The National idea and cultural backgrounds

In the framework of the state policy, carried out in the North Caucasus Federal District over the last years, the Moscow Caucasian Club was established in the Russian capital last autumn. This is a public and consultative platform designed to coordinate multiple tasks. Among them the work of permanent missions of the subjects of the North Caucasian Federal District in the Russian capital; the work of institutions for internal affairs aimed and resolution and prevention of conflicts and attempts to portray this conflicts as based on national or reliogions hatred; and media coverage of the events in the region. The members of the Moscow Caucasian Club include representatives of national and cultural communities of the North Caucasus peoples, representatives of the state authorities and law enforcement agencies, specializing in the issues of ethno-religious cooperation, as well as public figures and experts.

Smoothening over the contradictions between the representatives of different cultures and traditions was declared one of the goals of the Club. Organizers believe that it is of special importance, since the ideologists of political and religious radicalism often use to their advantage difficulties in ethnic and religious relations.

This week, Moscow hosted another meeting of the Club, after which its head, Shamil Jafarov, told Vestnik Kavkaza: "Our common historical memory is, in fact, a substance that touches the soul of every person, every Russian. And the possibilities of distortion, including external ones, concern all of us, on the one hand. On the other hand, the way the North Caucasus is shown today in mass media, in movies and in other media is also a matter of particular concern for us, since a lot of positive developments are happening in the Caucasus, and we want people to talk about this directly and openly. And work with youth, something that was discussed today by athletes, by representatives of KVN and representatives of culture, I think this is our main task, and the Moscow Caucasian Club, as an expert platform, is designed to resolve this complex of problems. In other words, to give a balanced expert assessment to those processes that occur in our country and, in general, influence the creation of the image of the North Caucasian region in the framework of the Russian Federation as a whole, including in a positive way."

As the head of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, stated to Vestnik Kavkaza, "The Moscow Caucasian Club was created in order to find weak points and resolve these problems. We can talk a lot about friendship, about national ideas and about other things, but the most important thing is that it is necessary to select those weak points and create a good 'roadmap', and then just resolve these weak points."

Yevkurov urged to remember black pages of history, in particular deportation of Vainakhs, which is remembered in Chechnya and Ingushetia on February 23rd: "I can't tell myself today to forget. I can't forget. And how can I tell the youth to forget it? Of course it will not happen. How should we choose, so that people would celebrate without forgetting the tragedy. This is an art. This is an approach. The same is true for our relations and territorial issues. I can't tell myself to forget, so how can I tell people, no one will forget? These are urgent issues, we must not only talk about them, they must be resolved."

Answering the question about all-Russian values, the head of Ingushetia stated: We are small nations, living on the territory of Russia. The union of all small nations around Russians is associated with the great Russia. This is what we have in common, this is our Russia. This is a difficult path, but we have to go through it, because Russians allowed small nations to preserve their national traditions, customs, languages and culture. Monolith, foundation of multinational, multireligious Russian civil society should be created precisely around this national idea, around Russian man. With personal cultural characteristics, but still with common national ideas. This, I think, would give a good result."