Let me welcome all of you, dear participants of our video conference! I am very happy that we were all able to gather here. First of all, I want to thank the organizers of this international online event! Despite the fact that, unfortunately, due to the pandemic, we can't meet live, they managed to gather us all on this platform. For this, I am deeply grateful to them and wish them success in holding today's video conference, as well as all upcoming scientific and cultural meetings! I believe that this online conference is a very important event in these difficult times, raising topical issues of modern society. Therefore, the organizers of the conference carry out an extremely important mission-trying to find common ground between cultures and civilizations through dialogue between them. And I agree with them in this - I am deeply convinced that this is the only correct approach to this issue.
Of course, the fact that the project bears my father's name - "Chingiz Aitmatov International Forum of writers and intellectuals" - imposes a huge responsibility on me. I think it's worth noting that I'm a little worried about this. Moreover, for my father, as you know, the topic of conflict and dialogue between cultures and civilizations was of fundamental importance. It occupied one of the main places not only in his work, but also in public activities. He devoted all his time and thoughts to this problem, trying to understand its nature, and looking for ways out of the crisis of mutual understanding of peoples and cultures, and groping for ways to avoid conflict situations. He made a great effort to ensure that his contemporaries and future generations had the opportunity to live in peace and harmony.
How can we make sure that our contemporaries, especially the younger generation, representatives of completely different cultures, are able to find compromises and live in harmony with each other? And what should support them in this matter – what are their ideals and guidelines? I understand that it is very difficult to find answers to these questions, but it is still necessary to search for them and find them. In the novel "Human Parking" by Fazil Iskander, one of my father's favorite writers, it is said that if social problems are solved, then the problems of origin (nationality) are resolved by themselves. I cannot disagree with this, because I believe that in a healthy society there can be no problems with mutual understanding between representatives of different faiths, nationalities, etc. The basis of mutual understanding is culture. Only through cultural enlightenment can we achieve full acceptance of someone else's way of life, way of thinking, traditions, everyday life, beliefs. A modern person living in the era of globalization needs to learn to be extremely responsible in public life, to understand that we live in the age of information, in the era of openness of the world, where any of your actions, your thoughts, can easily affect the lives of people around you. Each of us, today's Internet users , is a potential creator of public opinion, regardless of where we are or what we do. Therefore, the more openness, the more responsibility! This, I believe, should be the motto of our time. Only culture helps us develop certain rules of behavior-etiquette. I am convinced that traditional values should play an important role here, as stated in the theme of our conference.
In the last century, despite all the discrepancies in this regard, Russia still did a lot to maintain cultural diversity in our space. On the one hand, our peoples developed and modernized together with it, and on the other hand, they did not forget about their roots and traditional values. Then, I believe, it was possible to successfully link seemingly completely different things internally, to find a synthesis between Tradition and a new worldview. Russian language and culture enabled the peoples of the former Soviet republics to integrate into European culture on the one hand, and on the other – to preserve folk art and folklore as a historical monument. Let me remind you that my father, like Fazil Iskander or the Chukchi classic Yuri Rytkhau, was able to achieve recognition in world literature precisely because they wrote in Russian. This is an important fact! They didn't write as Russian authors, they did not even imitate them, and their merit is that they expressed their national culture through the Russian language. Thus, these authors are a living example of a successful symbiosis of seemingly incompatible cultures. This shows once again how complex and profound culture is, and what an important and irreplaceable role it plays in the life of human society.
Now our society, tormented by religious, social, and economic contradictions, is in dire need of a single algorithm that allows us to live without feuding or fighting with each other, without sowing chaos in society, without destroying cultural ties, but on the contrary, directing our forces to creation and unity. And in my opinion, unity is possible only through culture! I remember the main principle of Indonesia, a Muslim state: «Unity in diversity». And for Russia, which is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious state, this is the only true principle. Because the rejection of diversity for it will mean the rejection of itself, in the form in which it now exists. After all, there are a huge number of Muslims, Buddhists and representatives of many other faiths, not only Orthodox.
I believe that in the modern era it is not necessary to romanticize the traditional way of life too much, but it is still very dangerous to completely reject traditional values. It is necessary to preserve etiquette, but there should not be a primitive cult of various traditional rituals, because this is no less dangerous than a complete rejection of the spiritual guidelines of the past. Culture must be alive, eternally renewed and reborn, along with each new generation. As Chingiz Aitmatov said: "The most difficult thing for a person is to remain a human every day." That is, every person, without exception, at whatever time and in whatever place they live, must work on themselves every day tirelessly-to improve. And since there is no limit to perfection, then a person's work on himself can have no limit.
Thank you very much for your attention!
Photo: official website of the President of Kyrgyzstan
