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The alphabet they invented was adapted from
the Greek alphabet with the aim of assisting the spread of the Christian
literature and the purposes of the Church. It soon became first the
(written) language of a new liturgy and not long after a distinctive mark
of a new culture and Russian national identity. The conversion of the Slavs to
Christianity gave them the doors of wisdom, literacy and beauty. With their
primitive and unspoiled instincts, their vitality of their national folklore
and their eagerness to learn, the Slavs wholeheartedly adopted the Christian
civilization and contributed, particularly in arts and literature, its fare
share.
It was only with the establishment of the Orthodox Church that the
Russians started thinking of becoming literate and genuinely interested in
education, literature and the arts. The Church with its monasteries became the
center, though very limited, of all cultural and intellectual activity, but its
power never increased enough to replace the government of the ruling princes or
to control the life and welfare of the people as was the case with the papacy
for some time in certain places of Eastern Europe. It is also true that the
Church educational activity was often restricted by its rigidly established
ecclesiastical traditions, a common element in any system of religious beliefs,
or by its rather poorly qualified leadership which never ventured outside of
the prescribed canonical rules and the practice established by the first Greek
teachers. Nevertheless, Russian monks were the very first Russian copyists,
craftsmen, architects, builders, literary men and artists, and the Orthodox
Church was the first to initiate cultural ties with the outside world and begin
a sort of a 'cultural revolution' in their country.
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