APPEAL
of the initiative group of representatives of culture and science
to the Mayor of Moscow and the Director-General of UNESCO

Dear Mr Lujkov,
Dear Mr Mayor,

We are writing to you regarding a question which we consider of particular importance for the destiny of the world community.

With every passing day, we approach the unique landmark in the history of humankind which today is especially significant: the forthcoming new century coincides with a new millennium. As we will be witnesses of and participants in this exceptional event in world history, we cannot but express a feeling of excitement and of responsibility.

We must stop and look back in order to evaluate the road covered so we can pave new ways to avoid the mistakes of the past and to benefit from acquired experience and new knowledge. Our intellectual and moral responsibility towards present and future generations obliges us, representatives of culture and science, to consider this our human and civic duty.

Particular alarm is felt because, in spite of all the successes in the development of science and culture, ensuring the obvious progress in the development of the world civilization, humankind has not succeeded in ending the practice of aggressive intolerance, violence and war.

In 1999, the world will mark 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War, one of the most tragic in the history of humankind, which deprived tens of millions of men, women and children of their lives. Furthermore, after this unprecedented bloody harvest, more than 100 armed conflicts and wars have taken place since 1945 and have killed 25 million people.

As we look back on the past, full of victims and suffering, and firmly believing in the inalienable human right to life and to peace on the eve of a new century and a new millennium, there are many good reasons to define new orientations and to make new efforts to save present and future generations from the scourge of war, and to contribute to the building of a culture of peace.

The decision of the General Assembly of the United Nations, adopted at the request of UNESCO, to proclaim the year 2000 as the International Year for the Culture of Peace, also inspires us to undertake actions in favour of the promotion of the ideals of a culture of peace.

Prompted by the feeling of personal responsibility for the building of a more secure, just and human universe, we wish to express our active support for a wide movement of the international public to achieve through concrete actions and efforts the transition from a culture of violence and war to a culture of peace.

To this end, we suggest holding an international forum of mayors of various cities and representatives of culture and science "For the Culture of Peace in the Third Millennium" in Moscow, Rusian Federation, in May 1999.

We think that cities, being the focus of the cultural and scientific life of every society, play an increasingly important role in the mobilization of public opinion for the transition from a culture of violence and war to a culture of peace.

In this context, Moscow, with over 850 years of history, which has experienced foreign invasions, disastrous fires and the destruction of the war years, and has sustained innumerable losses in the Second Millennium, is well-grounded to invite mayors and representatives of culture of twin cities as well as of cities which have undergone military siege and destruction.

This proposal seems to us the more just in that many representatives of culture and science from Moscow were among the first to support the concept of a culture of peace put forward by the scientist and educator, Federico Mayor, Director-General of UNESCO. Furthermore it was in Moscow that the first International Institutes and UNESCO Chairs for a Culture of Peace and Democracy were created. In this connection, we rely on support for our initiative from UNESCO. Moscow as a megapolis has long-established active links with UNESCO and would be able to ensure a fruitful dialogue for all the participants in the Forum.

During this Forum, we wish to exchange our experiences and possibilities of co-operation between city structures and representatives of culture and science in the field of education for children and youth in the spirit of a culture of peace, in new approaches towards cultural and spiritual life of cities as intellectual and moral centre of a culture of peace in the Third Millennium.

We request the Mayor of Moscow and the Director-General of UNESCO to agree to hold this Forum in Moscow in 1999, under their joint auspices.

Signed:

Academician Zurab TSERETELI, President of the Russian Academy of Fine Arts,
UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador

Savva KULISH, Film Director

Academician Alexander TCHOUBARIAN, Director of the Institute of Universal History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, President of the International Institute
for the Culture of Peace and Democracy

Alexander GURNOV, General Director, Television News Service (TSN)

Academician Nikolai A. PETROV, President, Russian Academy of Arts, Professor

Professor Serguei KAPITZA, Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences,
President of the Euroasian Physic Society

Vladmir PANTCHENKO, Director, "Gosconcert"

Vladimir BOREV, Editor-in-Chief of the magazine "VIDEO-ASS"

Academician Igor ILINSKIY, Rector, Institute of Youth (Moscow), Director of the UNESCO International Institute "Youth for the Culture of Peace and Democracy", Professor

Mayia PLISEZKAIA, Ballet-Dancer

L. EGOROV, Director of the Russian State Library