints Cyril and Methodius, appeared in Rus' in the period from 900 to the early 1000s. Before this time, the Slavs used a different writing system. We find data from chroniclers about the conclusion of agreements by the prince. Igor and Prince Oleg with the Byzantine kingdom (907-911) even before the arrival of the Cyrillic alphabet in Rus'.

Some historians called it “Khazar writing” (Persian, Fakhr ad-Din, 700), speaking about the southwestern Slavs of a specific historical period. Others called it “an independent Russian letter,” referring to the “Thessalonica Legend,” which contains a mention of Jerome (lived before 420) and his connection with Slavic writings. Some scientists consider Cyril and Jerome from this legend to be the same person, but the dating of the activities of these characters does not coincide.

There are now two directions in which Slavic writing developed:

1. Fine views. Creating a three-dimensional image and perception.
2. Descriptive types. Creating planar perception by drawings on a plane.

Previously, our ancestors, when talking about objectivity and functions, called their writing:

• in a word;
• by letter;
• a book;
• literacy.

Types of writing throughout the history of the Slavs, arranged in chronological order of their time of appearance and use:

• Glagolitic– mid-10th century;
• Initial letter(Old Slovenian) – presumably the end of the 10th century;
• ABC– a variant of pre-revolutionary tsarist Russia;
• Alphabet– 1918 (Lunacharsky reform).

Some scientists present the Glagolitic alphabet as one of the ways of pronunciation and writing of the Initial Letter. But this issue is still being investigated. This is what the Russian philologist I.I. Sreznevsky tells us. (1848):

Turning to the Glagolotic alphabet, let us note first of all how it is similar and how it differs from the Cyrillic alphabet. Most of its letters differ in shape not only from Kirill's, but also from other known ones. Similar to Kirillov's d, x, m, p, f, sh... The selection of letters is the same. The order of the letters is also the same... The peculiarity of many Glagolitic letters has long led to the conclusion that the Glagolitic alphabet is the ancient alphabet of the pagan Slavs and, therefore, older than the Cyrillic alphabet; Count Grubisic, Doctor Anton, believed this; The now famous German philologist J. Grimm believes this. It is hardly possible to refute this, admitting that the simple ancient features were replaced by curly and complex ones in the now known Glagolitic alphabet later, due to special, unknown reasons; however, it is also difficult to refute the fact that the letters of the Glagolitic alphabet of unknown origin were never simpler, but were invented by an idle literate as they are, without any deviation from the ancient Slavic writings. It is true that the features of the Glagolitic alphabet are generally rough and some open to the left side, as if they were used for writing from the right hand to the left, but the roughness of the design of the letters is not a sign of antiquity, and the opening of some to the left side could be an accidental expression of the taste of the inventor...

Slavic writing was used in 4 variations: 2 main and 2 auxiliary. Separately, we should dwell on such varieties of writing that historians of modern science still cannot ignore. These are the following types of writing among Slavs of different nationalities:

Traits and Res. By their names one can judge their origin - letters were drawn and cut. This is a type of lettering.

Da'Aryan Tirags - were used to convey the multidimensionality and imagery of the runes.

Kh'Aryan Karuna (runic, runic, runic) - used by priests, consisted of 256 runes, which formed the basis of the Devanagari and Sanskrit languages.

Rasen Molvitsy - Etruscan writing.

Now there is enough evidence that Slavic tribes and peoples settled throughout the Earth long before Christianity. That’s why anthropologists often find blue-eyed Hindus in India, Kalash in Pakistan, or mummies of European appearance among archaeological excavations in China. Therefore, Aryan writing can also be vaguely called Slavic, or Slavic-Aryan, whichever is more convenient for you to understand. The ethnic identity closest to the Slavs of modern Russia and adjacent countries is Glagolitic and Initial letters, as well as Runes, Traits and Cuts.

What is special about Slavic writing and culture?

The Glagolitic alphabet was most often used to seal business relationships in trade matters. She drew up contracts and other papers confirming the concluded transaction. In confirmation of this, today there remains a fairly large number of ancient treaties written down in the Slavic Glagolitic alphabet. The following words are associated with this name:

• verb - to speak;
• verb - speaking, pronouncing;
• verb - we speak;
• verb - action.

The initial letter, as the head part of words, had different writing styles. As an example, we can cite the following several options for the artistic depiction of ancient letters:

Ostromir initial letters – taken from the Ostromir Gospel (1056-1057)

teratological (or animal) style - the image of the letter included features of animals and birds

initials - colored letters, which depicted, in addition to fantastic animals, also human characters (about 800)

Ottonian style of the Western Slavs - large letters, with gilding and patterned weaves

illustrated initial letter - each capital letter was illustrated with different fairy-tale characters and themes

filigree beeches (from the ancient name - “beeches”, and not “letters” from the All-World Charter of Shubin-Abramov Ananiy Fedorovich) - the letters were decorated with the finest patterns

Guslitsky style - comes from the Old Believer settlement of Guslitsy

Vetkovsky style in Belarus

There are many options for depicting Slavic letters. Our Slavic ancestors were famous masters of arts and crafts. Therefore, letters could be depicted by scribes with a creative approach. The main feature of the initial letter is that it formed the basis of such known languages ​​as Latin (Latin alphabet) and English.

The worldview of the Slavs was changed even by modifying the written language. If previously letters and words were perceived three-dimensionally with a semantic and figurative-symbolic load, now they are perceived on a plane, faceless, carrying only sounds that form words.

Researchers of Slavic mythology believe that such a transfer of perception from three-dimensional “holographic” to planar writing began approximately from the time of the Germanization of Rus'. Apparently, the influence of the West has always been fatal for Russians and Slavs in general, which is why the leading Russian minds of the times of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy mentioned it so often.

When is the day of Slavic writing celebrated?

Slavic culture in historical data has undergone various changes. This suggests that scientists have not yet stopped their research - new discovered artifacts are being studied. The date when the writing of the Slavs and their culture was celebrated also changed. Slavic mythology and history itself does not confirm the fact that the ancient Slavs celebrated some special day dedicated to their writing. However, it is worth considering the appearance of similar events at a later time, approximately when Christianity came to Rus'.

Most often this date was associated with Cyril and Methodius. It was during those times that they began to set aside a specific day on which the merits of these two reverend fathers were remembered. Only the date changed:

• May 11 – Christian educators were remembered by the “Thessaloniki Brothers”;
• May 24 – Bulgarians today, along with these two saints, also remember their culture;
• July 5 – in the Czech Republic;
• January 30 - residents of Russia remembered Slavic writing and culture at the instigation of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR (1991).

May 24- a generally accepted holiday in Slavic culture and writing. It was declared the “Day of Slavic Culture and Literature” in 1985, when the 1100th anniversary of the death of Methodius was celebrated in the USSR. Therefore, today this holiday is presented entirely from the point of view of the Orthodox Church. However, those who remember and honor the heritage of the more ancient ancestors of the Slavs still revere the Old Slovenian Letter. On this day, ancient letters are drawn on the asphalt, in underground passages, in squares, everywhere in the cities of the country.

In academic circles, some believe that the Slavs once had one language, but there were many ways to display it on any medium. Letters could be written on metal (coins, jewelry), birch bark, leather, and stone. The peculiarity of Slavic writing lies in the fact that, first of all, it carried Svetorussian (in some reading - “Holy Russian”) images. Simply put, we understand that this was a figurative letter, not a flat one, carrying a deeper meaning than just sound.