25 students' opinions on the topic "Mercy" according to the article by D. Granin
How important is the feeling of compassion, helping those who need it. Compassion, helping - these are the actions that are necessary for everyone. We need to encourage people to do it in every possible way. People are stingy with mercy even today. Instead of petting or feeding an animal forced to live on the street, it is either ignored or tried to hurt by throwing a stone or kicking it. How does this characterize us? We have forgotten how to take responsibility for those who are weaker than us, we have forgotten how to be kind.
I think these statements are absolutely true. In our life, unfortunately, there is much that causes pity, sympathy, but, alas, not everyone is able to respond to someone else's misfortune with mercy and compassion. Mercy unites people, makes them better.
By mercy, I mean the ability to sympathize with another person. This concept includes pity and the desire to help someone who is in trouble or in a difficult situation.
Unfortunately, the modern world is cruel. Mercy has become either exotic or a privilege of the rich. Replaced with the word "charity". But is it possible to replace sincere participation with specie? I don’t have money to pay for the operation of a sick child - but I can talk to him, distract him from thinking that no one needs him ...
True mercy is the desire to understand. Sympathy and empathy. The desire to help and alleviate the suffering of others.
I think that mercy is humanity, compassion, compassion, kindness. Mercy is only tested by a person's actions. Mercy is not a look from above, it is a desire to share someone else's pain, to alleviate it, to endure and accept it.
Mercy is the desire and ability to break out of one's own needs, to let the suffering of the world through one's heart, to see others not as furnishings, but as individuals, with their own sorrows and problems. The problem is relevant, because mercy is one of the main qualities moral person. Today, mercy is becoming rarer, it has been replaced by cruelty and indifference. Mercy and compassion simply makes us better, more human. And this, in fact, is worth a lot. A person has many virtues: kindness, generosity, responsiveness, the ability to sympathize and love, and many others. And they are all based on the love of man for man. But it seems to me that mercy is the hardest thing to show. In order to be merciful, one must have the ability to forgive. You have to be a true humanist. Because initially mercy was a manifestation of generosity to the defeated enemy. And even now, in my opinion, mercy is a manifestation of generosity to those to whom one does not want to show it.
The more mercy there is in our life, the less grief and suffering there will be. How important is the feeling of compassion, helping those who need it.
Each of us has a number of qualities that characterize us as a person. Someone more kind, sincere, fair. Someone on the contrary is full of bile, malice and anger. Mercy is not pity! Pity amuses one's own pride, humiliates the defeated enemy; and mercy is given hard, but it frees and gives the enemy a second chance. therefore, only people with a pure heart can experience this feeling! Mercy is the willingness to help, to sacrifice oneself for the sake of others, to do good unselfishly. For me, mercy is first and foremost a quality that is necessary for all of us and which is now very lacking. For me, the main thing in mercy is selflessness. For example, during the war, the sisters of mercy selflessly cared for the wounded, risking their lives, carrying the wounded and the dead from the battlefield, and all this is completely free. In addition, they morally supported the soldiers, not letting them lose heart, plays a huge role in their victories. A merciful person, it seems to me, does not know the word "revenge" or "vengeance." Such a principle as “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” is not for him. By doing evil, we only increase the evil that exists in the world. A merciful person tries to be kind and sympathetic to every person. The mercy of a person to a person cannot humiliate, it helps a person to be kinder. You can help not only financially, but also spiritually. Support and understanding for each of us means no less than material well-being. Mercy, friendliness, kindness always adorn a person. Some people, regardless of age, never lose beauty - just the beauty of the face turns into the beauty of the heart, the beauty of the soul. Many examples of human participation, generosity, beauty of the human soul can be cited. After all, our life consists of tiny things - smiles and good deeds. Probably, everywhere a person has the opportunity to show kindness and mercy. True mercy is the willingness to help someone or forgive someone out of compassion, philanthropy. This desire to benefit other people, without thinking about rewards. They believe that beauty will save the world. But to be more precise, the beauty of the human soul will save the world.
If a person needs help, help him, do not pass by. Let's help each other. The most valuable thing in a person is an unconscious, spiritual need to do well, to do good to people. And goodness is above all the happiness of all people. After all, only we can do good and no one else but us! I want to exclaim: “People, be merciful!”
But we have only one life, and it would be so wonderful not only to enjoy it and live for today, but also to try to make the life of others a little easier, brighter and more merciful. What is mercy? It seems to me that this is such a quality of a person when he is able to relate with compassion to the troubles and sorrows of other people, when he is able to help in trouble not only his neighbor, but also complete strangers. Moreover, a merciful person will treat even his enemy with kindness and with the hope of reconciliation.
Having lost mercy, we seem to have forgotten how to enjoy life, whatever it may be. Few people want to share their happiness with others. But we have only one life, and it would be so wonderful not only to enjoy it and live for today, but also to try to make the life of others a little easier, brighter and more joyful. It would bring joy to us too. Every smile on the face of the person you helped makes your personality happier. There are not many merciful people now, and even then others treat them, if not as crazy, then at least as stupid .. But it seems to me that it is in our time that people lack true mercy most of all. Of course, rich people can afford to donate to various relief funds, but very often only to be remembered in the newspaper or on television. And those people who really want to help often do not have the means to do so. Mercy is the freedom to give something wholeheartedly. Having lost mercy, we seem to have forgotten how to enjoy life, whatever it may be.
Mercy, the noblest feeling of a person. I believe that mercy has two meanings for a person in life: the first is ennobling your soul and helping others overcome the loneliness and cold of life, and the second is accelerating the process of destruction of a person who is devoid of mercy. Unfortunately, we are increasingly forgetting how important it is to show mercy to those who need support and compassion so much. This spiritual impulse often benefits not only the recipient of disinterested help, but also the giver himself. However, it also happens that a person shows goodness only out of selfish motives. So what is mercy? And why does a person today bring another person sometimes more evil than good? Probably because kindness is such a state of mind when a person is able to come to the aid of others, give good advice, and sometimes just regret. Not everyone is able to feel someone else's grief as their own, to sacrifice something for people, and without this there is neither mercy nor compassion.
a kind person attracts to himself like a magnet, he gives a particle of his heart, his warmth to the people around him. That is why each of us needs a lot of love, justice, sensitivity, so that there is something to give to others. Since ancient times, it has been known that the evil done to someone will return to you a hundredfold evil and that the good that you did to someone will return to you. And if we want to be treated well, we ourselves must treat others well. So let's be merciful!
Mercy is mental quality by itself, it need not be defined by other qualities. For quite a long time, we perceived the concept of "mercy" as degrading to human dignity. As if only weak, humiliated and helpless people need mercy and compassion. It must be remembered that it is easier for the kind and merciful to live, because everyone loves them. . Mercy is the mercy of the heart. Grace, kindness, love, tenderness, gentleness. Mercy gives a man what he is needsXia. When a person adheres to mercy, it is from kindness. Mercy means the state of a person's soul, in which he experiences pity, tenderness, care, good disposition towards a person, as well as forgiveness, affection, joy, and what is called love in ordinary human usage. When a person is seized by such a heartfelt feeling, and he is ready to somehow take pity and participate in the fate of a person. Today, when we live in a world where a lot of evil, dishonorable acts are committed, we should treat people as kindly and mercifully as possible.
Mercy... If you ask someone what it is, in most cases you will get the following answer: it is generosity, kindness to people, a willingness to forgive or at least understand a person, even if he has done something very bad. Mercy is an integral part of everyone Without these qualities, the world will fall apart. If a stranger sympathized or helped me, it helps to believe that the world is full of kindness and mercy. We ourselves must have compassion and mercy. This is how we help the world become a better place. True charity is the desire to benefit other people without thinking about reward.
Unfortunately, in modern world mercy is becoming rarer and rarer. The reason for this is the people themselves, who have become greedy and greedy. In everything they seek only profit for themselves, forgetting what is the true purpose of mercy. But what makes people forget? What determines their level of mercy? Oddly enough, it all starts in childhood, when with the first steps a small and unintelligent child absorbs the concepts of what is good and what is bad. I believe that if a child is not taught from childhood to share something at least with his neighbors, then in the future this will lead to the fact that, having already matured, he will not even have a “sprout” of mercy in his soul. There are no examples of mercy! Mercy is the willingness of a person to help someone out of compassion, to show kindness, care, to any creature, not necessarily even human, and at the same time, not to ask for anything in return. To be merciful means to show compassion, to see the pain of another being, and to help him, and not to stand still. To be merciful means to be indifferent, to have a soul and a heart. To be merciful means to help those in need without asking for anything in return. This is what it means to be merciful
Unfortunately, now, in our difficult time of change, such qualities as mercy, kindness, a desire to help are receding into the background, and, displacing them, business acumen, the ability to make a profit and taking care of yourself first of all come forward.
The word mercy was once common among us. There were sisters of mercy who worked in hospitals, that is, those hospital sisters who are now simply called medical sisters used to be called sisters of mercy. There were relief societies. A person should cultivate in himself not only the mind, but also the soul, cultivate the best qualities in himself, treat those around him with patience and understanding, and mercy, and treat himself with exactingness.
Become more merciful, show compassion, and don't ask for anything in return. Mercy simply makes us better, more human. And this, in fact, is worth a lot. Which people are merciful? A wise and strong-willed person who deeply understands life and has not lost his soul and human kindness in its trials. One can only sympathize with people who are not able to be merciful, because from the inside they will always be corroded by an insult that they have not forgiven. They will never rest in revenge, which they did not realize. They will always be afraid of their anger, to which they preferred their bright soul filled with the light of kindness. They cannot see and experience - a feeling of bright joy in the heart, when you just love, a feeling of liberation and bliss, when you forgive another and wish him well. They cannot experience the healing power of mercy. It is necessary that someone stand behind the door of every contented, happy person and constantly remind that there are unfortunate people. Do good!
Mercy is a kind and compassionate attitude towards a person, Mercy involves acceptance, that is, a tolerant attitude towards the imperfections of others, the ability not to condemn (to be able to forgive), but to patiently help, showing true kindness in one’s deeds and feelings. It is mercy to another that makes us more humane. There is mercy in this world, they just do not notice it. It is important to understand that there is mercy even in small things, for example, to yield to an elderly person in transport. It is more important not so much to help, but simply to give joy to one's neighbor. What is mercy towards one's neighbor? It is compassion first and foremost. But this does not mean that the merciful one should cry along with the crying one, quite the contrary, his task is to console, support, help to enjoy life again. Those who have never been hungry or barefoot will not understand how hard it is to be in such a state. And those who have experienced something similar will try to help in every possible way. It's one thing to write about mercy, it's another to show it yourself. It would be good if mercy settled in the souls of every person, then life would be easier and life would be more joyful. Where do you think all our troubles on earth come from? Only from bitterness, from lack of mercy.
People endowed with mercy are able to understand the pain of others and are able to provide real help. And it doesn't have to be material aid. Help can be both word and deed.
I would like to call on all people of the globe to develop mercy in themselves. I really want peace and understanding to reign around, which are not possible without mercy.
Mercy is the hallmark of the kind and sincere people. Mercy is the highest gift, because not all people are able to sympathize with others and be merciful to them. Only a truly kind and sympathetic person can be merciful. Mercy has always been an inspiration to man. If you take mercy away from a person, he will be lost in the fast flow of a world in which lies so often reign. I believe that mercy is a basic feeling that should be inherent in every person. After all, only by helping each other people are able to find peace and happiness. Mercy brings so many positive emotions. After all, moving the old man across the road or helping a friend, a person is overwhelmed with bright feelings. To withdraw mercy means to deprive a person of one of the most important manifestations of morality: mercy to the downtrodden and injured. Unfortunately, now, in our difficult time of change, such qualities as mercy, kindness, the desire to help go into the background, and, displacing them, business acumen, the ability to make a profit and taking care, first of all about yourself, come forward. And other people are gloomy, unfriendly, constantly worried about the state of politics and the economy. Since ancient times, it has been known that the evil done to someone will return to you a hundredfold evil and that the good that you did to whom will return to you. Mercy makes even the weakest person strong.
I wish all people to meet with mercy.
Mercy is the kindness of the heart, because it was not in vain that the word was formed from the words “sweet” and “heart”. It seems to me that the absence or presence of mercy largely determines a person's behavior. There are not many merciful people now, and even then the rest treat them, if not as insane, then at least as stupid. Mercy is a complex concept that includes kindness, compassion, cordiality, the desire to take care of the weak, to protect him. I consider mercy one of the most important qualities of a person. The ability of a person to be kind to all people has become such a rarity that one wants to thank for it, hypocrisy, gloating and other vices. A man without mercy cannot be called a proud man. Mercy is the brightest and most significant spot in the picture of the world. Without it, people would lose their human form. Therefore, it is so important to preserve and develop this bright feeling in oneself. Mercy serves as a kind of flashlight that calls everyone to the light of love and beneficence. This feeling pushes a person to compassion and a desire to help even strangers. IN modern society many people have forgotten what mercy is. Mercy is the mercy of the heart. This is the man loving people is someone who feels the pain of others. One person - me, for example - can only ring this alarm bell and ask everyone to feel it and think about what to do so that mercy warms our lives.
Mercy is kindness combined with pity for someone, the desire to help. It is very important to be merciful in life, because mercy gives rise to a reciprocal feeling of love and gratitude. Today, a person brings another person sometimes more evil than good. In my opinion, mercy is an integral part of people's lives. Without these qualities it is impossible to imagine good man. After all, it is an attentive attitude to other people, their problems and experiences that is the basis of relationships between people. . Of course, in our time, when society has almost completely forgotten about mutual assistance and is indifferent to the grief of others, there is still a ray of hope that people will understand how important mercy is in our lives. And if we want to be treated well, we ourselves must treat others well. So let's be merciful! It is impossible to live without mercy and compassion. Everyone needs it: both those who are helped and those who help. Why is the deficit of mercy so great today? What will become of our minds and our hearts? Will kindness leave us forever? After all, today we all lack it!
Mercy is kindness, it is the ability to feel someone else's pain with the heart and ease it with deeds. At the heart of mercy are, in my opinion, sincere pity and true love for a person.
One can only sympathize with people who are not able to be merciful, because from the inside they will always be corroded by an insult that they have not forgiven. They will never rest in revenge, which they did not realize. They will always be afraid of their anger, to which they preferred their bright soul filled with the light of kindness. They cannot see and experience - a feeling of bright joy in the heart, when you just love, a feeling of liberation and bliss, when you forgive another and wish him well. They cannot experience the healing power of mercy.
So what is mercy and compassion? And why does a person today bring another person sometimes more evil than good? Probably because kindness is such a state of mind when a person is able to come to the aid of others, give good advice, and sometimes just regret. Not everyone is able to feel someone else's grief as their own, to sacrifice something for people, and without this there is no mercy.
A kind person attracts to himself like a magnet, he gives a particle of his heart, his warmth to the people around him. That is why each of us needs a lot of love, justice, sensitivity, so that there is something to give to others.
I believe that mercy has two meanings for a person in life: the first is ennobling your soul and helping other people overcome the loneliness and cold of life, and the second is accelerating the process of destruction of a person who is devoid of mercy. I wish all people to meet with mercy in the first, noble version.
Mercy, I believe, is the noblest feeling of a person. mercy and kindness in Lately we started to use these words more often. As if they saw the light and began to realize that human warmth and concern for our neighbors have become the most acute deficit today. After all, a person is born and lives on earth in order to give people good. Mercy - compassion, sympathy, love in deed, willingness to do good to everyone, pity, kindness. Mercy, friendliness, kindness always adorn a person. Genuine mercy is selfless. Mercy is such a virtue, thanks to which the love we feed on ourselves is transferred to others who are not connected with us by ties of friendship or kinship, and even to people completely unknown to us, to whom we have no obligations and from whom we do not expect anything. receive and wait for nothing. The desire to be useful to everyone, to be useful and to respond to requests is a small step towards happiness. No need to specifically look for adventure, just look around you, notice. Maybe it's time to give up your seat on the bus. The moral basis does not appear in a person just like that. It is laid in him from childhood, acquired through long reflections, sometimes painful and tearing the soul. But if this foundation exists, then a person can stand firmly on his feet. Parents help us understand "what is good and what is bad." Mercy is gratuitous - this is when you do not expect anything in return, because all goodness will surely return to you.
Mercy is compassionate love, expressed in the readiness to help everyone in need and extending to all people, and even, in the limit, to all living things. Mercy can destroy all barriers between friends and foes, bring people together, showing that all people are mortal, and everyone has one life and must be protected by all possible measures. Take care of others, help them in difficult times and then they will help you too. Each person understands the word mercy in his own way. After all, how many people, so many opinions, however, all the statements of people agree on one thing: mercy is when you do something good to people, moreover, this kindness can be completely different. For example, you can go to an old person, whether he is your neighbor, or maybe just a stranger. The only important thing is that you do it from a pure heart and free of charge. People must learn to have compassion for others. I believe that mercy is a noble feeling of a person. Willingness to help anyone in need. Mercy can bring people together, show that all people are equal: there is no better or worse.
I think that people should not be shy to show their sympathy, empathy for others. There are many people in our country who need a sense of compassion and mercy. Everyone needs mercy: the sick, the elderly, the poor, and those who, for various reasons, find themselves in a difficult situation. It is impossible to live without mercy and compassion. Everyone needs it: both those who are helped and those who help.
Mercy is caring warm attitude to another person. As a rule, it manifests itself in good deeds, the purpose of which is to facilitate or improve people's lives. People have forgotten how to truly show mercy. Most of us try to select the best for ourselves, to reward ourselves in every possible way. If parents raised a child only as a spoiled egoist, then how will he know what mercy and justice are? Now people are less and less helping homeless animals, and what to say about people who have lost their homes, they are completely shunned. People may walk past a person who was bleeding, thinking, "This is none of my business," but not thinking that he himself could be in his place.
After all, if someone falls, severely breaking his knee, he will definitely cry, maybe not showing tears. And if another person falls, everyone will start laughing at his grief. I'm talking about learning to empathize with others, not just yourself. Indeed, in modern society, many people have forgotten what mercy is. We must love all people, even those we don't like; should do good to everyone, even to those who do not love us and do us harm. There is mercy in this world, they just don't notice it. Why is the deficit of mercy so great today? What will become of our minds and our hearts? Will mercy leave us forever? After all, today we all lack it!
Of course, in our time, when people have almost completely forgotten about mutual assistance and are indifferent to other people's grief, there is still a ray of hope that people will understand how important mercy is in our lives.
Any person depends on the people around him. Be it a friend, a brother, or a stranger walking the same road with him. It has long been proven that a person cannot live alone. He does not tolerate isolation, no matter how he was tempted by this idea. Why? It would seem that an ideal life in some aloof place, where there is no noise, no annoying neighbors, there is nothing, but situations in life are different: trouble happens, but there is no one to help. That's when a person will acutely understand how he lacks the compassion of other people, how lonely he is in this world. Mercy is manifested in small things, a person alone, for example, will break his arm. And there is no one around. No one will help, and he himself is not able to give himself the first medical care or take the necessary steps to heal the hand. There is no person in the area who will show mercy and extend a helping hand. Based on the above example, we can say that each of us depends on the other. We are a single system, when one link falls out of it, a colossal failure occurs, even if we do not notice it. It is human mutual assistance that helps people live and believe in a better future. From early childhood, we know that it is impossible to live without parents, and without doctors it is impossible to recover. This is a simple philosophy of the inviolability of the system of human society, which, unfortunately, in our days does not change in better side with high speed. And we destroy it ourselves.
Mercy is one of the most important guarantees of the survival of mankind as a species. But to have such a high feeling is given, alas, not to everyone. Kindness of the soul, pity, compassion are laid in a person from childhood, including on personal example parents. The formation of these qualities is also influenced by society, surrounding people, friends.
Speaking of mercy, everyone understands this word in their own way. I believe that mercy is a compassionate love expressed in the readiness to help everyone in need and extending to all people, and even, in the limit, to all living things. Mercy can destroy all barriers between friends and foes, bring people together, showing that all people are mortal, and everyone has one life and must be protected by all possible measures.
Merciful service has always been and will always be, because life is based on it. All our joy in this world comes from wanting happiness for others, and all our suffering comes from wanting happiness only for ourselves. Mercy is greater than justice. There is law, and there is mercy, understanding, forgiveness, acceptance. Many need it. And many are ready to give it, to give it. And they do it without advertising. Mercy brings so many positive emotions. Mercy is the victory of the forces of love, kindness and sympathy in a person! Mercy is primarily characterized by a sincere desire to benefit people without thinking about any reward.
Who is capable of mercy? A beautiful soul and a strong spirit man, in the root, looking and not losing his soul on the roads of life, the ability to empathize and love. In order to show mercy, one must free one's soul from petty offenses, envy, malice, and cruelty. Gotta get up on new stage in their spiritual development. Merciful is the one who is sympathetic to the imperfection of others, who knows how to be above problems, knows how to forgive, not stick out his “I”, sincerely, actively help, do good. A sense of mercy should be developed from early childhood. Moral education begins in the family, then it continues in kindergarten and at school. First, children realize what love for parents and loved ones is. Then they learn to extend their good feelings to friends and acquaintances. Gradually, a feeling of mercy is formed in the child for all the people around him, both familiar and unfamiliar. The pinnacle of human moral development is the feeling of mercy for all mankind.
characteristic feature mercy is also the activity of action. It is not enough to sympathize in the soul with a person who is in trouble. It is also important to help such a person with active actions. It is necessary to strive to ensure that selfless help to others becomes the norm of behavior.
Mercy must come. A person who does not care about improving himself, how can he please others? Thanks to merciful people, we believe in the triumph of justice, we believe that good will surely overcome evil, that we will certainly be helped in difficult times, and may there be more and more merciful people on earth! Let mercy become not just a word, but the main character trait of everyone reasonable person.
Mercy is the hallmark of kind and sincere people. Mercy is the highest gift, because not all people are able to sympathize with others and be merciful to them. Only a truly kind and sympathetic person can be merciful. In our time, it seems that mercy is slowly leaving human hearts, but this is not so. A person knows how to sympathize, it is inherent in a person to help his neighbor, and even the enemy awakens sympathy for the defeated.
Mercy pushed people to exploits, only it could move the weak to decisive actions. Mercy is an integral character trait of an honest and decent person. If every person on the planet were at least a little merciful, then there would be no wars, crimes, grief and pain. It would be good if mercy settled in the souls of every person, then life would be easier and life would be more joyful. Where do you think all our troubles on Earth come from? Only from bitterness, from lack of mercy. People endowed with mercy are able to understand the pain of other people and are able to provide real help. And it doesn't have to be financial support. Help can be both word and deed.
I would like to invite all people globe cultivate compassion. I really want peace and understanding to reign around, which are not possible without mercy.
Mercy without kindness cannot exist. Even a very evil person has at least a tiny seed of love. The time will come, and it will be possible to defeat evil thanks to a chance. It is worth giving an example: two sworn enemies from the school bench, one wishes death to the other. But both are in danger. One of them is on the brink of death. The one who wanted death for his enemy suddenly reaches out his hand and helps to get out. Both are saved. Where is that malice? Maybe they will remain enemies in relation to each other, but the situation has shown that kindness and mercy exist. From the side in real life or in a movie you can see how one person helps another. Anyone will be touched at the sight of how the girl will help the stumbled grandmother to get up and carry her things home. A certain person will exclaim: "I can do it too and I want to!". And what actually happens? When something like this happens here and now, a person will have a choice: either he helps in trouble, or he passes by. happy. What is mercy towards one's neighbor? It is compassion first and foremost. But this does not mean that the merciful one should cry along with the crying one, quite the contrary, his task is to console, support, help to enjoy life again. Those who have never been hungry or barefoot will not understand how hard it is to be in such a state. And those who have experienced something similar will try to help in every possible way. Here comes a well-dressed man in winter with a bag full of groceries, on the way he meets a hungry ragamuffin and asks for help. A merciful person will no doubt give his clothes and food to this person to keep him warm and eat. Even if he doesn't have a roof over his head. Charity such people eventually led to the emergence of the concept of mercy, which is seen as spiritual and material assistance to people in need.
I believe that mercy will never go out of fashion, and will forever remain in a person as one of the most important qualities. Spiritual powers can be drawn from it. Mercy... If you ask someone what it is, in most cases you will get the following answer: it is generosity, kindness to people, a willingness to forgive or at least understand a person, even if he has done something very bad. Now people have become less and less helpful to a person who needs help, and just pass by. Sometimes people meet mercy with suspicion and even rejection. It is important not to go astray and continue to do what your heart tells you to do.
Mercy is nothing but the desire to do mercy, to do good.
Despite the fact that this word to do good is so easy to pronounce, but how difficult it is to translate it into real life for many people.
It is worth being more sensitive and attentive to those close to us, the people around us. Sometimes it happens that it is enough for a person to be listened to. It happens that this little thing can save a person's life.
Mercy is a sincere desire to help without demanding or wanting something in return. Mercy should not be confused with a feeling of pity. Be kinder and the world will be a little better.
Mercy is a sweet heart that enjoys living. Mercy is one of those qualities of a person that distinguishes him from an animal and makes him a human being. Mercy is a feeling of pity, sympathy for other people's troubles and problems. In a broader sense, mercy is the ability to show indulgence to a person in need. In the life of every person there are situations when he is faced with the choice to spare his enemy, real or imaginary, and by the fact that he chooses, the person himself is largely judged. It is easy to be ruthless, to follow the principle of an eye for an eye in all actions, but it is much more difficult to show real mercy and spare a person from whom he has seen nothing but evil in his life. Often, mercy is understood as helping the weak, sick, people who simply need care and warmth. Such were the sisters of mercy in the wars, who treated both their wounded soldiers and the crippled soldiers of the enemy with equal care. Mercy is also possible in relation to animals, which may need it no less than their older counterparts. Mercy is a very noble feeling that does honor to the person experiencing it. We often encounter indifference, anger, selfishness, unwillingness to help other people. We do not know how to put ourselves in the place of people who find themselves in a difficult situation. And if this continues, it will be difficult to live without mercy and sympathy. Each of us should not be shy to show our sympathy, empathy for others. There are many people in our country who need a sense of compassion and mercy. After all, this is the first cure for all diseases and troubles. Not only elderly, poor and sick people need mercy, but often those who, due to a number of circumstances, find themselves in a difficult situation: homeless people, drunkards, drug addicts. It is impossible to live without mercy and compassion. Everyone needs it: both those who are helped and those who help.
Mercy, friendliness, kindness always adorn a person.
People, unfortunately, increasingly began to forget how important it is to show mercy to those who need support and compassion so much. This spiritual impulse often benefits not only the recipient of disinterested help, but also the giver himself. However, it also happens that a person shows good only from selfish motives, unconscious, perhaps, but still no less vain. In our time, such a feeling as mercy seems to many a relic of antiquity.
I think that our generation will be able to revive the forgotten feelings of mercy to the neighbor, to make them the main ones in life. In order to show mercy, one must free one's soul from petty offenses, envy, malice, and cruelty.
Today a person brings another person sometimes more evil than good? Probably because kindness is such a state of mind when a person is able to come to the aid of others, give good advice, and sometimes just regret. Not everyone is able to feel someone else's grief as their own, to sacrifice something for people, and without this there is no mercy. A kind person attracts him like a magnet, he gives a particle of his heart, his warmth to the people around him. why each of us needs a lot of love, justice, sensitivity, so that there is something to give to others. Mercy must come. A person who does not care about improving himself, how he can please others. The more mercy there is in our life, the less grief and suffering there will be.
Mercy is the power to protect what is defenseless. What needs to be done so that each of us is considered merciful. We must learn to love our neighbors, to forgive our enemies, to give alms to those in need. Yes, life is hard. Many human qualities have been tested. Some in the process of these tests were lost among vices and evil. But the main thing is that among the vulgarity, dirt, we were able to preserve, perhaps, the most important human quality - mercy. Mercy reminds us that there are minor troubles, but there are real misfortunes. Someone once tripped you up - and you fell, stuffed yourself with a bump, and he laughed. It is unpleasant. But time passed and this someone himself stretched himself ridiculously on a banana skin thrown by someone. Yes, so badly that he injured his leg and could not get up on his own. This is trouble. Can you forget that footboard? Can you not rejoice at his misfortune? Can you come up, help him, bring him to the house or the doctor? It is mercy and compassion for another being that makes us more human in understanding morality. The main thing is not to pass by, not to turn away, not to look away if someone nearby clearly needs help. And whoever you meet, behave like a real person: don't ruin anyone. Mercy is a readiness to help someone or forgive someone out of compassion, philanthropy. If faith, mercy and honor, kindness, compassion are important things in life, then the planet has tomorrow!
The revival of the charitable movement in Russia, in particular in the city on the Neva, is very closely connected with the activities of the remarkable writer and citizen Daniil Aleksandrovich Granin.
Mercy Society "Leningrad" became the first charitable "swallow" in post-Soviet Russia. Daniil Granin became one of the initiators of the creation and the Chairman. Together with the people, with the country, sympathizing and helping people.
Apparently, it was a wonderful time when under the Neva wind it was easier to think than now and there was much more enthusiasm. I would like to look at least with one eye there, in those distant hungry and happy times ...
The society, organized in 1987, united remarkable Leningraders and provided great social support to people who found themselves between life and death: donations were collected, a free shop and a canteen were opened, classes were held at the “School of Mercy”…
Under a strong hand famous writer the most socially infirm people found protection .
April 1989. Free canteen. photo by Kurtov
Website Charity in Russia. History and modernity.
Among the founders are the regional committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, the regional committee of the trade union medical workers, Leningrad branches of the Union of Journalists of the USSR and the Union of Writers of the USSR ... D. Granin noted then that charity also became a victim of the Soviet regime.
With the revival of mercy, according to the members of the Leningrad Mercy Society, it was necessary to start all the changes in the country.
The “community of the profiteer” won
It all started with this post:
“Last year I got in trouble. He was walking down the street, slipped and fell. It was about seven o'clock in the evening. In the city center, on Kirovsky Prospekt, not far from the house where I live. With great difficulty he got up, wandered into the nearest entrance, tried to calm the blood with a handkerchief. Wherever there, I felt that I was in a state of shock, the pain was getting stronger and something had to be done quickly. And I can’t speak - my mouth is broken.
Decided to turn back home. I was walking down the street, I think not staggering. I remember this path about four hundred meters well. There were many people on the street. A woman and a girl, some couple, an elderly woman, a man, young guys walked towards me, all of them at first looked at me with curiosity, and then averted their eyes, turned away. If only someone on this path came up to me, asked what was the matter with me, if I needed help. I remember the faces of many people - apparently, with unaccountable attention, heightened expectation of help ... "
see 1987 "On Mercy"
and see 1999 Mercy Lost
Today:
“I have come to the conclusion that human life doesn't make any sense. Death makes everything meaningless. People have been discussing this topic for thousands of years. But mercy to some extent comprehends life. Allows you to feel that you are needed, you can ease someone's existence, suffering. That's a lot! This is an intimate feeling that you can not boast of, and which is not fixed anywhere. This is a difficult feeling, because lately our society has become a society of profit."
“Arguments and Facts” 5/04/2012
————
year 2014.
The hour of memory of the victims of Nazism in the German parliament was held under the sign of the 70th anniversary of the lifting of the blockade of Leningrad.
Daniil Granin spoke to the deputies of the Bundestag:
“... There were already corpses on the streets and in the entrances. Wrapped up in sheets. When the ice on the ground began to grow stronger, they laid the Road of Life along Lake Ladoga. It was on this Road of Life that the cars moved, firstly, in order to take out children, women, the wounded and in order to bring food to the city. The road was mercilessly shelled. The shells broke the ice, the cars went under water. But there was no other choice.
Several times I was sent from the front to the headquarters and I visited the city. That's when I saw how the human essence of the blockade had changed. The main character in the city turned out to be someone, a nameless passer-by who tried to raise a weakened dystrophic who had fallen to the ground, to lead him ... There were such points with boiling water, there was nothing else: they gave a mug of boiling water and this often saved people.
Daniil Granin
Mercy
I got in trouble last year. I was walking down the street, slipped and fell ... I fell unsuccessfully, nowhere worse: my face on the curb, I broke my nose, I smashed my whole face, my hand jumped out in my shoulder. It was about seven o'clock in the evening. In the city center, on Kirovsky Prospekt, not far from the house where I live.
With great difficulty he got up - his face was covered in blood, his hand hung like a whip. Wandered into the nearest entrance, tried to calm the blood with a handkerchief. Wherever there - she continued to whip, I felt that I was in a state of shock, the pain was getting stronger and something had to be done quickly. And I can’t speak - my mouth is broken.
Decided to turn back home.
I walked along the street, I think, without staggering; walked, holding a bloody handkerchief to his face, his coat was already gleaming with blood. I remember this path well - about three hundred meters. There were many people on the street. A woman with a girl walked towards me, some couple, an elderly woman, a man, young guys, all of them at first looked at me with curiosity, and then averted their eyes, turned away. If only someone on this path came up to me, asked what was the matter with me, if I needed help. I remembered the faces of many people - apparently, with unaccountable attention, a heightened expectation of help ...
The pain confused my consciousness, but I understood that if I lay down on the sidewalk now, they would calmly step over me, bypass me. We have to get home.
Later I thought about this story. Could people take me for a drunk? It seems to be no, it is unlikely that I made such an impression. But even if they took me for a drunk ... - they saw that I was covered in blood, something happened - fell, hit - why didn’t they help, didn’t at least ask what was the matter? So, to pass by, not to get involved, not to waste time, effort, “this does not concern me”, has become a familiar feeling?
Pondering, he recalled these people with bitterness, at first he was angry, accused, perplexed, indignant, but then he began to remember himself. And he looked for something similar in his behavior. It is easy to reproach others when you are in a situation of distress, but you must also remember yourself. I can’t say that I had exactly such a case, but I also discovered something similar in my own behavior - a desire to move away, avoid, not get involved ... And, having convicted myself, I began to understand how familiar this feeling had become, how it warmed up, imperceptibly took root .
As I thought about it, I remembered something else. He recalled the time at the front, when in our hungry trench life it was impossible to walk past him at the sight of a wounded man. From your part, from the other - it was impossible for someone to turn away, pretend not to notice. They helped, dragged on themselves, bandaged, brought up ... Some people, perhaps, violated this law of front-line life, because there were deserters and crossbows. But we are not talking about them, we are now talking about the main life rules of that time.
And after the war, this feeling of mutual assistance, mutual obligation remained among us for a long time. But gradually it disappeared. Lost so much that a person considers it possible to pass by a fallen, injured person lying on the ground. We are accustomed to making reservations that not all people are like that, not everyone does this, but I do not want to make a reservation now. Novgorod librarians once complained to me: “Here you write in the Blockade Book how Leningraders raised those who fell from hunger, and the other day our employee twisted her leg, fell in the middle of the square - and everyone walked past, no one stopped, no one picked her up . How is it so? Resentment and even reproach sounded in their words.
And really, what is happening to us? How did we get to this point, how did we move from normal responsiveness to indifference, to callousness, and this also became normal.
I do not dare to name all the reasons why the feeling of mutual assistance, mutual obligation was lost, but I think that in many respects it began with all sorts of social injustice, when lies, window dressing, self-interest acted with impunity. This happened before the eyes of the people and had the most detrimental effect on the spiritual health of people. Indifference to one’s work appeared and took root, the loss of all principles - “Why can’t I?” That very thing that we now call softly began to flourish - lack of spirituality, indifference.
Naturally, this could not but affect the relationship of people within the team, exactingness towards each other, mutual assistance, lies penetrated into the family - everything is interconnected, because human morality does not consist of isolated rules of life. And that spirit of solidarity, mutual assistance, mutual concern, which was preserved from the war, the spirit of the unity of the people, was lost. Starting small, he disappeared.
My friend's mother got sick. She had to be operated on. He heard that the doctor should be "given". He is a shy person, but his anxiety about his mother overcame his shyness, and he, under the guise of needing some kind of medication, drugs, offered the doctor 25 rubles. At this, the doctor shrugged his shoulders and said: “I don’t take that kind of money.” - "What do you need?" - "Ten times more." My friend, a middle-level technical worker, is not a rich man, but since it was about the health of his mother, he got money. What struck him: when he brought the money in an envelope to the doctor, he calmly took it out and counted it.
Daniil Granin
Mercy
I got in trouble last year. I was walking down the street, slipped and fell ... I fell unsuccessfully, nowhere worse: my face on the curb, I broke my nose, I smashed my whole face, my hand jumped out in my shoulder. It was about seven o'clock in the evening. In the city center, on Kirovsky Prospekt, not far from the house where I live.
With great difficulty he got up - his face was covered in blood, his hand hung like a whip. Wandered into the nearest entrance, tried to calm the blood with a handkerchief. Wherever there - she continued to whip, I felt that I was in a state of shock, the pain was getting stronger and something had to be done quickly. And I can’t speak - my mouth is broken.
Decided to turn back home.
I walked along the street, I think, without staggering; walked, holding a bloody handkerchief to his face, his coat was already gleaming with blood. I remember this path well - about three hundred meters. There were many people on the street. A woman with a girl walked towards me, some couple, an elderly woman, a man, young guys, all of them at first looked at me with curiosity, and then averted their eyes, turned away. If only someone on this path came up to me, asked what was the matter with me, if I needed help. I remembered the faces of many people - apparently, with unaccountable attention, a heightened expectation of help ...
The pain confused my consciousness, but I understood that if I lay down on the sidewalk now, they would calmly step over me, bypass me. We have to get home.
Later I thought about this story. Could people take me for a drunk? It seems to be no, it is unlikely that I made such an impression. But even if they took me for a drunk ... - they saw that I was covered in blood, something happened - fell, hit - why didn’t they help, didn’t at least ask what was the matter? So, to pass by, not to get involved, not to waste time, effort, “this does not concern me”, has become a familiar feeling?
Pondering, he recalled these people with bitterness, at first he was angry, accused, perplexed, indignant, but then he began to remember himself. And he looked for something similar in his behavior. It is easy to reproach others when you are in a situation of distress, but you must also remember yourself. I can’t say that I had exactly such a case, but I also discovered something similar in my own behavior - a desire to move away, avoid, not get involved ... And, having convicted myself, I began to understand how familiar this feeling had become, how it warmed up, imperceptibly took root .
As I thought about it, I remembered something else. He recalled the time at the front, when in our hungry trench life it was impossible to walk past him at the sight of a wounded man. From your part, from the other - it was impossible for someone to turn away, pretend not to notice. They helped, dragged on themselves, bandaged, brought up ... Some people, perhaps, violated this law of front-line life, because there were deserters and crossbows. But we are not talking about them, we are now talking about the main life rules of that time.
And after the war, this feeling of mutual assistance, mutual obligation remained among us for a long time. But gradually it disappeared. Lost so much that a person considers it possible to pass by a fallen, injured person lying on the ground. We are accustomed to making reservations that not all people are like that, not everyone does this, but I do not want to make a reservation now. Novgorod librarians once complained to me: “Here you write in the Blockade Book how Leningraders raised those who fell from hunger, and the other day our employee twisted her leg, fell in the middle of the square - and everyone walked past, no one stopped, no one picked her up . How is it so? Resentment and even reproach sounded in their words.
And really, what is happening to us? How did we get to this point, how did we move from normal responsiveness to indifference, to callousness, and this also became normal.
I do not dare to name all the reasons why the feeling of mutual assistance, mutual obligation was lost, but I think that in many respects it began with all sorts of social injustice, when lies, window dressing, self-interest acted with impunity. This happened before the eyes of the people and had the most detrimental effect on the spiritual health of people. Indifference to one’s work appeared and took root, the loss of all principles - “Why can’t I?” That very thing that we now call softly began to flourish - lack of spirituality, indifference.
Naturally, this could not but affect the relationship of people within the team, exactingness towards each other, mutual assistance, lies penetrated into the family - everything is interconnected, because human morality does not consist of isolated rules of life. And that spirit of solidarity, mutual assistance, mutual concern, which was preserved from the war, the spirit of the unity of the people, was lost. Starting small, he disappeared.
My friend's mother got sick. She had to be operated on. He heard that the doctor should be "given". He is a shy person, but his anxiety about his mother overcame his shyness, and he, under the guise of needing some kind of medication, drugs, offered the doctor 25 rubles. At this, the doctor shrugged his shoulders and said: “I don’t take that kind of money.” - "What do you need?" - "Ten times more." My friend, a middle-level technical worker, is not a rich man, but since it was about the health of his mother, he got money. What struck him: when he brought the money in an envelope to the doctor, he calmly took it out and counted it.
The story doesn't end there. After the operation, the mother died. The doctor told my friend: “I checked, your mother did not die as a result of an operation, her heart could not stand it, so I will keep the money for myself.” That is, he behaved as if decently: now, if the woman died as a result of the operation, he would return the money.
With full consciousness of his rightness, this was said by a doctor of a state clinic, a representative of a humane, philanthropic profession - in any case, we are used to thinking about doctors.
I tell about this case not because it is special, but because it is not special.
The woman divorced her husband and demanded alimony through the court. Awarded. And the child is with her husband's parents, and this mother does not even think about taking the child and taking care of him. But he receives alimony regularly. Unfortunately, I know more and more cases when mothers abandon their children. Previously, these were isolated cases that affected people. Now they don't hit.
Unfortunately, our copious conversations about morality are often too general. And morality ... it consists of specific things - of certain feelings, properties, concepts.
One of these feelings is the feeling of mercy. The term is somewhat outdated, unpopular today and even seems to be rejected by our life. Something peculiar only to former times. "Sister of mercy", "brother of mercy" - even the dictionary gives them as "obsolete", that is, outdated concepts.
In Leningrad, in the Aptekarsky Island area, there was Mercy Street. They considered this name obsolete, renamed the street into Textile Street.
To withdraw mercy means to deprive a person of one of the most important effective manifestations of morality. This ancient, necessary feeling is characteristic of the entire animal community, the bird community: mercy for the downtrodden and injured. How did it happen that this feeling overgrown with us, died out, turned out to be neglected. One can object to me by citing many examples of touching responsiveness, condolences, and true mercy. Examples, they are, and yet we feel, and have long been, the decline of mercy in our lives. If it were possible to make a sociological dimension of this feeling...
Mercy was destroyed not by chance. In times of dispossession, in difficult years mass repression no one was allowed to help the families of the victims, it was impossible to shelter the children of those arrested and exiled. People were forced to express their approval of death sentences. Even sympathy for the innocently arrested was forbidden. Feelings like mercy were regarded as suspicious, if not criminal. From year to year this feeling was condemned, etched out: it is de apolitical, not class, in the era of struggle it interferes, disarms ... It was also made forbidden for art. Mercy really could interfere with lawlessness, cruelty, it prevented planting, slandering, violating the law, beating, destroying. The thirties, forties - this concept has disappeared from our lexicon. It also disappeared from everyday life, went underground, as it were. "Mercy to the fallen" was rendered hiding and risking ...
I am sure that a person is born with the ability to respond to someone else's pain. I think that this is innate, given to us along with instincts, with the soul. But if this feeling is not used, not exercised, it weakens and atrophies.
Is mercy practiced in our lives?.. Is there a constant compulsion for this feeling? A push, a call to him?
I remembered how in childhood my father, when they passed by beggars - and there were many beggars in my childhood: blind, crippled, simply begging in trains, at stations, in markets - my father always gave a copper and said: go give it. And I, overcoming fear - begging often looked pretty scary - filed. Sometimes I overcame my greed - I wanted to save money for myself, we lived quite poorly. Father never reasoned whether these petitioners were pretending or not, whether they were really crippled or not. He did not delve into this: since a beggar, he must file.
In memory of him - his article on mercy.
_______________________
It happened in January 1987.
It was seven o'clock in the evening, I was walking along the avenue, tired after my working day.
It was a long day of intense writing and other duties, of which I had quite a lot at that time. I walked out of the house, heading to my wife, who was in the hospital.
Thought about something. A free taxi passed by, I woke up, jerked, raising my hand to stop it, caught my foot on something and flew to the ground. With all his might, he hit his face on the corner of the curb. He felt a terrible pain in his shoulder, barely got up, blood was gushing from his nose, his nose was broken, his jaw too, his arm hung. I could not move it, I realized that my shoulder was dislocated. With his left hand he tried to calm the blood, went up to the wall of the house, leaned against it in order to somehow come to his senses. Thoughts from the pain were confused, the handkerchief was covered in blood, I tried to calm it down and could not. Pinching his nose, he turned back, decided to get home. I must have had a terrible view, an evening stream of people was moving towards me, some were coming home from work, others were walking. When they saw me, they smiled and shrugged their shoulders. Curiosity or disgust appeared on the faces of those they met. They probably thought I was drunk or had a fight with someone. There was a woman with a girl. The girl said something to her mother, but her mother explained something to her, shielded her. There was a couple, they were cheerfully surprised, started talking, discussing my appearance. The faces of everyone I met, as it turned out, were imprinted in my memory for a long time, I can reproduce them all even now.
Ordinary passers-by, probably nice, sweet in everyday life, I remember them because at that terrible moment for me, each of them had an expression of complete alienation, unwillingness to approach, disgust, coldness, at best - curiosity, but nothing more. No one showed any sympathy. No one had anxiety, no one took a step forward, no one asked ... I understood that if I fell, no one would pick me up, no one would help.
I was in the desert, in the center of the city, crowded with people, among my St. Petersburg people, fellow countrymen, with whom I had lived all my life. A city where I was well known. And so, staggering, holding on to the walls of houses, sometimes stopping to take a breath, because I felt that my consciousness was cloudy, I went to my house, got up with difficulty, opened the door, but there was no one at home.
I called the neighbors and lay down on the floor, already poorly understanding what was happening ... An ambulance arrived, the neighbors helped carry me out, put me in an ambulance ...
Ordinary city hospital, poor, run down, overcrowded. Usually nice, good doctors work in such hospitals. They corrected my dislocation, put a plaster cast on me, made injections, bandaged me, straightened my nose and put me in the ward.
The next day, I came to my senses a little and began to think: what happened? .. In the end, nothing special, an ordinary everyday case: a person fell, crashed, got home, called for medical help, sent him to the hospital.
But I couldn't bring myself to. The psychological trauma was stronger than the physical trauma. I could not comprehend why my soul hurt so much. If at least one of those who were walking towards me - and there were several dozen passers-by - stopped, helped - everything would become normal, but not a single one ...
If I approached any of them and said that I am the writer Granin, help me, they would undoubtedly take me by the arm, take me home, and help me.
But I was an ordinary passer-by with whom something happened, even if he walks covered in blood, staggering, barely standing on his feet, he is indifferent to everyone.
What if it's drunk? Why interfere. I wondered: what happened to our people? I know them, before in this city they were not like that. I remember the war, a time when mutual assistance between people was an almost inviolable law, how we helped at the front, when the other was bad, they dragged the wounded; the time when it was necessary to share bread and ammunition, to replace each other in the trenches.
I remembered the blockade of Leningrad, about which I collected materials for the "Blockade Book", as the blockade survivors told amazing cases mutual assistance. In 1942, in the winter, a woman was walking down the street, fell, which means that she would no longer be able to get up, she would freeze. A passer-by, the same goner, the same dystrophic as she is, lifts her up and, leaning his shoulder, leads her to her house, climbs the stairs with her, melts the stove, gives her boiling water to drink, saves her life.
I have recorded many such stories of saved people. A man, exhausted from hunger, sits down somewhere, and an unknown person shares a piece of bread with him. Stories about neighbors who helped each other, brought firewood, brought water. The majority of Leningraders in those unheard-of conditions, dying of hunger, did not allow themselves to dehumanize.
There are a great many of these stories, they made up a large book. Such was the law of blockade life: you must help another person, because tomorrow it could happen to you too. It was not the result of propaganda or agitation, no one talked about it, it was a natural feeling of people in distress.
My co-author Ales Adamovich and I asked the blockade survivors the same question: why did you survive? How could you on that lethal ration of 125-150 grams of bread made half of ersatz, fillers like cellulose, when they didn’t give anything else, and there were frosts, continuous air raids, shelling, bombing, how could you survive in these deadly conditions? If it’s really rude, why didn’t you die?
Each had his own answer, his own story, there were more than two hundred of them, the most diverse, always surprising, dissimilar answers. Some for the first time, as it were, thought - really, why?
These already elderly men and women peered inquisitively, with bewilderment, into their past, into that fierce winter of 1941-1942, during those more than two years of the Leningrad blockade, during which a million Leningraders died.
Different stories had something in common, it loomed clearer and clearer and suddenly appeared before us important discovery: most often those who saved others were saved. That is, those who stood in line for hours for a piece of bread for their loved ones, for children. Those who went to dismantle wooden buildings for firewood. Those who walked, or rather crawled, for water to the river, to the hole, and then for the snow, which melted on the stove. It would seem that they should have saved their strength, not expended calories, lie down, save every step. Meanwhile, violating all the laws of physiology and energy, those who did not spare themselves won. The wife who gave part of her ration to her husband, the mother who, having nothing to feed her baby, cut her vein and let the baby suck her blood. Of course, the rescuers also died.
But, in any case, they remained human beings, and the feeling of love and compassion prolonged their lives. The doctors we contacted could not explain this phenomenon to us.
Those who saved others survived - this amazing moral rule was confirmed by more and more evidence.
People did not know about it, they acted, obeying the calls of love and compassion. Extreme conditions blockades, when the totalitarian oppression was weakened, moved away, helped to release the natural feeling of mercy. What happened to us during these years of a peaceful well-fed life? Why now, when it is warm, when we live incomparably better, I thought, when we are dressed and there is no war, no blockade, why are we passing by? And I asked myself: would I come up? Or am I thinking about it now only because I stumbled upon this cold indifference of people to their trouble?
One night, when I could not sleep in this hospital, my shoulder was still very sore, I went for a walk along the corridor. The hospital was overcrowded, especially the women's department, there were not enough places, there were beds in the corridor. The patients were asleep, but a soft groan was heard from one of the beds.
I came closer, saw an old gray-haired woman with flowing hair. I asked if I should call my sister.
She replied, “No need. You'd better sit next to me." I sat down.
She slowly, with difficulty, began to talk about herself. She was 75 years old, her daughter lived in the Far East, her husband died in the war, she herself worked at a garment factory and sang in the choir. And once she was in prison for beating the director of the factory ...
Suddenly she said to me: “You know, I probably won’t live to see the morning. I will die soon. Don't leave me." I say that I will call the doctor now, she answers: “No, no, this is not necessary, this will not help, they cannot do anything. Just don't leave."
She took my hand, closed her eyes, as if she had calmed down, then there was an intermittent sigh, she opened her eyes, almost smiled at me, her eyes stopped, and I felt - I can’t even explain why, I always felt this moment both in the war and in the hospital - the soul flies away.
I held her hand, which gradually hardened, cooled down. I called the duty doctor.
Yes, she really died. I thought then how terrible and hard it was for a person, this woman, to die alone, in a hospital bed, at night, when there was no one to say the last word and no one to listen to. After all, you need so little, just something - for someone to hold your hand, for someone to be near.
She did not bequeath anything, she did not ask, there were no parting words, it was an ordinary conversation, but still she was, as it were, seen off. People often feel the nearness of death.
I remember this from the war, from the blockade. Yes, even in civilian life. We have completely eliminated the institution of communion, when a priest comes, when a person is being prepared for death, when he says goodbye to his neighbors.
People die in complete abandonment, there is no one to say the last word, to say goodbye to the world in which you lived. It's cruel.
And then the completely forgotten word “mercy” came back to me. An old Russian concept, the meaning of which is difficult even to express, so much is included in it.
This is a kind heart, that is, that sympathy, cordiality, the innermost disposition of one person to another in moments of misfortune, disaster, grief, loneliness, illness, when a person most of all needs complicity, sympathy, when the feeling of loneliness, his uselessness is unbearable for a person.
The word "mercy" was once extremely common in Russia. There were sisters of mercy who worked in hospitals, that is, those hospital sisters who are now simply called medical sisters used to be called sisters of mercy. There were Relief Societies.
I did not know the history of mercy in Russia. I only knew that the word had disappeared from the lexicon. Because the very concept of mercy has disappeared. Why did it disappear? How did it happen? And what appeared instead?.. But how do we live without the concept of mercy?..
These thoughts haunted me. And one day, after putting aside my work on the novel, I sat down to write an article about Mercy. Just like that, for myself, to sort out this problem.
I wrote that this word, as well as the concept included in it, was not just forgotten, but forcibly withdrawn from circulation. He was uprooted.
I remembered that in Leningrad there used to be Mercy Street, which was later renamed, it became known as Tekstilshchikov Street.
I tried to trace how, over the course of our long socialist life, both the terminology and the content of this feeling were withdrawn.
In 1937, during the rampant repressions, many people wanted to somehow help their relatives and friends who were arrested and exiled, to help their families - wives and children. Often both husband and wife were arrested at the same time, leaving their little children all alone.
Their relatives and friends tried to take them in, but this was not allowed, and the children were sent to shelters.
They were not allowed to send parcels and parcels to the camps, write letters to those arrested.
Any form of help from outsiders was seen as aiding the enemies of the people.
There were rallies at which the death penalty for "enemies of the people" was welcomed.
Applauded, voted for the death penalty, some forced, others willingly.
There were more and more enemies of the people. Arrested in every institution, at all enterprises.
The account went to hundreds of thousands, then to millions. Those who tried to defend the innocently convicted were also subjected to repression. People were forced to testify against their neighbors and colleagues, to slander them, to testify about their anti-Soviet sentiments.
If someone, out of pity, out of a sense of justice, refused to lie, he himself could be punished. Fear, general fear, fueled by mass executions, took possession of people, reigned in both the village and the city. Fear drowned out feelings of pity.
Fear took possession of the human psyche and further controlled all his actions, words, his attitude towards people. Mercy was turned into an outdated concept characteristic of bourgeois society.
The false feeling with which the rich, the bourgeois fool the brains of the proletariat. Like any non-class concept, it serves the ruling elite in order to smooth out antagonistic contradictions... And so on. The Soviet man has no reason to be unhappy. Grief, despondency are not characteristic of a Soviet person. We are building a bright future, the most advanced society, and so on. And I was haunted by Pushkin's words in the poem "Monument".
And for a long time I will be so kind to the people, That I aroused good feelings with my lyre, That in my cruel age I glorified freedom And called for mercy to the fallen.
As the first duty of the poet, Pushkin bequeathed to awaken good feelings and mercy to the fallen.
That's what particularly struck me. Not honesty, truthfulness, love for the motherland and other virtues inspired him, no, the poet must first of all serve goodness, freedom and mercy.
And I must say that Russian literature of the 19th century fulfilled this testament.
Compassion for the “humiliated and offended,” to use the expression of Dostoevsky, passed through all the work of Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, and Gorky. And behind them, the giants, were Leskov, Bunin, Korolenko, Leonid Andreev, Kuprin and others.
Tolstoy's story "Polikushka" about the wretched, unfortunate, Gogol's "Overcoat", "The Blind Musician" Korolenko, Gorky's play "At the Bottom", Chekhov's plays - no matter how much you name, will be incomplete.
The humanism of Russian literature became its distinguishing feature, its strength, and secured a special position for it among the reading people.
Russian literature has done a lot to instill sympathy in the souls for those offended by fate, for the poor, the lonely, for those who are considered inferior, who are considered to be the dregs of society.
Tramps, prostitutes, blessed, beggars, criminals - for Russian literature there were no outcasts. This sacred fire corresponded to the customs of the people, the national character. I remember, as a child, in our Novgorod region, in the huts, one could see a wooden tray going down through the wall outward. When someone, invisible from the inside, knocks on such a tray, the owners put potatoes, a piece of bread, a pie down the tray, without seeing who it is. There was even a saying, which we, the children, explained: "So that the beggar is not ashamed, and the owner is not proud." Anonymous help testified to the culture of people's mercy. Beggars, wanderers, fire victims knocked. The village fed its fool, did not let him starve, freeze. Mercy had its own rules in all, the most remote corners of Russia. I remembered my father. When I was quite small and we were walking down the street, my father would give me a penny or three copper kopecks at the sight of a beggar, and I had to come up to put them in my hat or give them in my outstretched hand. He taught me that one should not pass indifferently past a beggar, a begging person. And so it was in all families. After the revolution, this feeling became unacceptable for the ideological education, or rather, the ideological indoctrination to which the people were subjected. He was raised in hatred. "Death to capital!", "Down with the bourgeoisie!", "Let's eradicate the kulaks as a class!", "If the enemy does not surrender, they will destroy him!". In all the slogans and appeals, from all the posters, it screamed: “No mercy!”, “Down with!”, “Death!”. There was an upbringing of class hatred towards the exploiters. And it was precisely hatred, although, it would seem, one could cultivate sympathy for the exploited. There was a social system of opposition of socialism to capitalism. Within the framework of this system, it would seem that love and sympathy for the oppressed masses could be born. But hatred was brought up, mainly and above all, it was more necessary, it corresponded to the tasks of the totalitarian system. Naturally, hatred excludes mercy, excludes sympathy. During the liquidation of the kulaks, when hundreds of thousands of the most industrious, conscientious peasants and peasant families were exiled, all assistance to them was forbidden. Children abandoned their parents - this was encouraged; it was impossible to provide indulgence to the families of the convicted and exiled, they were punished for this. They were expelled from the party, the Komsomol, they were not allowed to enter institutes, to hold responsible positions. Art was forced to take part in the genocide of mercy. Fiction, can be considered, has changed the precepts of Pushkin. Among her heroes, unfortunate people disappeared, diseases, despair, poverty, heroes that aroused pity, unadapted to life, disappeared. This was the requirement of ideology, and it became more and more rigorous over the years. Censorship carefully removed from the stage, from the screens, from poetry everything that did not correspond to the praise of the socialist way of life of the happiest, most vigorous people, confident in their rightness and their future. No orphans, wretched, blind, weak-minded, nothing mournful. Among the leading artists in those years there was an opinion that totalitarianism must be fought with its own methods, it is useless to appeal to mercy. Struggle - this is what moral problems raged around in the Brezhnev era. The fight against the cult of personality for the rule of law, with the consequences of Stalinism. A legal struggle, an ideological struggle, a struggle, a struggle... Dissidents and dissidents perished in this struggle, both the right and the left became embittered. What kind of mercy could there be if entire nations were sent into exile, regardless of any merit; women, children, old people - everyone was herded into trains and driven to the steppe, to Siberia, to Central Asia. During the war they were expelled Crimean Tatars, Chechens, Volga Germans, Ingush, Kalmyks, Balkars. They were mercilessly removed from their historical homeland, and this was consecrated by the lofty goals of defending the homeland and the socialist system. Man was not allowed to show mercy and cordiality. This concerned literally all aspects of everyday life, penetrated into the family and family relations. This also applies to the church. The Church was deprived of the right to mercy - its main function. After leaving the hospital, I began to see the people around me and our everyday life in a different way. I saw the terrible state not only of the city's hospitals, but also of nursing homes. How dirty it is, how badly they feed and mistreat the elderly. How difficult it is for disabled people to live ...
I wrote about all this in my article. I gave it to Literaturnaya Gazeta, and, having shortened it somewhat, the newspaper printed it. The article was called "Mercy". I did not expect that it would cause such an explosion of reader interest, so many responses. Literally within two or three weeks, the editors received hundreds, maybe thousands of letters (I did not count them).
Most of them were encouraging, sympathetic to me, from people who were glad and welcomed the return of the concept of "mercy" into our lives. I, as they say, hit the bull's-eye, the sore spot. The problem has obviously come up. Mercy was perceived as one of the signs of perestroika, as a return to normal life. My attention was also attracted by opponents. What did they have? First of all, the assertion that the Soviet person does not need mercy, mercy is a bourgeois feeling or a religious feeling, in any case a feeling alien to our reality. It humiliates a person. Mercy is inherent capitalist society, where there are poor and forgotten people who are outside of society and outside of its social attention. I was called an anti-Leninist, a bourgeois humanist, an ideological saboteur, a pacifist. The authors argued that the feeling of mercy is a harmful relic. To whom is mercy? To the enemies of the fatherland? To ideological enemies? And the Soviet person does not need mercy, but care for him. “The author writes about the poor. But where did he see beggars? The socialist society delivered the Soviet people from poverty, we cannot have beggars, there is work for everyone. And if we have lonely, unhappy people, there are appropriate institutions for them, in which people are provided for. Mercy humiliates the Soviet man. That was the softest criticism addressed to me. There were, of course, even more malicious and crude accusations of complicity with enemies, that an offensive was beginning, a diversion of bourgeois ideology. In one collective letter, I was called an "agent of influence." I do not want to quote here either letters or extracts from my article. After all, this is just a newspaper article, it is attached to its time, and it is hardly possible to quote from it the impression that it caused in that 1987 year. Discussions began. Republican and regional newspapers reprinted the article. Discussed at the enterprises.
The matter did not end there. The fate of the newspaper speech was continued, and it determined a lot for me for several years ...
***
What do we know about the inner course of a person's life, which is not at all similar to his speeches and actions? What do we know about secret fears, failed exploits, pangs of conscience?.. What do we know about people about whom, it would seem, we know everything - what was going on in the soul of Pushkin or Gogol? Do poems exhaust the spiritual life of a poet? By a drop of rain, can you understand what is happening in the cloud?
DANIL GRANIN. BISON.
***
We transfer our memory to a tape recorder, a mobile phone, a camera, the Internet. Why should we burden memory? It is more comfortable. And we do not notice how we forget not only phones, dates, but much of our lives. We also forget the events that we witnessed, that is, we have lost the habit of remembering. Why are they? They are in newspapers, on the Internet. We have more and more blank spots of oblivion. We forget with relief. Unconsciousness has become a hallmark of our society.
Daniil Aleksandrovich Granin. Man not from here
