Guests of the lecture will get acquainted with early dialects, the origin of Old Church Slavonic, Old Russian, and Church Slavonic languages, will refer to the first written texts, and trace what has survived from the distant past in modern speech. To understand how the modern Russian language developed, participants will look at the early stages of writing and will see that language is a living system that changed along with culture and society. One of the central themes of the lecture will be early dialects. Listeners will learn what role they played and why the discussion about the origin of the Russian language cannot be reduced to a single starting point. Then the focus will shift to Old Church Slavonic, Old Russian, and Church Slavonic languages, their emergence, differences, and connections. Examples of early texts will illustrate how written speech looked in past eras. Special attention will be given to the Old Church Slavonic heritage. The lecture will be led by Alexandra Petrova, a Russianist. Entertainment in Moscow is gathered on our website.