Roerich Pact
Russian painter and philosopher Nicholas Roerich (1874–1947)[1] initiated the modern movement for the defense of cultural objects, for the idea of "Peace of Civilizations".
Roerich also worked as stage and costume designer for several operas and ballets by Maurice Maeterlinck and Igor Stravinsky, premiered in St. Petersburg.
After the border between Russia and Finland was closed in 1918 in the context of the October Revolution and Finnish Civil War, the family travelled across several Scandinavian countries to Great Britain and eventually left for North America in 1920.
During his excavations at Saint-Petersburg province, Roerich began to point to the necessity of protection of cultural monuments, which reproduce a world-view of ancient people for us.
In 1904, Roerich gave a report to the Emperor's Russian Archeological Society about the sad state of historical monuments and the necessity to take prompt actions to protect them.
In 1914, Roerich appealed to the high command of the Imperial Russian Army, as well as the governments of the United States and France with an idea of conclusion of an international agreement aimed on the protection of cultural values during armed conflicts.
He created a poster "Enemy of Mankind" denouncing the barbaric destruction of cultural monuments, and picture "Glow" expressing a protest against World War I.
Georges Chklaver), a doctor of international law and political sciences at the University of Paris prepared a project of the Pact for protection of cultural values.
In the aftermath of World War II, the Roerich Pact played an important role in forming of international law standards and public activity in the field of protection of cultural heritage.
In 1949, at the fourth UNESCO General Conference, a decision was accepted to begin the work for international law regulation in the field of cultural heritage protection in case of armed conflict.
Ideas of Roerich Pact still are not implemented in the international law, especially its principle of the almost unlimited preference of the preservation of cultural values to the military necessity.
1931 – An International Union of the Roerich Pact was founded at Bruges under the guidance of a member of Belgium Committee for monument protection Camille Tulpinck [nl].
The Conference has resolved to found at Bruges a special institute for world assistance to implementation of the Roerich Pact ideas in public life.
President F. Roosevelt talked in his radio speech: "Presenting this Pact for signing by all the countries, we strive for that its world acceptance becomes a vital principle for preserving of modern civilization.
Ernest Hemingway, Charlie Chaplin, Rockwell Kent, Norman Bel Geddes, Edmund Cooper, Serge Koussevitzky, Valeriy Ivanovich Tereshchenko were its active contributors.
Committees of the Roerich Pact and Banner of Peace worked in Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, France, England, Portugal, Brazil, Columbia, Uruguay, Bolivia and Cuba.
1949 – 4th UNESCO general conference has taken a decision to begin a work for international-law regulation in the field of cultural values protection during the military actions.
1972, 23 November – "Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage" was accepted at 17th session of general UNESCO conference in Paris.
1990, 11 February – Soviet cosmonauts Aleksandr Balandin and Anatoly Solovyev took the Banner of Peace on the board of orbital station "Mir".
1995, 26 June – Banner of Peace was presented to Gebhardt von Moltke, deputy of secretary for political questions at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
2004, 25 October – Banner of Peace from the board of cosmic station "Mir" was presented to Speaker of Indian Parliament Sri Somnath Chatterjee on the occasion of 100th Sviatoslav Roerich's Anniversary.
On April 15, 1935, the Roerich Pact was signed by the United States and Latin American nations, agreeing that "historic monuments, museums, scientific, artistic, educational and cultural institutions" should be protected both in times of peace and war, and identified by their flying a distinctive flag, the Banner of Peace, bearing the Pax Cultura emblem.
Roerich came across numerous later examples in various parts of the world, and knew that it represented a deep and sophisticated understanding of the triune nature of existence.
The sacred origins of the symbol, as an illustration of the trinities fundamental to all religions, remain central to the meaning of the Pact and the Banner today.
Consequently, the Roerich Pact has not only legal but also philosophic, enlightening, and evolutional significance since it reflects an idea of cultural protection in its many manifestations.
Characterizing the Roerich Pact, cosmonaut Alexei Leonov wrote: If we are raising a culture and spirituality then it will help us to strengthen an economics, to make the policy moral and to stop the military conflicts.
