Russian writing has its own history of formation and its own alphabet, which is very different from the same Latin that is used in most European countries. The Russian alphabet is Cyrillic, more precisely, its modern, modified version. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
So, what is Cyrillic? This is the alphabet that underlies some Slavic languages such as Ukrainian, Russian, Bulgarian, Belarusian, Serbian, Macedonian. As you can see, the definition is quite simple.
The history of the Cyrillic alphabet begins its history in the 9th century, when Byzantine emperor Michael III ordered the creation of a new alphabet for the Slavs in order to convey religious texts to believers.
The honor to create such an alphabet went to the so-called "Thessalonica brothers" - Cyril and Methodius.
But does this give us an answer to the question, what is the Cyrillic alphabet? Partly yes, but there are still some interesting facts. For example, the fact that the Cyrillic alphabet is an alphabet based on the Greek statutory letter. It is also worth noting that with the help of some letters of the Cyrillic alphabet, numbers were indicated. To do this, a special diacritical mark was placed above the combination of letters - title.
As for the spread of the Cyrillic alphabet, it came to the Slavs only withacceptance of Christianity. For example, in Bulgaria, the Cyrillic alphabet appeared only in 860, after the Bulgarian Tsar Boris converted to Christianity. At the end of the 9th century, the Cyrillic alphabet penetrated into Serbia, and after another hundred years, into the territory of Kievan Rus.
Along with the alphabet, church literature, translations of the Gospel, the Bible, and prayers began to spread.
In fact, from this it becomes clear what Cyrillic is and where it came from. But has it come down to us in its original form? Far from it. Like many things, writing has changed and improved along with our language and culture.
Modern Cyrillic has lost some of its designations and letters in the course of various reforms. Thus, such diacritical marks as titlo, iso, camora, letters er and erb, yat, yus big and small, izhitsa, fita, psi and xi disappeared. The modern Cyrillic alphabet consists of 33 letters.
Besides, the alphabetic numeral has not been used for a long time, it has been completely replaced by Arabic numerals. The modern version of the Cyrillic alphabet is much more convenient and practical than the one that was a thousand years ago.
So, what is Cyrillic? Cyrillic is an alphabet created by the monks-enlighteners Cyril and Methodius on the orders of Tsar Michael III. Having adopted the new faith, we received at our disposal not only new customs, a new deity and culture, but also an alphabet, a lot of translated church book literature, which for a long time remained the only type of literature that the educated sections of the population of Kievan Rus could enjoy.
In the course of time and under the influence of various reforms, the alphabet changed, improved, superfluous and unnecessary letters and designations disappeared from it. The Cyrillic alphabet that we use today is the result of all the metamorphoses that have taken place over more than a thousand years of the existence of the Slavic alphabet.
