COMMON HISTORICAL ROOTS
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And they spoke Russian, of course. Eventually Novgorod was destroyed
by Ivan the Terrible, and its people joined the Moscow kingdom or
czardom, Moscow-Russia. In the following centuries, it no longer ex–
isted as an independent entity. In 1950, the treasures of that very Nov–
gorod were excavated and brought back to the world. The letters and
boots of Novgorod were well preserved. Yet it was discovered that from
somewhere around the twelfth century on, there were no letters, scraps
of books, or leather boots . There were only primitive materials, such as
bark shoes that would have lasted three or four days and then would
have had to be replaced. The people had forgotten how to read and
write, how to make books and leather boots. They had lost their inde–
pendence and been returned
to
the mainstream of Russian statehood and
the Russian language.
While studying everything the people of Novgorod had written, the
scholars of the excavation concluded that the Novgorod dialect could be
designated a special Slavic language. It had enough crucial, basic features
to qualify as such. The same thing is true for any Slavic language; they all
come from the same root. The same thing, for example, happened with
the Ukrainian or Belorussian languages - and no language is better than
another one. They are all equal. Cultures, in contrast, are not equal; they
create more than others or less than others. Noone is responsible for
that except history, life, events, God, and other forces which interfere in
our lives.
You cannot look back and see which was the "right path" and
which the "wrong path" or perceive who chose the right or the wrong.
This is a fantasy . What happened happened, and there is no way to find
out who is right and who is wrong in history. The problem that it is
possible to solve, right now, for each person, is who he is, where he be–
longs, where he wants to belong, and what it means to "belong." It is
possible for some nations to solve this problem, but not for the Russians.
They have no way to solve this, simply because they are too diverse.
There are many Russians, and they live in a large place. The Russians
right now have to deal with this dilemma : when a nation expels
foreigners or resists letting them in, it is labeled "nationalism." When a
nation tries to keep foreigners within its borders, it is labeled
"imperialism." There is no third idea that somehow could reconcile these
two.
Some balance of different races does sort of exist in America, yet
America , of course, is labeled an imperialistic power by those who are
not admitted and given green cards. So it is just a matter of perspective.
If Russia were as rich as America and were to allow people from other
countries in to share its wealth, Russia would not be called an
imperialistic state, and people would be happy to come to Russia and
