Personal Letter to my Contemporary Man of the 21st century.

My name is Vladimir Ronkin. Ethnically, I am Jewish. I was born on September 6, 1937, in the Soviet Union. This state is not on the world map today. It collapsed in December 1991, as its existence was dominated by violence and lies.

Time, place of birth and ethnicity we do not choose. This is an objective reality. Each of us should keep in our hearts a feeling of gratitude to our parents for the life they gave us and the lessons they taught us. My parents, people without higher education, taught me diligence, honesty, responsible attitude to business and a cordial attitude towards a person living nearby. In terms of my physical parameters and attitude, I am not a standard person. I have made many mistakes in my life. I consider my main achievement that all my life I studied with the great thinkers of the past, and the adults and children around me (my students).

I served the system, but I was not a servant, because I had my own personal understanding of good and evil. For this reason, I had conflicts with the system. Psychologically, I am a leader, but not a careerist. A.P. Chekhov helped me in my opposition to the system with his theory of small and socially useful deeds. All his life, like him, “drop by drop squeezed a slave out of himself”, trying to maintain his dignity.

After graduating from Moscow State University, by my own choice, I worked for 37 years in the education of Kazakhstan. There I happened to meet many worthy people of different backgrounds - Kazakhs, Russians, Tatars, Germans, Ukrainians, Jews and representatives of other ethnic groups. The indigenous people of this ancient Turkic country are the Kazakhs. They are tolerant and kind-hearted people. One should not confuse the political regime and the people. These are different spheres. Now I live in the USA. I treat this country with respect and criticism.

 My earthly life is coming to an end. The main conclusion that I made for myself is that each of us has a choice - to become a worthy person or an evil dwarf in the form of a person.

In order to live life with dignity, it is necessary to assimilate and appropriate the imperative of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant: always see the starry sky above your head and have a moral law within yourself. This will help, even in the vilest times, to keep conscience, avoid shame, and act accordingly.

Vladimir Ronkin

September 2022

PS Analogy: Stars and yellow dwarfs are born in outer space. Stars radiate light! Yellow dwarfs did not have enough nuclear energy to become stars. They stayed underdeveloped cosmic substances. On planet Earth, people and evil dwarfs are born in society. People radiate light! Evil dwarfs are not given to feel the beauty of the universe. They have not formed an internal moral law. They only look like humans.