Today is one of the days you will remember for the rest of your lives. You are now entering the most interesting and important period of your lives – studentship.
I congratulate you on choosing the Lomonosov Moscow State University - the best higher education institution of the country. I also congratulate you on choosing the Governmental Management Department. After graduating, you will be properly educated and demanded governmental officials, true leaders. And today we will start with a leadership lesson.
Leadership in Russian
Our motherland, Russian Federation is a great country. It is one of two countries with 500 years of independent history. We have a huge territory, great amount of natural resources, big industrial potential and an impressive list of vivid achievements in science, technology, education, arts, glorious history of army and fleet. We have the authority of the country, which played the core role in the world history.
We are the heirs of numerous generations of Russians, who loved and created our country, who lived, loved, gave birth to children, built, grew bread, improved our country and sacrificed their lives to protect it from rivals. We are to be worth the heritage.
And we have to continue and multiply it, to raise Russia one more level up and to make it a country with well-being provided by “smart” economics, new technologies and innovations. Changes are only possible where there are people, who are ready to take the responsibility. You are to become such people.
What do you do to become a leader? I am afraid, you won’t have a comprehensive answer to this question even after finishing the Governmental Management Department as life is always richer, than any schemes.
It all starts with self-confidence. You can study to be a leader – it is a set of skills and knowledge, which will be useful everywhere: at school, in the dormitory, student communities, “Rosneft” directorial board, State Duma and inside Kremlin.
And the first leadership lesson will be given to you by Aleksander Sergeevich Pushkin. Why exactly him?
I have noticed one thing. Take any book on leadership – you will have plenty of translated publications in bookshops – and you will find nothing about Russia in them. Caesar, Napoleon, Churchill, Steve Jobs – anyone, but Russians. As if there were no leaders in Russia, as if it was not one of the leading world leaders.
Sometimes they say the principles of leadership are universal and that something that works in one country will also work in another one. It is not quite right. It was proved, that over fifty countries had started modernization period after WWII, but only those ones that worked with their values orientation, national mentality, ethics, and their unique world view, had succeeded – Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea changed, taking into account and saving their traditions and identity.
By the way, Pushkin did understand the need to pay due consideration of national features: “Climate, governmental type and faith give all the nations a specific face… there is the way of thinking, dozens of traditions, beliefs and customs that only belong to one nation”.
Our country has created a huge number of leaders, who define the face of our planet, who gave usexamples of leadership. Pushkin is a marvelous example of intellectual leadership.
They say, Russians do not initially have a set for leadership, as we are humble. That is not true. Pushkin did have a set for leadership. In 1820, he wrote about himself:
I want to be great, I love the Russian honour and promise much; what will I do? God knows.
It seems we know everything about Pushkin, but not exactly. And all we know is extremely contradictory. Modern expert in Pushkin studies Vladimir Novikov spells out all the myths about Pushkin: “our everything”, “the smartest person in Russia”, “fool” (according to Pisarev and Harms), “womanizer”, “one-woman man”, “optimist”, “pessimist”, “atheist”, “religious poet”, “prophet and teacher”, “aesthete”, “pioneer”, “traditionalist”, “Decembrist”, “monarchist”, “citizen of the world”, “patriot”, “victim”, “winner” etc. I think I did not miss anything, there were no brand new myths in 21st century”.
They will emerge right before your very eyes. But they will not be myths, but reality. Pushkin was a thinker, a Citizen, a Leader. My suggestion is to look at the Genius from this point of view.
