Abstract:

Thе article represents memories of Rostislav Vladimirovich Polchaninov, a historian and a social activist (USA) about his life in Yugoslavia in the early 30-ies of the XX century, his study at school and particuarly about the lessons of the Serbo-Croatian language history. The author dwells upon the history of the Serbian and Croatian literature and literacy, compares Slavic languages finding similarities and differences. The author describes the characteristic features of Serbo-Croatian dialects and compares them with the dialects of the Russian language. In conclusion, the author discusses the influence of other languages on Serbo-Croatian and the need for Russian to follow the example of the South Slavs languages in the fight against foreign words.

Keywords: Russian abroad, Yugoslavia, Serbo-Croatian language, history of Slavic literacy, Serbian dialects, Croatian dialects, Glagolitic