Dear friends, dear participants of the 'Tradition' festival! Dear founders of the Daria Dugina Award!
To my great regret, due to circumstances I was unable to attend the 'Tradition' Festival this time, although I tried not to miss it. Tradition is the main word in my life. It has become the main word and the last in my daughter Dasha Dugina's life.

Only that for which people are ready to sacrifice their lives takes on value. Tradition is the highest value, it is what makes the Motherland the Motherland, the people the people, the Church the Church and culture the culture.

I would like to say a few words about the Creative Award. It is a wonderful initiative, there is no better way to honour her memory. After all, Dasha was the embodiment of creativity, she was projected into the future, she lived in faith and hope. She was always looking ahead and upwards. Wrong, she took it too far, as far as 'up' was concerned. But his message lives among us and is becoming more and more distinct, collected and clear. Her message is an invitation to the Russian future, a future that has yet to be realised.

Dasha always thought of herself as a project, as a burst of creative will. She burned with philosophy, religion, politics, culture and art, she lived so richly, so fully, precisely because she was interested in everything. Hence the variety of her interests, her texts, her speeches, her creativity, her efforts. During her lifetime, she strongly wanted the Russians to move, for our country and our culture to come out of a deadlock and take off. He considered it his mission to live for Russia and, if necessary, to die for Russia. This is what she wrote in her Diaries, which we have recently published, while Dasha's second philosophical book, Eschatological Optimism, will be published soon, in several languages at once, because Dasha is remembered and loved all over the world.

Living for Russia is her message, which must be conveyed over and over again. Dasha's award is more than a formal encouragement, it is a living, vibrant impulse.

We have many wonderful true heroes, warriors, defenders, people with deep souls and pure hearts. Some of them gave their lives for the Motherland, some live with us now. The memory of every hero is sacred, and so is the memory of Dasha.

The fact is that Dasha is not only a model of a patriot and citizen, but she is also the bearer of an incredible, though she did not have time to fully unfold, spiritual potential; she strove to embody the grace of imperial Russia, the style of the Silver Age and the deep interest in the philosophy of Neoplatonism, to which she was a victim; authentic and lived Russian orthodoxy and geopolitics; modern avant-garde art - in music, theatre, painting, film - and a tragic understanding of the ontology of war; a sober and aristocratically restrained understanding of the fatal crisis of modernity and an ardent will to overcome it. It is, all of this, an eschatological optimism. To look into the eyes of the misfortune and horror of modernity and maintain a radiant faith in God, in His Mercy, in His Justice.

I would like the memory of Dasha not to focus so much on the images of her life as a lively, charming girl, full of pure energy, but to be the continuation of her ardour, the realisation of her plans, her pure and far-sighted imperial dreams.

Today, it is clear to many that Dasha has objectively become our national heroine. Poems and paintings, cantatas and songs, plays and performances are dedicated to her. Streets of cities and towns in Russia bear her name. A monument is being prepared for installation in Moscow and perhaps other cities. A girl who had never taken part in hostilities, who had never called for violence or aggression, who was deep and smiling, naive and well-educated, was brutally murdered in front of her father's eyes by a ruthless and heartless enemy - a Ukrainian terrorist who did it here, at the Festival of Tradition, not hesitating to involve her young daughter in the murder. She was sent to do so by the authorities in Kiev and the secret services of the Anglo-Saxon world, the fiercest enemies of Tradition. A year ago I gave a lecture here on the 'role of the devil in history'. Dasha listened, and so did the assassin. The devil was listening to what I was saying about the devil, preparing to do his devilish work.

Sure enough, Dasha became immortal. Our people could not remain indifferent to this and my tragedy, the tragedy of our family, of Dasha's friends, of all those who communicated and collaborated with her, became the tragedy of all our people. Tears began to choke people, both those who knew this girl and those who heard about her for the first time.

These are not mere tears. They are tears of our resurrection, of our purification, of our coming victory.

Dasha has become a symbol. She already is, but now it is important that the content of this symbol does not disappear, does not fade away. It is important not only to preserve Dasha's memory, but to continue her work, because she had this Cause, her Cause.

That is why this award is so important, why it is important to work on the Daria Dugina Foundation, as suggested by my dear friends Konstantin Malofeev, Eduard Boyakov and many others. Young philosophers, theologians, priests, musicians, politicians, scientists, poets, artists, journalists, military officers - all those who today are building the spiritual foundations of the Russian world, reviving the depths and heights of our Empire. Dasha supports them, inspires them, helps them, protects them above all.

There are saints who help in certain circumstances: those who are in poverty, those who are sick, those who are wandering, those in captivity. Even individual icons are distributed by God's mercy in such a way as to care for people in various difficult, sometimes desperate situations. "Placate my sorrows" is the name of one of the images of the Mother of God and there is a canon that reads when it becomes impossible to live and everything collapses... Just as the characters, they too are diverse, some embody military valour, others sacrificial tenderness; some embody fortitude, the pinnacle of political will. They are all beautiful.

Dasha embodies the soul, the Russian soul.

Both the award that bears her name and the Foundation we are about to establish should be dedicated to the Russian soul, that is the most important thing. If there is no soul, there will be no Russia, there will be nothing.

Many good people have offered to carry on Dasha's memory: there is the Daria Dugina People's Institute, there are Daria Dugina's Lessons of Courage, there is a new series from the wonderful Vladimir Dal publishing house, entitled 'Dasha's Books', there are various awards and other initiatives, and we let people do what their hearts tell them to do. The important thing is to do everything with the soul.

Thank you Christ!

Translation by Lorenzo Maria Pacini