Exactly three decades ago the First International Humanist Forum took place in Moscow. The event, which took place on 7 and 8 October 1993 in the Moscow Academy of Administration, was attended by various members of the Russian Academy of Sciences including Ivan Frolov, Serguey Semenov, Boris Koval and the founder of the current of Universalist Humanism, Silo, together with numerous humanists from different parts of the world.
The day before the conference, Silo defended his thesis on “The Conditions of Dialogue” on the occasion of being awarded an honorary doctorate by the Russian Academy of Sciences.
To commemorate this important milestone, Pressenza interviewed Antonio Carvallo, who was part of the international group of humanists who participated in the Humanist Forum in Moscow and in the organisation of the second Congress of the Humanist International. Carvallo maintained a fluid relationship with several of the Russian academics who formed the Moscow Club of Humanist Intentions, which later became part of the World Centre for Humanist Studies.
What was the motivation for holding the forum in Moscow in 1993?
The main motivation was the process of Perestroika (meaning restructuring in Russian) and Glásnost (openness or transparency) which was underway at the initiative of the government of Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the CPSU and President of the Soviet Union between March 1985 and December 1991. In June 1991 presidential elections were held and Boris Yeltsin was elected, promoting a more rapid liberalisation of the system.
The Perestroika process attracted the attention of the Humanist Movement, which at the time was expanding geographically around the world. The process of opening up Russia by ending the monopoly of the communist party, opening up the political game, declaring an end to its participation in the “cold war” and liberalising the economy, all this from within – in a process of self-transformation – spoke volumes about the vitality of the Russian nation. This strongly attracted the attention of Silo, the Argentinean thinker and founder of New Humanism, also known as Universalist Humanism.
Silo commented extensively on this phenomenon and encouraged our contacts with the promoters of Perestroika. So it was that, after the fall of Pinochet in Chile, and the resumption of diplomatic relations with Russia, a delegation of Humanists from various countries, including the recently founded Humanist International in Florence, Italy, was invited to Moscow to participate in discussions of mutual understanding between New Humanism and New Thought in Russia.
I was at the time the Communications Secretary of the International and as such represented it in the delegation of parties that visited Moscow.
Russia showed a lot of interest in this new thinking coming from South America, a continent friendly to Russia during the Cold War, from its political establishment and academic circles.
Thus began our relationship with Russia. The delegation got to know the process closely and met with Academician Frolov, Foreign Minister Shevardnadze, and representatives of government departments and academia. We were warmly and sympathetically received and explored possibilities for closer future collaboration between the International and Russian New Thought. If I remember correctly, at that time the new cultural attaché of the Chilean diplomatic mission, the humanist Gonzalo García Huidobro, was already resident in Moscow.
As soon as I returned to London, and in response to a fax from me thanking him for all the attentions we had received in Moscow, I received a fax from the academic Boris Koval, informing me that the Moscow Club of Humanist Intentions had been set up, made up of academics and researchers from the Centre for Latin American Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. I was also invited to visit the club when convenient, in order to cement and plan future collaborations.
From then on, a broad collaboration and exchanges developed between the Moscow club, the Academy of Sciences, several universities, the Parliament and students from many institutes of higher education. Several councils of the Humanist Movement sent “missions” to Russia. Hugo Novotny, an Argentinian humanist, settled in Moscow and learned Russian fluently.
In this way, the knowledge of humanism in Russia was broadened. Some of our books were published in Russian and a yearbook called Lecturas Humanistas (Humanist Readings) was published. The World Centre for Humanist Studies was founded, with regular articles by members of the Humanist Club.
A group of academics also supported Silo in the preparation of the Dictionary of New Humanism, among them Professor Boris Koval and academician Sergei Semenov.
These active dissemination projects led to the Club’s initiative to organise a Humanist Pre-Forum in 1992 and the first Humanist Forum in Moscow in 1993. Humanist friends from more than 30 countries of America and Europe, as well as representatives of various Russian academic institutes in both the social and natural sciences, participated.
The outreach activity in Russia was also accompanied by several trips of members and friends of the Club to countries in the Americas, such as Chile and Argentina, and countries in Europe, such as Spain, Italy, Hungary and the United Kingdom.
This active exchange of people, ideas and projects had a strong impact on all of us who discovered Russia in a direct and profound way. It also touched our Russian friends in a profound way. Boris Koval, a very dear friend, initiator and soul of the Club, told me shortly before his death “Antonio, Humanism and the knowledge of Silo changed my life forever”.
A couple of weeks before the Forum, the Russian Academy of Sciences distinguished Silo with the title of Doctor Honoris Causa. What was the reason for this distinction?
The profound experience of many of these Russian academics may have led the Academy of Sciences to recognise Silo as Doctor Honoris Causa for his literary work but also as the organiser of a worldwide movement promoting peace and nonviolence on an individual and social level.
I do not know exactly what was the reason for the recognition of Silo, apart from the recommendation of influential members of the organisation, witnesses of the magnitude of his work: was it perhaps the concomitance of processes between that Russia, opening up to the world after many years of enclosure behind an “iron curtain” and a young and progressive movement, genuinely interested in that experience that was itself opening up to the world, seeking to transform human beings and society towards humanism?
Russian culture is strongly influenced by Leo Tolstoy and Nikolai Berdiayev among others with a humanist, mystical and social content that portrays the Russian soul.
As a result of receiving the Doctor Honoris Causa, the day before the start of the Humanist Forum in Moscow, Silo gave a lecture on “The Conditions of Dialogue”. What were the most relevant points and what impact do you think they have on the present day in a world marked by severe conflicts?
In his dissertation at the ceremony for the awarding of an Honorary Doctorate, Silo dealt with the theme of “The Conditions of Dialogue”. A very important topic at that time in Russia when the country was opening up to the Western world, and even more important in today’s world when we see that prejudice and exclusion are being imposed by the Western political establishment with even greater vigour than at the end of the “cold war”.
It is obvious today to a growing majority of the world’s population that Russia’s acceptance of dialogue among equals is furiously resisted by the United States and NATO allies, since for them it represents the end of their unipolar monopoly over the rest of the world. Through Russophobia they justify their resistance to change in the face of a profound crisis of civilisation and an unprecedented geopolitical shift in which profound communication between cultures takes precedence.
I think it was a precautionary advice… the Russians very openly believed in the West. They naively and sincerely opened up to Europe and the US, who pretended to hear them while attending to their own priorities, their security and the opening of their market.
(NdR: Silo’s complete lecture can be accessed here PDF in English – Original in Spanish).
After that Forum, new events of the same type took place in different parts of the world. What could be the function of new Humanist Forums today? Are there plans for future Forums?
After the Moscow Forum and following its positive feedback, Forums were organised in Santiago de Chile, Mexico City, Budapest and in this century, again in Santiago and Madrid.
The forums seek communication between organisations and individuals in all priority areas of social concern. With the aim of forming common views on the essential priorities of our time and the most appropriate methodologies to meet them. Once forums have been established in all regions, the aim is to establish a permanent global forum that collects and distributes accurate and nonviolent information in real time around the world. This will not be driven by financial or power manipulation, nor by dogmatic groups of any kind. The function of the forums will be to unite people in all latitudes and to disseminate the best experiences in the construction and development of this universal human nation emerging from the crisis. This is what humanists see as the future. For this, true dialogue, as explained by Silo at the Academy, is an essential condition. The whole situation was reminiscent of Plato’s Academy.
It is about the integration of all cultures around the values of the elimination of personal and social violence, conflict resolution and the humanisation of the world.
History is accelerating at an unprecedented pace as a result of technological and scientific progress. Above all, progress in communications. Today every individual over the age of ten has or seeks to have access to digital telephony, real-time communication and masses of information. Satellite networks cover and connect every corner of the earth with audiovisual images in the face of the desperation of political and economic monopolies that seek to control large human groups.
The formation of regional forums is now being planned in Asia and Africa, centres of the largest populations on the planet and so far, displaced from their rightful place in terms of numbers and wealth creation.
I believe that the formation of these dialogues represents a unique opportunity for all the humanists of the world to work towards the formation of a Permanent World Forum where the common quest is “…to fight against discrimination and violence, proposing ways forward so that the freedom of choice of the human being may be manifested”, a paragraph with which Silo concluded his speech at the Humanist Forum in Moscow, on October 7th 1993.
(NdR: Silo’s exposition at the Humanist Forum in Moscow, 07/10/93, can be accessed in full here PDF in English – Original in Spanish
