Message from the participants in the 11th International Educational Christmas Readings to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir V. Putin

MESSAGE
FROM THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE 11TH INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAL CHRISTMAS READINGS TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION VLADIMIR V. PUTIN

Esteemed Vladimir Vladimirovich,

Every year, the International Christmas Readings acquire an increasingly broad scale. They gather people from almost all Russian regions and social strata – not only teachers and clergy, but also scholars, statesmen, businessmen, writers, artists and student youth.

As participants in the 11th International Educational Christmas Readings, we are unanimous that the study of Orthodox culture in Russian federal and municipal educational institutions needs governmental and social support. We regard as crucial that the state should follow a consistent education policy in compliance with the National Doctrine on Education and international documents on rights of the child stating the priority of studying the national culture in public education. The Orthodox tradition plays an exceptional part in life of our people and the state. Its study should be an essential element of public education.

Down the centuries, Orthodoxy has formed the Russian culture and social morality, has built spiritual foundations of the Russian family and has had a profound effect on the development of life in Russia as a whole.

Today, the overwhelming majority of Russians continue to identify themselves with Orthodoxy. It is not accidental. In the time of unrest and ordeals, our people have always resorted to the saving protection of the Church, acknowledging the priority of the spiritual basis in life. Without God, the human existence loses its meaning, moral principles dissipate, family is destroyed, society degenerates and the state weakens.

It is only by joint actions of the Church, society and the state that we will be able to cope with negative tendencies in the development of our country. We are calling upon all responsible people who are in power to do their duty before God, their Fatherland and their nation.

Extremism threatening to become one of the most dreadful disasters in the 21st century is a direct continuation and consequence of neglect towards human individuality and its spiritual essence. Through the 20th century, extremism was ideologically asserted and put into practice by totalitarian regimes. Therefore, recurrences of militant atheism cause a great anxiety. Atheistic extremism is no better than fascism. Organizers of the blasphemous exhibition disparaging the name of Academician A. Sakharov who himself was a grandson of an Orthodox priest should be subjected to hard penalty.

The participants in the Readings emphasize the inadmissibility of desecrating Orthodox shrines in the Solovki Islands. The monastery that has been created by Orthodox ascetics during five centuries and continues to keep the memory of the Holy New Martyrs of the 20th century, is endangered to become an object of intense commercial activity. It is impermissible to build entertainment centers in a holy place. Please prevent this unlawful action.

Though the Law on the Freedom of Conscience has been adopted, the Russian secular school as a whole is still atheistic. The educational system remains under a dramatic impact of ideology. At the same time our society that has been deprived of human values for about a century stands in an acute need of religious education.

The alienation of Russian secular school from spiritual and moral traditions of Orthodoxy continues to be one of root causes preventing us from reviving the national economy and culture, overcoming the demographic crisis in our society, solving many other problems crucial for society, such as growing crime, drug addiction and disintegration of families.

Everything possible should be done to ensure the free study of Orthodox Culture in the Russian school, without violating children’s rights and with interests of parents, students, teachers taken into account for the benefit of our society and state.

It is with bitterness that the participants in the Readings point to the oppressive state of Russian culture today. Is it true that the country that has given Pushkin, Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy to the world can offer nothing to its own people but a loathsome mixture of vulgarity, violence and lechery. These are continually poured on us from TV and the gutter press, which is distributed completely unrestricted, and no decent person can read it, let alone a child. Driven by love of gain, irresponsible people obsessed by sinful passions disseminate poisonous seeds of evil and violence around them. They try to kill the desire of vulnerable children’s souls for true spiritual culture, to extirpate out of people the desire for inviolable family values and moral responsibility before their relatives and friends and to eradicate their love of their native land.

You as President cannot be indifferent to the future of Russia. We call upon you to find ways for defending the spiritual and moral well-being of our children and supporting efforts made by the sound social forces to introduce the traditional culture, spirituality and morality of the Russian peoples into public education.

Esteemed Vladimir Vladimirovich, we are grateful to you for your continual attention to the Russian Orthodox Church and problems of Russian education. We thank you for your assistance to the annual International Educational Christmas Readings – it is through your help that the ceremony of their opening is traditionally held at the State Kremlin Palace. We hope that the work aimed at the spiritual and moral revival of Russia, so necessary for our people today, will meet with your full support.