Yuri Rost

Collective Portrait against the Background of the World

I had a romantic fantasy: at last governing powers will comprehend that they themselves are a threat to mankind with their harsh pragmatism and recklessly rational consumption of natural resources, their encouragement of ethnic intolerance, the homicides carried out by technology and subordination of the individual to the idea of consolidating a system, whatever that may be. In short, these same powers that have arisen naturally or artificially will nonetheless realize in time the necessity, without confusing languages, of finding a single language for interaction and building a Tower of Babel of tolerance towards one another. For this purpose, instead of training our young citizens to hunt down other young people, and the mature citizens of other countries too, we should teach them to grasp that amazing knowledge incomprehensible to politicians: everywhere there are people! Everywhere there is nature of outstanding beauty (unless it has been ruined by the folly of adaptation).
There is only one world, and it’s a small world.
Take heed, my brother!
Here is a rucksack instead of a soldier’s kit bag. Take this automatic camera instead of an automatic rifle. Here’s the money for a ticket. You can earn the price of your food and return ticket yourself. Here are your jeans, they’ll last two years or so.
Off you go! You will certainly return enriched by the discovery that in this world there are many people better than you and hence, equal to you.
But so far my brother pays no attention. Even in fantasy. Never mind, we’ll teach you to love and understand the world. For that ‘Group Portrait Against The Backdrop Of The World’. Nature in the book will take the colours the Creator made for it, but the people will be black-and-white since they put the final touches themselves, and that way there will be no distractions based on skin colour.
This volume is your rucksack. For you we packed it full of images (well, a few of them, anyway) that you yourself will see on the path ahead. It’s not important what direction the path takes and who you meet. The main thing is, go in peace and look with empathy!