Injunction of the XXVth World Russian People's Council
Translation of a recently-published document
The title of this entry is a translation of the title of a document produced by the World Russian People’s Council in November of 2023 but that was officially published in March of 2024.
There follows in this entry a translation from Russian into English of a document recently cited in a Newsweek article,1 a document that contains the phrase “holy war” in relation to the military conflict currently underway in Ukraine.2 The author of the Newsweek article seeks, in excising that phrase from the document and trumpeting it in the western press, to malign Patriarch Kirill, who presides over the World Russian People’s Council and who may well, prior to his elevation to the Patriarchal Throne, have been one of the organization’s founders. We thought it important that the full content of the document become available to westerners, thus the translation provided below.
As will be evident, only a very limited portion of the document addresses the conflict in Ukraine. So, despite the impression one might get from the Newsweek article, the bulk of the document is preoccupied with domestic issues impacting life within the borders of Russia and former Soviet republics and with policy proposals aimed at addressing them, the current conflict being directly referenced only in the first two (of about 45) paragraphs.
The World Russian People’s council, it should be stated at the outset, was founded in 1993 in the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Its mandate was to ensure that all who identify with Russian language and culture but that who, due to the dissolution of the political system that had formerly represented them now found themselves outside the bounds of the former motherland, could nonetheless remain united with one another and with their compatriots in the homeland and participate in the common cause of promoting their homeland and its—and thus their—interests.
Our translation of the document follows (seemingly repetitious lines at the beginning are present in the original document).
Injunction of the XXVth World Russian People's Council "The PRESENT AND FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN WORLD"
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March 27, 2024. During the council session, which took place on March 27, 2024 in the Hall of Church Councils in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, chaired by the Head of the WRPC His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, the Injunction of the XXV World Russian People's Council “The PRESENT AND FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN WORLD” was approved (Moscow, 27-28 November 2023).
Injunction of the XXVth World Russian People's Council
“The PRESENT AND FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN WORLD” (Moscow, November 27-28, 2023)
The present document, summarizing the most significant proposals put forward within the framework of the work of area experts and during the Plenary meeting, is a program document of the XXVth World Russian People's Council, as well as an injunction addressed to the legislative and executive powers of Russia.
1. Special military operation
The special military operation is a new stage in the national liberation struggle of the Russian people against the criminal Kiev regime and the collective West behind it, which has been going on in the lands of South-Western Rus' since 2014. During the SMO Russian people, weapons in hand, defend their life, freedom, statehood, civilizational, religious, national and cultural identity, as well as their right to live on their own land within the borders of a unified Russian state. From a spiritual and moral point of view, the special military operation is a Sacred War in which Russia and its people, defending the unified spiritual space of Holy Rus', carry out the mission of “deterrence,” protecting the world from the onslaught of globalism and the victory of the West, which has fallen into Satanism.
After the completion of the SMO, the entire territory of current Ukraine should enter the zone of the exclusive influence of Russia. The possibility of the existence in this territory of a Russophobic political regime hostile to Russia and its people, as well as a political regime governed from an external center hostile to Russia, must be completely excluded.
2. The Russian World
Russia is the creator, supporter and defender of the Russian world. The borders of the Russian World as a spiritual, cultural and civilizational phenomenon are significantly wider than the state borders of both the present Russian Federation and greater historical Russia. Along with those representatives scattered throughout the whole world of the Russian ecumene, the Russian world includes everyone for whom Russian tradition, the treasures of Russian civilization and grand Russian culture are the highest value and meaning of life.
The highest meaning of the existence of Russia and the Russian world it created - their spiritual mission - is to be a global “deterrent”, protecting the world from evil. The historical mission is, to time after time defeat attempts to establish universal hegemony in the world - attempts to subjugate humanity into a unitary evil whole.
The building of a thousand-year-old Russian statehood is the highest form of political creativity of Russians as a nation. Separation and weakening of the Russian people, the deprivation of their spiritual and vital forces, has always led to the weakening and crisis of the Russian state. That's why the restoration of the unity of the Russian people, as well as their spiritual and life potential are the key conditions for the survival and successful development of Russia and the Russian world in the XXI century.
The family is the basis of Russian national life and the internal stronghold of the traditions of the Russian world. This is the most stable, conservative institution of society, responsible for the transmission from generation to generation of basic ideas about the world and man, for instilling the most important social skills and roles (man and woman, father and mother, citizen, etc.), for the preservation and transmission of a civilizational worldview, a national idea, as well as traditional spiritual and moral values. Being the most important school for the formation of a personality, the family not only helps a man to understand the world around him, but also teaches him love, kindness, and compassion, giving the most important moral ideas and orientations.
3. Foreign policy
Russia must become one of the leading centers of the multipolar world, leading integration processes and ensuring security and stable development throughout all the post-Soviet space. Being the geopolitical center of Eurasia, located at the intersection of the global axes West/East and North/South, Russia must regulate the balance of strategic interests and act as a stronghold of security and a just world order in the new multipolar world. The reunification of the Russian people should become one of the priorities of Russian foreign policy. Russia should return to the doctrine of the triad of the Russian people that has existed for more than three centuries, according to which the Russian people consist of Great Russians, Little Russians and Belarusians, who are branches (ethnic groups) of one people, and the concept “Russian” includes all Eastern Slavs - the descendants of historical Rus'. In addition to its recognition and development in domestic political science, the doctrine of the triad should receive legislative codification, becoming an integral part of the Russian legal system. The triad should be included in the regulatory list of Russian spiritual and moral values and receive appropriate legal protection.
Russia must become a refuge state for all compatriots of the world suffering from the onset of Western globalism, wars and discrimination. In addition to our compatriots, our country can become a refuge for millions of foreigners who defend traditional values, who are loyal to Russia and are prepared for linguistic and cultural integration into our country.
4. Family and demographic policy
The main threat to the existence and development of Russia is the demographic catastrophe our country is experiencing. To survive in the XXIst century, to preserve sovereignty and its own civilizational identity, Russia needs sustainable, and most importantly, intensive natural population growth. Solving this problem is impossible without reviving in Russia the traditional large family, as well as traditional family values.
A strong large family, its protection and provision of well-being, an increase in the birth rate and the fight against abortion should be placed at the center of all governmental policies. The family and the provision of its well-being must be recognized as the main national goal of development, as well as a strategic national priority of the Russian Federation. Corresponding amendments must be made to key documents of the strategic planning of the Russian Federation.
A set of measures should be developed and implemented to encourage married couples to have a third and subsequent child. One of such measures may include the introduction of a partial or complete write-off of mortgage debt depending on the birth of another child in the family (for example, after the birth of the third child, 50% of the debt is written off, of the fourth - 75%, after the birth of the fifth - the mortgage debt is forgiven in full).
It is necessary to introduce a set of measures to encourage employers to hire parents with many children, especially fathers with many children. One of such measures could be the introduction of benefits for employers to pay insurance premiums levied on payments and other remuneration in favor of employees who are parents of many children.
It is necessary to develop and adopt a new concept of demographic policies for the Russian Federation, in which key demographic indicators must be radically revised. Armed with the statement of the great Russian scientist D.I. Mendeleev that “the highest goal of policy is most clearly expressed by developing conditions for human reproduction,” the state must set before itself a long-term strategic goal - over a hundred years of sustainable demographic growth, to bring the population of Russia to the Mendeleev's predicted 600 million people (by the year 2000).
The state must take comprehensive measures to protect the family and family values from the propaganda of abortion, sexual promiscuity and debauchery, as well as sodomy and various sexual perversions. The traditional Russian mores of chastity and virtue must return to Russian society. The entire national culture, especially mass culture, should work to create in the society a cult of the family, of many children, of marital fidelity, of responsible parenthood, as well as the attractiveness of family life. Preparing to start a family and family life should be the goal of school education. The moral foundations of family life (family sustainment) should be included in list of compulsory school subjects.
The attitude of Russian society towards abortion must be radically changed. Since ancient times, the Church has considered intentional termination of pregnancy (abortion) a grave sin. Canonical rules equate abortion to murder. Justification for intentional interruption of pregnancy, leading to a real epidemic of abortions, must be stopped. Amendments to the federal legislation prohibiting propaganda and inducement to abortion in the absence of contravening medical or societal indications must be developed and adopted. Administrative and criminal liability should be introduced for the commission of these acts. In addition, it is necessary to, by law, prohibit the provision of abortions by non-governmental medical organizations by amending the Federal Law “On Licensing of certain types of activities" dated 05/04/2011 No. 99-FZ, the Federal Law “On the fundamentals of protecting the health of citizens in the Russian Federation” dated 11/21/2011 No. 323-FZ, as well as other regulatory legal acts providing the introduction of a ban on artificial interruptions of pregnancy by medical organizations not included in the governmental and municipal health care system.
In order to systematize, as well as to put into practice numerous proposals in the field of demography, it is necessary to develop a set of scientifically based measures of demographic and pronatalist policy, the application of which in practice will lead to a real increase in the number of large families, as well as an increase in the birth rate - an increase in the total fertility rate (TFR). In order to check the effectiveness of the proposed measures, as well as to develop their optimal combination, testing of the developed demographic and pronatalist measures should be carried out on the territories of various regions of the Russian Federation in the form of pilot projects. After which the practices that have proven to be effective should be scaled up across the entire territory of the Russian Federation, with amendments made to relevant strategic planning documents, as well as regulatory legal acts at the federal and regional levels.
5. Migration policy
Effective demographic policy is impossible without a new migration policy.
The uncontrolled massive influx of foreign labor leads to lowering of the wages for the indigenous population and their subsequent replacement by migrants in entire sectors of the domestic economy. A massive influx of migrants who do not speak Russian and do not have proper ideas about Russian history and culture, and are therefore incapable of integration into Russian society, changes the face of the Russian cities, which leads to the deformation of the country’s unified legal, cultural and linguistic space. In the largest cities there appear and actively develop closed ethnic enclaves, which are breeding grounds for corruption, organized ethnic crime and illegal migration. Existing according to their own rules, they serve as a breeding ground for extremism and terrorism and are also the source of enormous tension in society.
Russia needs under these conditions:
* to amend the current Concept of Migration Policy of the Russian Federation for 2019-2025, as well as to implement the above amendments to Russian migration legislation;
* to develop and adopt of a new edition of the “migration code” (draft of the Federal Law “On conditions of entering (exiting) and stay (residence) in the Russian Federation of foreign persons and persons without citizenship");
* to adopt amendments that significantly strengthen criminal and administrative liability for crimes and offenses in areas of external migration;
* to improve legislation regulating the issues of citizenship of the Russian Federation, as well as the protection of the rights and legitimate interests of the citizens.
The strategic planning documents listed above, as well as federal laws, should be developed on the basis of new conceptual approaches that correspond to new conditions, as well as challenges and threats that Russia will face in the coming years in connection with the rapidly changing military-political and geo-economic situation in the world.
The main priorities of the new migration policy of the Russian Federation should be:
1. Protection of Russian families, their socio-economic rights and interests. Creation of conditions that guarantee employment of citizens of the Russian Federation, as well as a high level of income for Russian families;
2. Protection of Russian civilizational identity, the unity of the legal, cultural and linguistic space of the country. Protection of rights and legal interests of the Russian and other indigenous peoples of Russia;
3. Protection of the domestic labor market, ensuring scientific and technological development of the Russian economy, growth of labor productivity;
4. Implementation of effective state control, as well as planning and management of external migration flows;
5. Creation of conditions conducive to the mass repatriation of compatriots to Russia, as well as the relocation of foreign highly qualified specialists, scientists, investors and members of their families, loyal to Russia and ready for linguistic and cultural integration;
6. Significant restriction of the influx into the Russian Federation of alien cultural, low-skilled foreign labor. Introduction of the principle of maximum legal and economic responsibility of the employer for the attraction of foreign workers of alien cultures;
7. Ensuring anti-terrorist security, combating illegal migration, as well as ethnic crime.
6. Education and upbringing
The assimilation of ideological concepts and spiritual and moral values of Russian civilization is the most important aspect in the nationalization of modern Russian elites, as well as in the education of future generations of Russian citizens. Solving this problem requires the sovereignty of the national education system.
Domestic educational programs, as well as the programs of formation, must be rid of those destructive ideological concepts and attitudes alien to the Russian people and destructive for Russian society, primarily Western ones. New socio-humanitarian paradigm must be developed and implemented in domestic teaching of social and humanitarian disciplines based on Russian civilizational identity and traditional Russian spiritual and moral values.
Solving the problem of building a new socio-humanitarian paradigm involves:
* critical revision of Western scientific theories and schools (primarily in the field of social and humanitarian studies) regarding their compliance with the sovereign Russian worldview, usefulness or destructiveness for strengthening national self-awareness;
* conducting an audit of the body of humanitarian knowledge, generally accepted theories and concepts based on their correlation with the system of worldview ideas and moral values of the Russian civilization;
* restructuring of methodological systems, standards and assessments without regard to international (and in fact, imposed by the West) criteria and models;
* reforming the domestic education system to bring it into line with the basic parameters of the sovereign Russian worldview.
In order to implement the Fundamentals of State Policy for the preservation and strengthening of traditional Russian spiritual and moral values, approved by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 11.09.2022 No. 809, in the field of education, it is necessary to develop and adopt a package of regulatory legal documents and methodological materials that specify and clarify the key provisions of Decree No. 809 in relation to domestic secondary and higher schools.
7. Spatial and urban development
Ensuring a significant increase in the birth rate requires a spatial transformation of Russia - a fundamental change in the policy of spatial and urban development.
In practice this should mean:
* refusal of development priority to large and largest urban agglomerations, mass construction of multi-apartment residential buildings, as well as overconcentration of labor resources and productive forces in megacities;
* transition to the Russian traditional uniform distribution of the population and productive forces throughout the territory of the country through mass relocation of city residents to comfortable suburban settlements, into individual residential buildings;
* a change in the priorities of the development of the domestic construction industry in favor of mass individual construction carried out in an industrial way, which in 10-15 years should occupy at least 70-80% of the total housing being built in the country.
Solving these problems requires the urgent development and adoption of new editions of the Fundamentals of State Policy for Regional development, Spatial Development Strategy, as well as amendments to the current version of the Construction Industry Development Strategy and housing and communal services.
As the main goal of the new state policy of regional development, spatial and urban development policy, as well as the development of the construction industry, should be secured to ensure sustainable natural growth of the Russian population, achieved through high birth rates (the demographic principle). The main criterion for assessing effectiveness in the above areas of public administration should be based on changes in the total fertility rate (TFR).
The primacy of the demographic principle suggests that in the new edition of the Fundamentals of State Policy for Regional Development, as well as the spatial development strategy the priority of state interests aimed at ensuring the well-being of families and birth rate growth will be upheld over the interests of Russian natural monopolies when deciding on the distribution of production forces across the territory of the country. From the territory of sixteen megacities and vast depopulated spaces, by 2050 Russia should turn into an evenly populated and equipped low-rise country of 1000 revived medium and small cities - in Gardariki settlements of the XXI century. Suburban villages should become the main type of settlement in the country, 80% of the Russian population (or more than 30 million Russian families) should live in their own individual houses on their own land. When settling and developing territories, priority attention should be paid to issues of safety, employment, real income level, favorable environment, healthy nutrition, comfortable housing, accessibility of high technologies, as well as informational, social and transport infrastructure. Life on your own land, in ecologically favorable and comfortable conditions, in your own comfortable home, in which you can start a family, give birth and raise three or more children, should become a visible embodiment of the idea of the Russian world.
8. Economic development
Russia needs a sovereign and efficient economy based on full control over its own monetary and financial system, as well as on the accelerated development of industries, technologies and production of the new (sixth) technological structure.
The main goals of the domestic economy should be to increase the real well-being of Russian families, an increase in the number of jobs, ensuring an increase in the birth rate, settling and developing vast Russian spaces, ensuring the sovereignty and defense capability of the country, as well as the competitiveness of Russian technologies, goods and services in the domestic and foreign markets.
To formulate the proposals aimed at achieving the above goals, the Social and Economic Committee of the WRPC has developed the program for advanced socio-economic development of Russia “Social justice and economic growth”.
Diakoniya.ru/Patriarhiya.ru
Original Russian document at https://vrns.ru/news/nakaz-xxv-vsemirnogo-russkogo-narodnogo-sobora-nastoyashchee-i-budushchee-russkogo-mira/
A related document that touches on the views of the Russian Orthodox Church regarding the conduct of war, can be found at The Basis of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church (https://old.mospat.ru/en/documents/social-concepts/viii/)
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-war-holy-1884577
We have rendered "Священная война" in our translation of the actual document as "sacred war" rather than Newsweek’s/Google translate’s "holy war" to highlight the likely intent of this document's creators to reference the traditional Christian ethical stance related to governments representing a Christian populace engaging in military activity, in this case alluding to its applicability to the conflict in Ukraine. This tradition, often termed in the West "just war theory," stretches back in Christian circles at least as far as the time of Augustine of Hippo (see his monumental work The City of God). I plan to offer a more extensive discussion of this matter in a future post.