"History shapes consciousness": Vladimir Medinsky on forecasting the future at the Znanie.State Forum in the National Centre RUSSIA

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On January 24, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky spoke at the Russian society Znanie’s Knowledge.State Forum in the National Centre RUSSIA. He discussed the influence of history on human consciousness, historical patterns, and forecasting the future, expressing skepticism about clear historical laws and trends.

The moderator of the open dialogue was Evgeny Popov, Vice Chair of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies, and Communications, and a TV host.

While speaking, the Presidential Aide touched on the topics of Russian identity, the cyclical nature of history, and the absence of indisputable facts in shaping the vision of the future world.

"Historical patterns are thin ice. I'm not 100% sure they even exist. In the past, people tried to describe past events, explaining why they happened. They approached it simply: it was the will of the gods, divine providence. Then, as science developed, the will of the gods took a back seat, and human will came to the fore. Following this, attempts were made to find some laws of historical development. Supporters of dialectical materialism and historical materialism explained the development of human society in a way that seemed very logical. And then they predicted how it should be. The predictions did not come true," Vladimir Medinsky noted.

During his speech, he drew attention to the inaccuracy of facts about the Great Patriotic War published by Western countries. To avoid incorrect judgments and falsification of facts, he recommended relying on the point of view of official science, which is set out in the latest editions of encyclopedias, school, and university textbooks.

In his opinion, many facts in history could have been falsified, but the USSR never denied the US landing on the Moon: "Maybe something was filmed in advance, in case they couldn't film it, and then edited together. But the USSR never denied the fact that the Americans landed on the Moon. Moreover, after this program, which was about the competition of social systems, our country canceled the development of its own lunar program and intensified the development of a program for flying around the Sun. Why repeat if we can do better?"

Answering questions from the audience at the Znanie.State forum, the Presidential Aide said that people have not changed either outwardly or inwardly for the last couple of thousand years, which is why we understand the emotions and motives of historical figures and literary heroes. He also added that clip thinking was formed from children's unwillingness to perceive longer and more difficult information.

The Znanie.State Forum is a large-scale educational project by the Russian society Znanie for state and municipal employees, enabling them to gain deeper insights into the history, culture, economy, and geopolitics of Russia. The project has been implemented since 2022, featuring lectures and federal broadcasts from multimedia studios of the Russian society Znanie. Over the past two years, more than 30,000 lectures have been conducted under the Znanie.State initiative across all regions of Russia, with an audience of over 3.5 million people.