by VK
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited Vladikavkaz last summer and proposed historians to establish the Year of Russian History in 2012. He recommended the formation of a special portal and forums. “This year marks many exceptionally significant events, at the same time we would pay extra attention to historical science and historical practice. Political practice has often directly influenced history in our country, which is obviously a very good thing,” Medvedev said. The president believes that “we must give a push to the development of history, archeology, a whole complex of sciences related to the history of our country. After all, it is all done to give additional opportunities for development of our state.”
The Year of Russian History is not only starting in Russia, but in CIS states as well. Sergey Karpov, Dean of the History Department of Moscow State University, ordered the organization of meetings with Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Belarus. A delegation of Russian historians will arrive in Baku today.
Using VK as a platform, graduates of the History Department of Moscow State University have addressed their colleagues and former fellow students living and working in other republics of the former Soviet Union.
Nikolai Zlobin, a political analyst
I hold to the opinion that history is the main knowledge humanity has. I cannot determine patriotism through some geographic aspect: Earth has no nationalities, Earth has no religions. It is all in our heads. What we have in our heads is patriotism and our system of values and the way we will live. It is very important to form the right system of values. The History Department has given us the basis and we need to maintain it and preserve, return to the origins, to the university, to our teachers. Such a “test with reality” allows us to maintain the right orientations in the complicated world we have today.
Vasily Istratov, Deputy Executive Director of the Board of Russki Mir (Russian World)
I would like to greet everyone! We always had a community of Azerbaijani students at the History Department in the 1970s and 1980s. I was excited that I was given such a warm welcome when I arrived from Baku. It proves again that graduates of the History Department are some sort of a brotherhood. I have very good ties with this brotherhood in Azerbaijan, it is very important and pleasant. Why is the History Department holding such an event in Azerbaijan? Because the “diaspora” of the History Department is a factor too.
Stepan Orlov, a member of Moscow City Council
We all have the same roots, the same culture. We need to remember our history and not forget its lessons, build our life in new conditions, new states. They have the right to existence and development and I am confident that graduates of the History Department may make a great contribution to the development of the new modern states.
Mikhail Kozhokin, Vice-President of the VTB-24 bank
Whatever goes on in the political sphere, student brotherhood has never been extinguished. It lives independently of borders, territory, national and state formations, and we know that.
