The XXI World Russian People's Council opened in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Vyacheslav Volodin and Patriarch Kirill discussed Russian statehood, revolutions and biotechnology 21 Russian People's Council

On November 1, 2017, a plenary session of the XXI World Russian People's Council was held in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Representatives of all branches of government, leaders of parties, public associations, representatives of law enforcement agencies, the highest clergy of traditional religions, scientists, educators and cultural figures, delegates of Russian communities from near and far abroad took part in the work of the VRNS.

This year, the agenda of the Council includes the topic “Russia in the 21st century: historical experience and development prospects.” Analyzing the experience of the state and people over the past 100 years since the October Revolution, the speakers drew alarming parallels with modern times. At the same time, many pointed out the obvious instability of the “stable development” that officials are enthusiastically proclaiming from high stands today.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian Empire also experienced stable economic growth, but the subsequent First World War, geopolitical provocations, active revolutionary propaganda within the country, disintegration in the ranks of the intelligentsia and the state elite, and the rapid disunity of society - all this soon led the state to the disaster of 1917.

Russia is still experiencing the echoes and consequences of the October coup, further civil massacres, brutal repressions and spiritual and cultural deformation. The population, like a century ago, is divided: the people, the authorities, the elite, business, culture - often the vectors of their existence are multidirectional.

"New dialogue of peoples"

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' spoke in his speech about the danger of the observed trend, when the “elite” begins to actively distance itself from the people.

“I think the image of the future is the image of the people and the image of the elite who have achieved complementarity. The elite are not those who have risen above the people, the real elite are those who have accepted responsibility for the fate of the country, who identify personal interests with national and state interests,” the patriarch noted.

At the same time, the main conflict of the 21st century, in his opinion, lies not in the clash of states, cultures, religions and nations, but in the tendency of a global change in consciousness, aggressive dehumanization.

According to him, the true alternative to this process is “not a war of all against all, but a new dialogue of peoples.”

“This is a dialogue aimed at restoring value unity, within the framework of which each of the civilizations, including ours, Russian, could exist while maintaining its identity. Only within the framework of such a dialogue will we be able to find answers to questions about how to defeat terrorism, how to protect the traditional family and the right of unborn babies to life, how to ensure migration balance, defeat hunger and epidemics, how to respect each other’s beliefs, understanding that freedom there must be moral restrictions,” the Patriarch concluded.

The theme of public unity was also supported by State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin. In his speech, he called on “to draw conclusions from the past in order to move forward more confidently and effectively solve the problems of the country’s development.”

V. Volodin expressed confidence that, since the structure and characteristics of Russia were formed as a result of the thousand-year history of the cohabitation of hundreds of peoples with different cultures and religions, sustainable and evolutionary development based on dialogue and mutual understanding is extremely important for the country.

National question and intercultural dialogue

During the meeting of the VRNC, much attention was paid to the development of interethnic and interfaith interaction and the prevention of conflicts on this basis. As the head of the Federal Agency for National Affairs, Igor Barinov, emphasized in his speech, speculation in matters of national policy is unacceptable, since “national policy in our country is an extremely sensitive area, affecting the most personal and intimate that is in each of us.”

MOSCOW, November 1. /TASS/. The meeting of the XXI World Russian People's Council (VRNS) took place on Wednesday in Moscow. The participants - religious figures, leaders of political parties, government officials, public figures and creative intellectuals - discussed the key topic of the meeting: "Russia in the 21st century: historical experience and development prospects."

As Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' noted, society, having gone through the schisms and conflicts of the past century, is beginning to realize the value of national reconciliation and unity. “This unification and reconciliation gives us confidence that the country and society will not stumble and fall into a historical abyss, as happened in early 1917,” he said.

According to the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, revolutionary events begin from the moment the ruling elites cannot adequately respond to current challenges and tasks. The Patriarch emphasized that “the elites and the people must be an inseparable, single whole.”

Volodin expressed confidence that, since the structure and characteristics of Russia were formed as a result of the thousand-year history of the cohabitation of hundreds of peoples with different cultures and religions, sustainable and evolutionary development based on dialogue and mutual understanding is extremely important for the country.

The future of the country belongs to educated people

VRNS participants could not help but touch upon the issues and problems facing the Russian education system. Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, head of Rosobrnadzor Sergei Kravtsov expressed the opinion that Russian universities need mandatory examination of textbooks and suggested paying more attention to the moral education of students.

“Obviously, it is necessary to address this issue based on the values that unite the multinational peoples of Russia, based on the historical development of our country, family values. I want to emphasize that the moral education of students and youth is an extremely important task for the sustainable and effective development of our country,” - he said.

In turn, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' noted that the development of our own scientific and teaching schools, taking into account global trends, will help preserve the country’s independence in the 21st century and called for “restoring and developing our own scientific and teaching schools, promoting our methodological developments.”

“This will cause resistance from supporters of global education standards, but there is no need to be afraid of this, because at the same time it will attract keen international interest. Russian education can become a model, the same as Russian science or Russian literature,” added the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.

“Relying on one’s own cultural developments and one’s way of thinking while taking into account global trends and achievements of science and technology will allow one to maintain sovereignty in the 21st century,” he emphasized.

National question and intercultural dialogue

During the meeting of the World Russian People's Council, much attention was paid to the development of interethnic and interfaith interaction and the prevention of conflicts on this basis. As the head of the Federal Agency for National Affairs, Igor Barinov, emphasized in his speech, speculation in matters of national policy is unacceptable, since “national policy in our country is an extremely sensitive area, affecting the most personal and intimate that is in each of us.”

He added that the unifying force for the residents of the country today is the concept of all-Russian identity. “A feature is a multi-level identity - national, religious, cultural. But in strengthening peace and harmony, the leading one is still the all-Russian identity, which allows a person throughout the vast territory from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok and from Chechnya to Chukotka to feel like a citizen of Russia,” Barinov emphasized .

Unified moral value system

“When I listened to the speeches today, I realized that despite all the differences in views, we are all like-minded, because we start from the same single moral system of values. Now, if, God forbid, we cease to have this common moral basis, if we have different value systems, then the people will lose their unity and the country will not be held back by any laws or force,” said Patriarch Kirill, concluding the meeting of the 21st World Russian People’s Council.

According to the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, the main significance of the Russian People's Council is that, with all the diversity of views, approaches, and points of view, we can clearly demonstrate that in the deepest foundations of our existence, our people are united."

Opening of the XXI World Russian People's Council. Photo by A. Egortsev

On November 1, the opening of the XXI World Russian People's Council took place in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Representatives of all branches of government, leaders of parties, public associations, representatives of law enforcement agencies, the highest clergy of traditional religions, scientists, educators and cultural figures, delegates of Russian communities from near and far abroad took part in the work of the VRNS.

Patriarch Kirill also spoke about the danger of the observed trend, when the “elite” begins to actively distance itself from the people.

At the same time, the main conflict of the 21st century, according to the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, is not at all the clash of states, cultures, religions and nations, but the trend of a global change in consciousness, aggressive dehumanization.

“In my opinion, the most acute conflict of our time is not the “clash of civilizations” declared by the American philosopher Samuel Huntington, not the struggle of religious and national cultures among themselves, as the powers that be often want to imagine, and not even the confrontation between East and West, North and South, but a clash of the transnational, radical, secular globalist project with all traditional cultures and with all local civilizations. The true alternative to this process is not a “war of all against all”... but a new dialogue of peoples... This is a dialogue aimed at restoring value unity, within the framework of which each of the civilizations, including ours, Russian, could exist, preserving its identity. Only within the framework of such a dialogue will we be able to find answers to questions about how to defeat terrorism, how to protect the traditional family and the right of unborn babies to life, how to ensure migration balance, defeat hunger and epidemics, how to respect each other’s beliefs, understanding that freedom there must be moral restrictions,” Patriarch Kirill concluded in his speech.

The World Russian People's Council is the largest public forum and intellectual center that represents the interests of the Russian people in the face of power, while uniting representatives of different faiths and nationalities, remaining in the positions of patriotism, statehood and common sense.

On November 1, 2017 in Moscow, in the hall of church councils of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, under the chairmanship of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', the XXI World Russian People's Council (VRNS) opened on the topic “Russia in the 21st century: historical experience and development prospects.”

Representatives of all branches of government, leaders of parties, public associations, representatives of law enforcement agencies, the highest clergy of traditional religions, scientists, educators and cultural figures, delegates of Russian communities from near and far abroad traditionally take part in the work of the Council.

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', speaking with the First Hierarchical Address at the opening of the 21st World Russian People's Council, dedicated to the theme “Russia in the 21st century: historical experience and development prospects,” called the family the main element of a stable, healthy and solidary society and called for the preservation of this Institute.

According to the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, family is also important from a spiritual and religious point of view: “Family is the first experience of love in a person’s life. That is why John Chrysostom said about the family that it is a small church. In the family, a person learns love, and through the love that is God, a person is saved. Family is a school of love, and therefore a school of salvation.”

“Without the desire for love as the highest value, neither family nor society will be able to exist in history. If tradition is the path along which society goes, then love is the ultimate goal of this path. It gives strength and desire to live, fills life with meaning at every moment of history,” noted the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'.

“The family is a structural unit of a stable, healthy society, the main element of a solidary society. The preservation of the people, culture, language, state - all this is carried out through the family, since the mechanism of transferring experience along the chain of generations is connected with the family. If you look at this process from the outside, you can give it an accurate name: tradition. Not any specific one, but tradition as a method of connecting generations in a mode of common activity,” he added.

“The family is a mechanism for transmitting tradition. But the same applies to the entire people, to all of Russia: we preserve and pass on history, language, culture, religion, professional and everyday experience to future generations. We convey - understanding, feeling that the “family” is not only us and our children, but also future generations who will not see us, but will certainly know about us,” explained His Holiness the Patriarch.

“Speaking about society, we can say: society is also a big family, a “family of families.” Therefore, society is threatened by the same thing that threatens the family: the extremes of juvenile justice, same-sex marriage, the establishment of transhumanism, any attempts to give a distorted definition of the concept of “human”,” he emphasized.

“A person needs care, self-improvement, spiritual development, but not for his nature to be changed. Since this nature is created in the image and likeness of the Divine, changing it in any other direction means changing God himself,” concluded Patriarch Kirill.

Read in full on the official website of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Word of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill at the opening of the XXI World Russian People's Council

On November 1, 2017, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' spoke at the opening of the 21st World Russian People's Council, dedicated to the theme “Russia in the 21st century: historical experience and development prospects.”

Your Eminences and Graces, venerable participants of the World Russian People's Council, brothers and sisters!

We have gathered at a historical moment when we have the opportunity to summarize the experience of an entire era, full of events significant for our country’s destiny, and talk about the future. It seems as if today the words with which the prophet Jeremiah exhorted people in ancient times were spoken: “Thus says the Lord: Stand still in your ways and consider, and ask about the ancient ways, where is the good way, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” "(Jer. 6:16).

Over the past century, our society has acquired a certain maturity and reached that historical distance in relation to the events of 1917, which allows us to talk about them in a balanced and substantive manner - without avoiding assessments and without getting carried away by excessive politicization.

It is difficult to deny that the revolution was a tragedy. A fratricidal civil war, the death and expulsion of millions of people, huge losses in the spiritual and economic spheres. The worst thing is that during the revolutionary struggle, the seeds of hatred and evil were sown in the souls of people. And today we can observe with pain how the same hatred is being revived in different parts of the modern world: both in distant countries and among nearby peoples, among our brothers.

But this hatred today wears different ideological clothes and is associated with the drawing of new and deepening old dividing lines on the planet, with the growth of global inequality and its ideological justification, with the cultivation of artificial differences in society. These processes are no longer connected with the ideas of the previous revolution; they have different ideological foundations.

Despite the fact that the number of conflicts, wars and revolutions in the world is growing rapidly, Russia nevertheless has the strength to remain an island of stability in this dangerous flow, to follow its own historical path.

Today our society is consolidated, it does not have that tragic civil split that divided the people in half. On the contrary, today we are learning again to rejoice in national unification and reconciliation. This unification and reconciliation gives us confidence that the country and society will not stumble and fall into a historical abyss, as happened in early 1917. The history of Russia does not go in circles. We learn from our own mistakes. We have acquired immunity to all types of political radicalism; consensus is more important than ever for us, common values are important. What matters is what unites, not what divides. By continuing to cultivate and increase peace at home, Russia can be an example and moral support for everyone who wants to survive the current crisis.

The world community today has come close to a historical point beyond which a new era begins - an era when a lot will change in the lives of peoples, mainly their worldview. A new era is inevitably coming due to the fact that the limits of globalization have been reached and a crisis of its unifying criteria has begun. This does not mean that the values of democracy, humanism, and human rights will completely disappear from our lives. But they will no longer depend on certain abstract, global standards. Each cultural and historical subject will be forced to look in its own tradition for the support necessary for development and movement forward, to look for its own model of modernization, the origins of its own system of social institutions.

Both in the life of an individual and in the life of a people, faith in social institutions and legal mechanisms is dead without moral action, without the ability to act according to conscience. In this case, it only leads to a mad pursuit of chimeras, of elusive mirages of happiness and freedom. And to countless human casualties.

We know eloquent examples of faith without works and works without faith - both in the history of Europe and in our Russian history. These are world wars and revolutions unleashed by the powers that be. Starting with the French Revolution, which cemented new values in the minds of European peoples, and ending with a series of revolutions of the 20th century. This topic is all the more important because revolutions today are on stream. The so-called “color revolutions” have become a technological concept that denotes a forceful change of power and justifies the violation of the constitution and international law.

However, despite the fact that the revolution has become an everyday technology, its ideologists still rely on quasi-religious rhetoric and try to justify the revolution as a spiritually sublime, morally justified act. At the same time, modern revolutionaries, like their predecessors, by the very logic of the revolutionary process always sacrifice part of their own people for the sake of achieving abstract benefits.

The selective approach of such revolutionaries and their curators to international norms indicates that behind the beautiful façade of legal formulations, double political standards are increasingly hidden, the desire not to submit to the force of law, but to subjugate others by the right of the strong, to interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign states.

Revolutions, as a rule, are carried out from above, by the elite, which captivates the people with the energy of destruction. This is either our own elite, divorced from tradition, or an alien elite, preoccupied with colonial interests. The common people are not organically inclined towards revolution; on the contrary, they are the custodians of tradition. Which does not prevent him from wanting social justice.

Both catastrophes that befell our country at the beginning and end of the 20th century were caused by the fact that the national elite was unable to adequately respond to the challenges of the time. The separation from the people and the fascination with ideas that have no roots in Russian reality made themselves felt.

Here the problem of the quality of the elite arises, which must be loyal to the people and be replenished with talented people from below, and not be bound by the interests of external, global players.

Today in Russia they are looking for an image of the future. I think the image of the future is the image of the people and the image of the elite who have achieved complementarity. The elite are not those people who have risen “above the people.” The real elite are those who have accepted responsibility for the fate of the country, who identify personal interests with national, state interests. The elites and the people must be an inseparable, single whole.

Therefore, it is impossible to “appoint” elites artificially: we need a base from which today’s elite can be drawn. To educate the elite, you need to educate the people, educate society, and invest resources in it.

If we do not educate our own people, others will educate them. Therefore, in such an important area as education, it is important to restore and develop our own scientific and pedagogical schools and promote our methodological developments. This will cause resistance from supporters of global education standards, but there is no need to be afraid of this, because at the same time, it will attract keen international interest. Russian education may well become a model, the same as Russian science and Russian literature. Relying on your own cultural developments and your own way of thinking while taking into account global trends and achievements in science and technology will allow you to maintain sovereignty in the 21st century.

Social solidarity and the inseparability of the interests of the elite and the people will ensure the structuring of society according to the model of a large family. It is unlikely that the popular belief that society consists of individuals or so-called “small groups” (that is, neighbors, colleagues at work, hobby friends) is true. No. Society is based not on small groups, but on the family.

The family is a structural unit of a stable, healthy society, the main element of a solidary society. The preservation of the people, culture, language, state - all this is carried out through the family, since the mechanism of transferring experience along the chain of generations is connected with the family. If you look at this process from the outside, you can give it an accurate name: tradition. Not any specific one, but tradition as a method of connecting generations in a mode of common activity.

The family is a mechanism for transmitting tradition. How does this happen? Parents invest in their children: they finance their education, pass on family traditions, photographs, heirlooms, rules of behavior and good manners, and the skills of their favorite profession. Then dynasties of teachers, military men, doctors, athletes, builders, and priests arise. But the same applies to the entire people, to all of Russia: we preserve and pass on history, language, culture, religion, professional and everyday experience to future generations. We convey - understanding, feeling that “family” is not only us and our children, but also future generations who will not see us, but will certainly know about us.

Family is also important from a spiritual and religious point of view. Family is the first experience of love in a person’s life. That is why John Chrysostom said about the family that it is a small church. In the family, a person learns love, and through the love that is God, a person is saved. Family is a school of love, and therefore a school of salvation.

Without the desire for love as the highest value, neither family nor society will be able to exist in history. If tradition is the path along which society goes, then love is the ultimate goal of this path. It gives strength and desire to live, fills life with meaning at every moment of history.

That is why, speaking about society, we can say: society is also a big family, a “family of families.” Therefore, society is threatened by the same thing that threatens the family: the extremes of juvenile justice, same-sex marriage, the establishment of transhumanism, any attempt to give a distorted definition of the concept of “person.” A person needs care, self-improvement, spiritual development, but not for his nature to be changed. Since this nature is created in the image and likeness of the Divine, changing it in any other direction means changing God himself.

Today, the struggle for the future is a struggle for anthropology. It is a struggle to define what a “person” is. This includes questions about biotechnology, the progress of human nature, artificial immortality.

The rapid development of medical and genetic technologies appears to be a serious challenge. Futurologists are already predicting the imminent division of humanity into two races. Some predict the greatness of superhumans, others predict the fate of their subordinates. Representatives of the global elite dream of using expensive technologies to transform their bodies so that death for them will be postponed for many decades. And for the vast majority of people this will be impossible.

Such a terrible prospect also contradicts the Christian view of man. To avoid bringing dystopia to life, you need to abandon selfishness and indifference to the misfortune of others. We need to ensure that advanced biotechnologies primarily serve not those who are willing to pay the most, but those who risk leaving the world too soon.

And here, in the development of solidarity medicine of the future, the experience of our country is valuable, since it was Russia that was the pioneer in creating a system of free public healthcare.

Global challenges - be it the problem of extra people in the age of robotization or the division of humanity with the help of biotechnology - can only be overcome in one case: by relying on the solidarity of people.

And today society must strive for that solidarity ideal, an ideal very close and understandable for Christians, where unity and brotherhood reign, where people consider each other brothers and sisters. In its most perfect and sublime form, this ideal was realized in the community of the first Christians, about which St. The apostle and evangelist Luke says this: “The multitude of those who believed were one heart and one soul” (Acts 4:32).

It seems that the pursuit of such an ideal should not be controversial. But the 21st century threatens to question even those values that have seemed unshakable for centuries.

“What is man, that You are mindful of him, and the son of man, that You visit him?” - asked the holy king-psalmist David. Today, three thousand years after these words were spoken, we have to answer this question again.

After all, voices are already being heard that modern technologies are capable of creating artificial intelligence and artificial organs. That soon it will be possible to modernize our mind and our body in such a way, to change relations in society so much that new beings will arise that are superior to people. It is no coincidence that the ideology of this process is called transhumanism - that is, existence on the other side of man, beyond the limits of humanity.

Faith in technology is today what faith in progress was. This is also a kind of quasi-religion. This is a person’s belief that with the help of science and technology one can achieve perfection and immortality, complete power over one’s body, over nature, over life. But this is impossible. Because the source of improvement is within a person, not outside. All this leads away from the main Christian path. Ultimately - towards dehumanization, hypertrophied individualization, and therefore the destruction of society and the end of history.

For us, Orthodox Christians - and at the same time for the entire Russian society - recognition of the differences between people is balanced by the awareness of their similarities. The similarity, I repeat, is no less important than the difference.

This is one of the reasons for the most important role that we assign to public dialogue, for the sake of which we have gathered today at our Council.

For a quarter of a century, the World Russian People's Council has been conducting a serious dialogue with representatives of various political parties, including those present in this hall. With representatives of different national and religious communities, representatives of science and culture. Dialogue with young people and the older generation is especially important. In other words, a dialogue that unites all parts of our society with one solidary desire - love for our Motherland.

Revolutions always claim to create a new man, they strive to break the traditional, Christian in him - to “reforge” man. Hence the struggle of revolutionaries with tradition, religion, culture. But this is a dead-end path; it leads to denial and fragmentation. Revolutions are made on denial, on destruction, and the desire for eternal life does not deny anything, but permeates everything. This is the desire for love and for God.

If we want to be a prosperous country in the 21st century; a country that is respected by other countries; a country that has a future, if we want to avoid revolutionary disasters and civil confrontation, we must not forget our historical experience, abandon our historical destiny. If we are all guided by a common goal, then any, even the most difficult challenges will be overcome, and our descendants will be able to speak with gratitude about the achievements of our people in the coming century and live in peace with each other.