Even if we can't find long happy periods in the history, but can find ideas, which were original for Russia and the whole world, which were created by Russian philosophers, we can say that we can try to build the Open Society, because Russian way of thinking has something in common with the ideas of the Open society. I found several examples in the books of Russian philosophers. But here I want ot talk about one of them - about the ideas of Nikolai Berdajev, probably the most popular Russian philosopher on the West. Only a free person can realise the value of interaction, of the ideas of other persons. Only a free man can create something.
Creation is the main task of the humankind, of every man.
For Berdajev it was a question of religion, but even for non-religiouse person it can be clear that the main difference between a man and an animal is a power to create something new. When a person is not opened to the world, to other people, to new ideas, he can't create something new, he can only reproduce old things. The aim of science and education is quite different, we want to make new things. And the very important ideas on the link between the power to creat and the freedom was showed in the most spectacular way in the works of Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdajev. The ideas of free creation live in Russia, and I hope we can try to build an Open society, the society without ksenophobia, without fear of new ideas, without fear of the future.