Liubov Vladislavovna Khomenok

Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, President of the Roerich Society Russia, Penza

The Ideas of the Roerich Pact in the Cultural Space of the Russian Regions

There are activities in the history of mankind′s development, the importance and essence of which reveal themselves gradually. They form the spiritual scale of ranks, along which mankind goes upstairs to Light. They are seldom properly understood and amaze contemporaries with their singularity, but descendants admire their sagacity and wisdom. The Roerich Pact belongs to such activities. The peculiarity of this document lies in the fact, that it contains ideas which are universal and urgent for any human association. The US President Roosevelt said about it in his speech: "In strict observance of this Pact we see the possibility of broad realization of one of vital principle - the preservation of world civilization. This treaty contains deeper spiritual meaning than its text expresses". What does its spiritual meaning consist of?

N.K. Roerich understood culture as indissoluble synthesis of Divine truth, kindness and beauty. They represent the very spiritual light which illuminates and ennobles peoples′ life. Like sunlight unites all colors of specter so the feeling of United Divine Light under visible diversity of life can lead to veritable unity of mankind. This Divine Light manifests itself on the earth through culture. That is why N.K. Roerich considered the notion of culture to originate from eastern "cult"-that is reverence - and druidic "ur"-that is light. "Culture - he asserted - is the worship of Light". These ideas were consonant to many Indian thinkers. The great Indian poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore wrote: "In aspiration to beauty people understand each other without knowing others′ languages because man′s inner essence becomes apparent through this aspiration. It is the very Deity in man which unites everything. In its light we are indivisible".

The feeling of this inner unity will be also a distinctive symbol of the new era called Satiya Yuga in India. N.K. Roerich also connects the era of culture with Satiya Yuga. "The Purani-he wrote-announce the blessed Satiya Yuga. What a great notion, what a benevolence will be the basis of this purification and transformation of life! Of course, it will be the very benevolence that contains everything beautiful, inspirational and elevating. It will be indeed the great notion which mankind realizes under the word culture".

So, the spiritual meaning of the Roerich Pact for culture values protection consists in strengthening in peoples′ hearts understanding of cultural values and thus approaching the bright age of culture-Satiya Yuga.

Although Russia signed the Hague Convention on the protection of cultural values in 1954, its importance is realized only now. The ideas of the Roerich Pact find more and more supporters among representatives of cultural and scientific communities and public organizations. Such development of social movement and interest to the Roerich heritage is not accidental. On the one hand Roerich assigned a leading part to public societies in strengthening and protection of culture. He wrote: "We will unceasingly repeat that except state recognition we need an active participation of the general public. Cultural values decorate and elevate life for young and old, that is why everybody must take energetic care of them". He actually became the leader of powerful public activities, showing that good will of lots of enlightened people could force the powers that are to pay attention to the necessity of culture protection.

On the other hand, Roerich′s ideas of the leading role of culture, the ideas of the Roerich Pact for culture values protection now become questions of vital importance for humanity. Mankind can successfully overcome any global crisis and establish long-awaited peace on the planet through affirming culture and creative work in all their variety. N.K. Roerich saw the salvation of our civilization in asserting elevated culture in public consciousness. That is why his ideas are consonant to many progressive representatives of cultural and scientific communities. Of course, Roerich knew that the era of Light could not come at once. For its arrival it is necessary to bring up the younger generation on the basis of culture, to comprehend the role of culture in human life and to protect its values. As a result all this should lead to the world transformation through culture. In the 30-ies N.K. Roerich put forward two more initiatives: the World Day of Culture and The International Culture League. He regarded the Day of Culture as the school day, when children would be reminded of true cultural treasures. He wrote: "We′ll also hear about the World Day of Culture, when in every school and every educational institution the whole day will be simultaneously devoted to national and international cultural treasures". The great thinker considered the International Culture League to be a large public organization with a lot of departments, including all important aspects of life: art, education, science, maternity and childhood, nature protection, medicine and so on. The International Culture Protection League was founded in Moscow in 1996 on the initiative of International Center of the Roerichs. In many cities and villages its departments and Roerich organizations together with cultural and scientific communities annually celebrate the Day of Culture. A lot of educational and enlightener programs are worked out for conducting this holiday. Concerts, conferences, exhibitions, children′s forums are turned to assert cultural ideas in minds of the younger generation. The Roerich Pact anniversaries are widely celebrated. The first International public Forum "How to protect the living substance of culture?" was held in Penza in 2005 together with International Council of Roerich societies, where the representatives of more than 30 cities of Russia and of the nearest countries discussed the vital issues of culture. The idea of the program "How to protect the living substance of culture?" came into being at that forum. It is a gratifying circumstance that the VIII Forum is being conducted on the hospitable Indian soil.

The growing public interest to philosophical ideas of the "cosmism", the high level of space technologies and their claiming in contemporary life allow progressive scientists to speak of appearance in the midst of scientific thinking the forth type called cosmic thinking. The program "The Way to Stars" held in Penza in 2007, was devoted to comprehension of this phenomenon. The cosmonaut-tester A. Samokutyaev visited our city, met schoolchildren, representatives of scientific community and took part in the conference devoted to the memorial dates of Russian cosmonautics. Next year he will probably be one of the members of international space station.

Some educational programs are turned to consolidation of tolerant ideas in our society. With that end in view our organization together with International Council of Roerich societies, bearing the name of S.N. Roerich, worked out a number of activities for Penza region devoted to the Year of India in Russia. And there we clearly saw the similarity of our countries. Perhaps, this feeling of inner spiritual relationship aroused keen schoolchildren′s interest of Penza region to competition of children′s drawings under the motto "India through Children′s Eyes". In experts′ opinions children succeeded in reproducing colors, beauty and charming of Indian nature. The exhibition of those drawings was held in Penza, Saratov and at Indian Embassy in Moscow. The opening of that exhibition was timed to Jawaharlal Nehru′s birthday. Mister Ambassador Hanish Prabhat highly appreciated the children′s drawings. You could see some of them today. Thus, this far from being a full survey of cultural and educational arrangements shows that Roerich′s conception of culture assists consolidation of public powers in protecting cultural values and forming friendly ties among nations. In our opinion, to affirm the Roerich Pact ideas in regions means to satiate social-cultural space with ideas that bring different cultures together, assert synthesis of science, art and religion, unity of man, planet and cosmos-that is to seek for what unites people but does not separate them.

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