All human suffering is caused by uncertainty. Uncertainty in large or small, in particular or in general: the dark always scares, the light pleases. Even if it is visible at the end of the tunnel.

Russia has lost its way and is lost in search of a guiding national idea. But she can't remember what, where, or when she lost it, or even if she lost it at all. Similarly, some people look for their glasses, even though they have them on their nose. Uncertainty in the choice of a national idea has a depressing and corrupting effect on society. It is no coincidence that on July 13, 1996, the press reported that " the president invited his proxies to take part in the development of a national idea that unites all Russians." I gave myself a whole year to do this.

Mixed feelings of pity and bewilderment cause a fruitless search for the obvious. However, it is not easy to comprehend the idea of any creation, and even more so to the ground destroyed, as Russia once again appears before us. So, on a small piece of land near the Moskva River, one saw the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, another-the Palace of Soviets, and the third-a swimming pool. It took decades to get back to the temple again. Does this not mean that Russia, too, after long wanderings and reincarnations, is striving to comprehend its destiny, its truth?

Our national idea - previously called Russian-has not died, has not changed in space and time. Russia has returned to it, because the carrier that it holds together and moves - a huge state, without which there is no world history-has not disappeared.

In my opinion, it is not possible to formulate the Russian idea - the national idea of Russia - for a long time, for several reasons.

First of all, because this task is taken up by people with a cold mind, relying only on their own intelligence. The whole point is that " you can't understand Russia with your mind." The poet was not mistaken! I wasn't mistaken.

The national idea of Russia should first of all permeate the soul of the researcher. To do this, you don't need to be an academic-you just need to love Russia and wish it well. Those who call Russia "this country", even if they do not undertake an impossible task for themselves: they cannot comprehend the national idea. Only to those who are able to pronounce the words "Russia", "my, our Fatherland", "Motherland" with trepidation and emotional excitement, the national idea will be revealed. She's already in it. That's the first thing.

Secondly, the very epithet "Russian" becomes an insurmountable obstacle for intellectual researchers. Well, let's continue to use only the term "Russian" to speak the same language.

Let the concept of "Russian" as a national, state one become generally accepted. There will be less confusion. I would also like to stop lying when translating from a foreign language, because for foreign countries everything Russian is Russian: the mafia and science, rockets and roads, athletes and journalists, fools and smart people. Even if we are talking about the peculiarities of hunting or fishing. In order not to frighten the people that the national idea is the idea of the Russians: the Russians are coming!

All Russians would agree that the national idea of Russia is not an ethnic category, but a state one. It is remarkable because it unites all citizens, all the peoples of Russia. The idea of all ideas, it unites ethnic groups, social strata, religious and political associations of citizens. The rest of the interesting ideas are made up for the "electorate" - for fans of this or that demagogue.

Third, in the search for a national idea, they seek to find something new, special, worthy of our great changes. It's a good thing that no one thinks to look for a replacement for the North Star.

Fourth, they are looking for an idea that would be better than the European, American, Chinese, Japanese or any other national idea. Also, by the way, not ethnic, but state-owned.

Confusion, nervousness, omissions, and shamefaced distraction continue in any conversations about the Russian national idea.

Isn't that why our country has been living without a king in its head for a decade? Lives on lagging hours. And eminent researchers are still searching for a national idea, just as in other times alchemists were searching for the philosopher's stone; they write articles, argue on TV screens, publish one after another - one thicker than the other - colorful books, and do not find the right answer.

In my opinion, the greatness of Russia, its honor and dignity, the primacy of its interests over personal and corporate interests - this is the single and eternal national idea of our Fatherland. Outside of the national idea, there can be no citizen, party, social stratum, religious association and, of course, ethnic group. A citizen outside the national idea is an immigrant, a guest of the country, or a fugitive.

What can be higher than this? Only God. But It preserves Russia for all its peoples and individual citizens. He is always with us and within us, just like the country He preserves.

Let me digress for a moment: are you not surprised that at the critical time of the Great Patriotic War, Stalin repented before the church, removed its shackles? To whom did he want to make amends? A true miracle-the monument to the soldier-liberator in Treptow Park resembles the Virgin Mary with the Baby Christ in her arms! Even the Madonna of Raphael from the Dresden Gallery, but still the Virgin with the Eternal Child! This is who keeps Russia from destruction even now. It is characteristic that a monument in Volgograd that does not correspond to the idea - a woman with a sword-is inexorably being destroyed.

Did our ancestors have a different understanding of the national idea? St. Sergius of Radonezh and Dmitry Donskoy, Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky, Catherine II and Peter Bagration?.. I will deliberately not continue the series I started. I leave it to everyone to make their own conclusion, honestly name the representative of their ethnic group, their class, their party, who glorified Russia. It doesn't take much effort to do this.

It is easy to see that for all these people - regardless of their national, social or political differences - the greatness, honor and dignity of Russia, its national interests have always been the highest ideal of civil and spiritual service. That is why the national idea has not changed at all times, in all trials. That was why Russia was strong.

What did our ancestors and contemporaries give their lives for, suffer poverty and deprivation, develop their talent, and master space? At all times, under any system - for the greatness of Russia, for the greatness of the Fatherland. "My friend, let us devote our souls to the Motherland with beautiful impulses", "First think about the Motherland, and then about yourself" - all about this.

Famous director Nikita Mikhalkov, in an interview with the Trud newspaper, when asked by a correspondent: "Can your film contribute to the creation of our national idea?", began to talk about the shock he experienced at the Brazil - France football match and concluded: "When such victories - whether football or film - become a national pride and joy for us, we will be able to seriously think about what our national idea is. And if you go deeper... The answer should not be found in the question " how to live?". For Russia, there is a more important issue. More fundamental - " why live?" Here's where to look for an idea. As you can see, Nikita Sergeevich is not far from the truth. But it's not football and cinema that lead us to the national idea. It is life-giving, inspires the victory of the bearers of the idea.

The coat of arms, anthem, and flag are not only symbols, but also expressions of the national idea. We want them to be the best, to serve the greatness of Russia. This is our unspoken demand for them.

And if the national idea has not entered into the flesh and blood of the head of state, the minister, the military commander, the scientist, the diplomat, the writer, the worker and the peasant, the journalist and the capitalist, a group of crazed citizens appears, who in blind rage shout for them:

"Glory to Russia!"while raising his hand in an absurd Nazi salute. It is not those who express it who are responsible for the surge of extremism, but first of all those who generate it. It gives rise to its contempt for everything sacred that we have.

Yes, and good intentions pave the way to hell. For example, violent disputes around Sevastopol gather under the banner of those who are immediately put on trial as unreliable. Truly: what is allowed to a lion is not allowed to a dog.

Every citizen, regardless of their belonging to a particular ethnic group, a particular nationality, chooses the path of service to their Fatherland, civil or spiritual. Others serve both God and the Fatherland, their earthly personification - the tsar, the king, or an outstanding head of state. They went into battle for the faith, the tsar and the Fatherland, for the Motherland and for Stalin. The national idea, like God, is the same for every state. Over time, it will probably become planetary.

National idea is a moral or spiritual category. This is the ideal, the meaning of the life of the state and its society. It is the spiritual potential that remains an inexhaustible and saving resource for unclaimed Russia.

In what times, in what region was the word "patriot" abusive? Today, in our country, this is a label and a stigma. Who, then, cares about the greatness of Russia? President, scientist, journalist, military leader, farmer or worker? Athlete, composer, writer, director, doctor, businessman or banker? Russian, Tatar, Jew or "friend of the Kalmyk steppes"? Who is proud to live in Russia, and this pride has become the meaning of his life?

Recently, society has been intimidated by the increase in crime, drug addiction, prostitution and alcoholism. All this has already happened and will continue to happen for a long time to come. The only real concern is the ease with which young people leave the country. The ease with which ethnic leaders declare separation from Russia hurts the soul. The national idea of Russia has ceased to be mobilising and renewing. And this is a sure sign of the failure of the method, practice, and not the idea. The rise of extremism is also a sure sign that the country's national dignity is being degraded. Only recently has there been a growing hope that Russia will get out of the trap, both literally and figuratively.

Many of our citizens, for whom Russia is the meaning of their lives, the main source of strength and inspiration, inspire confidence in this. Not all of them are heard, not all are in demand in the turmoil of life. Listen to the scientist V. I. Skrypnik, delve into his harmonious two-pole system of management, look at the world, at Russia through his eyes, and many obstacles will be overcome today. After all, even today the country can meaningfully arrange its life, imbued with a common understanding of both its goal and its path. V. I. Skrypnik's work "The Russian national idea of an integral harmonious society", unlike other works on this problem, where only more questions are added and old ones are repeated, gives clear answers and reasonable suggestions.

Saving Russia is never a shame. "Do no harm!" - anyone who undertakes to save Russia should say to himself. The national idea calls not for the superiority of some over others, whether explicit or implicit, but for the acquisition of dignity and honor for everyone. After all, the Russian national idea begins to acquire its color, taste and smell when the content of greatness itself is revealed. For Russians, this is just as important as for Jews or Chechens, Chukchi and Khakass. The true greatness of a country or nation is achieved not by humiliating others, but by self-improvement. So that "molotkastyj, serpastyj", and now "orlastyj" aroused abroad not fear, but respect, sincere respect.

Ideas about the greatness of the country were different at different times, often erroneous, but since the beginning of perestroika, they apparently did not exist at all. They still try to pass off self-abasement as repentance. The good would also be personal, but then it's national-the glory of the country created by other generations and entire peoples. Stop shaming Russia, we've had enough of it. His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II was already outraged: "Have we really lost an elementary sense of patriotism? Why do we make our country a laughing stock for the whole world?"

The methods of implementing the national idea are always in the hands of leaders, parties, state authorities, and the richest citizens. If Russia is not lucky in anything, it is on "representatives of the interests of the people". They are chosen and imposed on the people by the restless intelligentsia, and now the "free" press together with its owners. The poet Yuri Kublanovsky expresses his opinion in the Trud newspaper of January 20 this year: "You rarely see political and journalistic programs on TV that protect the interests of Russia and Russians. As if our TV is not our own at all, but rather fulfills other people's strategic tasks."

Some of the media moguls are already traveling overseas to propose the candidacy of the next Russian president. He also needed to be brought back from there, as they had once brought him, in a sealed car. At the same time, they openly declare that they are only concerned about the fate of their own wallet: it is a pity to lose the fortune made in confusion. Everything else is on the side. About the Fatherland or nothing, or with contempt - "this country". Therefore, they no longer die on the battlefield or in a duel, not in space or on a construction site, but in the entrance of their own house... The people protest with their silent cry of the mysterious Russian soul. The greatness of Russia is still seen by many beyond the historical horizon. Before the President's New Year's speech, the very word "greatness" caught my eye only in a TV report from the GRU courtyard on the anniversary of the respected institution. There is a stele on which words about the greatness of the Fatherland are carved. At least somewhere else they live by the national idea.

Still, someone must teach Russians today, just as the great Saint Innocent of Moscow, the Apostle of America and Siberia, whose 120th anniversary we celebrated in April of this year, once taught them: To be useful to the Fatherland is one of the purest pleasures of the heart available on earth, and, perhaps, of the whole world. our existence!

The best-known historian N. M. Karamzin wrote:: "The best philosophy is the one that bases a person's position on his happiness. It will tell us that we must love the good of the fatherland; for our own is inseparable from it; that its enlightenment surrounds us with many pleasures in life; its glory is our glory; and if it is an insult to a man to be called the son of a despicable father, it is no less an insult to a man to be called the son This is what many Russian citizens thought and still think.

Note also that only those citizens who have served and are serving the greatness of Russia are called great. To them - monuments in the squares, to them - eternal glory and our eternal love. It happens that the best of them just do not put monuments - the same Saint Innocent. And the monument to N. Mikluha-Maklay is being built in faraway Australia, but not in his homeland...

So what is stopping us-believers and non-believers, Russians and Jews, Tatars and Kalmyks, democrats and communists - all citizens of the united Fatherland from building a mighty, free, rich, and happy Russia?

As people say, the solution to the development of Russia is in the field of collective and state responsibility of all state, social, national, religious, professional and other institutions, and the problem is not in the formation of an idea, but in the coordinated will of Russian society on the way to its implementation.