Vladimir Putin met with historians and representatives of Russia’s traditional religions at the Manezh Central Exhibition Hall.
- again went through his long list of grievances against the West, accusing it of sowing hatred and "raping the minds of people"
- repeated a claim that Poland wants to take over parts of Ukraine
- alleged scientific conclusions are adjusted by Western radical-liberal conjecture to fit into their pre-set ideas
- claimed Russia had to take a preventive move against Ukraine because a delay in WWII caused a heavy price to be paid.
- says the West is using Ukraine to weaken and disintegrate Russia
- ....
Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, dear colleagues, Your Holiness, dear representatives of religious organizations in Russia !
We meet on National Unity Day.
I congratulate you and all citizens of our country, all citizens of Russia on this holiday, which marks our common heartfelt devotion to Russia, love for it, the unity of the country's multinational people both in the years of trials and in solving large-scale development tasks - this has always been one of the key moments our existence.
You know well that the origins of the holiday go back to the mists of time - to the feat of the people who themselves rose to fight for their country, cleansed it of strife, betrayal, humiliation, united, put an end to the Time of Troubles, restored legitimate power and our united statehood.
Such key stages, when people of different nationalities and religions united for the sake of the salvation and good of the Fatherland, [sound] like a refrain, they run like a red thread through the entire Russian history. We understand and honor this invaluable experience of our ancestors, their traditions and their precepts.
The history of our country is continuous, a constant stream. We must consider it as a whole, with all, sometimes extremely complex and even contradictory periods.
For the state, authorities, society, citizens, objective, complete knowledge about our past is extremely important: both the distant past and the near, recent one. Everything here matters, especially today, which means that there is a growing demand for the work of highly professional historians, scientists, university teachers, and school teachers.
At the same time, I would like to emphasize that it is unacceptable to repeat the mistakes that took place during the Soviet period, when scientistic conclusions in the humanities were often adjusted to pre-set patterns. Templates are bad in general, but in history they are especially bad.
Something similar is happening now in some countries in the West, where much is determined by the current radical-liberal conjecture. To adjust (fit) it, key historical events are presented in a completely distorted, inverted form, and the truth is canceled.
Such a deliberately perverted attitude to history, loose interpretation distorts people's consciousness, erodes values, undermines their footing in life. It is known that if someone has a desire to deprive a nation of sovereignty, and turn its citizens into vassals, they begin with rewriting its history, in order to deprive people of their roots, doom them to unconsciousness.
We know that such approaches, unfortunately, work and lead to the tragedy of the people. There have been similar attempts against Russia, and they do not stop, but we put up a solid barrier to them in time and firmly. After all, Russian history and culture are the basis of national identity, our mentality, traditional values, education of the younger generations and, what is extremely important, the foundation of Russian statehood.
Our position on the preservation of historical memory, and hence our sovereignty, irritates some countries in the West. In fact, this has been the case for centuries. And today, attempts continue to knock the ground out from under our feet. These attempts themselves, of course, are not capable of changing the past, they are doomed to failure. It is impossible to deprive the country of the victories achieved by our ancestors.
However, it is a matter of honor for the state, society and, of course, historians to protect both our true history and our heroes, and to improve the quality of historical education. I note that now this subject is studied by students of all universities, and not just humanitarian ones. It is also important to competently and consistently work on historical education, starting with the family, kindergarten and school.
Dear colleagues!
You have probably already seen it yourself, and I, with young people, with the guys I met this afternoon when laying flowers at the monument to Minin and Pozharsky, we also walked through this exhibition [“Ukraine. At the turn of the epochs". The entire content of this exhibition confirms the accuracy and relevance of the conclusion of Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin that the present is a consequence of the past, the history.
For decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has gone the way of direct, overt interference by Western countries in its internal affairs. In fact, they tried to do the same in Russia, but, unfortunately, in Ukraine they managed to instill such pseudo-values into the minds of millions of people, which led to the fact that anti-Russia was created on this territory, sowing hatred, raping the minds of people, depriving their true history. Everything has been done in order to reshape the consciousness of millions, and very skillfully to light the fuse to implode our country.
Now we have looked: in one of the halls at the exhibition, it is just talking about how professionally they approached this work in some Western countries, for decades they have been working on this at the level of serious scientific centers with good funding.
A clash with the neo-Nazi regime - Russia's clash with the neo-Nazi regime that emerged on the territory of Ukraine - was inevitable, and if appropriate actions had not been taken on our part in February, everything would have been the same, only from a worse position for us. The situation in Ukraine has been driven by her so-called friends to the point where it has become deadly for Russia and suicidal for the Ukrainian people themselves. And we see this even in the nature of the hostilities – it’s just amazing what is happening there: as if the Ukrainians do not exist, they are thrown into a furnace, and that’s it.
It is Ukraine, the Ukrainian people, that is the first and main victim of the deliberate sublimation of hatred towards the Russians, towards Russia. In Russia, everything is exactly the opposite, you know this very well: we have always treated the Ukrainian people with respect and warmth. So it was and is, despite today's tragic confrontation.
I repeat: we took responsibility to prevent a much more difficult situation. We remembered and remember what happened in 1941, when, despite intelligence data about the inevitability of an attack on the Soviet Union, the adoption of the necessary defense measures was delayed and a heavy price was then paid to win the victory over Nazism.
Yes, now it’s also not easy, it’s difficult, it’s also bitter that they are fighting with each other, in fact, one people, in fact, the confrontation is going on within one people, just as it was after the upheavals of 1917, people were again pitted against each other.
Foreign powers have been warming their hands on the tragedy of our people. They did not care about both the White and the Red (army), they pursued their own interests, weakened and tore historical Russia to pieces. And today, constantly supplying weapons to Ukraine, transferring mercenaries there, they are absolutely ruthless to its citizens. At their expense, they are promoting their geopolitical goals, which have nothing to do with the interests of the Ukrainian people.
These efforts are aimed at the weakening, disintegration and destruction of Russia. They underlie the events that are taking place in Ukraine. We will never allow this. We will defend our Fatherland just like our heroic ancestors.
Dear colleagues!
Before we move on to the conversation, I want to note that this year the Russian Historical Society celebrated the tenth anniversary of its re-establishment. It is gratifying that the hopes placed on him, of course, were justified. All members of the Russian Historical Society, including the largest academic institutions, universities, museums, archives, libraries and many reputable historians, make a significant contribution to the formation of an all-Russian historical culture and the popularization of historical knowledge.
Significant, useful, and in-demand work is also being carried out by the Russian Military Historical Society, which will also celebrate its 10th anniversary this year.
Once again, I congratulate you all on the holiday.
Thank you for your attention.
Alexei Chubaryan: Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich!
First of all, let me thank you on behalf of all historians for finding the opportunity and time to meet with us today.
I think that historians understand the measure of their responsibility in this difficult time. We need to discuss today and in the future what steps, what areas of our work we should choose in order to contribute to the greatest and best degree to the solution of the difficult tasks that today face the country and, I would say, the whole world as a whole. This, it seems to me, is an important task of today's meeting.
Vladimir Vladimirovich, if you don’t mind, we will move on to an exchange of views. We had several requests for speeches, and I would like to give the floor to Artyom Vladimirovich Rubchenko, director of the Luhansk Museum of Local Lore, first.
Go ahead please.
Vladimir Putin: Go ahead, please.
Andrei Rubchenko: Good afternoon, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, meeting participants, colleagues!
I am glad to congratulate everyone on the Day of National Unity, especially since, it seems to me, this year this holiday received a new content: new regions were added to the Russian Federation.
But there is a peculiarity: part of the population of these regions, unfortunately, for a long time - about, maybe even 30 years - was deprived of the opportunity to study their own history. This story was even replaced with low-grade myths, I will not analyze them now.
And of course, it’s necessary in these new regions – it’s hard to call them new, I still think it’s a return to the bosom of Mother Russia – but all the same, historians and teachers face a task – this, of course, is historical education. Therefore, the Russian Historical Society first of all created its branch in these territories. I represent the Council [branch] of the Russian Historical Society in the Luhansk People's Republic. I think my colleagues can tell you more about the projects we are implementing. I would like to dwell on what is close to me.
I am the director of the Luhansk Museum of Local Lore. As a museum worker, I know very well that if you do not look for exhibits and artifacts, they quickly disappear in time and space. Therefore, I want to thank you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, for supporting the idea of creating an inter-museum working group.
It consists of professionals in their field - these are museum staff of the leading museums of the Russian Federation, and university professors. This group has been working since April of this year, about 20 people have already taken part. More than four thousand exhibits were collected during trips to the territories where the main events of this year took place. Some of them are still undergoing scientific processing, and as a result of these collections, four exhibitions have already opened in the largest museums in Russia.
Next moment. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the Russian Historical Society is also making efforts to maintain museums. There are now many museums on the territory of Novorossiya, but some of them are in distress. Someone has suffered, like, for example, the Mariupol Museum of Local Lore, someone needs special attention.
The Russian Historical Society is now, until the end of the year, is implementing the modernization of the exposition of the Luhansk Museum of Local Lore, helped to find patrons for the repair of the Mariupol Art Museum. But it seems to me that now, as part of the restoration of the regions that suffered during the hostilities, it is still worth paying more attention to museums. The museum has an advantage: it not only tells about history, but can also show and illustrate it.
Thank you for your attention.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you for the topic you raised.
Of course, museum work is the most important component of preserving the historical memory of the people about the events that took place in the past. Without any doubt, this is important for today and for the future of the country.
You said that museums in Novorossiya are in a state that requires special attention from the federal center and from the regions. We will, of course, do this. Now there are a lot of questions related to the restoration of the housing stock in those settlements and territories that have suffered from hostilities. We, of course, must do this, as they say, first of all, so that people will not be left without a roof over their heads in the winter. It is necessary to repair, rebuild, and if something fails to the extent that is needed, then help people to spend the winter this winter, but so that they have the prospect of getting their own housing. Of course, we will do this, but no less important, of course, is the social infrastructure. It sounds very dry, but as far as museums are concerned, this is one of the most important components of this work.
But I would very much like the revival of museums to proceed in a modern way. There are a lot of things that need to be done almost all over again. Of course, the objects of material culture that exist, they need to be preserved and used in the future, but it would be very correct to do and build the work in such a way that it is saturated with modern technologies; so that something always appears there; so that all these expositions, exhibitions are alive; that there be presented not only evidence of our traditions, our history, days and years long gone, but also of what happened quite recently, based on current events; and so that all this is saturated with modern technologies and people would like to come there and come again.
There are such museums in Moscow and abroad. You need to take the best examples and do just that. It is not just to renovate the premises and place some expositions or objects there, but to do it in a modern way from the very beginning.
I will ask my colleagues and, of course, you, and those who work in this area, to proceed from this.
Alexei Rubchenko: Thank you.
Alexei Chubaryan: Thank you, Vladimir Vladimirovich.
School history education is of great importance today.
Vladimir Vladimirovich, I remember that you were the initiator of the creation of a cultural and historical standard for secondary schools, which today is already universally recognized, is the core and the main center. But all the same, there are quite important and big tasks before historical education at school.
I would like to give the floor to Ilya Sergeevich Demakov, Director of the MGIMO Lyceum, “Teacher of the Year 2017”.
Please, Ilya Sergeevich.
Ivan Demakov: Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Colleagues!
I would like to continue the theme of historical memory in relation to school.
For a child, acquaintance with the subject of "history" begins with events on the European continent, and this is correct when it comes to the era of Antiquity or earlier times.
But the school course is structured in such a way that it is further centered on European events, as it were - this is the very phenomenon of Eurocentricity. But it is inorganic for the course of Russian history, which, simply for natural reasons, is correct to give in a diverse context, without really applying it all the time to any one template, especially to someone else.
In this logic, is it possible, say, not to divide the school course into general history and the history of the Fatherland, but to give it as a whole as a course or as a history textbook, of course, centered on Russian events? And at the same time, observe what Kutuzov says in this quote, that it is not difficult to take a fortress, it is difficult to win a campaign, and this requires patience and time - in the sense that, working today on the course of Russian history, on the Russian course of history, it is important to preserve in it the volume of world history, the presence of which is precisely what distinguishes us from, say, Western approaches.
Is it possible today to work on a Russian school history course in such a logic?
Vladimir Putin: Everything is possible. Rather, you should define it, and Mr. Chubaryan are world-class specialists who have devoted their entire lives to history, this very important, very interesting science.
It always seemed to me that everything is important: events, dates - it's all interesting, but, as I imagine - if I'm wrong, you will correct me - after all, the essence itself, the meaning, the subject of history is an attempt to understand the laws of development. Why did this or that event happen? Why did it lead to such and such consequences, and what follows from this?
This is very important for today and for the future of any country, any ethnic group, in order to determine what we must do today in order to be confident in the future for ourselves and for our children, for our grandchildren. This, it seems to me, is the main thing.
And in this sense, of course, the history of Russia is part of world history. It’s hard for me to say how to study it, how to divide it - I don’t set myself such a task, I repeat, this should be done by specialists. But the fact that history courses, including ours, were Eurocentric is also nothing unusual here.
First, because the European capitals were quite recently the centers of the universe. But that is in the past - already in the past. Why? Because, say, Portugal's largest colony was Brazil. There are ten million people in Portugal today and 200 [million] in Brazil. Great Britain - what a powerful power it was, and there is nothing to say! There are 67 million people in the UK today, and 241 million in just one Indian state. In Europe's largest country, Germany, 84 million, and in China's Guangdong province alone, 126 [million].
You understand? Of course, these are great European cultures. Russia is very much part of this culture based on what concerns Christianity. But Russia was formed as a single major world power, becoming a major power, as a multinational and multi-confessional state, and this is its peculiarity. It is truly a unique civilization and a unique culture. Undoubtedly, we must carefully look at how we organize the teaching of this subject.
When we talk today about the fact that the history of Russia is a part of world culture, it is simply necessary that experts distribute how to study, how to show the significance of our contribution to world culture, where Russian history is in a general context, how it is woven into the general fabric of world development . This is extremely important, and, of course, certain accents are certainly in demand today.
When I talked about what happened to the colonial powers and what happened, Russia is also changing. One thing is Russia after the victory over Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna, or after the Great Patriotic War, and another thing is today's Russia. You just need to look at the context of historical events.
The European civilization that I have mentioned and of which we are certainly a part, these countries that were once great superpowers have turned into medium or small countries. This does not mean that they are bad or some kind of minor, not at all. In addition to a great culture and history, they have high technology, excellent human capital with a good education. All this is of great importance.
But there is one circumstance that no one can get around. This circumstance is called "potential". Yes, high technologies and education are very important for today and for the future, and the quality of human capital is very important. But this is all a matter of gain, as our people say.
Let's take a look at India. A very talented people, purposeful, with such a drive for internal development, they will, of course, achieve outstanding results. India will achieve outstanding results in its development - there is no doubt about it. And almost one and a half billion people - this is the potential! Or ten million, or 80 ... You can also live well. You can live well, you can achieve a high quality of life, but this is a different potential and a different meaning in the modern world and in the future.
Based on how our country has developed, how it is developing today, how we define its future, of course, we need to fit the history of Russia into the general context of world development. And how to divide it into parts and how to study it better - this is up to Chubaryan and your senior colleagues.
A. Chubaryan: Thank you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, for your direction of development, which you correctly mentioned.
I would like, if you will allow me, two words.
A month ago in St. Petersburg we held a meeting of authors of history textbooks. Europeans did not come, except from Bulgaria and Serbia, but there were many from Africa and from Asia. They all complained, in particular the Africans, that in different countries very little is told about African history. This is true.
Therefore, I think, our colleague said, we are now working on the concept of universal history, preserving European, of course, stories, it is very important to strengthen the story for our schoolchildren and students about these countries: about Africa, about Asia.
They came up with another idea, Vladimir Vladimirovich. Maybe to cooperate, to write the history of colonialism in the new conditions: how colonial powers arose in general, how empires, how it was - I liked the speech of one colleague from Turkey - what consequences it had not only economic, political, but how it shaped the imperial thinking, such colonial thinking.
I think that it would be good for us to cooperate in this sense with these colleagues of ours. This is how we called the meeting "In the Eurasian space." I must say that they were very attentive to this. I think it's helpful.
Vladimir Putin: Look, this is a very good idea. I would ask you to prepare relevant material for our future Russia-Africa summit.
Alexei Chubaryan: Good.
Vladimir Putin: We are currently negotiating with our African friends that we will hold such a meeting next year in St. Petersburg. If you could and had time to prepare an appropriate proposal, that would be great.
Alexei Chubaryan: All right, let's do it. Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: Not only about colonialism, how it was born, but also about the consequences it led to. It's very important to look at it. How did it end and what is the situation with it today.
Because, to a large extent, the level of prosperity that has been achieved in the former colonial powers is based on the robbery of Africa - this is well known to everyone. Researchers in the same Europe do not hide this, it is. They say: on the misery and suffering of the African peoples, the well-being of the colonial powers has been built to a large extent - I do not say wholly and completely, no. This is an obvious fact. Robbery, slave trade, of course. All this needs to be shown.
This is a significant part of world history, and it is impossible and unnecessary to turn a blind eye to this. Just as we do not close and will never close our eyes to what the Nazis did in the world and in our country. This is a very important story, an instructive story for humanity.
Alexei Chubaryan: All right, Vladimir Vladimirovich. As I understand it, we will prepare material on a large scale for this meeting - Africa in general in world civilization, the role of Africa in world civilization. I think it will be good.
The next speaker is Konstantin Ilyich Mogilevsky, Chairman of the Board of the Russian Historical Society.
Please, Konstantin Ilyich.
Konstantin Mogilevsky: Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, happy holiday to you!
Vladimir Putin: Same to you.
Konstantin Mogilevsky: Thank you very much for the high appreciation of our work, the work of the Russian Historical Society. We really try to do everything we can, with a full understanding of our responsibility to Russia.
It is very important for me and my colleagues to hear in your speeches, always and today also a very deep and accurate understanding of history as a combination of very complex, different processes and trends that come from the past, shaped the present and largely determined the future.
You mentioned Karamzin in your introductory speech, one quote from him also came to mind, he said that the rulers look at the pages of history, like navigators look at the blueprints of the seas. It seems to me that if you look from this point of view at the actions of some of your colleagues, leaders of states, who demonstrate ignorance, unwillingness to know history, denial of historical logic, then it becomes clear why they are sailing somewhere in the wrong direction.
It seems to me that historical education forms a sense of responsibility to past generations, to future generations, and knowledge of history in general, otherwise, unfortunately, there is such an effect that we sometimes observe: everyone owes me, and I owe nothing to anyone.
I would like to say a few words in continuation of the topic of historical education.
In general, we have this process established. We study the history of Russia, general history at school, study at higher educational institutions. We have not yet formed a systematic approach to the study of regional history, the history of our native land.
In a sense, it turns out such a building without a foundation. According to the existing regulatory framework, the decision on whether or not to study the history of the native land is at the discretion of the so-called participants in educational relations, that is, schools. In some regions, this is approached systematically, in most - not. Somewhere they study, somewhere they don’t, somewhere the whole secondary school, somewhere they start from elementary school. Everything is different, and, of course, there is no question of correlating the history of our native land with the history of our entire country.
I think this is important. When we communicate with teachers from different regions, they say that it would be nice, of course, on a systematic basis - there are hours for this anyway, if schools can make such a decision - to provide for the study of the history of their native land.
How to do it? How to ensure this unity of content?
One example. Recently there was your order, we have already begun to fulfill it. At the request of colleagues from the Lugansk People's Republic, together with Lugansk historians, they made an addendum to the federal historical and cultural standard, on which, in turn, Russian history textbooks are based, an addendum for the Lugansk People's Republic. I hope that from the next academic year, the guys there will begin to study according to new textbooks.
If such a decision can be made on the teaching of regional history throughout Russia, then for each region, together with the Ministry of Education, with fellow historians, it would be possible to make such appendices to the historical and cultural standard that would be for each region. In the future, on their basis, create textbooks and thus ensure synchronization with the history of Russia in content and periodization.
Of course, this work must be approached very delicately, professionally, with respect for the ideas about history that exist in different regions, even folklore, but we still have one history, a single history. I am sure that, after all, knowledge of the history of a small homeland, together with knowledge of the history of a large one, forms, first of all, that very feeling of homeland that unites and unites us all.
Thanks a lot.
Vladimir Putin: There is almost nothing to add to what you have said. I fully agree with this.
Of course, the history of a country should begin with the history of a family, a village, a town, a city, a region where a person was born, grew up, where he began to realize himself as part of his country, part of a large nation - from there, there are all the sources of self-consciousness. Of course, if it were possible to build into historical knowledge this very foundation that you mentioned and which, as you think, is missing, although in different places, probably in different ways, that would be good.
I will definitely talk to Sergey Sergeevich Kravtsov. Is he not? Sergei Sergeevich is not here? No. But I will definitely talk to him so that he and his colleagues think about how to do this. In the general course of history, which is now taught everywhere in our country - we have finally achieved this - to begin with this.
By the way, museum workers could also help here, because we have local history museums in many settlements, they would also come to life in a corresponding way, earn money. We have such examples, very good ones.
The Victory Museum in Moscow, for example, does just that. Schoolchildren come, constantly get acquainted with the expositions, and it becomes really lively. This can be done almost everywhere. It's cheap, nothing at all. It just needs appropriate attention from a certain level of management, and that's it.
We will definitely work on this. You are absolutely right, of course.
Kirill Mogilevsky: Thank you very much.
A. Chubaryan: Dear colleagues, of course, our main historical subject both at school and at the university is the history of our country. I would like to ask Yury Alexandrovich Petrov, director of the Institute of Russian History, to speak.
Please.
Yury Petrov: Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Dear colleagues!
A well-known maxim: history is a science that makes a person a citizen. We, conducting our academic studies in the Russian Historical Society, always understand that history, our science, has a special responsibility to society.
Therefore, we primarily respond to events that worry our entire country. We write books such as, for example, The History of Crimea, The History of Sevastopol - a book recently published in three volumes, The History of Novorossiya. We have prepared these books. For the first time, academic research has been done, which has found its wide readership in Russia.
Of course, the main mental core of our nation is the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War. We are also working hard here. Thanks to your support, Vladimir Vladimirovich, a special scientific council on the history of the Great Patriotic War has been set up at the Academy of Sciences. It brought together all the major specialists of our country.
Of course, we proceed from the fact that for the educational process, in order to pass on to our youth the accumulated amount of knowledge - reliable knowledge, scientific, our great academic works are needed.
Here I cannot fail to mention a large project that we have been working on for several years as part of the execution of your instructions - this is the History of Russia, an academic history of Russia in 20 volumes. Now work on it is nearing completion, next year the first volumes of this publication, which was prepared by more than 300 scientists of our country, the best historians, will be published.
Its meaning lies in the fact that it can become the backbone, the basis for the preparation of any educational, educational literature, from secondary school to higher education. It concentrates the amount of knowledge that Russian historical science has today.
Of course, there is another topic that I would like to touch on. Today we talked about the secondary school, that thanks to the historical and cultural standard that we have prepared, some uniformity has been achieved and there are, one might say, achievements in this area.
But there is also an area of higher education. Here the problem lies in the fact that the history of Russia, it is, as it were, taught now in each of the universities. But, perhaps, the main difficulty here is that there is no uniformity of educational literature. Courses on the history of Russia, which, I emphasize, are taught in various non-historical universities, are, as it were, unsystematized.
To this end, the Ministry of Education and Science instructed us, asking us to prepare, following the model of the school standard, the same standard for teaching the history of Russia in universities. This work is now nearing completion. The draft standard has been prepared and is now going through the stage of public, scientific discussion.
I hope that in this area, thanks to the joint efforts of our historical community within the framework of the Russian Historical Society, we will also more or less have to cope with this problem. And we have one goal here: the goal is for our youth to know the history of Russia better. To do this, the Ministry doubles the time for studying the history of Russia for doctors, and for builders, and for technologists, and so on - they all need to know the history of their country very well.
Today, the topic arose of how national history and world history are combined. We are thinking about this problem, Vladimir Vladimirovich. One thing is clear: of course, they must know the history of Russia, of course, well. And of course, the history of Russia must be woven into the fabric of world history. It is from this comparison that students will come to know what our country is, what features it has, what advantages it has in the world, how, in general, it has lived so far and how it will live in the future.
Once again, I thank you for the constant support that we feel, your support, Vladimir Vladimirovich, and I assure you that the historians of our country, the historians of Russia, are ready to take on new serious tasks.
Vladimir Putin: Do you need any additional help from me in order to achieve them, to solve them?
Yury Petrov: I think that we are coping well so far, Vladimir Vladimirovich. We have good contact with Valery Nikolayevich Falkov, with the Minister of Education and Science, we are working in unison. For now, I wouldn't ask for anything special.
Vladimir Putin: Good.
Yury Petrov: Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: For my part, I would like to thank you for your great work – a multi-volume history of Russia, a contemporary work. This is a fundamental work, a serious one, which really should be the basis for the study of national history both in schools and universities.
What, it seems to me, we all lack is the popularization of this knowledge, that's what we lack. After all, this is such a fundamental thing that entire teams worked on, people devoted their whole lives to this.
Now I took the guys with whom we laid flowers at the monument to Minin and Pozharsky. Naturally, all of you prepared for our meeting, they definitely didn’t, because they didn’t know that they would come here, it was in my mind to invite them along the way.
I want to ask one of them: do you know that we have such a twenty-volume book on Russian history or not? First.
And the second question is this: how would you think, how would you - young people, your peers, your friends, comrades, fellow students, we, in my opinion, have schoolchildren, colleagues, fellow students in higher education - submit something what did our leading scientists present in these 20 volumes?
I understand, to get it off the shelf, brush off the dust and look through - I can hardly find such people among the youth who would do this, or run a finger in the library over these dusty books. What do you need to get this knowledge?
The girl raises her hand. Please. Please introduce yourself.
Tatyana Adushkina: Hello!
Vladimir Putin: Hello!
Tatyana Adushkina: Tatyana.
In my opinion, history should be taught and told in interesting modern formats.
Vladimir Putin: Exactly.
Tatyana Adushkina: We have already done this together with the Victory Volunteers movement – we have done various quests and historical games. We are helped and helped by the Russian Historical Society. The guys really like it.
If all this is as interactive as possible, in a modern language, then there is no problem of learning history for children at all. Therefore, it is necessary to create various interesting interactive formats in the form of quests, some games, videos, because everything that is interactive is now liked by young people and children.
Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: I am not sure that each of those who wrote this 20-volume work knows what a quest is, what it is in practice, and those who use modern tools for obtaining knowledge know that we have there was such a new twenty-volume book on national history.
This is what needs to be connected. This must be combined, because modern methods of delivering information and influencing people's minds are changing, changing very quickly. These are bright, short, fast, rapidly changing pictures, which make it possible, without spending a lot of time, to get to the necessary information that interests a person. And if it is interesting, he will look again, again, again and again - many, many times. Then the goal will be reached.
I will definitely discuss this with the Government. We are now paying a lot of attention to modern means of communication in the Government. We will definitely look at this in relation to education in the broadest and most modern sense of the word.
But all the same, if there are no such fundamental works that we are talking about now - this twenty-volume book - then you have to turn to low-grade resources, the true value of which is very problematic.
So anyway, thank you for what you did.
Of course, we will do everything we can to ensure that this work continues in the manner you have just mentioned.
Thank you.
Yury Petrov: Thank you very much.
A. Chubaryan: Vladimir Vladimirovich, you mentioned the word “popularization”, this is very important, historical knowledge. Here we have Elena Valerievna Kryazheva-Kartseva, who is one of the active lecturers of the Knowledge Society. I would ask her to tell us what work is being done in this regard.
Yekaterina Kryazheva-Kartseva: Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Your Holiness! Representatives of the traditional religions of our country! Dear participants of the high meeting!
You and I are well aware that the problem is not only at the level of students, schoolchildren, students, in our country and many adults live as if they will never die, but die as if they had never lived. There is a very serious question about how, through the popularization of historical knowledge, for which we thank you very much, Vladimir Vladimirovich, to awaken the consciousness of these people.
Thank you very much for supporting the Knowledge society, which was reformatted in 2021, received new tasks, a new vector of development. We are well aware that the main goal is to convey to people the information that there are goals in life through the study of the feat of our people, our saints, generals, rulers, cultural and scientific figures.
An important component of our work, of course, is work at all levels: schoolchildren, students, and, of course, adults. I can tell you that sometimes the request is very large, and there are different formats. I am from Peoples' Friendship University. We already have 15 teachers involved in this work. I myself participated in the Knowledge marathon, in lectures at government bodies, in lectures in front of the military, including in new, right to say, old territories. These are different formats of work: this is the "League of Knowledge", and various quests for students - the "Theater" project, the "Cinema" project. It is very important, as the guys rightly noted, the transition to new electronic platforms, that is, the library of the Knowledge Society, the Academy of the Knowledge Society, which is publicly available to the citizens of our country. But, of course, there is still a lot of work to be done. We hope for the support of the regional authorities,
Of course, the most important thing is the pool of lecturers who can reformat strict scientific knowledge, academic knowledge into convenient, accessible formats, and so that there are people who hear. After all, it is very important even today, if the cultural codes are correctly transmitted, on the Day of National Unity and Accord, that a person, going out to Red Square, looking at the Kazan Cathedral, understands that we are all under God; approaching the monument of Patriarch Hermogenes, he understood that the strength of the spirit is higher than the body; seeing the monument to Minin and Pozharsky, I understood that this is the unity of our people, and the same story is repeated from century to century, and only in our unity will it continue.
Already, the Knowledge Society has selected nine thousand teachers, scientists, cultural figures, various fields of activity, media people who work in this direction and further improve their work in the Society.
The League of Lecturers competition is being held, the Society’s prize is being awarded, and, of course, this will continue to grow, because, I can say on behalf of all the lecturers who have participated in projects for just over a year, that everyone is ready to work and understand perfectly well that the strength of our state is not only territory, resources and power. First of all, these are our people who are aware of the values of our state, realize that our state is a family, brothers, sisters who should help each other, love. Only then do we have a future according to the precepts of our ancestors.
Thank you very much for your support.
Vladimir Putin: I would like to say that the idea itself turned out to be very productive, very timely for implementation. But its implementation turns out exactly as it should be thanks to people like you. For my part, I want to tell you: accept the return puck - words of gratitude for what you are doing.
I must say that when this proposal arose, I somehow thought that somehow something old-fashioned would not be revived here again, boring and useless to anyone.
It turned out not. It turned out that you managed to do it in a modern, interesting way. The audience is huge and growing. I think that people just missed the real knowledge. They have already begun to understand some kind of pseudo-scientific, pseudo-historical husk and have really ceased to trust the most diverse sources of various information. Such scientific knowledge has really become in demand - beautifully, of course, talentedly, presented in a modern way. Both you and your colleagues can do it.
I'm just really happy for this and wish you success. For our part, we will do everything to support this work.
Elena Kryazheva-Kartseva: Thank you very much.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you.
Alexei Chubaryan: Thank you.
In your speech, in your speech at the Valdai Club, Vladimir Vladimirovich, you very clearly showed the civilizational nature of the ongoing changes. A new world order is being formed, quite obviously, and the civilizational choice is facing all peoples.
I would like to give the floor to our Academician, MGIMO Rector Anatoly Vasilyevich Torkunov.
Please.
Alexei Torkunov: Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Your Holiness! Dear Colleagues!
I would like to continue a topic that my colleagues in the Historical Society have already touched on - the problem of teaching history in higher education.
You know, Vladimir Vladimirovich, that today the number of hours of teaching history in higher education in non-historical specialties has been significantly increased - 144 hours, and 80 of them are contact hours.
But I want to agree with you that the guys who study engineering and natural sciences study a huge number of subjects. One strength of evidence must be handed over - how much time and effort it takes!
Therefore, of course, the point is not to give them facts again, events that they already knew about at school or, in any case, heard at school, but to convey meanings to them. The meanings of certain events, not even events, but historical phenomena that determined the civilizational essence of our country and its development, and there were many such events.
We celebrated the 800th anniversary of Alexander Nevsky last year. I want to remind you that the figure of Alexander Nevsky appeared at a time when Kievan Rus actually collapsed, and the outlines of where Rus was going were not clear. Alexander Nevsky appeared, who essentially led Russia out of this historical impasse, rebuffing the West, making a compromise with the Mongols, who did not claim spiritual dominance in Russia, managed to preserve this cultural and religious foundation of Orthodoxy, which later gave motivation for the development of our statehood, and not only motivation, but in general the basis for the development of our statehood.
You spoke today - and in general today is the day when it is impossible not to talk about it - about the Time of Troubles and that it was civic solidarity, civic position, despite discord in the elites, despite foreign intervention, that made it possible not only to preserve statehood, but also give a powerful impetus to its subsequent development.
By the way, I would like to cite a very interesting fact. The English ambassador in Moscow in 1613, in a letter to James I Stuart, wrote that it was necessary to take advantage of the Time of Troubles in Russia in order to establish an English protectorate. He wrote that we should be kind to the Russians, but not succeed in this matter, because if they feel that they are being treated too kindly, they will consider themselves powerful, and we do not need this at all. He wrote that the establishment of an English protectorate over Russia would create powerful resources for England - trade and economic advantages that this country would receive.
Speaking about subsequent events, of course, it must be said about Pyotr Alekseevich and what he managed to do. We, historians and historiographers, often say that “we opened a window to Europe”, but we are not the only ones who say this, in general, this is such a vivid image. But I would like to remind you that Peter I paid great attention to the eastern direction. After all, it is no coincidence that in the country after the end of the Northern War, in 1721, ...
Vladimir Putin: The Persian campaign.
Alexander Torkunov: In general, he paid attention not only to the Persian campaign, but to more distant regions, and was in correspondence with the rulers of these distant regions.
His direct heirs, quick heirs, unfortunately, did not take advantage of the developments that Peter Alekseevich had, but Catherine the Great took advantage of this, who, together with her associates, did a great job both in terms of geographical expansion, the expansion of Russia, and in Eastern politics, which made it possible to create such a powerful state that existed under all conditions, despite all kinds of efforts to divide it, tear it apart, which, by the way, were made throughout Russian history.
I would also like to say that, of course, in teaching the history of Russia, attention should also be paid to military history. Of course, there have been fantastic strategic victories in Russia's military history. I would recall again the tactics and strategy of Peter during the Northern War, when he did not give a big battle, he retreated to Poltava, cut off Baturin, from which the Swedish army was supplied. As a result, Poltava happened, which became a turning point in this war.
There were, of course, other examples. In particular, during the war with the Napoleonic troops, the ill-considered policy of the command of East Prussia, when it came to retreat, to maintain more serious positions and strong on the other side of the Alle River near Friedland, led to the fact that the army was defeated. And huge losses - from 10 to 15 thousand people, as historians write today.
It seems to me that an element of military history must necessarily be in national history for our students.
And, finally, nevertheless, it seems to me that it is very important that, when teaching history, we always proceed from the idea that Peter expressed, and then Catherine II very precisely formulated that no one should ever tell Russia where her place and what is its role. Only Russia itself can do it.
In conclusion, I want to say that it is very important in the course of history, especially for students, to make sure that it is not only a history course, but that it is a core humanities course.
After all, our composers and artists have written so many absolutely amazing works dedicated to Russian history. I thought so to myself now, already being in the hall. Only the operas of our great composers, starting with Ivan Susanin (A Life for the Tsar), can be listed further and further, which are dedicated to the key events of history - a huge number, one might say. The Mariinsky Theater and the Bolshoi Theater are not in every city where there are technical universities. But today there are flash drives, there is an opportunity to use technical means in order to acquaint students with these achievements.
For example, I can't imagine how one can talk about our Great Patriotic War without remembering Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony. Of course, it seems to me that the history course should be taught in such a way that it becomes central in the humanitarian, patriotic education of our student youth.
Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: I completely agree with you.
In general, of course, we need to strive – we have talked about this many times and keep talking about it all the time – we will strive to ensure that our history courses in schools, universities and everywhere still present reliable facts, this is the most important thing.
It is clear that the farther back in time, the more reliable they are, the closer to us, the more conjuncture, nevertheless, we need to strive for this, we still need to separate the wheat from the chaff and show where the real facts are, and where something is invented .
If our exhibition today is dedicated to the events in Ukraine, then, of course, how can one say that the Ukrainian Front liberated Europe, that it was Ukraine that liberated Europe? What nonsense is this! And what, there were only Ukrainians, they fought on this front? And the Karelian front? Did only Karelians fight there? And what about the Leningrad Front, did Leningraders fight there alone? And Voronezh - Voronezh? And Stepnoy - some kind of Mongol-Tatars and steppe dwellers? Rave! But this nonsense is repeated in Europe.
At first glance, such very respectable people - and hammer this nonsense into the heads of millions of people. It definitely needs to be cut off completely, it is necessary to tell real facts, well, talk about what happened in recent history and what is happening now, and what can happen.
We have always treated and still treat Poland with great respect. This is our neighbor. We had times when we had a very close relationship, there were also problems.
Today's festive events are based on historical facts related, among other things, to Poland, to the False Dmitrys, and so on. We all know well, now I will not go into it. Just an excuse to say it.
We also know about the ideas of creating a great state “from sea to sea” among some of the political beau monde in Poland – before the Second World War, there was a lot of talk about this, it was a fixed idea – from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.
Now we see the arms of the leaders of Poland and Ukraine, but the idea is alive. And the idea of the absorption of Ukraine, it has not gone away. But almost nobody knows this. This is only in archival documents.
Just as surely - not certainly, but definitely - the idea of returning those territories that were torn away from Poland is spoken of, it must be said directly about this, Stalin after the Second World War. Large, large areas from Romania, from Hungary were torn away. It was no coincidence that I said in Valdai that Russia could be the only real, genuine guarantor of Ukrainian statehood and sovereignty.
Russia also gave Ukraine its historical territories, but voluntarily, in order to create a single, common cultural, humanitarian, historical space. And those territories that I just mentioned above, they were forcibly torn away from Hungary, Romania and Poland. These are completely different situations.
We voluntarily, in order to be together, gave away historical territories along with the population, however, no one asked the population, and there they were forcibly torn away as a result of the war. Someone should think about this, including in Ukraine. But this Bandera leadership probably thinks mainly only about the money that is hidden in Western banks, I mean the political leadership first of all, but uses the Bandera people to curry favor with those who control their millions and billions in these Western banks without thinking about the possible consequences of what is happening today. In this regard, it is very important to convey the essence of the events that took place, to do it honestly, absolutely objectively.
I now want to return to what your young colleague to your left was talking about. And he talked about changing the Eurocentric teaching of history in our schools and universities. Do you, as the rector of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, also think so? Or do you still think that there is no need to change anything here?
A.Torkunov: I will say frankly that we are already working on such a comprehensive history textbook, where, of course, great attention will be paid to Europe, but at the same time, the development of Russia will be shown against the background of development in other regions and other countries, which, by the way, have had a significant impact on...
Vladimir Putin: Will Russia's development be shown against the background of other countries' development, or will other countries be shown against the background of Russia's development?
Alexei Torkunov: I'll tell you, Mr President, I'm reading what I've written now and I'm thinking about how to find a balance, it's very difficult, but I think we'll find that kind of balance.
Vladimir Putin: Not easy, I agree.
Thank you.
Alexei Chubaryan: Thank you very much.
Colleagues, it is a great honor for us that our Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' is here. We would be very glad if you would contact us and say some words.
Patriarch Kirill : Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Dear attendees!
I would like to sincerely thank you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, for the initiative to hold such a meeting. This is the first time I am present in such an audience and I listen with great attention to everything that the distinguished participants in this meeting say.
During these performances, of course, I began to have some thoughts. Frankly, I’ll say something that I once tried to comprehend, as they say, on a tangent, but this discussion led me to the idea of the need to think, talk and, maybe, share with you one important, as it seems to me, aspect related to our national history.
When you study the history of the Russian Orthodox Church, and it is now truly studied only in seminaries and academies, you are amazed at how intertwined this history is with the history of the Russian state and how much the life of the church influenced the life of the whole country.
Firstly, purely ideologically, philosophically, theologically, but also practically, the education system was created on the basis of parishes. The first - what are called schools - were parochial schools. And so on, you can go on and on.
Since this topic is not very clearly presented today in secular universities, it seems to me that it is really impossible to study the history of Russia without knowing the history of the church.
After all, who were the patriarchs? Next to the king always sat, the king and the patriarch. The history of Russia, the state, and the history of the church were so closely intertwined that it was impossible to break them, and now they are torn apart in the educational process. A person studying the history of Russia, on a tangent, heard something about Patriarch Nikon, about something else.
In fact, particularly complex conflicts, even political intrigues, wrapped around the topic of spiritual life. That is, in order to know, truly understand and feel the history of the country, you need to know the history of the church.
I say this not because the life of the church is perhaps the most important priority for me, but because in my time I devoted a lot of time to studying history, and I say this from my experience of contact with Russian history. This history is perceived quite differently if the student comes into contact with the history of the spiritual life of the people.
This is such a first wish - I don’t know, to scientists, to someone else - that there should still be some courses and some sections in the history courses devoted to the history of the spiritual life of our people.
This is already a slightly abstract topic, but it came to me now when I look at the banner that is behind you, in front of our eyes, “National Unity Day”, and somehow the word “unity” is so strongly emphasized even in type. What is unity? A lot of people have stumbled over this topic.
Sometimes the call for unity turned into terrible despotism. In the name of unity, everything was done. On the other hand, it is quite clear that without unity there can be neither state life, nor the life of people, people, because in a number of cases, only thanks to unity, cohesion, solidarity, the country and people could respond to those challenges - both external and internal challenges that have arisen.
Think about the spiritual components of unity… If unity is purely a pragmatic issue, it won't work. Although, of course, take business or some other aspects of life: people unite in corporations, in some kind of teams, in order to achieve great success in their professional activities. But here we are talking about a completely different unity. And it seems to me that there can be no unity of the people without unity of spirit, without unity of values.
Therefore, the commonality of values is probably the most important thing, which ensures not only unity, but also the cohesion of the nation both in times of peace and in times of absence of peace.
Now I would like to say very briefly that, of course, the topic of youth should now be before our eyes, because the future really depends on the formation of the consciousness of today's youth. This is the obvious truth. But it seems to me that we need to find some, maybe new forms of interaction with youth audiences. This does not mean that it is necessary - as with Mayakovsky - "pull up your pants, run after the Komsomol." This is completely optional. There is no need to re-educate yourself, as they say, to reshape yourself in an attempt to be fashionable, understandable. You must always, of course, remain yourself when you talk to young people.
But work with youth should be very informal today. We must look for something in the souls of young people that causes concern in them. Maybe for us, as priests, this is a more understandable side of people's lives, because a lot is revealed at confession. And you understand that with all the external well-being - success in school, work, career prospects - often a person is internally unhappy, something most important is missing. More often than not, true love is missing. And if we talk about love, then we immediately turn to the question of morality, personal and public morality. There can be no true love when not what is being promoted is love, but what is a manifestation of human lust, that is, sin. And sin does not lead to good.
But if you look at our cinema, and not only ours, especially the world's, then there is very rarely true love in the center - there is lust and temptation. It seems to me that, speaking about the future of Russia, we should think about the spiritual state of our people. We must especially think about the moral state of the youth, because without an integral moral personality there can be no integral state and society.
Therefore, I would like to once again sincerely thank you for this initiative, for the opportunity to listen to the very important, wise, correct words that were spoken here, and to share with you and with those in this hall my modest thoughts on theme of the unity of our people.
Thank you, Vladimir Vladimirovich.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you, Your Holiness.
As for the history of the church, the spiritual history of our people, this is an extremely important component in Russian statehood, because we know how Russian statehood began - and Staraya Ladoga, and Novgorod, and then Kyiv. Unity, a single centralized state began to take shape, of course, I think - experts will correct me if this is not so, but I think that this is how it is, starting with our historical classics, the same is said - from Baptism.
Why? Because a single centralized state of the country began to take shape on the basis of the power of the prince, a single economy and market, language and faith. All this together made it possible to unite the once disparate, often warring Slavic tribes. Then, not only Slavic ones - then people of different faiths and nationalities began to be added, a large multinational, powerful, centralized Russian state began to take shape.
Therefore, spiritual history, the history of the church are inseparable from the history of the Russian state. Of course, we have attempts there to study spiritual principles in different formats, but, of course, we need to take this more seriously and show all the spiritual diversity of Russia. We will definitely talk about this too.
Thanks a lot.
Alexei Chubaryan: Thank you very much.
Dear colleagues!
From the very beginning, Vladimir Vladimirovich noted the role of the Russian Historical Society, military history.
I would like to have the pleasure of asking [to speak] Sergei Evgenyevich Naryshkin, Chairman of the Russian Historical Society. Please.
Sergei Naryshkin : Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich!
First of all, I would like to thank for the positive assessment of the activities of both the Russian Historical and the Russian Military Historical Society. The two societies, it must be said, work on many projects together and achieve good results.
Of course, I am grateful to you for the high state awards to a number of historians, school history teachers, local historians and devotees of the Russian Historical Society. These people truly deserve these high awards.
During these ten years, our Society has been doing a lot of work to form an all-Russian historical culture. The accumulated experience allows us to draw several conclusions.
The first conclusion is that our citizens still have a huge, I repeat, a huge demand for objective, reliable and accessible knowledge about our past. This is evidenced by the results of sociological research and a number of indirect indicators, including the growth in the number of applicants for history departments of our universities.
Second conclusion. In the course of a broad public discussion about our past, the voice of professional historians and scientists with the appropriate competencies must certainly be heard. They bring to this discussion an objective, balanced and very respectful attitude towards their subject - history. And this is a real historical culture, which allows both the state and society to learn from their history and draw lessons from the past. This approach is shared by the majority of our citizens.
The third conclusion is related to the fact that there are destructive forces that deliberately try to destroy our historical memory in order to split society and sow discord.
It was precisely according to this scenario that events in Ukraine developed - you have already mentioned this - when, literally before the eyes of one generation, from a prosperous Soviet Ukrainian republic, this republic turned, in fact, into a dictatorship, into an obedient and vicious instrument of totalitarian-liberal organizations aggressive towards Russia. Western regimes.
The third conclusion is that the most effective weapon in the fight against historical lies and falsification is, of course, historical truth, that is, solid arguments based on reliable historical sources. At the same time, unlike our ill-wishers, we do not need to invent anything: Russia has a rich thousand-year history. It is enough to study this history objectively, know it firmly and continue with dignity.
Vladimir Vladimirovich, as a question, here is what I would like to say - a question or even a request. Not far from Melitopol there is a unique museum called "Stone Grave". It is an object of both natural and cultural heritage. It contains rock inscriptions of an ancient man. The museum is having a hard time. In order to support and preserve it, there is such a proposal, an idea: to make it a branch of the federal museum "Tauric Chersonesos".
Such a scheme has been coordinated with the management of both museums, our Ministry of Culture does not object. But in order to expedite this process, I would ask for your instructions on my relevant notes.
Vladimir Putin: Please, we will do that. There is nothing easier here.
I would like to thank you for the work you are doing through the Russian Historical Society. I have always proceeded from the fact that the service you head today is closer to the Russian Geographical Society, it was so in its time, historically, but your work in the field of the historical society is in great demand.
Thank you very much.
Sergei Naryshkin: Mr President, many graduates of the history departments of our universities work in our service.
Vladimir Putin: Good. I would like to wish them all great success.
Natalya Narochnitskaya raised her hand.
A. Chubaryan: Natalia Alekseevna Narochnitskaya is our well-known historian. I'm glad she's with us.
N. Narochnitskaya: Vladimir Vladimirovich, I just returned from Serbia, flew in yesterday, where I spoke before the general meeting of the Serbian Academy of Sciences, where I was elected a foreign member a year ago. I met with Bishop Irinej of Bacs, I spoke in the Serbian Matica, I held a lot of meetings and made a lot of speeches.
If you knew how the Serbs are now looking with hope at Russia, how they expect that Russia will not deviate from this path, will not compromise, will stand in this existential confrontation - in the confrontation not only over Ukraine, but as you have repeatedly said, it is a clash of different projects for the future of mankind, especially the Christian world. They have a history without any moral goal-setting. We are moving forward, not dragging the Middle Ages, but with the preservation of traditional values.
I convey this bow to you from the Serbian people, from Serbian academicians, gray-haired scientists who survived the separation of Kosovo, the collapse of Yugoslavia, and everything, everything, everything.
I am very grateful to you that at the beginning of your speech you spoke about the continuity of history as it is, and therefore the need to study it as a whole. After all, even Karamzin wrote: “All this was created by us, which means it is ours.” Our people experienced during the life of one family - grandfather, father, grandson, less than 100 years old - two violent desacralizations of historical memory: first, everything until 1917, then everything until 1991. One can only marvel at how strong this historical memory is and how strong this strength and desire for unity is, especially in the face of external pressure, which we are still registering now.
Having passed the Immortal Regiment with my family again, with my grandchildren, I realized that this greatest act of national self-consciousness, which is demonstrated by the spontaneously grown Immortal Regiment, says that do not bury Russia prematurely, the day will come, and it has come, she will rise from the imaginary coffin and demand back her rights.
Vladimir Vladimirovich, just two words about studying, teaching and popularizing history. I tried to buy my grandchildren - seven and eleven years old - a T-shirt with some Russian hero, a character from Russian fairy tales, Ilya Muromets. Only Batman, Spiderman, in the "Children's World" all sorts of monsters. They are not bad, these Spidermen and Batmans. They are there, as a rule, for the good act. But why isn't it?
We are talking about the illiteracy of the new generation. Why are there no board games in kindergartens in advance, wherever our huge country is, where you can understand the scale of the territory, the scale of the front line, where you can learn about the Battle of Kulikovo, about Dmitry Donskoy, about Alexander Nevsky? This should be done from kindergarten.
History and philosophy, I have been struggling with this for 30 years in order to inspire everyone: this is the forge of a person’s worldview and the nursery of his ideals. When we are now talking about the need to endure and rely on unity: common historical experiences, respect for one's history, faith, Fatherland, honor, duty, love - this is a single whole that makes a nation out of a population, a single successively living organism with goals and values. Such a nation is not afraid of anything today.
Of course, I would like the historical community to call on manufacturers of toys, children's games, books to start this education in an easy game form from childhood. Do you know what Ukrainians do in kindergartens, or rather these Nazis? Terrible to convey. A four-year-old girl is told: “I will dig a hole and throw Muscovites into it, cover it with earth.” The child does not even understand what he is saying. But we must teach differently.
Vladimir Vladimirovich, the Serbs asked me to give you a deep bow, do you know why? They said that there is no more country, leadership and leader with such an unprecedented national state will.
We pray for you and for your will together with the Serbs.
Thanks a lot.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you.
As for external paraphernalia, it is, of course, very important. But it will not work by itself if it does not fall on the entire system of education, starting, as you said, from kindergarten.
Batman is famous, but some of our hero is not. It should be in cartoons, in films, in children's literature. It needs to be multiplied, it needs to be repeated, it needs to be based on it. It is also for this, in order to push this process forward, that we have gathered today.
Thank you all very much.
Once again, I want to congratulate everyone on the holiday and wish you all the best.
Thank you.
Alexei Chubaryan: Mr President, thank you very much.
Of course, we are animated by our meeting. I think that historians will do their best to contribute to the prosperity of Russia.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much.
All the best.
