@ 01.12.2022

The undoubted importance of the problem mentioned in the title of the article, unfortunately, is not always adequately assessed by everyone. Culture, customs, traditions of ancestors in fact determine the place of an individual and often the whole nation in the modern world.

Loss of national memory, separation from their people threatens that the man becomes, as they say, "Ivan who does not remember his clan". This occurs in the context of the modern interpenetration of different cultures, and often the suppression and absorption of one cultural system by another, threatens the very existence of the people as a unique, distinctive unity of people, built on a national characteristic.

History again gives us something to think about - the discovery of America by Columbus alone, and its subsequent "exploration" led to a tremendous shift in the fate of indigenous peoples living in their ancestral territories. The changes were so significant that scholars to this day put forward theories about (sometimes simply don't know) what the American culture of the Pre-Columbian era was like. The reforms of Peter-who is often called one of the most prominent figures in the history of the Russian state-were intended to break the national consciousness, to accept cultural phenomena that were often alien and incomprehensible, and to forcibly impose them.

Grim and tragic examples can also be found in the Soviet period.

Examples of how, in the course of Soviet "reforms," the indigenous peoples of the North were forced to give their newborns names adopted by the Russian-speaking population. Examples of how peoples who existed 50-60 years ago became extinct or whose population today numbered only a few thousand or even a few hundred people. Of course, in the conditions of direct genocide during Stalin's time, reflection on this subject was useless. But people subconsciously sought, and still seek, to preserve everything that unites them, makes them a nation, not allowing them to perish far from their homeland.

No one proclaims nationalistic slogans about the "purity" of the Tatar, Russian or any other nation. All progressive people are well aware that the mixing of the peoples is not taking place today or right now, but throughout the history of mankind (probably since the destruction of the famous Tower of Babel :-) ).

Interference in these processes is not only pointless, but also harmful. Nature herself has established the rule that the constant crossing of close kinship lines within a limited number of people and territory, without involving people of other nations, will eventually lead to the extinction of that nation.

The benefits of mixing tradition and nation are clear.

The influx of new blood allows the full potential of people to be unlocked, allowing for development in a variety of directions. Many world-renowned, talented people are children of mixed marriages. The emergence and adoption of new traditions indicates the normal national-cultural development and adaptation to the changing conditions of the modern world. But to go too far in one direction or another is a disastrous trend. A lack of understanding or indifference on this issue threatens partial or complete, irrevocable assimilation with other peoples.

It is possible to accept and understand the values of other peoples, sometimes we are simply obliged to do so. It is others, not "alien" peoples, nations, because we are all one family - humanity living on this planet, and in any case all national communities have only one, common destiny. But to forget in this cosmopolitanism our own history, nation, to lose our native language and traditions means to lose ourselves.

Culture and everything related to it varies so much from nation to nation, that only the people themselves and the structures representing them with national or state status are able to preserve it. If the understanding of the importance of preserving history, identity and heritage accumulated over thousands of years and years comes back into the heads of our "rulers" (ordinary, ordinary people feel, do and speak about it, undoubtedly, more than the state in which they live), it means we have a chance for a decent and great past, present and future.

National heritage is not only monuments of culture and history, museums, paintings, plays, music. The concept is so comprehensive that it is difficult (impossible) to list all the elements included in it, to some extent the mentality of a nation, its "soul".

Whether our nation will exist in 2, 5 or 10 centuries and what place it will take in the general history of mankind depends on whether we will be able to preserve and multiply this cultural heritage and pass it to our descendants.