Vyacheslav Nikonov.
First Deputy Head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Chairman of the Board of the Russkiy Mir Foundation Vyacheslav Nikonov spoke at the opening of the 15th Congress of the International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature (MAPRYAL).
He recalled the contribution to the development of MAPRYAL and the Russian language made by Lyudmila Alekseevna Verbitskaya, who headed this organization for many years. Nikonov called it symbolic that the organization’s anniversary congress was being held in St. Petersburg, her hometown, where ''every stone knows'' Lyudmila Alekseevna.
''She really wanted the whole world to speak Russian and did a lot for this,'' Nikonov said, ''but, unfortunately, at some point in our brotherly country they began to raise a breed of Russians who were ready to kill Russians, and then they killed Russians for wanting to speak Russian. A terrible tragedy that divided nations, that divided the world. Which, fortunately, did not deprive us of friends - they are here, and we are glad to see them. But we, indeed, already live in another universe, where friends are known in trouble, in trials. And I am sure that the Russian world will certainly overcome all these trials.''
A huge community of people speaks Russian, Nikonov noted. ''Now the Russian language is the language that the world majority is beginning to speak, even if they do not speak Russian. Because this language is becoming the language of decolonization, including intellectual decolonization, which is now happening all over the world,'' he said and recalled that the Russian world and the Russian language are now the language of international organizations: the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the CSTO , BRICS.
According to Nikonov, Russian is also a language of guarantees for the preservation of world culture, including European, because ''soon from the great European culture that we knew, there will be only as much left as Russia and the Russian language will preserve it. We see before our own eyes what is happening to culture, to values on the other side.''
The Russian language is also the basis of Orthodox civilization; it is also the language of Islamic culture, Judaism and Buddhism. ''The Russian language is the language that carries the values of these cultures. The values of freedom, justice, understood as truth, human dignity, honor, family as a union of a man and a woman, love, faith, fidelity. These are all the values that the Russian language carries and the Russian world carries,'' Nikonov is sure.
''Our country is going through difficult times,'' said Vyacheslav Nikonov. ''They are difficult and sick, primarily because the guys on both front lines, when they are in pain, say ''mama'' and swear in Russian.
Russkiy Mir
