In modern Russia, the Day of Slavic Literature and Culture is timed to coincide with the day of honoring the memory of church saints - Cyril and Methodius. Traditional historiography closely links the first native letter of medieval Russians with the names of these brothers. According to the accustomed historical version, Slavic writing was brought here by Christian preachers in the second
half of the 9th century. Written documents of the Middle Ages confirm that in 863 the Moravian prince Rostislav came to the Byzantine emperor Michael III with a request to send missionaries to his lands who could convey the word of God to the Western Slavs in a language they understood. While the German Catholics tried to spread their version of Christianity exclusively in Latin.
Over time, this issue will become one of the main stumbling blocks between confessions. However, even then, between Western and Eastern Christianity, a hot firetheological disputes and political strife burned. Wanting to bring the Slavs into the bosom of his own church, Michael III sent missionaries Cyril and Methodius to Moravia. It is from this moment that Slavic writing originates.
For a successful religious strengthening in these lands, the Greeks needed to convey their worldview to the masses of the people not only orally, but also in writing, in the form of books. It was also necessary to create a local stratum of the clergy. For these purposes, based on Greek letters for
Slavic language was adapted two alphabets: Cyrillic and Glagolitic. At the dawn of their existence, they differed only in the outline of some letters. Modern historians are still arguing which of them is primary. However, most of the facts indicate that the Glagolitic was the first. The Cyrillic alphabet was created a little later on the basis of the Greek alphabet and Glagolitic.
Freshly baked Slavic writing significantly contributed to the establishment of Greek Rite Christianity in Moravia, later in Bulgaria. And from there, with the Balkan preachers, it reached Kievan Rus, where a century later it became the state religion. In the same way, Cyrillic writing came to our lands, which became the basis for the further development of the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian languages. But many Western Slavs could not keep the cultural gifts of the Greeks. In the same Moravia, Catholic Christianity was later approved, and the local population was forced to abandon the Glagolitic alphabet in favor of Latinalphabet.
It should also be mentioned that for quite a long time there have been discussions among historians and archaeologists regarding the so-called Slavic runes. A number of researchers believe that the emergence of Slavic writing occurred much earlier than the appearance of the preachers Cyril and Methodius. And this view has some evidence. Slavic writing is indirectly mentioned by Arab travelers, some researchers see runic writing on archaeological finds. However, no system in these characters has yet been identified, and Arabic sources dating back to the 10th century could have had Cyrillic in mind.
