The Rus! - The Story of Russian Beginnings

[Commy]

I'm suprised nobody has mentioned Cyrus. Russian history began with him because he invented the written form of Russian.

You are wrong. As I remember Rurik (if he really was) came to Russia about 860 BC, i.e. more than 100 years before it.

 

[Maimonides]

860 B.C.? There are no written records from Russia that are that early.

Perhaps you don't know what history means. History is the written record. No writing means no history. Cyrus made Russian history possible by inventing the Russian alphabet. The average Russian was illiterate in Cyrus' time. Those who were literate were so in other languages.

 

[Pannonius]

Ciryl (not Cyrus) and his brother Metodius preached among the Slavonians of Great Moravia in 9th century AD. He never visited Kiev or other east slavonic (Russian?) principalities.

 

[Rambuchan]

860 B.C.? There are no written records from Russia that are that early.

Perhaps you don't know what history means. History is the written record. No writing means no history. Cyrus made Russian history possible by inventing the Russian alphabet. The average Russian was illiterate in Cyrus' time. Those who were literate were so in other languages.

You forget oral history, my dear.

 

[Plotinus]

It's Cyril and Methodius (or Kyrillos and Methodios if you want to be precise and unanglicised). In fact Cyril's real name was Constantine (he took the name Cyril later, when he became a monk in Rome).

 

[Pannonius]

It's Cyril and Methodius (or Kyrillos and Methodios if you want to be precise and unanglicised). In fact Cyril's real name was Constantine (he took the name Cyril later, when he became a monk in Rome).

Thanks, I didn't knew the right spelling in english, and was to lazy to check it. (One mortal sin allready, not bad! )

 

[LDeska]

Cyryl was christianizing Balkans - AFAIK he never visited Ukraine or Russia. He used Greek alphabet, added some new letters for new sounds that he heard in Slavic languages (those were South Slavic languages, not East Slavic) and that's how "cyrylica" alphabet was born. Later Russians used it, but it was invented somewhere in today's Bulgaria.

 

[Pannonius]

Yes, in fact, Cyril and Methodius learnt slavonic language in the vicinity of their native Thessalonica. Obviously, they found south Slavs there, and their dialect became the basis of Old Church Slavonic.

 

[sabo]

I can't believe this thread is still breathing.. First time I saw it was like about FOUR years ago.