hmm..wow..;)
Cyrillic comes from St. Cyril, a Greek monk who came up with a 'Cyrillic' alphabet to be able to spread the Bible into Russian lands. This has been going on for centuries, and even today missionaries spend time coming up with ways to translate the Bible into various languages that don't have the written word.  Cyril had to make up a few letters for sounds that require several letters  in Latin (Cyrillic is based on Greek, Cy bein' Orthodox and all..;) So it depends on the country (Poland is one of the few countries  in Eastern Europe that actually went Catholic as opposed to Orthodox, so that explains some of the 'bad blood' between them and Russians, and how they wound up with the 'Roman' alphabet..;)

Actually, the 'Latin' alphabet didn't start out with 26 letters, more like 22. Ol' Claudius tried to shoehorn some more in, but they faded with his death. As mentioned above, various peoples have had to add cedillias, diacritical marks, add letters, and take some away (the Yogue [sp?] and thorn- all those 'ye's you see in old signs, etc., are actually 'thee', because a long y symbol  was a 'th' sound). Middle English (well, actually later than that, up to the 18th) century, those 'ffs were actually 's' sounds. Such is progress..;)

Joseph is a New Testament name (though I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't go farther back), so I guess that follows the rule (?).  Leon and Vladimir, I suppose they're Russian (I'm pretty sure there were some Vladimirs out there). Russian names usually break out into first, then the middle, which usually comes from mother  or father (Dmitrovich for a male, or Martanova, for a woman, for example. I.e., son of Dmitri, or daughter of Marta), then the last name.

Revolutionaries in Czarist Russian had 'revolutionary' names, in part to avoid being caught by the Czarist secret police (the Okhrana). Lenin comes from being exiled to the Russian east, it comes from the Lena river, which he went on the trip over. Stalin, is the Man of Steel (makes you wonder about those pinkos who came up with Superman..;), Trotsky, I got no idea..;)

As I understand it, Jesus was a Jew, and thought of himself as one. It was Paul (who hijacked most of the New Testament, which is a large part of 'collected letters of'), who went to the Gentiles (non-Jews, except for Mormons, who refer to non-Mormans as Gentiles, including Jews..I don't understand it, I'm just explaining it..;) There have been some complications since then, but things are more or less under control..;)

Until fairly recently (the 90's), anti-Semitism was alive and well (actually, there's neo-Nazis in Russia..still trying to wrap my head around that...;) The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (nothing to do with the Matrix..;) had a colorful career in Russia, and their pogroms didn't end with the October (actually November, the Russian calender was weeks behind ours..;) Revolution, they just threw more groups in there.

I wish I'd said that.. The Staircase Wit

anahl nathrak uth vas betude doth yel dyenvey..;)