Vladimir Valeryevitch Drozdov

Honored Performing Artist of Russia, Lecturer at the Permsky Territory College of Art and Culture Russia, Perm

Dedicated to the Anniversary of the Roerich Pact

As soon as at the beginning of the 1930s there started a worldwide discussion of the institution of the international structure of the preservation of the world cultural memorials initiated by the famous artist and the public figure Nikolai Konstantinovich Roerich it surprised many people as it had not come to anyone before. The idea seemed to be so vivid, simple and, what is more, so necessary! Here are several remarks of that time on the publication of the Roerich Pact: "I sincerely admired by your efforts which can be followed by the triumph of civilization in its opposing the barbarity" (Jan Cafe, curator of the Royal museum of art and history, Brussels); "This noble idea is simply marvelous. If it had been realized in the past the museums of the world would have acquired quite a different appearance than the one they possess now" (G.A. Kravel, director of the Vena University library); "It is clumsy to debate the ability of the banner, i.e. the banner of the Beauty empire to restrain the destructive intentions embodied in guns. Its floating cloth can become a true argument against the cruelty of the besieging guns. At least, this banner might become one more appeal to the spiritual life rejected by Europe which follows its own way of rationality" (Wallis Irving. East Setokette); "There is no doubt that the world public will support the Pact" (L. Stenly Just, the chief librarian of Manchester Public Library). The published document evoked a keen response. And the comments were ALL positive! But at that time the Roerich Pact was signed by only a few states. As little as few ones! And it was in spite of the general anticipation of the coming great war. It swept the world like a great catastrophe. World War II took away millions of human lives having left severe destruction and thousands of destroyed works of the world culture.

In 1954 the Hague Convention containing the points and statements of the Pact was signed by several leaders of the world states. But, first of all, they were far less than all the states existed on the Earth. And, secondly, it is quite clear nowadays that neither pacts nor conventions were able or could stop the barbarians of the 20th and the 21st centuries who even in the peaceful time thoughtlessly destruct the sacred objects of the world culture and in the same way, being driven by the profit lust, ruthlessly kill the nature of the planet. The obvious truth that "mankind is alive only with the spiritual values "(N.K. Roerich) is evident not for all. At the present time the world is ruled by quite other kinds of "truths". Not always Beauty, Common Sense and Culture guide the actions of individuals and states. One cannot state that currently there are cases when conventions or any other regulations were able to prevent from theft, catastrophes as well as to preserve any works of art, memorials of culture, history and the nature. And yet, the above mentioned summonses of the Pact of Roerich testify that the major thing is the DIRECTION. It is important to identify the direction of movement for both a man and the mankind as a whole, the direction which will lead to the deliberate understanding and performance of one's Duty to the planet we live on!

The Pact of Roerich has concentrated the personality of the author as a whole, i.e. his artistic, scientific, social and life aspirations. And the main thing which one should pay attention to is that enormous CREATIVE ENERGY with which he tried to reach his goals. And not occasionally it was he who stood at the beginning of the movement for the preservation of culture. Georgy Ivanov stated that 'even a cold snob Paul Valery known to be sparing of praise nominated the 19th c.Russia to be one of the three miracles of the world together with Ellada and Italian Renaissance ("The Russian Rubezh newspaper, N3.A special issue of the "Literaturnaya Rossia" weekly).

Nikolai Roerich is the direct successor of culture of Russia of the 19th c. He was formed and born in Russia; he knew it well and never forgot about it. And may be due to it there is such a strong spiritual and ideological constituent in his artistic and scientific works which is a particular feature of the whole Russian culture. Very soon Nikolai Roerich became known and necessary in various circles connected with art and culture. As early as 10 years after graduation from the Academy of Arts he became an academician, a member of the Russia Academy of Arts as well as a member of numerous councils, associations and commissions. He contributed to many exhibitions, wrote much and lectured a lot. In 1906 Nikolai Roerich was appointed the director of the School of the Society for Artistic Incentives which was well known in Russia. In his congratulation letter Nesterov wrote:" The question about what we should do - to subordinate the art to the trade or, on the contrary, to raise the trade to the art - is becoming more acute now, and we should not hesitate to decide it concerning the latter principle, and I think you'll manage it with your usual energy. Three years later in 1909 Benua wrote: "The most stagnated of Russian artistic institutions have revealed a sudden ability for renewal and vitality. And this miracle owes to the energy of a single man, one artist - Nikolai Roerich - who deserves more and more respect for his persistency with which he struggles for the living art against deadly formal practice." I would like to stress the common notice of the people who knew him well - "the energy". Nikolai Konstantinovitch preserved his super energy till his last days and it seemed to grow year by year. He possessed the sense of responsibility for his course, skillfully selected the main direction and, finally, everything that wise man dealt with was soaked with sense and tied to sense, that deepest SENSE that the theatre language calls "super task" and even "supersupertask"!

Today we are not surprised that such a young man cherished the plans as he himself wrote" to transform the life style of people through their access to a really great art". In this case he viewed the art as a means of doing that.

As we know now his activities in the field of CULTURE ORGANIZATIONS acquired the planet scale. And it is hard to distinguish the only Main Affair in his life which united all his life efforts. But, indeed, during the second part of his life he was busy with the creation of his idea and putting life into such a project as the Pact for protection of culture. After his expedition around Russia (1894-1914) he became firmly concerned that culture needs to be protected and cared for. N.K. Roerich appealed to the tsar suggesting to take serious state measures on the preservation of the cultural treasures. As it was the war time his suggestions received no response but the he could not live quietly when hundreds of world cultural and historical memorials perished every day. And it was neither a mere sense of pity as to the defenseless memorials nor the desire to save the memory of great artists and unknown masters, it was the understanding of a great mission of spiritual values, understanding the role of culture and art in the development of common civilization of the mankind.

In the late 1980s in the time of "perestroika" in Russia the majority of the first "democrats" and people's deputies were people of culture, art and science and they actively discussed the bold idea to invest the WHOLE of the STATE BUDGET into education and culture! All! And the whole of the budget of the next year! And to continue doing it until "all by themselves" the industries, the agriculture, the medicine, the public services as well as the transportation system, etc. begin to develop. One can understand that this process will not take much time as there are PEOPLE who will change! And this change will determine all the next ones. Thus, Russia (the USSR at that time) had a good chance to adopt the budget of that kind. But they did not do it! It was even not suggested for vote. Indeed, history does not operate with the subjunctive mood but did the adopted decisions of that time prove to have been more successful? One does not need the subjunctive mood to answer this question. Everything is well known now: they have proved no good. The idea to do investments into culture, i.e. into a man - belongs to N.K. Roerich. However, in this case one can make investments into the FUTURE! And it only seems to be an utopia. There are serious economic estimations and calculations; there are psychological substations and practical evidence of pedagogical experiments of the late 20th c. There is no only N.K. Roerich! And the idea of the transformation of the human community through art and culture still continues to be a utopia!

As for the Roerich's Banner of Peace it travels around the world! It was taken to the North and South Poles, to the highest mountains and even to the Cosmic space! "It is the notion of culture itself that implies no distraction or cold abstraction but functioning creative work which lives with the restless exploit of life, enlightened labor and creation. And it is not for the sake of ourselves as we have already known all this but for the sake of growing new generations we should stress again that in all the best periods of the history of the mankind the revival and the flourishing occurred in the communities where they cultivated traditions of the culture respect. And we know that this pure tradition does not strengthen immediately, it needs daily treatment with the grace of Light. And even the best spiritual garden withers without water in the darkness. That is why we need the Banner of Peace not only in the time of war but may be even more every day, when without the fires of guns the same fatal mistakes against Culture are being committed" (N.K. Roerich). And it is rather strange that Roerich who was fed and brought up by the great Russian culture does not seem to be soon accepted in his true greatness. It results from the fact that his world outlook and world ideology are not traditionally orthodox (nevertheless, he is far from being a buddhist, as the Soviet ideologists considered). His ideology is to be viewed as the cosmic one (COSMISM), and his understanding of the world are deeply scientific ones. Roerich rated knowledge higher than faith. In this way he both eliminated numerous contradictions related to different religious faiths and confessions and at the same time risked to remain misunderstood and to lack recognition. In his works such notions as "great deed" and "miracle" possess pure human ETHICAL character. The overall mankind will slowly approach to the Cosmism of Roerich. He dreamed to find (and was searching for) a mysterious Shambala in the Himalayas.

They also say that the Roerichs wanted to establish the country "of their own" and even concretely identified its possible location and boundaries. But in reality the country of his own is "the state of Roerich". And it has been existing for a long time! But it has got its boundaries. And the inhabitants of the Earth have not yet been ready to live in this country. Meanwhile, to save the mankind means to become a citizen of that State and to start living "according to Roerich"!

Roerich wrote books and painted pictures (the number of his canvases, drawings and sketches to the theatrical performances is really incredible!),went to travels full of the real dangers, made scientific discoveries, established schools, scientific institutes, museums and public structures of the international scale. And what is more important that this is not a mere virtual world, the summery of the hopes and dreams, plans and projects but it is the world which includes the active productive force able to put his dreams and hopes into REALITY! One may not forget that for Roerich it was important to express both the Forms of the New Life in the numerous works of art full of examples of Piety and Good Affairs and the Way of Life we Should Follow Today. His Creative behavior, his human Acts, his attempts to preserve the life around us as well as in the whole world, to save all the best we have got on our planet as he understood, i.e. Culture we have, make him one of the Authors of the new Forms of the Social Life on the Earth.


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•  The Roerich Pact and the Banner of Peace as a Remarkable Phenomenon of the World Culture
Reports and Speeches at the International Social and Scientific Conference.
Delhi – Kullu – Shimla – Kalimpong October 22– November 5 2010


© The International Council of Roerich Organizations by name of S.N. Roerich. http://www.roerichs.com/Lng/en