CONCILIAR WORD from the World Russian People’s Council.

CONCILIAR WORD from the World Russian People’s Council
March 10, 2005, Moscow

We, participants in the 9^th World Russian People’s Council – war and labour veterans, bishops and clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church, representatives of the Russian Church Outside Russia and the Old Belief, religious leaders of the Islamic, Jewish and Buddhist communities in Russia and several Christian confessions, leaders of legislative and executive bodies, military commanders, scientists, cultural figures, leaders of public organizations, journalists, businessmen, representatives of CIS and other countries – on the eve of the 60^th anniversary of the Great Victory in the Great Patriotic War, we appeal to all the citizens of Russia and other countries of the world.

Almost 60 years have passed since the Soviet soldier raised the Victory banner over the defeated Fascist Reichstag, marking the end of the most cruel and bloody war in human history. The complex processes taking place in today’s world once again compel us to reflect deeply on that historic event and its lessons and to think over the future world order.

The Victory cost us enormous losses and deprivations, incredible physical and spiritual strain of the people, indelible pain of the ruined cities and villages, millions of lives. It was achieved through the suffering of all the citizens of our vast country regardless of their beliefs and convictions. Their life and feat is a good example for the present and future generations.

We believe, the Victory of our people in the Great Patriotic War, just as other great victories gained in the defense of the Motherland from foreign invaders, will live for centuries and will never disappear from the historical memory of the nations of the world.

In plenary sessions and in sections, participants unanimously acknowledged the great historical merit of peoples in historical Russia for their victory over fascism. This is an appropriate answer to all those who try to falsify history today, to inculcate in the world public conscience a false idea that our country played a secondary role in that war. The historical truth is that it was the feat of arms accomplished by the Soviet Army and the heroism of our nation which sacrificed 27 millions of its citizens to the Victory that saved the world from the brown plague.

The war experience showed that the Victory was gained on the basis of the unprecedented unity of the government, army, nation, people of all nationalities and religions and the unity of weapons both spiritual and material. It was hammered in both people’s souls and metals by military leaders and soldiers in battlefields and by heroic work in home front.

The spiritual additive of the Victory is the spiritual power of the people and army based on the boundless love of the Motherland, glorious traditions laid down by our great ancestors, courage, heroism, readiness for sacrifice and wholehearted faith in Victory. The decades of persecution against religion could not eradicate age-old spiritual ideals from people’s souls. It was these ideals, not the ideology of theomachy, that proved to lie in the core of the fortitude of the people’s spirit which ensured the Victory.

We managed to hold out against the hard trials of war thanks to the firmness and heroism of the Russian people and all peoples united by history, both heroic and tragic. This is our common priceless legacy that should be cherished and strengthened. We appeal to the younger generation to love their people and their Motherland. Let us preserve the faith and memory of our ancestors and be worthy of them!

The memory of the war achievements of our people should not be limited to the last century. That is why it is so important that people should be called to mark in a national celebration another Victory Day – the 4^th of November declared from now on a national holiday called ‘The Day of National Unity’. May the marking of this day when the Time of Trouble ended in the 17^th century help us overcome the troubles of the 20^th century and unite us for meeting the challenges of time and for reviving Russia.

Sacred are the lessons of history. They remind us of not only the severer sacrifices and sufferings with which peoples paid for peace, life and freedom, but also the need to be prepared to rebuff claims to an exclusive global power, whoever they may come from and whatever honey-mouthed slogans may be used as their cover. Attempts to establish a one-polar and one-system world, to assert the ‘right of the powerful’ in settling international problems are fraught for most nations with a real threat to destroy their spiritual and material values. Military conflicts can be provoked under various pretexts both by terrorists and all those who seek global domination. This commits us to be continually concerned for the further consolidation of the security and defensive potential of our Motherland.

Russia is going through not the best times. The spiritual power of the people, which made it possible to win the Victory and to restore the ruined cities, villages, plants and cultural monuments in the shortest possible space of time, has weakened in many ways. Our country tends to suffer more and more defeats. In the end of the 20^th century, a great damage was inflicted on the national economy and welfare of the people; the age-old traditions of social justice were undermined. But Russia has proved more than once her ability to rise from her knees and restore her stately build. The basis of her revival will be found in return to the spiritual sources of the people’s unity. We call upon all our compatriots to renew in their souls the faith, moral ideal and willingness to live their life not for the sake of money, pleasure and entertainment, but for the sake of their neighbours and Motherland. Only thus will Russia remain a great country forever.

Being what we are, we should maintain full-fledged and equitable cooperation with all nations in East and West, North and South. We all who belong to the Russian civilization should define clearly our attitude to the worldview that is laid today in the basis of public and world order. The world Russian People’s Council, which has an experience of developing the Code of Moral Principals and Rules of Economic Activity, should make its own contribution to the formation of a national stand on freedom, individual rights and dignity and the place these values occupy in the system of traditional values inherent in our civilization. This stand will be developed with due consideration for the religious axiology inherent in Orthodoxy and other traditional religions in Russia.

Today the nations of the Earth have found themselves in the face of new threats. The world today is torn up by conflicts and controversies and shudders at the barbarous actions of international terrorists. We appeal to all nations. We need to oppose together the evil of terrorism and any attempt to establish the world dominion against people’s will. Solidarity in the struggle for a free, just and peaceful world should unite people of different nationalities, faiths and convictions, while preserving the national-cultural and religious identity of each.

The 9^th World Russian People’s Council appeals to the citizens of our Motherland, to Russian people throughout the face of the Earth, to all those who are far and who are near, to build together on our planet a quiet and peaceable life ‘in all godliness and honesty’ (1 Tim. 2:2).