The Word of the Council

THE WORD OF THE COUNCIL

The 6th World Russian People’s Council addresses this word to all compatriots who live in Russia, in the territory of the Community of the Independent States and in various countries of the world – to all who are far and who are near.

The Council was attended by statesmen from Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine, hierarchs and clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church, religious leaders of Islam and other traditional religions, Parliament members, leaders of public organizations, military commanders, scholars, businessmen, publicists, renowned intellectuals and delegates of the Russian community abroad. We gave a thoughtful and fair consideration to the theme of the Council “Russia: Faith and Civilization. Dialogue of Epochs”. The discussion on today’s complicated reality has led us to the following conclusion.

Every epoch presents a unique picture composed by millions of people. Some leave behind them the traces of constructive creation, while others the traces of hatred and destruction. Some burn to ashes and destroy without thinking of the consequences, while others restore all that has been destroyed and fill the world with new ideas, giving a chance of survival and development to man and consequently to the global civilization.

The 20th century has passed into history as a century of nuclear and space discoveries, impressive achievements of the human hands, but at the same time a century of revolutionary upheavals and wars, a century of an unprecedented moral crisis, which has left behind a host of unsolved problems. Having experienced a period of trials, Russia is entering the third millennium free of the shackles of state atheism. This opens up for her a way to the rebirth of her unique historical image as a great power which stands firmly on the foundations of millennium-long symphony between state and faith, as a country open to the world in a dignified way and capable of defending her values and interests and ready for dialogue on equal footing with the world community and particular states.

The world is restless again. In recent years we have become witnesses to terrible crimes and human tragedies in the Balkans and the Middle East, New York and Washington, the North Caucasus and other trouble spots in the Community of the Independent States. These developments have shown that there are no victors and the defeated, the strong and the weak, but the human being with his thirst for life, pains and joys, – the human being who has found himself on the brink of an abyss beyond which there are hatred and fear, death and oblivion. We have seen again how fragile the human common house is. Challenged today are many foundations of the world order that seemed to be unshakable before.

We declare resolutely: terrorism and any aggressive violence should be rebuffed in the toughest possible way. We support the efforts of Russia and the world community to curb this most terrible evil of the 20th century, whoever may spread it and wherever death and destruction may be sown – Chechnya or America, Spain or Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Macedonia or the Holy Land. Let the culprits be brought to justice and their pernicious plans be never realized.

At the same time, all countries should increase their work to overcome both economic and political injustice in the world, The world order should be rebuilt on principles of multipolarity and multiformity, enabling every nation to develop freely and according to its traditions, worldview, faith and time-honoured models of political, informational and cultural order. Nobody should become subject to the imposition of alien values or political organization of state or systems of education and formation. Each nation should be guaranteed a proportional participation in the international decision-making. Modern economy should be organized in such a way as to allow any ordinary worker to be paid adequately for his diligent and fruitful work. Only under these conditions the modern world will become more just, while terrorists will not be able to seek to find false self-justification for their crimes in real problems of humanity.

The world today cannot be built only on the basis of one civilization model, one worldview, one religion. Any attempt to establish an ideological monopoly on the spiritual and philosophical principles of global development is fraught with serious danger. Categorically wrong are those who claim such a monopoly, be they proponents of Western liberal humanism, who put the temporal human interests above other values, or radical forces in the religious environment, who allow of imposition of faith by force. Whoever claims that only his worldview is universal, progressive and “common human” sets himself to against other people, for he tries to push them to the margins of history. It is inadmissible to suppress the will of the individual and society, the spiritual and cultural sphere of their life for the sake of an obscure “welfare” in future, thus provoking an inevitable rebuff. The right to chose one’s own way in life, to seek a just world order, to preserve one’s national and cultural identity is one of the most important rights of the individual and nation. Only that global human community which harmonizes different cultures and worldviews in their free existence will be sustainable and peaceful.

We totally disagree with the gloomy predictions of an impending clash between the Christian and the Islamic civilizations. Deploring the attempts to identify all the Muslims with a handful of terrorists, who have violated the commandments of any faith, we call to develop interreligious dialogue and cooperation. Only together will we be able to defeat terrorism and build a lasting peace.

Problems arising in relations between adherents of Christianity and Islam do not stem from their teachings and more often than not are peaceful in character. They are rather consequences of the political, economic and military confrontation of powers that be. We are united by too many things to allow the forces of darkness to make us clash.

Common threats and dangers require a common response of all good-intentioned people in the world. Nobody today can withdraw to oneself, ignoring the need to decide the fate of humanity and, therefore, one’s own fate. It is necessary for Russia as a country open to East, West and South, to take a most active part in the European and global processes. Our country should not forget however that she is one of the pillars of the Eastern Christian world and the center of an independent civilization with its own view of the world order and the spiritual and moral foundations of society and state.

The Council has supported the principles set forth in the Basic Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church. We declare that the idea of mutually conditioned existence of church, nation and state, expressed in this document, is correspondent with the interests of today’s Russia, in which religious people seek to consolidate social peace and accord through commitment to their spiritual traditions, alliance with traditional religions and comprehensive cooperation with people of other faiths and non-believers.

Russia has a rich experience of cooperation among Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. We have lived together for long centuries, participating together in building the state and peace and accord among its peoples. Cooperation between followers of the traditional religions developed successfully in the pre-Revolutionary years and in the Soviet period and in the last decade. Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Jews, and Buddhists – all experienced great disasters: wars, revolutions, atheistic persecution, and have come out of them a unified nation. The friendship of peoples and religions is not an empty word for us, but a real experience that has been formed through centuries and has been much suffered for. This experience can now become useful to humanity as never before.

Our civilization becomes part of one world in which nations are closely connected with one another. But we should not dissolve in this “melting pot”, for we are called to preserve our faith, culture and identity. Moreover, we have something to say to those around us. The values characteristic of the Russian civilization, such as faith, self-sacrifice, self-restriction, priority of the eternal over the temporal, will be certainly needed by people in all continents, restless in their search for the Truth and ways out of the moral crisis.

Our country may not be as strong externally as it was before, but we believe that with God’s help the wisdom and spiritual power of our people will help Russia occupy a worthy place in the world and lead it to a better future and the adherence to the ideals of faith, love and truth.