The Cyrillic alphabet devised by St. Cyril in the 10th century for the Slavs and it is based loosely on the Greek alphabet.
Cyril and Methodist two Orthodox Christian Missionary brothers, were sent on a mission by Photios, the Great, the Patriarch of Constantinople to the Slavs in order to bring Christianity to them.
The alphabet was written to help in the study of the Christian faith. The Serbian, Ukrainian, Russian Orthodox Churches use that alphabet as well as the old Slavonic language.
The missionaries were imprisoned on their way through western Europe because certain Germanic princes, who were loyal to the Roman Pope, did not want the Faith taught to the Slavs in Moravia. Geeze, Politics, is and was always some kind of weird problem!! Anyway....They were released after Photios made an appeal to Rome.
Both missionaries are considered Saints by the Roman and Eastern Orthodox Churches because of their impact in the spread of Christianity in Europe.
Why?
I have learned to read end write both Latin and Serbian Cyrilic alphabet at the age 6-7 in primary school in Yugoslavia.It was a common norm at that time.But,somehow,I was always writing in Latin,espetially since the age of 10 when I was beggining to learn English in school!And,majority of my friends were the same.Till 1991 90% of Serbian press and books were printed in Latin Alphabet.Since 91 attempts were made to reintroduce Serbian Cyrilic Alphabet,again,to a certain extent but very few people cares about that.Serbs read easily both alphabets so there`s no problem.The problem is that I don`t want to throw away my IBM or Smith Corona typewriter(in latin) and by a knew one in Cyrilic!
Serbian Cyrilic alphabet is a wonderfull,and was introduced in mid 19th century by a Serbian scholar Vuk Karadzich!The beauty of it is that it is PHONETIC(one letter one voice) and the most economical alphabet in the world.It is different from Russian and other alphabets.But,computers,movies,etc.are in English and English language being a lingua franca of modern civilisation is slowly,pushing out other alphabets!That is reality!Introduction of foreign words in native language is normal.For instance,it is very cumbersome to explain computer terms or many technical terms in other language but English!So,you addopt them and they become a part of normal,contemporary language!