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Abstract: The article deals with the problem of the origin of Russian writing. The relevance of the study can be attributed to the importance of evaluating the discussions on the origin of Russian writing, highlighting the fallacy of ideas about the Glagolitic alphabet as the writing of the Eastern Slavs and presenting semiotic arguments about the nature of the Glagolitic script, indicating its connection with the activity of St. Cyril. The aim of the article is to show the dynamics of scientific views on the question of the roots of East Slavic writing. The article traces the ideas about the origin of Old Russian writing – from the recognition of its ancient Bulgarian basis in the works of Slavists of the 19th century to the hypotheses about the ‘own roots’ of writing in the Soviet period and the subsequent criticism of these hypotheses. Attention is focused on the first Slavic Glagolitic alphabet, the consideration of which acquires in the study an interdisciplinary character. The analysis of the traditional philological problem is enriched with a historical-cultural, religious-philosophical, and semiotic context. The application of the interdisciplinary approach is conditioned, on the one hand, by the systemic nature of Glagolitic writing, on the other hand, by the insufficiency of the traditional consideration of the problem within the framework of the formal paleographic approach. The orientation towards interdisciplinarity in the consideration of the problem promotes the application of new methods of studying the object of research. On the basis of textual analysis of the sources and semiotic analysis of the Glagolitic writing system, the study substantiates the erroneous character of assertions about the pre-Cyril East Slavonic origins of the Glagolitic alphabet. The results of the study of the Glagolitic script using semiotic methods of spatial and matrix modeling are shown. The article reveals the characteristic features of the internal organization of the semiotic model of the alphabet, which reflect its rationality and creative character. It is shown that the Glagolitic alphabet combines the principles of phonography and ideography, while the ideographic properties of the Glagolitic script are connected with the expression of the religious complex of the Orthodox faith, which was defended in their missionary activity by the Solun brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius. The analysis carried out serves as an important proof of the attribution to St. Cyril of the Glagolitic alphabet rather than the Cyrillic one. The historical roots of the Eastern Slavs’ writing are common with the writing reflected in Moravian and Old Bulgarian monuments of church books.

About the author(s) :

Liudmila B. Karpenko

Samara National Research University
named after academician S. P. Korolev (Samara, Russia)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8432-1164

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 25.02.2025; date of publication: 30.06.2025

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