Dedicated to the memory of Alexei Vladimirovich Yablokov (1933-03-10 - 2017-10-01), an outstanding Russian scientist, patriot, politician, leader of the social environmental movement in Russia.
2017 marked the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Chelyabinsk State University by the expedition led by G. B. Zdanovich in the south of the Chelyabinsk region Arkaim - a settlement of the Bronze Age. This discovery became one of the archaeological sensations of the 20th century. Later, on the eastern slope of the Ural Mountains, 20 more settlements were discovered at a distance of 40-70 km from each other, which began to be called the Country of cities.
Gennady Borisovich Zdanovich (born 4.10.1938, Makhachkala) - Soviet and Russian archaeologist, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Deputy Director for Science of the Chelyabinsk State Historical and Cultural Reserve "Arkaim", Professor of the Department of History of Russia and Foreign Countries of the Chelyabinsk State University, founder of the Chelyabinsk Archaeological School. The author of the term "Country of Cities", by which he understands the proto-urban culture of the South Urals of the Bronze Age. Photo: Alexander Firsov / AiF.
In 2010, the first International Scientific Conference "Arkaim Readings" Horizons of Civilization "was held in Arkaim, dedicated to the current problems of civilizational development. The theme of the Seventh Arkaim Readings - "The development of space: history, geography, culture" made it possible for the participants to comprehend the results of previous conferences in different dimensions. The eighth Arkaim readings in 2017 were dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the discovery of Arkaim.
Space of the Arkaim Readings "Horizons of Civilization"
The conference was organized by the Chelyabinsk State University, the Chelyabinsk Branch of the Institute of Economics of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Chelyabinsk Branch of the Academy of Humanities (St. Petersburg) and the Historical and Cultural Reserve "Arkaim". Eight collections of materials by participants from more than 20 cities of Russia, as well as from the USA, Germany, France, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Romania, Israel were published. A total of 197 articles.
The conferences turned out to be scientific and practical: along with scientists, teachers of various educational institutions, public figures, entrepreneurs, journalists, engineers, military men, graduate students and university students took part in them. The diversity of the scientific community is also impressive: philologists, philosophers, archaeologists, historians, economists, ecologists, sociologists, culturologists, biologists, geographers, physicians, chemists, foresters, and lawyers. On the one hand, this made it possible to consider any problem from different points of view, on the other hand, it required a broad outlook and high professionalism from the participants.
Promotional video:
The constant presenter and soul of the Arkaim readings M. V. Zagidullina, Professor of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications of the Chelyabinsk State University, Doctor of Philology, together with the participants, was actively looking for relevant topics and an effective format to increase the effectiveness of the conference. At the First Readings, the participants were given the freedom to choose topics for their reports. As a result, the variety of topics: science, education, upbringing, family, health, immortality, traditions, religion, esotericism, morality, culture, literature, art, ecology, the media, the fate of Russia and all of humanity led mainly to the monologues of the speakers. Highly specialized topics and specific scientific terms were poorly understood by most of the participants. Limiting the number of previously announced topics brought the discussion format to the level of dialogues. As a result, everyone agreed that a comprehensive discussion of one topic, previously chosen by the participants themselves, is much more effective. The seventh Arkaim readings confirmed the correctness of this decision.
Over the years of the conference, two teams of permanent participants were identified: the Chelyabinsk State University, consisting mainly of humanitarians, and the Ural Ecological Union (Yekaterinburg), the basis of which were technicians with extensive experience in production, research, public, educational activities and implementing their own social environmental projects. The asset of the Ural Ecological Union is confident that the further existence of modern civilization is possible only on the basis of an ecological (noospheric, planetary, cosmic, universal) worldview, the purpose of which is to achieve harmony with people, society, nature and God the Creator. A contribution to the future of the Ural Ecological Union is environmental education and the formation of an environmentally friendly model of life in the Urals based on knowledge of the laws of nature, folk traditions and modern environmentally friendly technologies under the motto "Think globally, act locally."
For the first time, the third team, A. E., took part in the work of the Seventh Arkaim Readings. Sokolov and K. F. Gavrilov, leaders of the public organization "Navigation" (Yekaterinburg), who have extensive experience in organizing activity games (ODI) using the method of G. P. Shchedrovitsky - graduates of the Ural Polytechnic Institute (now the Ural Federal University), who immediately raised the question of the conference's effectiveness. The inclusion of ODI elements in the format of the Arkaim readings will allow reaching the level of the project of collective thinking and activity.
The informal atmosphere of the Readings, including, along with reports and their discussions, excursions, communication and friendly gatherings around the fire with a guitar, a limited number of participants (up to 30 people) made it possible to create conditions in which very different people learn to listen, hear, negotiate and interact with each other. As a result, the conference participants gained confidence that the creative potential of the Arkaim meetings contributes to the self-development of the individual and the process of harmonizing relations in modern society.
Arkaim. Reconstruction.
Space Country cities
The initiator of the Arkaim readings was G. B. Zdanovich, discoverer and keeper of Arkaim, Honorary Professor of Chelyabinsk State University, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Deputy Director for Research of the Arkaim Reserve. Gennady Borisovich introduced the conference participants to Arkaim, exhibits of the Museum of Nature and Man, historical, cultural and natural monuments of the Arkaim valley, other archaeological and natural objects of the Country of cities. The results of their research The countries of cities were presented by Chelyabinsk archaeologists, candidates of historical sciences D. G. Zdanovich, E. V. Kupriyanova, T. S. Malyutin; V. A. Novozhenov (Kazakhstan), candidate of cultural sciences I. P. Lobankova (Ufa) and Candidate of Historical Sciences A. G. Palkin (Orenburg).
Today it is generally recognized that almost four thousand years ago in the South Urals there was a highly developed and highly spiritual civilization built on the knowledge of the universal Universal Law, which is based on the understanding of the unity and interconnection of Man, Nature and Space. This determined the environmental friendliness of the life of the Arkaim people: their economic activity was built into the ecosystem, and did not destroy and rebuild it. The social model of Arkaim society can be characterized as an "ideal state", "noospheric society", "Earthly paradise", which people have dreamed of at all times.
Space of public opinion about Arkaim
Having gained worldwide fame, Arkaim has become a place of mass pilgrimage for tourists, psychics, esoteric clubs, spiritual movements, scientists, representatives of different nationalities and religious confessions interested in the history of the Urals, Russia and all mankind. People are looking for answers to the most intimate questions in their ancestral home, referring to the experience of their ancestors. How did they live, what did they believe, whom did they worship, what did they think about, what did they strive for? Many pretend to be modern teachers and educators; there are also enough answers to the questions asked. Whom to believe? For whom and where to go?
Vladimir Putin with Gennady Zdanovich, Director of the Arkaim Museum-Reserve, visiting an archaeological exposition, May 2005. Source: kremlin.ru
In 2005, V. V. Putin and D. A. Medvedev …
However, there are still many versions of what is Arkaim?
The famous Russian writer, screenwriter, culturologist, historian, local historian A. V. Ivanov (Perm) in his book "The Ridge of Russia" notes: "… But the most amazing meeting place in the Urals is in the Chelyabinsk steppes … The archaeologists named the found city Arkaim. And soon after its opening, other cities emerged from the ground, which received fantastic Kazakh names: Sintashta, Chekotay, Isinei, Bersuat, Zhurumbay. There are 21 cities in total. A country of cities … Arkaim is oriented by the stars. It looks like the Zodiac wheel lies in the Ural steppes. But where did it come from and where did it go then?"
One of the most influential spiritual leaders of our time, writer V. N. Megre believes that: “Arkaim is not a city or a temple. It is true about the observatory, but it is not at all the main one. Arkaim is the Academy, as you can call it today. Teachers of the Magi lived and worked in Arkaim. Here they were engaged in the study of the Universe, determined the relationship of cosmic bodies, their influence on a person ….
Arkaim. Reconstruction. Source: pochel.ru
At the Second Arkaim Readings, G. S. Cheurin, scientific director of the Center for Environmental Survival and Safety, organizer of the Siberian Way expedition, Honorary Polar Explorer (Yekaterinburg): “… It is known that Arkaim was abandoned in a planned and organized manner. Residents of the city not only took out all the necessary things, but also removed the garbage, after which they burned the empty city. Why they left is still the main mystery. According to Gennady Semyonovich, Arkaim was created as a compact, economical and environmentally friendly complex for the extraction and processing of raw materials, the manufacture, assembly and assembly of military transport units, that is, a full-cycle plant with a conveyor assembly of a unified final product - a war chariot. On which the Arkaim people set off on a long and dangerous journey to India and Iran. Today their descendants also inhabit Russia,and the entire Eurasian continent …
However, the settlement was built with knowledge of the laws of astronomy, geography, geophysics and geodesy and carried the functions of a temple and an observatory. Arkaim was built on a "temple" site with a special energy. The ancient masters did all the work with prayer. And knowledge of astronomy was needed for future charioteers to master navigational skills …
This version seems to be the most reasonable and convincing today.
The importance of Arkaim for world civilization is highly appreciated by the writer A. A. Prokhanov, active public figure, President of the Izborsk club, editor of the newspaper "Zavtra". In September 2016, at a meeting of the Ural branch of the Izborsk club in Yekaterinburg on the topic: "Ural on earth and Ural in heaven" Alexander Andreevich highlighted the main thing: "… I think that here, in the Urals, a new word of our Russian life - both political and spiritual, will sound, and ideological. It is important to consolidate people who are very complex, self-fulfilling and significant. So that they feel the importance of community, partnership, for them to write works and exchange ideas. " Arkaim became the source of numerous images in literature, art, and cinema.
At the Eighth Arkaim Readings M. V. Zagidullina made a presentation on the "potential for popularity" of Arkaim in the Internet community in comparison with Stonehenge - a well-known and in the categories of popularity "promoted" archaeological site. As it turned out, the Russian-language request "Arkaim" was the winner, ahead of "Stonehenge" in the total number of requests.
Arkaim bronze swords. Source: pochel.ru
Space of the theme of the Arkaim readings - "Horizons of civilization"
The systemic crisis of modern civilization is obvious to everyone today. During the discussion of this topic at the Arkaim readings, it became clear: in order to find a solution to this problem, it is necessary to take a fresh look at the current situation. As Albert Einstein said: "Modern problems cannot be solved if we think in the same way as we thought when we created them."
If we consider the process of the development of the Earth by man in modern history, then the stages and scales of development can be represented as the process of human maturation. The key concepts in this case are worldview, spiritual and moral qualities of a person, urbanization, globalization and tradition.
Worldview - as a person's awareness of himself, the meaning and purpose of his life, his role and place in society. Here we can distinguish three stages, which we will conditionally designate as natural-mythological, religious-mythological and technogenic-materialistic worldview.
At the stage of the natural-mythological worldview, people believed that the world around was created by the Higher (Divine) forces. There are three worlds: lower, middle and upper. The middle one is the world of people and nature, the upper one is the world of the light Gods, the lower one is the dark world of evil Spirits. According to the criteria of good and evil, a person, depending on his actions, at the end of his life, could enter both the light world of the Gods and the dark world. People lived in a community and their worldview was one. Nature was recognized as the source of life, so the attitude towards it was reverent. There was a cult of worshiping Nature, man lived according to the principles: “don't take too much”, “know the measure”, “don't harm”, “think about others”, “think about descendants”. This worldview is still preserved by the indigenous northern peoples, relict peoples of South America, Australia, New Zealand, and the countries of Southeast Asia. In the modern world, these people live according to the laws of Nature.
All traditional religions preach that the world and man were created by God, call for good and represent the surrounding world in the form of three worlds.
The forerunner of all religions of Spitama Zarathustra approved the moral code: “Good thought. Good word. Good deeds. According to the canons of Orthodoxy, the meaning of a person's life is “the acquisition of the spirit of the holy man of God”, the construction of the “earthly paradise” and salvation in the “heavenly paradise”. Unrighteous people who violate the laws of God risk falling into the dark world - into Hell.
However, in different religions, the attitude towards Nature is interpreted in different ways.
Religions are a spiritual school for a person striving for the Light, offering their options on the path to the one God.
The historical process of man's conquest of the Earth today has reached a global level. As the population grew and the territories of influence expanded, different civilizations existing earlier on the local territories of the planet collided in conflicts of interest and found themselves in a global systemic crisis that threatens the existence of all mankind.
Until now, the process of expansion of the occupied territory of local civilizations took place on the basis of the dominance of racial, national, religious, ideological, political and economic interests.
About 400 years ago, with the beginning of the industrial revolution, the formation of a technogenic materialistic worldview began. It can also be called urbanistic, consumer, nature-destructive. People invented machines and began to remake nature for themselves.
This worldview believes that man descended from a monkey, rejects the existence of the soul, spirit, afterlife and God - the Creator of everything. It does not answer questions about the meaning and purpose of human and human life. This worldview sets the goal of human life to achieve personal success, the maximum level of consumption and comfort at any cost, without taking into account the negative consequences for nature, society and humanity as a whole. Life "Without God in the soul, without the King in the head."
The modern world is aggressively globalizing under the banner of a technogenic materialistic worldview. The popular song of the "Earthlings" group contains the following words: "We are children of the Galaxy, but - most importantly, we are your children, dear Earth!" Indeed, people behave like unreasonable children. In the XX century, the most sophisticated types of weapons of mass destruction were invented, two world wars were unleashed with innumerable casualties, massive destruction and colossal damage to Nature.
Megalopolises have become the centers of the spread of the technogenic materialist worldview. At the beginning of the 20th century, about 10% of the population lived in cities in Russia. The basis of the traditional centuries-old way of life, which formed a person, was the family (large, multi-core), community, traditional culture and faith (each nation has its own). Today in Russia more than 73% of the population lives in cities. Torn away from their native nature, history, culture and tradition, people lose their roots and the meaning of life, and turn into soulless consumers. No wonder they say that peoples are born in the countryside and die in the city.
Another genius Russian writer N. V. Gogol, in his rough notes to the first volume of Dead Souls, outlined a symbolic image of the city. “The idea of the city. Void that has arisen to the highest degree. Empty talk. Gossip that has gone beyond the limits of how it all arose from idleness and took on the expression of the highest ridiculous. And further: “How emptiness and powerless idleness of life are replaced by a murky death that says nothing. Do not touch. Death strikes an unmoved world. Meanwhile, the dead insensibility of life must appear to the reader even more strongly. And as a result: "The whole city with all the whirlwind of gossip is the transformation of the inactivity of the life of all mankind in the mass." This was said in the 19th century. Today megalopolises have become centers of attraction for hundreds of millions of people. It is planned that by 2025 more than 70% of the world's inhabitants will live in megalopolises …
In the modern world, less than 10% of the richest people own more than 80% of the total gross product of humanity. Up to 80% of this total product is spent on preparing for war, and then on eliminating its consequences. At the same time, humanity spends only 4-7% of the natural resources used for the most basic necessities of life (food, clothing, housing, etc.).
This is the kind of "civilization" built by people on Earth. It is difficult to call her intelligent, although the person calls himself "Homo sapiens".
It's time for humanity to grow up and take responsibility for their own destiny and Mother Earth. Independent scientists and experts, all reasonable people are sure that the further existence of mankind is possible only on the basis of an ecological worldview.
An alternative option for the development of civilization on the basis of an ecological worldview is the teaching of an outstanding Russian scientist and thinker, academician V. I. Vernadsky about the noosphere, the "sphere of reason", in which the measure of national and individual wealth is the spiritual values and knowledge of a Man living in harmony with the surrounding world … Vladimir Ivanovich was a deeply religious person …
To the 150th anniversary of the birth of V. I. Vernadsky in 2013, the Fourth Arkaim Readings were dedicated.
The participants in the Arkaim readings made their significant contribution to the study of civilizational topics. First of all, this is a participant in all Readings V. V. Moskovkin, head of the ethno-ecological expedition "Bylina" (Yekaterinburg), author of the fundamental work "Ecumenical Domostroy", in which he outlined his version of the structure of the universe, the meaning and purpose of Human life on Earth: "… the World of Nature, the World of Humanity and the Upper World are the great trinity of the world of God, nourishing and nourishing, serving and giving meaning to the ministry to all living, carrying "I live" in his body.
This trinity since ancient times was called by the great thinkers of the world of people such a concept as "Earth - Man - Space". In this trinity, Man is a connecting link, without which the existence of both the Earth and the Cosmos is meaningless. Having matured spiritually and having passed into the Upper World from the world of the Dolny, Man will acquire a new trinity. He will leave the material (maternal) world and find the spiritual world, but will always keep his love for Mother - Earth and newly born humanity."
Studying the history and centuries-old experience of different peoples, V. V. Moskovkin came to the conclusion that tradition knows everything and answers all questions. And modern problems have arisen because we have lost our traditions, our common goal and lost our way. “… The fate of Russia is the construction of the“Earthly Paradise”by our people. In a modern way it can sound something like this: “Creation of a perfect state and society on the territory of Russia and planet Earth, where every person would have favorable conditions for spiritual growth to the level of cosmic (noospheric) thinking.
The bottom line is that a person, nations, cultures have the same goal. And this goal can be called a common human destiny, for the achievement of which humanity can unite. This is a unified field in which the world can become global”.
"Universal Domostroy" V. V. Moskovkina supplements and develops the teachings of V. I. Vernadsky about the noospheric civilization, defining the importance of Russia in its construction on the basis of folk tradition. At the Eighth Arkaim Readings V. V. Moskovkin in his report "The beginnings of the path and horizons of the Eurasian civilization" outlined his version that the Arkaim people left in different directions, including the Russian Plain, and are the progenitors of the peoples of the Eurasian civilization, including the Slavs.
The most famous Ural traveler, writer, publisher, ethnographer and photographer N. A. Rundqvist (Yekaterinburg), during his numerous expeditions, explored the space of different countries and regions. But best of all he studied his native Urals. At the Arkaim readings, Nikolai Antonovich presented an illustrated encyclopedia of local lore of the Urals and a book of essays "Terrible secrets of the Urals". According to Professor V. G. Kapustin, Dean of the Faculty of Geography and Biology, Ural State Pedagogical University "… it should be noted that none of the geographic regions of the Russian Federation has such a detailed encyclopedic publication."
The results of the expedition "In harmony with nature" across the Urals, which the Ural Ecological Union has been conducting since 2006, were also discussed at the Readings. The organizing committee of the expedition is headed by famous scientists: N. B. Prokhorova, President of the Ural Ecological Union, Director of the Russian Research Institute for the Integrated Use and Protection of Water Resources, Professor, Doctor of Economics, Honored Ecologist of the Russian Federation and Academician V. N. Bolshakov, Advisor to RAS, Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of RAS; expedition leader - G. V. Rashchupkin, executive director of the Ural Ecological Union, candidate of chemical sciences; press secretary - O. A. Podosyonova, UES Program Coordinator. The purpose of the expedition is to search for examples of environmentally friendly life (non-destructive nature management) in the Urals based on knowledge of the laws of nature,folk traditions and modern environmentally friendly technologies.
The socio-economic aspects of civilizational topics are discussed in the reports of V. N. Belkin, Director of the Chelyabinsk Branch of the Institute of Economics of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor, Doctor of Economics and employees of the Institute of Economics of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Economics E. L. Andreeva and Doctor of Historical Sciences V. L. Bersenev.
The noospheric vector of education development was introduced to the conference participants M. N. Dudina, professor, doctor of pedagogical sciences, G. P. Sikorskaya, professor, doctor of pedagogical sciences and I. S. Ogonovskaya, associate professor, candidate of historical sciences (all - Yekaterinburg).
Experts on the Internet virtual space were teachers of Chelyabinsk universities, candidates of philological sciences A. A. Morozova, A. A. Selyutin and V. V. Fedorov.
Among the researchers of the topic of traditional folk culture, the works of E. T. Karpusheva, director of the Logos Center (Severouralsk), T. V. Savelyeva, candidate of philological sciences (Miass) and G. S. Cheurina.
An indispensable component of the Arkaim readings were informative and fascinating reports on literary topics by S. M. Shakirov, head of the department of philology of the Miass branch of the Chelyabinsk State University, candidate of philological sciences.
Arkaim Museum. Source: pochel.ru
Space of the future
The future is being created today. What it will be depends on us …
Writer and traveler Yu. G. Bril (Yekaterinburg), a native of the land of the Country of Cities, believes that Arkaim will save the world: “… The Arkaim people were mystical people, for them prophecies and signs meant a lot. They left, but their civilization is open today, and it is vital to us, because it becomes our modernity, our future, it returns to us, pours in fresh energy, renewing our exhausted civilization, poisoned by industrial waste, corroded by greed …"
G. S. Cheurin develops this idea: “… Arkaim and the Country of Cities are just in time, at the turn of the second and third millenniums, a monument of an industrial, high-tech (and at the same time highly spiritual in relation to the surrounding world) culture of an ancient inland civilization of the“northern”type, which laid the foundation for the peaceful development of mankind in the twenty-first century four thousand years ago”.
Arkaimets. Source: zoroastrian.ru
“Civilizational” people of Arkaim believe in a bright (noospheric) future, when humanity realizes itself as a part of the Universal Mind. And in the year of the 30th anniversary of the discovery of Arkaim, they continue to carry out their educational project to form an environmentally friendly (northern, Arkaim, noospheric) model of life in the Urals.
Author: G. V. Rashchupkin, executive director of the Ural Ecological Union, head of the expedition "In harmony with nature", candidate of chemical sciences.
