The Slavonic alphabets - between Bulgaria and Byzantium

On 30 May, Thursday, at 19:00 in the "Sea Casino" – Burgas, in the "Georgi Baev" hall, a public lecture will be held on the topic "Slavic alphabets - between Bulgaria and Byzantium". The guest speaker will be Dr. Dimo Cheshmedjiev - professor at the Cyril and Methodius Scientific Centre at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and at the University of Plovdiv "Paisii Hilendarski". Professor. Cheshmedjiev is a world-renowned scholar, who has lectured at the Sorbonne in Paris, Lisbon, Rome, Kiev, Krakow and Venice. He is a close specialist in the issues of the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius and their disciples, as well as medieval ruler cults.
The present topic is related to an extremely important, but also quite politicised issue in recent times - that of the Slavonic alphabets. That is why we give the floor to the greatest specialists on the subject, in order to get the most objective information.
The first Slavic alphabet was created in Byzantium, by two Byzantines, regardless of their ethnic origin, for the purposes of Byzantine politics. Clear evidence of this is the famous place in chap. XIV of the Comprehensive Life of Constantine-Cyril the Philosopher (GC).Nowadays (almost) no one doubts that the first Slavic alphabet was the Glagolitic alphabet, created because of the so-called Moravian Mission. At this early stage of the development of the first Slavic alphabet, Bulgaria had no relation to it. By 862/863, when the Glagolitic alphabet was created, it was still a pagan country and had no need for an alphabet.
The Glagolitic alphabet appeared in Bulgaria after the defeat of the Byzantine mission in Moravia. Then some of the disciples of Cyril and Methodius - Clement, Nahum and Angelarius arrived in Bulgaria by the Danube to Belgrade, and the rest via Venice. In Bulgaria, the disciples of Cyril and Methodius were warmly received by the Bulgarian ruler Boris I. Two major educational and literary centres were established - in north-eastern and in south-western Bulgaria, then bearing the Bulgarian name of Kutmicevica (now the Republic of North Macedonia and South Albania). Enlightenment and literary activity was mainly concentrated in various monasteries and churches - in and near Pliska, Preslav, Ravna, Chernoglavtsi, Varna, Ohrid, Belgrade (today Berat, Albania), Glavinitsa, Bregalnitsa. Clement was sent as a preacher to southwestern Bulgaria. In northeastern Bulgaria this office was filled by Nahum. After Clement was ordained bishop in 893, Nahum was appointed in his place as preacher and teacher.
At the same time, the idea that the Glagolitic alphabet spread mainly in the south-western part of the Bulgarian state and the Cyrillic alphabet in north-western Bulgaria can no longer be maintained. The epigraphic material categorically refutes the opinion that the Glagolitic alphabet was not known in North-Eastern Bulgaria, that it was spread only in the South-Western areas, which is an undoubtedly political thesis!

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