Address by Archbishop Varlaam of Makhachkala and Derbent on the Day of Languages of the Peoples of Russiatranslated

Dear brothers and sisters!

The Lord destined us to live in a great and beautiful country, whose name is Russia. Its vast expanses from the Baltic and Black Seas to the Pacific Ocean are home to people who speak one and a half hundred languages. This is the greatest wealth that we received from our ancestors, and our duty is to carefully preserve it and pass it on to our descendants.

Therefore, it is no coincidence that, on the initiative of the President of the Russian Federation, this wonderful holiday was established - the Day of the Languages ​​of the Peoples of Russia. And we are especially happy that it is dedicated to the birthday of the great son of Dagestan and Russia, Rasul Gamzatov, an outstanding poet, whose poems, written in Avar, are now heard in many languages ​​of the world.

Dagestan is an amazing region where dozens of unique languages ​​are preserved, which have been attracting the attention of world science for centuries. In our age of globalization and rapid scientific and technological progress, these treasures, which have come from time immemorial, cannot be wasted in the pursuit of short-term gain. The loss of any language is an irreparable loss, it is a tragic break with its past, but a people that does not know its past has no future.

“Language is the confession of the people: In it...