<p align="justify"><strong>Russian is written using a modified version of the Cyrillic alphabet.</strong> The <strong>Cyrillic</strong> (pronounced /siˈrɪlɪk/*) <strong>script</strong> writing system is an alphabet developed in the <strong>9th-10th century</strong>, and used in the Slavic national languages of Belarusian, Bulgarian, Russian, Rusyn, Bosnian, Serbian, FYR Macedonia, and Ukrainian, and in the non-Slavic languages of Moldovan, Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Tuvan, and Mongolian. </p>
<p align="justify">The Cyrillic alphabet is named after <strong>St. Cyril</strong>, a missionary from Byzantium. <strong>Saints Cyril and Methodius</strong>, two Greek brothers are usually credited with devising the <strong>Glagolitic alphabet</strong>, the first alphabet used to transcribe the Old Church Slavonic language. Some believe that Cyrillic alphabet was based on Glagolitic and Greek and was invented sometime during the 10th century AD, possibly by one of St. Cyrill and Methodius'disciples - <strong>St. Kliment of Ohrid</strong>. </p>
<p align="justify">The Cyrillic alphabet achieved its current form in <strong>1708</strong> during the reign of <strong>Peter the Great.</strong> Four letters were eliminated from the alphabet in a 1917/18 reform. </p>
<p align="justify">The Cyrillic alphabet has been adapted to write over 50 different languages, mainly in Russia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. In many cases additional letters are used, some of which are adaptations of standard Cyrillic letters, while others are taken from the Greek or Latin alphabets.</p>
<p align="justify">*<em> Transcription is based on the <u>International Phonetic Alphabet</u>. The IPA stress mark (<span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA"><font>ˈ</font></span>) comes <u>before</u> the syllable that has the stress, in contrast to stress marking in some US American dictionaries.</em></p>
<p align="justify"><strong> Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabet is one and the same thing. Is it true or false? </strong></p>