Interview by Daria Melikhova, exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
Attempts are taking place to resolve the problem of inter-ethnic tensions in Russ by different means: schools and universities hold Tolerance Days; officials take part in inter-ethnic harmonization courses… No quick results have been achieved, but cultural people hope that they will come. Iosif Kobzon, a famous Russian singer, member of parliament and People’s Artist of the USSR, told Vestnik Kavkaza about his view on the normalization of inter-ethnic relations.
“Our friends from the Caucasus republics and Transcaucasia sincerely love Russians and Great Russia. And we should do our best to promote and confirm our friendship and help each other in deed rather than in word. A trouble occurs, and we should be together. A conflict occurs, and we should be together. We always should be like brothers,” Kobzon says.
“There was no ethnic hatred among the thousands of people gathered around Nord Ost during the conflict, even though the terrorists were natives of the North Caucasus,” Kobzon recalls, he personally took away children from the building. “People had only expressed empathy to the hostages. And there were no shouts: “Look! They were Chechens!” We didn’t see that. And it shouldn’t take place.”
According to Kobzon, “our Great Russia, our kind, tolerant Mother Russia, who welcomed all nations and embraced them. We shouldn’t allow ethnic hatred. We mustn’t. All terrorist acts and inter-ethnic conflicts today are a result of poor spiritual culture. We say that our society is intolerant. It is because our cultural level is poor. We should fight for spiritual conditions in our society which will prevent these anti-ethnic acts.”
Speaking about what is necessary to do to revive spiritual culture in the CIS and Russia, Kobzon said: “I am a co-chair of the Forum of Spirituality, which had two sessions in Astana in Kazakhstan. I noted that TV channels were broadcasting shows about national culture and tolerance 24 hours a day. President Nazarbayev constantly pays attention to the issue. Kazakhstan is a multinational country and the national mass media call for people of different nationalities to respect and love each other all the time. And we should do the same. We shouldn’t wait for conflicts which lead to bloodshed. Ethnic hatred was the worst thing possible, when people hate each other, get involved in fights and so on.”
Kobzon is sure that “to prevent this, parents, nurseries and schools should teach children about different religions by professional teachers, such as a priest, mufti or rabbi. For example during one month they tell children about Orthodoxy, another month – about Islam, a third month – about Judaism. Children should know that there are different nations; there are no minor and major nations, some nations have a small number of representatives, but they possess their own national heritage and pride. We should tell our children that that there are different nationalities in our country, and people respect their traditions, have different religions, remember their history, their past. We should tell them about it all the time. I tell my grandchildren about this. I have seven grandchildren. When they ask me: “Grandfather, why don’t you attend a church?”, I told them that I respect all religions, but I am not baptized, that’s why I don’t attend a church, but I also don’t attend a synagogue. I am a MP from a Buddhist district, and when I visit it I attend both an Orthodox cathedral and a Buddhist temple; I demonstrate my respectful attitude to people of various religions. We should grow a spiritual culture in our society from childhood.”
