Dear respected participants of the conference!
Thank you for your good organization and my possibility to participate to this conference.
For Russia this conference is very useful as in both theoretic and practical attitude.
Materials of conference are very useful and interesting for us, because today, the humanity part of modern Russian military science is undergoing difficult process to become military ethics, free of ideology of Marxism-Leninism, which formed the basis of Russian military thought from 1917 till 1991.
The same I can say about the situation of ethics in Russia as a whole. It is necessary to quickly implement ethics into our country, which portrays the development of a deep ethics crisis in Russia, arising from a deep crisis of the soul (i.e. spiritual aspect)-something our country must overcome.
Moral crisis expresses itself not only verbally (in ethical terms as nihilist), but also in defined parameters the behavior of people: increase of crime, spreading use of drugs and alcohol,, prostitution, personal selfishness, a decrease in prestige of education and culture and the development of a cult of force and anarchy. Amorality becomes today not only at the grassroots level, but also within the government as manifested in internal and foreign politics.
With a crisis in ethics, Russia overcomes a deep ideology crises . This
ideology crises as part of the spiritual crises appear in 2 main forms:
Without dealing with the spiritual crises it is impossible to overcome politic and economic crises which exists in our country now. So , for example, economic crises result a great deal from criminal economy which influences Russian association , thefts and plundering of large amounts of state possessions by governmental officials at middle and high level.
Political crises has also have an amoral basis/foundation. Fight for power , using all methods, and fighting for attention, governmental officials are concerned about their own money and don't serve the people of Russia. For these reasons, and many others, this leads to mistrust of those in power from a broad base of the Russian people, and thus create conditions for the return to communist ideology. So from results of a poll that if the election for Russian President were held to day, the leader of the Communist Party Zuganov would come in first place out of a list of 2-3 candidate for this role. Overcoming the spiritual crises in modern Russia is a very difficult problem. What had existed in the past to educate ethics and morals to our people during the Soviet period no longer function. Today's government has taken away the responsibility of dealing with ethical issues. It is very dangerous situation, since a public institute, which could solve this problem, has not been formed yet, as they have now in civilian society. Public information and art have lost the art in dealing explicitly with ethics. From art are departing heroes which were altruistic people, who love The work and were big patriots of our country and were ready to die for our country. Consequently market art, modern heroes in movies and television programs and songs portray people who are self sufficient, and only live for themselves. Today's art dealers engage in the popular principle of removing ethical principles from art, demand that art is a special business, without ethical orientation and high deals (which do not now exist in modern art.) Today's rich part of society (who consider their lives to be private) do not want to implement any ethical guidelines. Today in our country, the subject of ethics subject gets very little treatment. Ethics is considered within the family, by some school teachers, within the military, and within the churches. In the churches, all levels of society are interested to enforce the practice of religion as the means to save the study of ethics and provide tools to deal with Russia's spiritual crisis. This thought forms the basis and conditions for religious revival in Russia.
This growth can be shown by information has been gleaned from public statements, in advertisements, which targeted the ordinary people of Russia. Sometimes these advertisements deal with illegal trade (alcohol and drugs). They are also connected with criminal elements. From these advertisements, it has been shown that on 1 January 1992 there were 4,846 religious unions in Russia, and on 1 January 1999 (7 years later), this number had grown to 16,749.
These groups are further subdivided: Russian Orthodox Church - 8,897; Muslims - 3,072 religious unions. Evangelical Christians (including Baptists), more 1,200 unions In 1992, people who claimed to believe in God were just 10%. Today that number has grown to 53%.
Social- political factors to restore religion in modern Russia are:
Among officers and solders there is increase use alcohol and drugs. There is more theft military equipment, as well as and guns. More suicide and increased desire to avoid military service. In 1996, the number of suicides were 430, in 1997 there were 487, in 1998 more 500-an ever-increasing number.
Begin in 1992 within the Russian military, more than 30,000 crimes were committed. More murders using weapons. I.e., in 1997 there were 8 mass murders between soldiers and officers.
Chairman of Security committee of State Duma RF V.Ilyukhin in one his
articles (dedicated modern condition of Russian Military) remarked:
"All
categories of military people quickly change reasons of tour of duty in the
military as something negative. There is increase in the pragmatic view of
life which don't support patriotic convictions (persuasions). It causes
military people to be cynical, more rude, and retain the cult of violence.
Profit becomes first priority, without pride in our country, or of being a
military man of honor, fulfilling military duty (obligations)"
.
Danger of spiritual crises in Russian military is not only the threat for Russia, but also for entire world. People have now armed themselves with guns, which reflects problems with spiritual health, and prevents the guaranty of security for our society and all worlds.
The entire system of ethics education which Russian military people had destroyed, is now being re-created, but its effect is still very little. In this situation within the military, religion can play an important role in our education.
Dynamic and tentative development of religion within the military are the same as in our country. There is a remarkably high percentage of military people participate in divine services and actively declare their faith.
From a survey made by officials from department of Defense in 1996 show that military people who are religious number 33%, up from 25% in 1991.
The increased level of religious fervor among military is reflected in the creation of a public military religious organization. I and my colleague from Russia, Colonel Surovtsev, represent two of them. Within the Military Christian Union of Russia, I serve as its representative to this conference, mainly consists of various Protestant confessions. In the military Christian Fellowship represented by Colonel Surovtsev, consists mainly of Russian Orthodox military members. In work of these and other organizations we experience a lot of problems, but these are overcame, organizations are growing, and utilize more modern forms and methods of their work.
I as scientist am very glad that the Military-Christian Union gives serious attention to examine the scientific analysis of the development of the religious situation within the military forces of Russia, trends of this development, analysis of various aspects of communication between army and religion. For example, this common interest has supported me in my research theme "Factors of Religions and National Security."
Results of my work of public organization were able to link up religious military personnel in a healthy ethics atmosphere within the Military Forces of Russia as never before. But without doubt., with greater growth in number of (military) members (of faith), the results will increase even more. Education of military people in a high ethical standard was and will be their strategic goal. Materials of this conference can help us solve this problem.
Thank you for your attention.
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