Roerich Pact - The Roerich Pact Importance For Twenty-first Century

The Roerich Pact Importance For Twenty-first Century

The Roerich Pact is not only a relatively short text of the international treaty. It is a conglomerate of legal ideas about a new state order in which the State and the Culture are not different but instead very closely permeate each other. A measure of this interference is the share of state budget annually spent on culture, art and education, which is must to exceed military expenses. As already mentioned another point is the legal recognition of the fact that the defense of cultural objects is more important than the defense in its traditional meaning, and the protection of culture always has precedence over any military necessity.

Important in the framework of ideas of the Roerich Pact is the recognition that the safety of any foreign cultural object on the territory of a foreign state must be also respected and treated as a factor much higher in significance than military willingness to bomb, destroy or use it for military purposes.

Nicholas Roerich managed to continue and develop into a profound and feasible doctrine the famous maxim proclaimed by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “Beauty will save the World!” Hence starts a very powerful Russian movement in the development of the concept of aesthetical statehood. The concept of the state as a work of art was first suggested in the 19th century by Jacob Burckhardt, who was Swiss historian of art, specializing in Italian Renaissance, and who gave this name to a chapter of one of his books. The concept itself had not been formulated to a completion and was expressed in a general idea that period, as well as their rulers, considered the achievements in culture and art as most important for securing the prestige both of their states and their own, which finally resulted in the unique Italian Renaissance art, literature, philosophy and science. Roerich produced ideas based on the approaches used by Burkhardt and Dostoevsky.

Roerich, considered the care for future generations to be a cornerstone of the existence of the rule of law and the constitutional state. President of the USA, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in the speech upon the signature of the ‘Roerich Pact’ Treaty said: “In opening this Pact to the adherence of the Nations of the world, we are endeavoring to make of universal application one of the principles vital to the preservation of modern civilization. This Treaty possesses a spiritual significance far deeper than the text of the instrument itself. It is important to realize that the Roerich Pact was only the first step towards the future development of a new legal culture. All written laws must conform to the universal unwritten principles of morality, fairness, and justice, equality, autonomy, dignity, and respect that is known as a higher law theory. The concrete conceptual provisions of Roerich’s philosophical and legal concept of the state are based on the one of Rule According to Higher Law ideas that the primary duty of the state is to sustain and develop the spiritual unity of its citizens, by carefully preserving the best specimens of national cultural heritage, promoting universal culture and spiritual growth of all people, especially the young ones. At that, the major share of profits received by the state should be directed at the development of culture, which, as it was already mentioned, would lead to a further growth of economical prosperity.

According to Roerich's concept, the state, as an instrument for the preservation and development of culture, the instrument defending both domestic and foreign cultural treasures, the instrument maintaining peace and avoiding wars, the instrument building a new civilization, based on the best cultural traditions of today and, therefore, spending the utmost economically reasonable assets for these purposes, — all this can be explicitly and exclusively based on constitutional foundation for using Roerich’s words, “a state of the future” and “a civilization of the future.” Ideas of Roerich Pact still do not fully implemented in the international law .” and 21st century may be is a good time to resurrect Roerich's concept of beauty and culture as a path to peace.