Rem Simonov

As a result of Peter the Great’s reforms, in early 18th century Russia formally adopted Arabic numerical system with its ten symbols; 1,2,3,4, .5,6,7,8,9,0. Before that, the country had used the so-called Slavic alphabetic numerical system consisting of 27 symbols. The earliest examples of its usage are known from Cyrillic writings dating back to the 10th century. According to the mainstream view, the Slavic system was created on the basis of Cyrillic alphabet. The article challenges this hypothesis by indicating that the numerical system found in the early Cyrillic sources closely resembled the 27-symbol Byzantine system.