When people take part in a great program, they have
to believe in the possibility of realization of their ideas.
Very few of us can do something without the feeling
that it can be done and done good. So, I want to say several words
on the possibility of building  the Open society in Russia.

        I hope, that we understand, that the idea is not just to
spend some money for education and science here in Russia, but to 
start a process, that will be going for a long time with the main aim
to build a society with a different kind of mentalitet, different
kind of relations. For me it was important to answer to myself
if it is possible.

        Can we call such an attempt reasonable? For me the first answer
was: it is very good, but impossible. We can hardly find a period in the
history of Russia, when there was a society with a glance of openness.
Opposite examples are numerous. No one can grow bananas in the Moscow
region, it is not reasonable, they never grew here because it is too cold.
Gentle plants, which need warm weather can't grow at the
latitude of 56 degrees. Does the Open society look like such a plant? 
I think it looks like a man, and at the beginning as a child.
Everyone knows, that human childs a very different from the babies of wild
animals. The last ones can defend themselves when they are only several
weeks or months old. A human child is a powerless baby till 7-8 years
(sometimes longer, sometimes a little bit shorter). And we have to take care 
of it. 

        The future life of the child depends not only on his parents,
but also on the people around him. Can we find in the way of thinking
in Russia something that can help this child to grow up? Even if we
can't find long happy periods in the history, but can find ideas, which
were original for Russia and the whole world, which were created by 
Russian philosophers, we can say that we can try to build the Open Society,
because Russian way of thinking has something in common with the ideas
of the Open society.

        I found several examples in the books of Russian philosophers.
But here I want ot talk about one of them - about the ideas
of Nikolai Berdajev, probably the most popular Russian philosopher on the
West. 

        His philosophy can be called "the philosophy of freedom".
Freedom is a necessary condition for a society to be called "Open".
Only a free person can realise the value of interaction, of the ideas
of other persons. Only a free man can create something. Creation
is the main task of the humankind, of every man. For Berdajev it
was a question of religion, but even for non-religiouse person it can
be clear that the main difference between a man and an animal is a power
to create something new. When a person is not opened to the world,
to other people, to new ideas, he can't create something new,
he can only reproduce old things. The aim of science and education
is quite different, we want to make new things. And the very important
ideas on the link between the power to creat and the freedom was
showed in the most spectacular way in the works of Russian philosopher
Nikolai Berdajev. 

The ideas of free creation live in Russia, and I hope we
can try to build an Open society, the society without ksenophobia,
without fear of new ideas, without fear of the future.
  


        When people take part in a great program, they have
to believe in the possibility of realization of their ideas.
Very few of us can do something without the feeling
that it can be done and done good. So, I want to say several words
on the possibility of building  the Open society in Russia.

        I hope, that we understand, that the idea is not just to
spend some money for education and science here in Russia, but to 
start a process, that will be going for a long time with the main aim
to build a society with a different kind of mentalitet, different
kind of relations. For me it was important to answer to myself
if it is possible.

        Can we call such an attempt reasonable? For me the first answer
was: it is very good, but impossible. We can hardly find a period in the
history of Russia, when there was a society with a glance of openness.
Opposite examples are numerous. No one can grow bananas in the Moscow
region, it is not reasonable, they never grew here because it is too cold.
Gentle plants, which need warm weather can't grow at the
latitude of 56 degrees. Does the Open society look like such a plant? 
I think it looks like a man, and at the beginning as a child.
Everyone knows, that human childs a very different from the babies of wild
animals. The last ones can defend themselves when they are only several
weeks or months old. A human child is a powerless baby till 7-8 years
(sometimes longer, sometimes a little bit shorter). And we have to take care 
of it. 

        The future life of the child depends not only on his parents,
but also on the people around him. Can we find in the way of thinking
in Russia something that can help this child to grow up? Even if we
can't find long happy periods in the history, but can find ideas, which
were original for Russia and the whole world, which were created by 
Russian philosophers, we can say that we can try to build the Open Society,
because Russian way of thinking has something in common with the ideas
of the Open society.

        I found several examples in the books of Russian philosophers.
But here I want ot talk about one of them - about the ideas
of Nikolai Berdajev, probably the most popular Russian philosopher on the
West. 

        His philosophy can be called "the philosophy of freedom".
Freedom is a necessary condition for a society to be called "Open".
Only a free person can realise the value of interaction, of the ideas
of other persons. Only a free man can create something. Creation
is the main task of the humankind, of every man. For Berdajev it
was a question of religion, but even for non-religiouse person it can
be clear that the main difference between a man and an animal is a power
to create something new. When a person is not opened to the world,
to other people, to new ideas, he can't create something new,
he can only reproduce old things. The aim of science and education
is quite different, we want to make new things. And the very important
ideas on the link between the power to creat and the freedom was
showed in the most spectacular way in the works of Russian philosopher
Nikolai Berdajev. 

The ideas of free creation live in Russia, and I hope we
can try to build an Open society, the society without ksenophobia,
without fear of new ideas, without fear of the future.