Written contribution / Contribution ?crite
by / par

Mr Igor A. Bezrukavnikov,
Mayor of Astrakhan

on / sur

Round Tables:
Cities and cultures of the world and Prevention of violence:
role of the city mayors, culture and mass media figures

The ideas and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of UNESCO/Les idées et les opinions exprimées dans cet ouvrage sont celles de l'auteur et ne reflètent pas nécessairement les vues de l'UNESCO

Peace to the Coming One…

Dear participants of the International Forum,
Colleagues,

I would like to greet you on behalf of my compatriots, people of over 100 nationalities living on the banks of the great Russian river, in the estuary of the Caspian Sea, in the place where the great Russian poet of the XXth century Velimir Khlebnikov wrote these words:

Where the Volga flew like an arrow
To the laughter of the young sea…

Our ancient city celebrated last year the 440the anniversary since its foundation. Located at the cross-section of the trade and waterways, Astrakhan has a unique architectural and national flavour. Today we have in the neighbouring sections of the town Orthodox churches, the famous Astrakhan Kremlin, the Moslem Mosque, the Catholic Cathedral, the Protestant Kirche and the Jewish Synagogue; the Armenian, Indian and Persian trade missions are preserved by the State as monuments of art. Astrakhan once greeted the great Tsar Peter, the Pallas expedition and the Frenchman Alexander Dumas who left about our city some curious descriptions. Our land produces the fantastic pink lotus and our river has the world famous red fish. The Astrakhan Land has given to the civilisation some great people: the first Russian academician, the poet Vassily Trediakovsky; the bright brush of Boris Kustodiyev; the "Columbus of poetic continents", poet and 20th century prophet Velimir Khlebnikov; the charming voices of Maria Maxakova, Valeria Barsova and Tamara Milashkina. The Russia song queen Nadezhda Babkina is also of Astrakhan origins. This list can be continued endlessly, but as the Russian philosopher Petr Chaadayev used to say: "The past is no longer in our power, but the future depends only on us…"

Supporting the society spiritual potential is one of the main tasks of the state and society.

If culture can be compared to the materialised soul of the nation, then the task of authorities is to preserve this soul.

To oppose violence, provide upbringing and education to young people in the spirit of the culture of peace and agreement is not simple on the threshold of the third millennium, that is why the main task today is to unite high culture with high statehood.

Dear Colleagues,

Allow me to share with you some of the experiences of joint work of the municipal bodies, culture, art and mass media figures in Astrakhan.

At the moment one of the programmes which is being implemented in Astrakhan is Development and Preservation of the Culture and Art in Astrakhan till the Year 2000. In implementing the programme, we rely on our best traditions, use and develop the material and technical base and make use of the high educational level of the population created by our fathers.

We work in two main directions:

1. Preservation and strengthening of the traditional peaceful co-existence of different nations on our sole.
2. Providing comprehensive upbringing to the young generations.

The Astrakhan cultural potential includes: four theatres, the museum with 12 affiliates, picture gallery and its affiliate - the unique in the world museum dedicated to Velimir Khlebnikov, 37 city libraries, state conservatory, pedagogical university, three secondary special culture schools: of music, art and of folk art, 18 music and art schools for children, youth creative centres. We have established 12 national cultural centres which are successfully functioning: Kazakh, Tatar, Nogai, Armenian, Uzbek, Ukrainian, Jewish, German and the recently set up Dagestani and Chechen societies of language and culture.

In this respect I would like to quote the words of the prominent Russian writer Vladimir Soloukhin: "To live and respect one's people, it is enough to be borne on one's land, to get it with the milk of one's mother; to be able to understand the culture of other peoples, however, one should be a Man".

Today - when after the collapse of the former Soviet Union, Astrakhan has become the Southern outpost of Russia, when its frontiers lie close to the troubled area of Chechnya, multi-lingual Dagestan, mysterious Kalmykia, this issue is of special importance. Throughout its history Astrakhan has never experienced national wars or religious rebellions - here people have always traded, fished, built cathedrals and brought up children together. What we need is not to lose, to break the "uniting threads of centuries".

Providing support for this tradition, we introduced in Astrakhan schools national language classes; the native tongues are optionally studied in national communities. Demonstrating respect for our minorities and neighbours, the state television has regular broadcasts in the Kazakh and Tatar languages. Of special importance in this work is the television programme broadcast in Russian: Peace to the Coming One, which familiarises the Astrakhan residents with the traditions, culture and art of all the nations living in Astrakhan. The experience of the national television and broadcasting company has proved to be useful and interesting for the television companies of Britain and Australia.

Deep good neighbourhood relations unite Astrakhan with the neighbouring republics and sovereign states.

In accordance with the three-side agreement between the Russian Federation Culture Ministry, Republic of Kazakhstan Committee for Culture, Education and Health and the Astrakhan City Administration, our city hosts the days of culture of the Kazakh people. The famous Kazakh Akyn Kurmangazy Sagyrbayev is buried in the Astrakhan soil - today this is the place of pilgrimage of Moslems which prompted the Astrakhan and Kazakh authorities to build with joint efforts a nice white-stone mausoleum.

Twice a year the Astrakhan soil hosts the days of Armenian culture; the German society has a folklore ensemble which propagates the German folklore. The latter one first appeared as the "Astrakhan Song" group and is manned primarily with the Russian young people - the graduates of the local Conservatory; however, the choir conductor, the Conservatory professor, has German roots. She was the one who aroused the former students' interest in German folklore. Today the group has the international recognition. It toured in the USA, England; however, the best reward was the tour organised in German cities and the diplomas received at the folklore festivals of the Volga Germans.

Today Astrakhan has the signed agreements with the Kabardino-Balkaria, Kalmykia, and Tatarstan. Under consideration are the agreements with Dagestan and Belarus.

You are invited to come to our festive events where you will see that Maslenitsa, Sabantui and Novrus are celebrated jointly by the Russians, Armenians and the Germans. The Astrakhan cuisine offers the mixture of the Russian Bliny, Uzbek pilaff, Tatar kainars and Kazakh besh-barmak.

Our achievements in the nationalities policy is the reality and not just the figment of our imagination. The main thing, however, which helps to address the uneasy problems which we face is the realisation of the importance of the tasks which we face. We try to attract to our joint work the best talents, bright journalists and make use of the flexible diplomacy of religious leaders. The disrespect for other nations - even on the every-day level - does not remain unnoticed by the City Hall. One more aspect of this problem: The culture, mass media and management figures tirelessly try to put into life one idea: all nations who live in our city are Astrakhan residents, that is why the love for one's own land and for its sacred places should be brought up from early childhood. Brightly and solemnly celebrates Astrakhan annually the Day of the City decorated with all multi-national colours.

The television competition for the best music, artistic and poetic work devoted to Astrakhan and commemorating the 440th anniversary of the City attracted both the professionals and amateur ensembles who presented their work.

Under the auspices of the City Hall, the local television regularly creates films about the prominent arts and science figures, our compatriots who have contributed into the development of the world civilisation. One cannot sit today without taking any action - otherwise we shall have tomorrow the generation of new Russians who would know nothing about the origins of their own culture and arts. Instead of Pushkin, Tolstoi, Lermontov and Chekhov, their minds will be occupied by the serials and yellow press literature. The art figures have no right to make a mistake, because the price of such a mistake will be the outlook of millions of future generations.

The Russian historian Vladimir Solovyev wrote: "The state has come to Earth not to create paradise on Earth, but to prevent hell". Evil may be opposed only with the force of kindness - active, creative kindness. A special programme of the City Hall providing support for additional humanitarian education bears its fruit.

Recently I visited the Astrakhan Children's Art Gallery where the Ecological Centre and the City Culture Committee organised the exhibition of the children's drawings. Do you know what was the name that the children devised for this exhibition? "Let us preserve our Caspian". These words express the position of a small citizen who feels responsibility for the life of the whole country.

Providing support for civilian patriotic movement, we have decided to establish in the city 11 libraries which specialise in ecological, moral and aesthetic issues. The arts school organises special groups of the complex aesthetic upbringing of children. Annually the City Hall awards 30 grants to the most talented children.

No it will be up to them (children) to build bridges which unite our peoples. Even if the roads which were used by the trade caravans to bring goods from Asia to Europe has become covered with grass, the new ideas and bright talents even today break all the frontiers, overcome all the distances. Our numerous music groups have reached the international level bringing honourable diplomas; the traditional Velimir Khlebnikov's readings are attended by the scientists from Japan, Finland and USA. The M.P. Maxakova and V.V. Barsova music vocal festivals are attended by prominent opera singers from Russia, CIS countries, France, Czech Republic, Austria, etc.

Our success in supporting professional arts, young talents and folklore do not mean that we are not concerned with the future. It is difficult to preserve the high roof when the foundations have given crack. Culture is not a one-moment show which many would have liked to link it with. This is a moral elevation, spiritual joy. The research of sociologists shows that, fortunately, the pseudo-culture virus has attained today only 5% of the Russians. The remaining 95% remain healthy. But we should fight for their health, for the health of the nation.

The Astrakhan intelligentsia and municipal bodies are ready to perform their duties, so that in the 21st century we can proudly repeat the words of the fisherman's son Mikhail Lomonosov:

The Russian soil can bear
Its own Platos, and the quick-minded Newtons