Historical alphabet. Research work "History of the emergence of the Russian alphabet". When did the modern Russian alphabet appear
Alphabet.
The Guinness Book of Records says...
ancient
The earliest example of alphabetic writing was found in Ugarit (now Ras Sharma, Syria). It dates from approximately 1450 BC. e. and is a clay tablet with 32 cuneiform letters applied to it.
The oldest letter
The most ancient letter "o" remained unchanged in the same form in which it was adopted in the Phoenician alphabet (about 1300 BC). There are currently 65 alphabets in use.
The longest and shortest alphabets
The largest number of letters - 72 - is contained in the Khmer language, the smallest - 11 (a, b, e, g, i, k, o, p, t, u) - in the Rotokas language from the island of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea.
Origin of the Russian alphabet.
The alphabet in the 33-letter form familiar to us did not always exist. The alphabet, called Old Slavonic, or Church Slavonic, served as a prototype for it.
The appearance of the Cyrillic alphabet, which goes back to the Greek language, is traditionally associated with the activities of the famous educators Cyril and Methodius.
The Old Church Slavonic language, being the language of the church in Rus', was influenced by the Old Russian language. Thus, the Russian alphabet originated from the Old Russian Cyrillic alphabet, which was borrowed from the Greeks and became widespread in Kievan Rus after the adoption of Christianity (988).
At that time, it had, apparently, 43 letters. He looked like this:
It is easy to see that some Cyrillic letters sound like our modern words: “good”, “earth”, “people”. Others - az, beeches, lead ... What do they mean and what is their origin?
A3 is the first person singular personal pronoun.
BUKI is a letter. There were quite a few words with an unusual for us form of the nominative case of the singular: “kry” - blood, “bry” - an eyebrow, “lyuby” - love.
LEAD - a form of the verb "lead" - to know.
VERB - a form of the verb "verb" - to speak.
GOOD - the meaning is clear.
IS - the third person singular of the present tense from the verb "to be".
LIVE - second person plural present tense from the verb "to live".
ZELO - an adverb with the meaning "very", "strongly", "very".
LIKE (AND OCTAL) - a pronoun with the meaning "that", "which". In Church Slavonic, the union is "what". This letter was called “octal” because it had the numerical value of the number 8.
AND (AND DECIMAL) - was called so by its numerical value - 10.
WHAT is an interrogative adverb "how".
PEOPLE - the meaning is self-explanatory.
THOUGHT - a form of the verb "think".
OUR is a possessive pronoun.
OH is the third person singular personal pronoun.
РЦЫ - a form from the verb "speech", to speak.
WORD - the meaning is beyond doubt.
HARD - also does not require comments.
UK - in Old Slavonic - teaching.
FERT - the etymology of this letter name has not been reliably elucidated by scientists. From the outline of the sign came the expression "stand by the fert", that is, "hands on the hips."
HER - it is believed that this is an abbreviation of the word "cherub", the name of one of the ranks of the angels. Since the letter is “cruciform”, the meaning of the verb “fuck” has developed - cross out, abolish, destroy.
OH THE GREAT - Greek omega, which we named after the letter "he".
TSY is an onomatopoeic name.
WORM - in the Old Slavonic and Old Russian languages, the word "worm" meant "red paint", and not just "worm". The name of the letter was given acrophonic - the word "worm" began precisely with "h".
SHA, SHA - both letters are named according to the principle familiar to us: the sound signified by the letter itself plus any vowel sound before and after it.
ERY - the compound name of this letter - "er" plus "i" - was, as it were, a "description" of its form. We have already renamed it to "s" a long time ago.
EP, ER - conditional names of letters that ceased to express the sounds of incomplete education and became simply "signs".
YAT - it is believed that the name of the letter "yat" can be associated with "yad" - food, food.
Yu, I - these letters were called according to their sound: "yu", "ya", as well as the letter "ye", meaning "iotized e".
YUS - the origin of the name is unclear. They tried to derive it from the word "mustache", which in the Old Bulgarian language sounded with a nasal sound at the beginning, or from the word "yusenitsa" - a caterpillar. The explanations do not seem indisputable.
FITA - in this form, the name of the Greek letter Θ passed to Rus', which at different times was called “theta”, then “fita” and, accordingly, meant either a sound close to “f”, or the sound that Western alphabets now convey with the letters TN. We hear it close to our "g". The Slavs adopted "fita" at a time when it was read as "f". That is why, for example, the word "library" we wrote "vivliofika" until the 18th century.
Izhitsa - Greek "upsilon", which conveyed the sound, as if standing between our "and" and "yu" in the name "Hugo". Initially, this sound was transmitted in different ways, imitating the Greeks, and the Slavs. So, the Greek name "Cyrillos", a diminutive of "Kyuros" - lord, was usually transmitted as "Cyril", but the pronunciation "Kurill" was also possible. In the epics, "Kyurill" was remade into "Chyurilo". In the west of Ukraine there was until recently the place "Kurilovtsy" - the descendants of the "Kurila".
Time is rapidly rushing forward and making its own adjustments. Some letters disappeared, new ones appeared in their place.
In this form, the Russian alphabet remained until the reforms of Peter I in 1708-1711. (and Church Slavonic is still the same today), when superscripts were eliminated (which in between times “cancelled” the letter Y) and many doublet letters and letters used to write numbers were abolished (which became irrelevant after the transition to Arabic numerals).
Subsequently, some abolished letters were restored and canceled again. By 1917, the alphabet came in a 35-letter (officially; in fact there were 37 letters) composition: A, B, C, D, D, E, (Yo was not considered a separate letter), F, Z, I, (Y was not considered a separate letter considered), I, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, C, T, U, F, X, C, H, W, W, b, S, b, Ѣ, E, Yu, I , v, v. (The last letter was formally listed in the Russian alphabet, but de facto its use has almost disappeared, and it was found in just a few words).
The last major writing reform was carried out in 1917-1918 - as a result, the current Russian alphabet appeared, consisting of 33 letters. This alphabet also became the written basis for most of the languages of the USSR, for which there was no written language before the 20th century or was replaced during the years of Soviet power.
Similar information.
In a world that is constantly changing, in a world open to all peoples and languages, there is something constant, something that connects us with our ancestors - this is our alphabet. We use it when we think, when we speak or write, but the alphabet is interesting not only as construction material offers. The uniqueness of our alphabet is in the history of its creation, because it is completely unique!
Sooner or later, every person begins to be tormented by the question: Who invented the letters, words and names of objects? It is impossible to say anything definite about the origin of some scripts: who invented them, and when they were invented. Take, for example, Chinese or Greek writing? These scripts were not invented by individuals, but developed over many centuries and were the result of the accumulation of knowledge of several generations. They do not and cannot have a personal author, just as there is no creator of a wheel, a hammer, a knife, etc. Other scripts were lucky: they appeared as a result of a specific creative process that took place at a certain time in certain place. For example, the Georgian script was founded by King Farnavaz, and the Armenian script was founded by Mesrop Mashtots. If you are asked the question of who created the Slavic letter, you will answer without hesitation that the creators Slavic writing are Cyril and Methodius. However, their contribution is much greater than many people think. After all, Cyril and Methodius not only invented an alphabet for writing the Slavic language and became the founders of writing itself, but also translated many church books into Slavic. Where did it all start?
An attempt to look into the past
The history of Slavic writing is a vivid example of how powerless science is in the face of time and history, but the power of our scientists lies in the fact that despite any prohibitions, changes in power, they are still trying to find a life-giving source of truth. Today, the famous Thessalonica brothers - Cyril (Konstantin) and Methodius - are the brightest historical figures, about which more than five thousand scientific papers have been written, where many hypotheses have been put forward, and even more research has been carried out on who is actually the author of the first Old Slavonic alphabet. At the same time, research scientists have found a huge amount of materials that both confirm and fundamentally refute each other. That is why on important questions no exact answers have been found about the history of the emergence of Slavic writing.
"What is the reason?" - you ask. First of all, this is due to the nature of the ancient texts, which are the main sources on the basis of which scientists build their hypotheses. These texts are sometimes inaccurate and sometimes deliberately distorted. In some texts, one can find descriptions of events for which no exact confirmation has been found. At the same time, ancient sources have come down to us in their original form. However, with repeated rewriting, different chroniclers distorted the original texts, adding their vision or thoughts to them, and a kind of “spoiled telephone” was obtained, which prevents modern scholars from reaching a unanimous opinion. Thus, it is often possible to encounter a situation where different copies of the same ancient document describe information in different ways. On the other hand, modern scientists themselves are to blame, because they often like to interpret historical events in a way that suits them. The reasons for such liberties lie either in the usual lack of professionalism or dishonesty, or in false patriotism. Regardless of the reasons that drive our scientists, we have to admit that we still do not know in what year Methodius was born and what his real name was. After all, Methodius is the monastic name of the discoverer of the Slavic alphabet. Due to the elementary human ignorance of scientists, the Thessalonica brothers were credited with the creation of letters, to which they had nothing to do. Let's discard these scientists "probably" and "possibly" and try to figure out where the first alphabet came from, how it looked, and what meaning our ancestors put into each letter.
The most interesting manual on the origin of Slavic writing is the primary source, which is the legend of the monk Brave, which includes excerpts from the lives of Methodius and Cyril (Konstantin). This legend was republished in 1981 and is called "The Legend of the Beginning of Slavic Writing". If desired, this book can be found on the shelves of bookstores or purchased through the online store.
Who invented the alphabet
In the 9th - early 10th centuries, one of the largest states in Europe was Great Moravia, which included not only modern Moravia (the historical region of the Czech Republic), but also Slovakia, and part of Poland, the Czech Republic, and other states located nearby. Great Moravia played a major political role from 830 to 906.
In 863, the Moravian prince Rostislav turned to the Byzantine emperor Michael III with a rather bold request - to hold a service in the Slavic language. This audacity consisted in the fact that before this worship was held in three languages, in which the inscription on the cross of Jesus was made: Latin, Hebrew and Greek.
The decision to conduct worship in the Slavic language, according to Rostislav, was exclusively political in nature and would allow Rostislav to weaken the dependence of his policy on the Bavarian clergy. Why the Slavic language? Everything is very simple - at that time the Slavs had a common language, the difference was only in different dialects. However, the Slavs did not yet have a written language, and they used Latin or Greek writing to write. The transition to worship in the Slavic language presupposed the presence of Slavic writing, since it was necessary to translate the main service books into Slavonic and train priests. At the same time, such a translation meant the creation of not only a special Slavic script, but also a written literary Slavic language. It was difficult to translate Greek religious texts into everyday Slavic, as they were not adapted to convey their content. The Greek texts simply lacked the necessary words and syntactic constructions.
What do you think, answered Michael III? But he did not answer, he sent the so-called Moravian mission to Rostislav in the person of two brothers. These two brothers were the sons of a noble Greek who lived in the city of Thessalonica (the Slavic name for the city of Thessaloniki, which is located on the territory of modern Greece), and their names were Methodius (presumably born in 815) and Constantine (his date of birth falls on 827- oh year). Methodius (real name - Michael) was a monk. Constantine, only before his death, accepted monasticism, with which the new name Cyril. It is his monastic name that will be immortalized in the name of the Slavic alphabet - Cyrillic. Although Constantine was younger than Methodius, his authority is recognized even by his elder brother. To date, it is known for certain that Constantine was a very educated person, and among his many professions and vocations one can distinguish: philosopher, theologian, poet and linguist. He knew many languages and was fluent in oratory, which allowed him to participate more than once in religious disputes. The bright advantages of the older brother were considered innate organizational skills, which allowed him to be a governor in the Slavic lands, as well as the abbot of the monastery. But most importantly, both brothers were fluent in the Slavic language.
Scientists consider it an interesting fact that even before leaving for Moravia, Constantine and Methodius created the Slavic alphabet, which was perfectly adapted to transmit the sounds of Slavic speech. This first alphabet was called Glagolitic and it was based on the letters of minuscule Greek writing. In addition to Greek characters, some Hebrew and Coptic characters joined the Glagolitic. Naturally, having created the first Slavic alphabet, Constantine and Methodius were eager to get to work on translations.
The first translations of church books appeared in Byzantium, and upon arrival in Moravia, the brothers launched their main work at a very high pace. Thus, a new written language appeared, which in scientific circles is called Old Church Slavonic.
In parallel with the translations, Cyril and Methodius were preparing priests who could conduct worship in the Slavic language. After such painstaking work, the Thessalonica brothers return home, spreading new letters along the way. As you understand, the “old” clergy, who recognized trilingualism, did not like the emergence of new traditions, so the brothers go to Rome, where Constantine holds successful debates with trilinguals. In Rome, the mission of the Thessalonica brothers is delayed, and Constantine takes the monastic order and the new name of Cyril. This happened just 50 days before his death.
After the death of Cyril, Methodius became the main champion of divine services in the Slavic language, who was invited to Pannonia (modern Hungary) by the local prince Kotsela, who supported the undertakings of Cyril and Methodius. At this time, a tense struggle was being waged between the supporters of Methodius and the German tri-pagans. Nevertheless, Pope Adrian, bowing to the merits of Methodius, raises him to the rank of bishop. However, this did not prevent the Bavarian clergy, the just cause of trilingualism, from throwing Methodius in prison in the year 870, where he spends two and a half years. Only in 873 did Methodius emerge from captivity and restore his dignity, after which he returned to Moravia.
Methodius spends the rest of his life in Moravia in the rank of archbishop and dies in 885. And this is where the real war of the trilinguals with the disciples of Cyril and Methodius began. In 886, the Slavic liturgy was completely destroyed, and priests who conducted services in the Slavic language were beaten, stoned, chained, expelled from the country, sold into slavery, and even killed. But this does not mean that the struggle against the “Slavs” ended in the victory of the tri-pagans. On the contrary, many disciples of Methodius find shelter in the Bulgarian state, where they are kindly received by Prince Boris. It was he who organized a new school of Slavic writing, and Bulgaria became the new center of Slavic book culture. At the head of the new Slavic school stands the student of the Thessalonica brothers Clement, who would later be called Clement of Ohrid. Why was he given such a nickname? Everything is very simple: the school was located near Lake Ohrid, which today is located on the territory of modern Macedonia.
According to most modern scientists, the creator of the new Slavic alphabet - Cyrillic is Clement of Ohrid. Clement named it Cyrillic in honor of his teacher Cyril. However, the name of this alphabet for a long time confuses learned minds, who believed that the Cyrillic alphabet is older than the Glagolitic. However, today many agree that Cyril did not create the Cyrillic alphabet, but the Glagolitic one. The most interesting thing is that these are just guesses, not supported by any Old Slavonic writings. And here interesting fact it remains that in ancient manuscripts there is not a single mention of the existence of two Slavic alphabets!
Glagolitic and Cyrillic
Today, most scholars agree that Glagolitic is the real first Old Slavonic alphabet, and it was invented by Cyril back in 863, when he was in Byzantium. Cyril - Konstantin The philosopher created it in a fairly short time and included many Greek symbols. Cyrillic was invented in Bulgaria around the 9th century. However, the question still remains, who is the author of this invention. Many scholars are still debating this issue. Thus, adherents of the classical theory argue that it was undoubtedly Clement of Ohrid, while others suggest that the signs displayed in Cyrillic are more reminiscent of those used by the Old Slavonic scribes, led by the educator Konstantin Pereslavsky.
Any alphabet is notable for the fact that each letter corresponds to a formal meaning and a meaningful one. Formal studies of each letter presuppose the history of the inscription of the sign that is displayed in a particular letter, and a meaningful approach to the study of letters involves a search for a correspondence between the letter itself and its sound. If you pay attention to Glagolitic and Cyrillic, you will see that Glagolitic is a brighter invention than Cyrillic. At the same time, the number of letters in the Glagolitic corresponds to the number of sounds that existed in the Old Slavonic language. In other words, the creator or creators of the Glagolitic alphabet perfectly knew the phonetics of the Old Slavonic language and were guided by this when creating the Old Slavonic writing.
It is also interesting to compare Glagolitic and Cyrillic in terms of lettering. In both the first and second cases, the symbolism is very reminiscent of Greek, however, the Glagolitic alphabet still has features characteristic only of the Slavic alphabet. Take, for example, the letter "az". In Glagolitic, it resembles a cross, and in Cyrillic, it completely borrows Greek writing. But this is not the most interesting Old Slavonic alphabet. Indeed, it is in the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets that each letter represents a separate word filled with a deep philosophical meaning that our ancestors put into it.
Although today the letters-words have disappeared from our everyday life, nevertheless they continue to live in Russian proverbs and sayings. For example, the expression “start from the basics” means nothing more than “start from the very beginning”. Although in fact the letter "az" means "I".
Kuban State University
Faculty of Management and Psychology
on documentation on the topic:
"History of the Russian alphabet: from antiquity to the present day"
Completed by a student
2nd year DDOU:
Teterleva Elena
Krasnodar 2010
Introduction
1. The emergence of the Slavic alphabet
2. Cyrillic letters and their names
3. The composition of the Russian alphabet
Conclusion
INTRODUCTION
When transmitting speech in writing, letters are used, each of which has a specific meaning. A set of letters arranged in the prescribed order is called alphabetically or alphabet .
Word alphabet comes from the name of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: α-alpha; β - beta(in modern Greek - vita).
Word ABC comes from the name of the first two letters of the ancient Slavic alphabet - Cyrillic: A - az; B - beeches.
How did the alphabet originate? How did it develop in Rus'? The answers to these questions can be found in this essay.
1. THE ORIGIN OF THE SLAVIC ALPHABET
Alphabet is a system of letters that convey the sounds or phonemes of a language. Almost all known alphabetic writing systems have a common origin: they go back to the Semitic writing of Phenicia, Syria, Palestine of the 2nd millennium BC.
The Phoenicians, who lived on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, were famous sailors in antiquity. They were actively trading with the states of the Mediterranean. In the ninth century BC e. The Phoenicians introduced their writing to the Greeks. The Greeks somewhat modified the styles of the Phoenician letters and their names, while maintaining order.
In the first millennium BC. e. Southern Italy was colonized by the Greeks. As a result of this, they became acquainted with the Greek letter different nations Italy, including the Latins - the Italian tribe that founded Rome. The classical Latin alphabet in the 1st century BC e. Some Greek letters were not included in the Latin alphabet. In the era of the Roman Empire, the Latin language and writing were widely spread. His influence increased in the Middle Ages in connection with the transition to. Christianity of all peoples of Europe. Latin became the liturgical language in all states Western Europe, and the Latin script is the only acceptable script for liturgical books. As a result, Latin has been the international language for centuries.
On the territory of Central Eastern Europe, inhabited by the Slavs, starting from the VI-VII centuries. there are separate unions of Slavic tribes, state associations.
19th century the state association of the Western Slavs was known - the Moravian Principality, located on the territory of present-day Slovakia. The German feudal lords sought to subjugate Moravia politically, economically, and culturally. German missionaries were sent to Moravia to preach Christianity in Latin. This threatened the political independence of the state. In an effort to maintain independence, the far-sighted Moravian prince Rostislav sent an embassy to the Byzantine emperor Michael III with a request to send teachers to Moravia (preachers of Christianity according to the Byzantine rite) who would teach the inhabitants of Moravia Christianity on mother tongue. Michael III entrusted the Moravian mission to Constantine (monastic name - Cyril) and his brother Methodius. The brothers were natives of the city of Thessalonica (now Thessaloniki), which at that time was part of the Slavic (Bulgarian) territory and was the cultural center of Macedonia, Ancient Thessalonica was a bilingual city in which, in addition to the Greek language, the Slavic dialect sounded.
Konstantin was a very educated person for his time. Even before his trip to Moravia, he compiled the Slavonic alphabet and began translating the Gospel into Slavonic. In Moravia, Constantine and Methodius continued to translate church books from Greek into Slavonic, taught the Slavs how to read, write, and lead worship in Slavonic. The brothers stayed in Moravia for more than three years, and then went with their students to Rome to the Pope. There they hoped to find support in the fight against the German clergy, who did not want to give up their positions in Moravia and prevented the spread of Slavic writing. On the way to Rome, they visited another Slavic country - Pannonia (Lake Balaton region, Hungary). And here the brothers taught the Slavs book business and worship in the Slavic language.
In Rome, Constantine took the monastic vows, taking the name Cyril. There, in 869, Cyril was poisoned. Before his death, he wrote to Methodius: "You and I are like two oxen; one fell from a heavy burden, the other must continue on his way." Methodius with his disciples, who received the priesthood, returned to Pannonia, and later to Moravia.
By that time, the situation in Moravia had changed dramatically. After the death of Rostislav, his captive Svyatopolk became the prince of Moravia, who submitted to German political influence. The activity of Methodius and his disciples proceeded in very difficult conditions. The Latin-German clergy interfered in every possible way with the spread of the Slavic language as the language of the church.
Methodius was imprisoned, where he dies in 885, and after that his opponents managed to achieve the prohibition of Slavic writing in Moravia. Many students were executed, some moved to Bulgaria and Croatia. In Bulgaria, Tsar Boris in 864 converted to Christianity. Bulgaria becomes the center for the dissemination of Slavic writing. Slavic schools are created here, Cyrillic and Methodius originals of liturgical books (Gospel, Psalter, Apostle, church services) are copied, new Slavic translations from Greek are made, original works in Old Church Slavonic appear (“0 writings of Chrnorizets the Brave”).
The widespread use of Slavic writing, its "golden age", dates back to the reign of Simeon (893-927), son of Boris, in Bulgaria. Later, the Old Church Slavonic language penetrates into Serbia, and at the end of the 10th century. becomes the language of the church in Kievan Rus.
The Old Church Slavonic language, being the language of the church in Rus', was influenced by the Old Russian language. It was the Old Slavonic language of the Russian edition, as it included elements of living East Slavic speech.
Old Slavonic alphabets, with which the monuments that have survived to this day are written, are called Glagolitic And Cyrillic. The first Old Slavonic monuments were written in the Glagolitic script, which, as is assumed, was created by Constantine on the basis of cursive Greek writing of the 9th century. with the addition of some letters from other Eastern alphabets. This is a very peculiar, intricate, loop-shaped letter, which for a long time in a slightly modified form was used by the Croats (until the 17th century). The appearance of the Cyrillic alphabet, which goes back to the Greek statutory (solemn) letter, is associated with the activities of the Bulgarian school of scribes. Cyrillic is the Slavic alphabet that underlies the modern Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Serbian and Macedonian alphabets.
2. CYRILLIC LETTERS AND THEIR NAMES
Figure 1 - "Cyrillic letters and their names"
The Cyrillic alphabet, shown in Figure 1, has been gradually improved as it is used in the Russian language.
The development of the Russian nation at the beginning of the 18th century, the emerging need for printing civilian books necessitated the need to simplify the outlines of the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet.
In 1708, a Russian civil font was created, and Peter I himself took an active part in the production of sketches of letters. In 1710, a sample of a new alphabet font was approved. This was the first reform of Russian graphics. The essence of the Peter's reform was to simplify the composition of the Russian alphabet by excluding from it such obsolete and unnecessary letters as "psi", "xi", "omega", "Izhitsa", "earth", "illumined", "yus small". However, later, probably under the influence of the clergy, some of these letters were restored to use. The letter E ("E" reverse) was introduced in order to distinguish it from the iotized letter E, as well as the letter I instead of the small iotized yus.
IN civil script uppercase (large) and lowercase (small) letters are set for the first time.
Letter Y ( and short) was introduced by the Academy of Sciences in 1735. The letter Yo was first used by N. M. Karamzin in 1797 to denote the sound [o] under stress after soft consonants, for example: sky, dark .
In the XVIII century. in the literary language, the sound denoted by the letter b ( yat), matched the sound [ uh ]. Bush, therefore, practically turned out to be unnecessary, but according to tradition, it was kept in the Russian alphabet for a long time, until 1917-1918.
The spelling reform of 1917-1918. two letters that duplicated each other were excluded: "yat", "fita", "and decimal". Letter b ( ep) was kept only as a delimiter, b ( er) - as a dividing sign and to indicate the softness of the preceding consonant. With regard to Yo, the decree contains a clause on the desirability, but not the obligatory use of this letter. Reform 1917-1918 simplified Russian writing and thereby facilitated literacy.
3. COMPOSITION OF THE RUSSIAN ALPHABET
There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet, of which 10 denote vowel sounds, 21 are consonants, and 2 letters do not denote special sounds, but serve to convey certain sound features. The Russian alphabet, shown in Table 1, has uppercase (large) and lowercase (small) letters, printed and handwritten letters.
Table 1 - Russian alphabet and letter names
CONCLUSION
Throughout the history of the Russian alphabet, there was a struggle with "superfluous" letters, culminating in a partial victory in the reform of graphics by Peter I (1708-1710) and a final victory in the spelling reform of 1917-1918.
Approximately in 863, two brothers Methodius and Cyril the Philosopher (Konstantin) from Thessaloniki (Thessalonica), by order of Michael III, the Byzantine emperor, made ordering of writing for the Slavic language. The emergence of the Cyrillic alphabet, which comes from the Greek statutory (solemn) letter, is linked to the activities carried out by the Bulgarian school of scribes (after Methodius and Cyril).
After 860, when Christianity was adopted in Bulgaria by the holy Tsar Boris, Bulgaria becomes the center from which Slavic writing began to spread. The Preslav book school was created here - the 1st book school of the Slavs, where they copied the originals of the Cyril and Methodius liturgical books (church services, the Psalter, the Gospel, the Apostle), performed new translations into Slavic from Greek, original creations written in Old Slavonic appeared (for example, “On the writings of Chrnorizets the Brave”).
Later, the Old Church Slavonic language penetrated into Serbia, and by the end of the 10th century. in Kievan Rus became the church language. Being the language of the church in Rus', the Old Slavonic language was influenced by the Old Russian language. This, in fact, was the Old Slavonic language, but only in the Russian version, since it contained living elements of the speech of the Eastern Slavs.
Thus, the progenitor of the Russian alphabet is the Old Russian Cyrillic alphabet, borrowed from the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet and spread after the baptism of Kievan Rus (988). Then, most likely, there were 43 letters in the alphabet.
Later, 4 new letters were added, and at different times, 14 old ones were excluded as unnecessary, since the corresponding sounds disappeared. Iotated yuses (Ѭ, Ѩ) disappear first of all, then big yus (Ѫ) (which returned in the 15th century, but disappeared again at the beginning of the 17th century), and iotated E (Ѥ); other letters, sometimes slightly changing their form and meaning, have remained to this day in the alphabet of the Church Slavonic language, which has long and erroneously been identified with the Russian alphabet.
Spelling reforms of the 2nd half of the 17th century. (associated with the “correction of books” during the time of Patriarch Nikon) the following letter set was recorded: A, B, C, D, D, E (with an excellent spelling variant of Є, which was sometimes considered a separate letter and put in the alphabet after Ѣ, i.e. . in the position of today's E), Zh, S, Z, I (for the sound [j] there was a variant Y that was different in spelling, which was not considered a separate letter), I, K, L, M, N, O (in 2 forms that differed orthographically: “wide” and “narrow”), П, Р, С, Т, У (in 2 forms, which differed orthographically: Ѹ and), Ф, Х, Ѡ (in 2 forms, which differed spelling: “wide” and “narrow”, and also as part of the ligature, which was usually considered a separate letter - “from” (Ѿ)), C, CH, W, SH, b, Y, b, Ѣ, Yu, I ( in 2 forms: Ѧ and IA, which were sometimes considered different letters, and sometimes not), Ѯ, Ѱ, Ѳ, ѳ. A large yus (Ѫ) and a letter called “ik” (similar in form to the current letter “y”) were also sometimes introduced into the alphabet, although they had no sound meaning and were not used in any words.
In this form, the Russian alphabet existed until 1708-1711, i.e. before the reforms of Tsar Peter I (Church Slavonic remains the same now). At that time, superscripts were abolished (this “abolished” the letter Y) and many doublet letters used to write different numbers were removed (with the introduction of Arabic numerals, this became irrelevant). Then a number of abolished letters were returned and canceled again.
By 1917, there were officially 35 letters in the alphabet (in fact, 37): A, B, C, D, D, E, (Yo was not considered a separate letter), Zh, Z, I, (Y was not considered a separate letter), I, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U, F, X, C, H, W, W, b, S, b, Ѣ, E, Yu, I, Ѳ, ѳ. (Formally, the last letter in the Russian alphabet was listed, but in fact it was almost never used, occurring only in a few words).
The result of the last major writing reform of 1917-1918 was the emergence of the current Russian alphabet of 33 letters. It also became the written basis for most of the languages of the peoples of the USSR, which until the twentieth century. there was no written language or it was replaced by Cyrillic during the years of Soviet power.
The importance of writing in the development of mankind is difficult to overestimate. Back in the era when the alphabet did not exist in sight, ancient people tried to express their thoughts in the form of rock inscriptions.
Alphabet of Elizabeth Boehm
First they drew figurines of animals and humans, then various signs and hieroglyphs. Over time, people managed to create easy-to-understand letters and put them into an alphabet. Who was the creator of the alphabet of the Russian language? To whom do we owe the opportunity to express ourselves freely through writing?
Who laid the foundation of the Russian alphabet?
The history of the emergence of the Russian alphabet goes back to the 2nd millennium BC. Then the ancient Phoenicians came up with consonants and used them for a long time to draw up documents.
In the VIII century BC, their discovery was borrowed by the ancient Greeks, who significantly improved the letter by adding vowels to it. In the future, it was the Greek alphabet, with the help of which statutory (solemn) letters were compiled, that formed the basis of the Russian alphabet.
Who created the Russian alphabet?
In the Bronze Age, Proto-Slavic peoples lived in Eastern Europe, speaking the same language. 
Primer Slavonic writings of the Greatest Teacher B. Jerome Stridon
Around the 1st century AD, they began to break up into separate tribes, as a result of which several states inhabited by Eastern Slavs were created in these territories. Among them was Great Moravia, which occupied the lands of modern Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, partly Ukraine and Poland.
With the advent of Christianity and the construction of temples, people needed to create a written language that would allow them to record church texts. To learn how to write, the Moravian prince Rostislav turned to the Byzantine emperor Michael III for help, who sent Christian preachers Cyril and Methodius to Moravia. In 863, they came up with the first Russian alphabet, which was named after one of the preachers - Cyrillic.
Who are Cyril and Methodius?
Cyril and Methodius were brothers from Thessalonica (now the Greek Thessaloniki). In those days, in their hometown, in addition to Greek, they spoke the Slavic-Thessalonica dialect, which formed the basis of the Church Slavonic language.
Initially, Cyril's name was Konstantin, and he received his second name just before his death, having taken a monastic vow. In his youth, Constantine studied with the best Byzantine teachers of philosophy, rhetoric, dialectics, and later taught at the University of Magnavra in Constantinople. 
Monument to Saints Cyril and Methodius in Saratov. The author of the photo is Zimin Vasily.
In 863, having gone to Moravia, with the help of his brother Methodius, he created. Bulgaria became the center for the dissemination of Slavic writing. In 886, the Preslav book school was opened on its territory, where they were engaged in translations from the Greek language and copied Cyrillic and Methodius originals. Around the same time, the Cyrillic alphabet came to Serbia, and at the end of the 10th century it reached Kievan Rus.
Initially, the first Russian alphabet had 43 letters. Later, 4 more were added to it, and the 14 former ones were removed as unnecessary. The first time some of the letters appearance resembled Greek, but as a result of an orthographic reform in the 17th century, they were replaced by those that we know today.
By 1917, there were 35 letters in the Russian alphabet, although in fact there were 37 of them, since Yo and Y were not considered separate. Additionally, the letters I, Ѣ (yat), Ѳ (fita) and V (zhitsa) were present in the alphabet, which later disappeared from use.
When did the modern Russian alphabet appear?
In 1917-1918, a major spelling reform was carried out in Russia, thanks to which the modern alphabet appeared. Its initiator was the Ministry of Public Education under the Provisional Government. The reform began before the revolution, but was continued after the transfer of power to the Bolsheviks. 
Wikimedia Commons / Jimmy Thomas ()
In December 1917, Russian statesman Anatoly Lunacharsky issued a decree requiring all organizations to use the new 33-letter alphabet.
Although the spelling reform was prepared before the revolution and had no political underpinnings, at first it was criticized by opponents of Bolshevism. However, over time, the modern alphabet took root and is used to this day.
