Monument to Cyrillic Alphabet to Be Unveiled in Mongolia

A 5-meter-tall monument to the Cyrillic alphabet is to be unveiled by Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev during his visit to Mongolia on May 11.

President Plevneliev is in the country to mark 65 years since diplomatic relations were established between Bulgaria and Mongolia. Bilateral documents in education and agriculture are also to be signed during the visit in which the head of state is accompanied by a business delegation.

Introduced in the 1940s, the Cyrillic script makes Mongolia the only non-Slavic country whose population uses the alphabet created in the 9th century by St Kliment Orhirdski, a student of St Cyril and St Methodius, and adopted by Bulgarians, Serbians, Russians, and Macedonians.

Though the move by Mongolia to use the script has been subject to controversy, several governments in a row has argued that it has helped boost literacy among the population to nearly 100 percent.

In 2012, Mongolia also decided to erect a monument to St Cyril and St Methodius during another visit by a Bulgarian delegation, then led by Culture Minister Vezhdi Rashidov.