Moscow has been the most attractive city not only for residents of our country, but also for foreigners for over a large number years and even centuries. It attracts with its grandeur, unique beauty of architecture and, of course, history. In general, the exact time of the founding of our capital is still unknown, but in historical documents It is customary to consider her birthday in 1147. It was at this time that in one of the oldest chronicles, for the first time, a city with a similar name Moskov was found, where Yuri Dolgoruky met with his like-minded people and friends. And only in the XIII century this city will become the center of the principality, and then the main city of our Motherland.
Moscow today
Capital of Russia. It is located on an area of more than two and a half thousand square kilometers. Moscow is considered one of the most densely populated cities in both Russia and Europe. At the beginning of 2012, the number of residents of the capital was 11,612,943 people. Since 1991, Moscow has been divided into twelve administrative districts, which in turn are divided into one hundred and forty-six main districts. The status of each district is determined by the Charter of the capital, as well as acts of the mayor and government.
The capital of our country performs an important function of a transport interchange, which includes 9 railway stations, 6 airports, 3 ports that have access to the oceans. Being the transport center of Russia, Moscow is experiencing more and more serious transport problems. We understand that they are associated with an increase in the number of vehicles (by 2012, the number of cars in the capital reached 3.5 million cars) and a significant lag in construction highways. The main salvation for residents and guests of the city is the subway, which has been operating since 1935. Now the metro has 182 stations, 12 lines, which stretch for 301.2 km. In 1990, the construction of new stations stopped due to lack of proper funding. Today, construction is being resumed, and by 2015 the Moscow government promises to open more than twenty new stations.
Graphic representation of the symbols of the city of Moscow
Moscow streets
Moscow is not only a capital with many districts, a strategic object, but also a city with its own centuries-old unique history, which is preserved in monuments of architecture and art to this day. Of particular interest to travelers and simply inquisitive people are the streets that keep the secrets of many generations. To date, there are 3,500 interesting streets and small alleys, wide avenues and vast squares, mysterious embankments, endless highways and driveways. They stretch for many kilometers. It is known that if the streets are built in one line, then we will get a straight line that exceeds the distance from Moscow to Berlin. Of course, the most famous Moscow square for us from early childhood is Red Square, which is located on the east side of the Kremlin. Probably every Russian has been to this place at least once in his life, or is going to visit. Embankments located in the central part, near the Moskva River, are considered other important sights. These are Andreevskaya, Moskvoretskaya, Kremlin, Sofiyskaya, Balchug, Bersenevskaya and Luzhnetskaya embankments, the name of each of them keeps its own history. Many streets remind us of names famous people who have made an invaluable contribution to the development and prosperity of Moscow. The development of the city does not stand still, so many streets have been changed and renamed, some have completely disappeared, and new, modern and more versatile ones have appeared in their place.
There are currently no states in Europe and America that would define themselves on a confessional basis (unlike Iran, Mauritania and Pakistan, in official name which includes the word Islamic). There are also no interstate associations based on religion (with the exception of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which includes 43 Afro-Asian states and the Palestine Liberation Organization).
Religion is becoming more and more a private affair of a person, just like confessions - associations of believers independent of the state. Therefore, religious affiliation ceases to be an external, formal sign of a certain status of a state or person.
In modern times, the processes of state formation are directed mainly by the national, and not by the religious factor. Often, however, even now religion can become the basis for uniting or, on the contrary, separating people.
For example, in Bosnia and Herzegovina (a Serbian-speaking republic of the former Yugoslavia), Muslims consider themselves a special ethnic group (Bosnians-Muslims) precisely on a confessional basis. Confessional differences largely determined the confrontation of 1991-95. Croats (Catholics) and Serbs (Orthodox); clashes between the Irish (Catholics) and the British (Protestants) in Ulster; several Christian (Arab) and several Muslim (also Arab Lebanese and Palestinian) communities in Beirut.
Thus, on the modern map of the world, the settlement of people of various faiths generally corresponds to the historically established geography of religions and does not coincide with the boundaries of languages, ethnic groups and states.
Mechkovskaya N.B. Language and religion - M., 1998
Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill spoke out for the need to educate in society "enlightened" patriotism, that is, patriotism based on Christian morality.
“This is patriotism, which is based on high morality, on faith, on the sanctity of life, this is the patriotism that is inspired by the highest values that are transmitted to us, people, by God himself,” Interfax quoted the Primate as saying. On Monday, December 13, in the Kremlin, he was presented with the award of the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation “For Faith and Loyalty”.
The patriarch noted that the letter “I” in the word “enlightened” is not accidental. “How wonderful that both faith and fidelity, faith, which makes patriotism enlightened patriotism, how wonderful that these words, these concepts are combined in the order awarded by the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation,” the patriarch added.
In turn, the head of the Synodal Department for Relations between the Church and Society of the Moscow Patriarchate, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, called on the authorities, ethnic associations and religious communities to start a dialogue as soon as possible. In particular, this will help to avoid new events like those that took place on December 11 at Manezhnaya Square in Moscow. Then more than 5 thousand people - football fans and representatives of nationalist associations - gathered on the square in memory of Yegor Sviridov, who died as a result of a mass brawl. As a result of the riots on Manezhnaya Square, several dozen people were injured.
“Today, in Moscow, a mass interethnic clash is more than possible, which could end in a lot of blood, and since this is the capital, everyone will soon find out about it and this will create a threat to the very future of Russia,” RIA Novosti quotes the words of the clergyman.
At the same time, the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church does not see much benefit from the participation in this dialogue of the expert, bureaucratic, intellectual and media elites, who, in his words, “have been assured for a long time that interethnic relations in Russia are in perfect order.”
Source: KM.ru
RP comment: Public performance, of course, do not require from speakers the rigorous accuracy of academic formulations. However, the regular mention of various kinds of speakers by the uncorrect category "Christian morality" can mislead people. The ignorant may understand this to mean that the "morality" of Christians is special, different from the "morality" of members of other faiths or unbelievers. They may confuse this with the quite correct concept of "Christian morality", which, in contrast to confessionally isolated morality, exists and, being a set of norms of behavior, distinguishes Christians from representatives of other faiths. Morality, on the other hand, is characterized by the presence of a person's conscience, honesty, incorruptibility, compassion, truthfulness, and the like, which can be characteristic of all people, regardless of nationality, religion or disbelief.
The second point, which is a more serious speculation on the gullibility of people, is the church term used by the patriarch "pro priest deniya" - that is, the proclamation of someone by the church as a saint, in the form invented by him "pro priest This concept can be applied to an ascetic of piety after his canonization, but applying it to the concept of "patriotism" is frankly absurd. In contrast, by the way, to the concept of "enlightened e schenny", for example, in the phrase "about light patriotism". However, this would radically change the meaning of the statement of the head of a religious organization. The term "about light enny" (-light, enlightenment, the Age of Enlightenment) characterizes the departure from the Church, secularity, and therefore the impossibility of any religious isolation.
As mentioned earlier, the penetration of Catholicism into the national organism not only gives it a national form, but also divides society along confessional lines, promotes the interweaving of national and religious affiliation, creates the ground for national hatred on religious grounds and religious hatred on national grounds. It is precisely this content that is contained in the concept of “Catholic Pole”, “Catholic Lithuanian”, etc.Not only multi-confessional and multi-ethnic affiliation is the basis for conflicts between people of different nationalities and different religions. Religious community does not at all exclude national strife between people of different nationalities. In the presence of ethnic conflicts the integrating role of religion (one and the same confession) turns out to be ineffective. This, for example, is evidenced by the relations between believing Poles and Lithuanians, where contradictions were observed between people of different nationalities, but of the same Catholic denomination. In this case, the concept of "Pole-Catholic" and "Lithuanian-Catholic" instead of an integrative meaning on the basis of Catholicism took on the opposite meaning of the opposition of Catholics on national grounds: "Catholic-Polish" and "Catholic-Lithuanian". In this regard, numerous facts of conflicts between Lithuanian and Polish Catholics are known, conflicts primarily within the framework of the cult practice itself (mainly over the language of the cult service). It goes without saying that Catholic Poles and Catholic Lithuanians never acted in such conflicts in their “pure” form (in the sense of confessional and national affiliation). These conflicts were the expression or result of deeper, historically entrenched intersections of the socio-economic, political and cultural interests of Poles and Lithuanians. Under feudal and capitalist conditions, these interests were ensured through national enslavement, the seizure of foreign lands (for example, the twenty-year Polish occupation of one third of the Lithuanian territory with Vilnius as its capital), forced assimilation and national discrimination, and other forms of suppression of national minorities and their culture. In the bourgeois-nationalist and clerical ideology, as well as often in national self-consciousness and in religious consciousness, their confessional-national form, rather than social content, came first in these conflicts.
Progressive thinkers in Catholic countries have always opposed the identification of national and confessional affiliation. Genuine patriots of Poland exposed the falsity of the slogan "Catholic Pole". Thus, P. Gulka-Laskovsky wrote that the slogan “Pole-Catholic” is at odds with elementary reality and truth. Not a single great Pole in the course of Polish history has dared to assert that Polonism (polskošč) is completely enclosed in Catholicism, and there is no Polonism outside of it... The slogan that excludes non-Catholics from Polonism is exceptionally polemical, militant, defiant, hostile, often hostile. Confessional hatred never expected to be answered with love... In the motto that a Pole is a Catholic, there has never been a trace of love, even for the sake of polonism and for the sake of Catholicism. There was always that active hatred in him, which seeks the object of hatred and finds it at any cost ... Vatican politics too often sacrificed the most vital important interests the Polish nation and the Polish state to its special prospects... religious intolerance brought great and irreparable misfortunes to Poland, etc.” 1 And then the author rejects this slogan from the standpoint of Polish patriotism and internationalism: “There is a great attractive force in Polish culture. Let no one reduce this force and block the way to the Polish homeland for people of foreign origin and non-Catholic religion!.. Poland is too great to be closed in a close religious form, but it is no longer so great as to neglect tens and hundreds of thousands of people of foreign origin who want to give her heart, abilities, and, if necessary, life.
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The question arises: Which side of it - internal or external - does Catholicism penetrate more into the life of the nation, fixes itself on its organism and, thus, itself assumes to a certain extent a national form? Under the inner side is meant the Catholic religion as an attribute of the consciousness and psyche of the nation, its customs and traditions, its way of life. The external side is the existence and activity of the entire church system, its impact on the nation. Of course, this is a difficult question, especially since not only are there not enough data on the “internal” side of the existence of Catholicism, but the very criterion for evaluating data on this issue has not yet been sufficiently developed. Nevertheless, it has been found that in the so-called Catholic nations, the percentage of those who profess a religion is several times lower than the percentage of counted Catholics. According to Catholic studies, in those European countries that are considered 85-98% Catholic, only 15-35% of those baptized are religious practitioners 3 .As for the external side of Catholicism, that structural system, the mechanism of influence, the apparatus of daily activity, with which the Church ensures the existence of "Catholic nations", then this can be said more definitely. Catholicism is fixed in the life of the nation in the material sphere no less firmly than in the spiritual. It is fixed not only in the purely religious sphere, but also in the sphere of philosophy, art, morality, and political ideology. The whole system and at the same time the mechanism of the functioning and influence of Catholicism on the nation consists of the following components: 1) the church organization and its personnel, starting from the nunciature and the episcopate and ending with the parish; 2) the institution of monasticism; 3) church property and income; 4) legal guarantees for the activities of the church, provided for by the legislation of the state, as well as in many cases by a concordat with the Vatican; 5) propaganda apparatus and means - publishing houses and the press, radio and television, cinematography, etc.; 6) church schools, universities, institutes; 7) socio-political and ideological camp of Catholicism (secular organizations and movements): a) "Catholic action", b) church workers' organizations, c) mass religious organizations(by age, by gender, by some element of the cult, etc.), d) Catholic organizations among the intelligentsia (by profession, teachers, writers, doctors, engineers, lawyers, students, etc.), e) church organizations special purpose- charitable, anti-alcohol, missionary, etc., f) political parties, g) Christian trade unions; 8) the presence of church personnel in the state apparatus, at school and scientific institutes, in cultural institutions.
Such a burden is borne by the "Catholic" nation, on the body of which the cosmopolitan institution of the church external to it takes on the appearance of not only a national form, but also a national attribute and value.
1. In a national society, Catholicism, penetrating into various spheres of its life, acquires an outwardly national form, in connection with which the appearance is created that the Catholic religion is a national attribute and national value.
2. The national specificity of Catholicism is expressed in the preservation of elements of pre-Christian beliefs in the cult, in the customs, customs and traditions of the people, in its mental make-up, in the special distribution and popularity of any aspect of the Catholic cult.
3. The main channels of church influence in bourgeois society are the family, school, and partly culture. Catholicism is fixed in the spiritual life of a significant part of the nation and through other forms of social consciousness - philosophy, morality, art, political and legal ideology, which the church intensively exploits.
4. The adoption of a national form by Catholicism helps to strengthen the ideology of the ruling class - the landowners and the bourgeoisie. Bourgeois nationalism and clericalism on national grounds divide society along national and confessional lines, contribute to the assertion of a false thesis about the identity of national and confessional affiliation and thus national and religious discord, counteract genuine patriotism, friendship of peoples and internationalism.
5. The existence of Catholicism on the body of the nation is ensured by its ramified system and a huge mechanism of influencing the masses, which consist both of the actual church organization and its activities, and of its socio-political and ideological camp created by the church. By this mechanism, the Catholic faith is constantly brought into the spiritual life of the nation and maintained in it.
1 "Wybrane zagadnienia šwiatopoglądowe". Warszawa, 1967, str. 176, 177.
2 Ibid., p. 178.
3 A. Morawska. Perspektywy. Katolicyzm a wspołczesnŏšč, str. 66, 73.
