— Russkiy Mir Foundation — Journal — Articles — Respect for Tradition Rather Than Antiquity
Respect for Tradition Rather Than Antiquity
In this issue you’ll find many articles which explore the subject of continuity. Russia reunited with the Crimea, because this was needed not only to restore historic justice but also to ensure the continuity between Russia past and Russian present.
We’ve finally “rehabilitated” the First World War, undeservedly brandished as “imperialistic” in Soviet years, as the time of great exploits by Russian soldiers. The Bolsheviks wanted the Russian Empire to lose in that war and then kindle the fires of the civil war. A lot is yet to be done to immortalize the memory of WWI.
The conversation has begun about the unified history textbook, which implies, among other things, continuity of generations, culture, traditions.
The role of tradition has always been strong in the Russian society. This is not because we worshipped antiquity; this was rather a manifestation of circumspect conservatism, when we ended up being surrounded by enemies and crippled by nine months of winter a year.
Tradition should not substitute for or reject reforms. The world abounds in case studies, when some societies leaning on their traditions made a dizzy leap forward without losing their national identity but reclaiming it instead. We are now confronted again by the next historic challenge of this sort.
Having realized that we did not come down from skies yesterday with our Russian civilization but have been rooted here for ages, it’s time now to sort out the mess in our country and set out for the future together with our historic identity.
