Prologue

ARE SLAVS ACTUALLY LITERATE?
Being Yourself

In the ancient times, a young disciple from Ephesus came to a skete in the hills above the city and, with an almost extinguished look in his eyes, addressed the old teacher.
”Down in the city”, he said, ”everything is seized by a sinister dark vortex. Maddening turmoil and ultimate immorality are growing, money and wild passions are ruling, they are mocking sanctities and the secret of blood, everything is tainted and insane. It became unbearable. The city is rushing into certain disaster. What should we do, wise teacher?”
The old man was pulling his fingers through his beard like a rosary, watching him peacefully and deeply, and said:
”Remain motionless. Be yourself steadily. Cherish your garden, your home peacefully. Be an example, be the path.”
This is how the duties of the Slavic world, especially Russia, the only empire in that world, could be described today, at this epochal crossroad. Historical and metahistorical duty.
Preserving your identity, name, origin. Being yourself. Not giving up on yourself, not sinking into impersonality and imitation, not becoming a pale and meaningless copy. Showing the world, with your own example, that there is a better way and that genuine values exist. Not letting anyone forget: the history of salvation is in progress. Testify about it.
Of course, in order to do that, it is necessary to preserve our homelands, environments, resources and economies, nations and families, children and freedom. A precondition for anything worthy and great is that the Slavs again become aware of themselves as a whole.
We have reminded of this recently, at this year’s ”Days of Slavic Literacy” in Ruma. I believe we understood each other. If we really are literate – historically, culturally, ideologically, geopolitically, literally. If literacy is still within Slavs.
This edition before you is just another reminder.