This summer the Public Chamber established all-Russian non-governmental organization “Russia without Nazism,” which deals with monitoring of inter-ethnic environment, tries to establish dialogue with young people, interrelation with law enforcement structures and propose legal support of people, who suffered from radicals. In the mid of October the Public Chamber held the meeting “Multinational Russia” devoted to the conflicts among young people and ethnic grounds for them.
Alexander Sokolov, a member of the Public Chamber of Russia:
The world is becoming more globalized and the familiar picture outside the window, as well as the ethnic picture, is changing. Huge numbers of people from other regions are arriving in large cities, university centers, and bringing their own patterns of behavior and norms, which become the basis for conflicts with the local population. On the other hand, the protest mood of the local population is being addressed not only to those visitors who behave inappropriately, but to the collective image of members of particular ethnic groups and representatives of religious denominations. It often affects educated, well-educated people, not similar in appearance to the representatives of the local population, who are in no way guilty, but at the same time bear a negative image that is created by renegades who behave, to put it mildly, in challenging and often criminal ways.
Today we are gathered here, representatives of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation. Next to me are my colleagues. Father Vsevolod Chaplin and Albert Karganov, who represent major religious communities - the Orthodox majority and the large Muslim community of Russia. Here today we have representatives of youth and ethnic organizations, with different orientations. There are those who defend the interests of the ethnic Russian majority, there are those who represent the interests of the people who come from different regions, representatives of different ethnic groups that live in large metropolitan areas. Here we have the press and representatives of the Internet community. I hope that today we will talk on the one hand, quite sharply, but on the other hand, in a correct way. Because we are not gathered here to convince each other of something, but to try to find some answers to the questions that are faced by our society as a whole.
Vsevolod Chaplin, member of the Public Chamber of Russia, Archdeacon, Priest of the Russian Orthodox Church:
This is probably one of the first meetings to bring together representatives of youth organizations of various nationalities, including nations that sometimes clash with each other. It is excellent that such a meeting is being held within the walls of the Public Chamber, which is open to a variety of voices and opinions. Conflicts among young people, unfortunately, have become a reality. Sometimes we are told from screens and newspaper pages, and especially from reports by officials, that all is well, everything is fine, there is no conflict, there are individual cases of household or individual interests clashing, but they do not bear any national, religious or cultural character. But we all know that, in reality, domestic and economic conflicts are able to escalate into ethnic and religious conflicts, when there is a difference between cultures, and when one or another party to the conflict or even both sides are trying to unite for a fight with their countrymen, co-religionists, members of the same youth group, fan organization, and so on. So interethnic relations among youth is a zone of risk today, this area is a very dangerous reality and we have to work very seriously with this reality, offering the state authorities solutions to conflict situations and situations of aggravating relations, which we see today in our the country.
Youth is the time for searching for the truth, justice, and a place in life, but at the same time it is time to assert oneself, it is a time of trial and error. Young people looking for their place in society sometimes try to establish themselves at the expense of others and this causes conflicts. This is a natural conflict. We all once used to be young men, and most of us here are young today, and we know very well how important it is for a young man to be respected in society, to have this rightful place in society. This process is always accompanied by certain arguments, sometimes conflicts, sometimes conflicts of interests, it has never been different in any other society. But at the same time it is clear that these processes of self-assertion and conflicts of interest related to the self-affirmation may cause huge troubles if one or more of these conflicts explode the ethnic relations in this country.
There is a difference of cultures. There is a difference caused by a lack of understanding of one part of the youth by other young people. How to resolve these conflicts, how to solve them? I am fully convinced that the best way to resolve them is not to wait for someone intelligent, adult and powerful to figure out something for you, but to engage in a dialogue and develop rules of co-existence which can be offered by young people today to the authorities and society in order to make them part of the norm, part of the legal field.
People are now trying to teach us lifeless recipes for building a civil society, which are imposed on us by certain international organizations. In Russia we have always had our own recipes for peoples of different nationalities living a peaceful life together. We need to update the model, we need to upgrade the ability to direct dialogue and to ensure that young people discuss how to co-exist together without prejudices or pre-conditions, and these agreements should be offered to the older generation as an example.
It is known that we have a certain number of people who insist that the public space should be completely secular, free from religion. There are a number of people, especially in Islamic regions, who believe that social life must be based on principles related to religion. Both groups pf people must be respected. None of these groups will disappear from our society. I consider dangerous the allegation that none of the parties in the dispute have a right to determine their life or the life of a small society or great society. Any idea, any social model has a right to be disputed and implemented in a peaceful way among those people who are not willing to do so in their own lives. So I think that the debate about the place of religion in the life of a people, or a village, or a particular social group, should be conducted openly, without prejudices, without imposing a particular model of attitude to religion in society by persons who do not profess this model. I find it very, very important to discuss this issue openly, especially in the course of the dialogue within the North Caucasus and the dialogue between the residents of the North Caucasus and the inhabitants of other parts of Russia.
Albert Krganov, a member of the Public Chamber of Russia, chairman of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Chuvashia:
We all know that Russia has evolved primarily as a multinational, multi-religious state, it is also once called Holy Russia. We agree that both Muslims and our brothers of Orthodox faith voluntarily accepted their religions in Russia. There was no violence in this act. However, today there are some problems. They exist and we cannot turn a blind eye to them. It seems that our youth does not get enough attention nowadays. In central and other regions it cannot visit even famous youth gyms for free and not every family can afford to go to a gym and send their children to play – this is the beginning of it all. The fact is that nowadays our young people sometimes do not see ways of self-realization and use of its potential to help both the government and civil society institutions. We all need to think about it. Not retired but young people, dissatisfied young people are flooding the streets. And we must address the youth in its language, we have to build a right dialogue.
With regard to ethnic, religious relations, you are all well aware, of course, and it is not unimportant to say that there are no problems. It was like that from the beginning, thank God, there is a mutual understanding. Even if you read Fater Alexander Men, as he wrote how during the militant atheism a cathedral was destroyed in the Volga region and Muslims have brought back a table at the altar. And people were just taken aback and were surprised that not Christians, but Muslims have committed such an act. Even our grandfathers, Muslim priests told us how they were exiled to Siberia, and together sawed fir: on the one hand – an Orthodox priest, on the other hand – an immam. We must find a middle ground between patriotism and nationalism. We in Russia are the holders of gold stocks of friendship among peoples, we must cherish it and further develop it.
As for Islam, I would say that there is definitely no place to provocateurs in Islam. One cannot use the Holy truth in ones' own selfish needs, says Qur'an in the name of the Almighty, it is absolutely forbidden. Simply using the ignorance even of believers, we can see how some politicians for the sake of their selfish purposes of confusing the issue initiate ... bad actions. Muslims are the first to suffer from that. We are already tired of saying that we are not radicals, nor extremists - we also want to live in piece and benevolence. This raises the question of education. Our young people need to know the culture of peoples. And Muslims need to know the culture of their neighbors, while our neighbors have to know that we are not savages and live in a civilized cultural life. Our faith urges us to do so.
VK
