Russian language, brief history

We are not afraid to die of bullets,
It is not hard to stay homeless,
But we will preserve you, the Russian speech,
The great Russian word.
Anna Akhmatova

As is known, the Russian language is considered one of the largest languages in the world. It is the most common among Slavic languages. It is the only state language of the Russian Federation. Also the Russian language is an official language in many countries and one of the six UN official languages.

The ancestor of the modern Russian was the ancient Russian or East Slavic language, consisting of two eras: pre-literate and literate. After the collapse of the Old Russian in the 16th century, there was the Great Russian, which was based on a variety of dialects of the north and south.

A huge contribution to the development of the Russian language was made by Cyril and Methodius. Being born in Byzantium, they were familiar with the Slavic customs and speech from their childhood. Their father gave them a good education, but they refused to build a career like their father, and went to the service of God. Later, in 863, the ambassadors of Knyaz Rostislav arrived, asking for a teacher of writing for writing the words of the Lord. Cyril and Methodius were sent to this mission. They created the Slavic alphabet, but the Cyrillic characters were created much later, after the death of Cyril and Methodius, by their scholars.

It should also be noted that Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov did a lot for the Russian language. Actually the new Russian language started with him. Lomonosov introduced the pseudo-classicism in the Russian literature, which lasted the entire 18th century. Lomonosov was a reformer who introduced new rhythms, values and standards. He wrote and published such works as “Russian Grammar”, “Letter on rules of Russian poetry writing”. Lomonosov created strict scientific rules for the grammar, many of which are still used. Having studied the living Russian language, Lomonosov identified three groups of “dialects”: Moscow, north and Little Russian. The modern spelling was created by M.V. Lomonosov.

Finishing touches in the Russian language were made by A.S. Pushkin. The Russian language as we are used to it now is largely his work. He enriched and diversified our speech. Due to his works, many hundreds of thousands of ordinary people of that time were interested in grammar. Pushkin not only created something new, but also pointed the way for many future poets.

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