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<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\nOn 4 November 2015, the feast day of the Kazan icon of the Mother of God and the Day of National Unity, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation and His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia led the opening of the 14th<\/sup> Public Forum and Exhibition this year called \u2018Orthodox Russia. My History. From Great Upheavals to the Great Victory\u2019 organized by the Patriarchal Council for Culture with support of the Moscow City Government.<\/p>\n
The \u2018She Who Reigns\u2019 icon of the Mother of God has been brought to Manezh from the church of the Kazan icon in Kolomenskoye. The head of the state and the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church put candles at the miraculous icon and venerated it. President Putin addressed those gathered at the opening, saying: \u2018Your Holiness, dear friends, I\u00a0congratulate you on\u00a0the\u00a0opening of\u00a0the annual exhibition in\u00a0the\u00a0Orthodox Russia cycle, timed to\u00a0commemorate the Day of National Unity.<\/p>\n
\u2018This educational project is the\u00a0result of\u00a0a\u00a0big joint effort by\u00a0the\u00a0Russian Orthodox Church and\u00a0leading research organizations, archives and\u00a0libraries, and\u00a0is evidence of\u00a0the\u00a0growing deep and\u00a0real interest in\u00a0Russia\u2019s history and\u00a0in\u00a0our spiritual roots and\u00a0origins. I\u00a0want to\u00a0thank sincerely the\u00a0organizers and\u00a0participants for\u00a0their work.<\/p>\n
\u2018This extensive exhibition\u2019s central theme is the\u00a0period from 1914 to\u00a01945, a\u00a0time of\u00a0World Wars, revolutions and\u00a0upheavals. It was the\u00a0time when old foundations shattered, destinies crumbled and\u00a0millions of\u00a0people became the\u00a0victims of\u00a0cruel social experiments.<\/p>\n
\u2018But even in\u00a0those hard and\u00a0difficult conditions people lived, created, made discoveries and\u00a0achieved breakthroughs, always remembering what was most important when our homeland was in\u00a0danger. They understood the\u00a0importance of\u00a0unity and\u00a0drew strength from, eternal values and\u00a0lofty moral ideals. Ideological stereotypes faded before the\u00a0real historical Russia.<\/p>\n
\u2018Love for\u00a0the\u00a0Motherland was the\u00a0strongest and\u00a0all-vanquishing emotion. It inspired, helped and\u00a0saved. This was how our people came through the\u00a01941\u20131945 Great Patriotic War and\u00a0not just survived, but preserved and\u00a0strengthened our statehood and\u00a0brought peace and\u00a0liberation to\u00a0the\u00a0enslaved peoples of\u00a0Europe.<\/p>\n
\u2018This year we celebrated our big national holiday\u00a0\u2013 the\u00a070th<\/sup>\u00a0anniversary of\u00a0the\u00a0Great Victory, which was an\u00a0event of\u00a0tremendous historical and\u00a0moral importance, a\u00a0source of\u00a0unquestionable pride and\u00a0respect, and\u00a0the\u00a0symbol of\u00a0our people\u2019s heroism. This is our history, and it is our duty to\u00a0know this history, respect it in\u00a0full and\u00a0without passing anything over in\u00a0silence, to\u00a0learn and\u00a0remember its lessons, and\u00a0respect and\u00a0value this past experience.<\/p>\n \u2018I\u00a0am confident that this exhibition, based on\u00a0authentic evidence and\u00a0documents with the use of\u00a0the\u00a0latest technology, will be interesting to\u00a0people of\u00a0all generations and ages, including young people. This is all the\u00a0more true as\u00a0the\u00a0exhibition will take place not just here in\u00a0the\u00a0capital, but in\u00a0other Russian cities, too.<\/p>\n \u2018It is important that visitors and\u00a0guests will have a\u00a0chance to\u00a0take a\u00a0new look at the well-known events and\u00a0facts and\u00a0form their own views and\u00a0impressions. Once again, I\u00a0congratulate you on\u00a0the\u00a0opening of\u00a0this exhibition and wish you success and\u00a0all the\u00a0very best.<\/p>\n \u2018Happy holiday!\u2019<\/p>\n His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia cordially greeted those gathered with the remarkable event saying:<\/p>\n \u2018A miraculous icon of the Mother of God called \u2018She Who Reigns\u2019, which you see in the centre of the exhibition hall, has a special place in history. It was found in the cellar of the church in the village of Kolomenskoye, now a part of Moscow, on the day of Emperor Nicholas II\u2019 abdication. The best minds of Russia took the finding of the icon as a God\u2019s sign. The tsar had gone, but the Mother of God took over the leadership of the country and has always interceded for it. We have experienced suffering, grief and trials, but have remained a great and strong country with our own identity, which we have not lost, while other countries on the European continent are losing their identity. We believe in the intercession of the Mother of God and say to all domestic and foreign adversaries of Russia: \u2018\u201dLeave us alone! The intercession of the Mother of God is with us!<\/p>\n \u2018The exhibition is dedicated to the difficult time in the history of our country. We all know about the disorder during the years after the Revolution and the clash of class, social, political and economic interests, about attempts to ruin the country.<\/p>\n A lot of blood was shed, and millions of people were ousted from the country. We know that the 30s were also difficult because of a lot of injustice and wrongdoings, and we should never forget it. Yet, there would not be modern Russia without the exploit of the generations before us who founded industry, science and defensive power of the country. We should not doubt successes of a state leader, who stood at the origins of the revival and modernization of the country, even if he committed crimes. \u2018I do hope that the exhibition would help us comprehend the glory of our people’s heroism in the 20s, 30s and 40s and see the hardships and understand that in order to love our Motherland we should not exclude any historical period from the historical memory, but take it with common sense and clear moral perception. Then truth will be separated from lies, and the good from the evil. May the Lord help our Fatherland to concentrate, to overcome the hardships of the past and go ahead. Today we have all opportunities to do it.<\/p>\n \u2018I would like to cordially greet you, highly respected Vladimir Vladimirovich and thank you for taking part in the opening of this exhibition. We pray now as at every divine service: May God\u2019s blessing be with the Russian state, the authorities, the army and the entire nation.\u2019<\/p>\n After seeing the exhibition, President Putin and His Holiness Patriarch Kirill signed the book of honorary guests.<\/p>\n Among those attending the ceremony were chief of the Presidential Administration Sergei Ivanov; Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin; Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky; Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna; Metropolitan Varsonofy of St.Petersburg and Ladoga, chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate; Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Department for External Church Relations; and Metropolitan Arseny of Istra, first Patriarchal vicar.<\/p>\n Among the visitors were representatives of state authorities, hierarchs and heads of the Synodal Departments of the Russian Orthodox Church, heads of religious communities and representatives of the national public association of Russia, as well as guests from the Local Orthodox Churches Metropolitan Isaias of Tamasos and Oreini, Orthodox Church of Cyprus, and Metropolitan Nikolaos of Mesogaia and Laureotiki, Orthodox Church of Greece.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On 4 November 2015, the feast day of the Kazan icon of the Mother of God and the Day of National Unity, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation and His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia led the opening of the 14th Public Forum and Exhibition this year called \u2018Orthodox Russia. My History. From Great Upheavals to the Great Victory\u2019 organized by the Patriarchal Council for Culture with support of the Moscow City Government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":124694,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.mospat.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124689"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.mospat.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.mospat.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.mospat.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.mospat.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/old.mospat.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.mospat.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.mospat.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.mospat.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.mospat.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWhere there were will, strength, intellect, political resolve, we call it resounding success as in the case of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, while where there were blood, injustice and sufferings, we say that it is unacceptable for us, people of the 21st<\/sup> century.
\n\u2018We arraign these historical characters before God’s judgment, but the drawbacks should not entitle us to exclude all the positive that has been done. Also, all the positive done by certain people should not exclude critical attitude to crimes they had perpetrated.<\/p>\n