20 May 2021
Every 24th of May all Slavic countries celebrate the Day of Slavic Literature and Culture and solemnly glorify the creators of the Slavic writing - the saints Cyril and Methodius. Scientists believe that the Slavic writing was created in the 9th century, around 863. The new alphabet was named Cyrillic after the name of one of the brothers, Constantine, who having taken monasticism became Cyril. Cyril studied many languages and created the Slavic alphabet based on the Greek alphabet. His elder brother Methodius helped him with that. The Greek alphabet was significantly changed in order to convey more accurately the Slavic sound system. Two alphabets were created - Glagolitic and Cyrillic. Cyrillic has become the basis of writing in more than a dozen languages. In addition to Russia, it is used as an official alphabet in many Slavic and non-Slavic countries. For example, in Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kazakhstan and some others.