Church-Slavonic language in the context of Russian culture

Problem and purpose. The Church Slavonic language as the language of theology, church service and, liturgical language until the XVIII century was not only the language of the church, but also the book language in Russia. Slavicisms borrowed from Church-Slavonic play a significant role in Russian literary language: scholars stress their stylistic, etiquette and genre functions. The purpose of the article is to determine the importance of the Church Slavonic language (“the language of noble culture”, an inexhaustible source of deep understanding of the Russian word) in the formation of the Russian literary language on the national basis; to present the main facts showing the attitude to it during the Petrine epoch and Pushkinian literary environment, its unfading significance for contemporary culture. The methodology of the research is based on linguo-stylistic analysis of the study results concerning the functions of the old Slavonic language slavicisms in the Russian language. The research is also backed by the works of V. K. Trediakovsky, F.F Fortunatov, V. V. Vinogradov, V. M. Zhivov, and others. Conclusion. The return of elements of the Church Slavonic language to the culture of the post-Soviet period will have a positive impact on its popularization and strengthening its effect on spiritual and linguistic searches in our new times.