Roerich Pact is a treaty on Protection of Artistic and Scientific Institutions and Historic Monuments. The most important idea of the Roerich Pact is the legal recognition of the fact that the defense of cultural objects is more important than the defense in its traditional meaning, and the protection of culture always has precedence over any military necessity.

Russian painter and philosopher Nicholas Roerich (1874–1947) initiated the modern movement for the defense of cultural objects, for the idea of “Peace of Civilizations”. Besides the recognition as one of the greatest Russian painters, Roerich’s most notable achievement during his lifetime was the Roerich Pact signed on April 15, 1935 by the representatives of American states in the Oval Office of the White House (Washington, DC). It was the first international treaty signed in the Oval Office where Presidents of US are working until present days because Franklin D. Roosevelt had relocated the US presidential office in the White House. Incidentally, Roosevelt kept in his private rooms a bust of Roerich.

Nicholas Roerich, also known as Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh (Russian: Никола́й Константи́нович Рéрих; October 9 [O.S. September 27] 1874 – December 13, 1947), was a Russian mystic, painter, philosopher, scientist, writer, traveler, and public figure. A prolific artist, he created thousands of paintings (many of them are exhibited in well-known museums of the world) and about 30 literary works. Roerich was an author and initiator of an international pact for the protection of artistic and academic institutions and historical sites (Roerich's Pact) and a founder of an international movement for the defence of culture. Roerich earned several nominations for the Nobel Prize.

Roerich in translation from the ancient Scandinavian means "rich of fame" (Rö Rich). Members of Roerich's family occupied prominent military and administrative posts in Russia since the reign of Peter I. Nicholas Roerich's father Konstantin Fedorovich was a well-known notary who was born in Courland. N. Roerich's mother Maria Vasilyevna Kalashnikova descended from a long line of merchants and traders. Among friends of the Roerich's family were such famous personalities as D. Mendeleyev, N. Kostomarov, M. Mikeshin, L. Ivanovsky et al.

"The Man" is a slang phrase that may refer to the government or to some other authority in a position of power. In addition to this derogatory connotation, it may also serve as a term of respect and praise.

The phrase "the Man is keeping me down" is commonly used to describe oppression. The phrase "stick it to the Man" encourages resistance to authority, and essentially means "fight back" or "resist", either openly or via sabotage.

The earliest recorded use^{[citation needed]} of the term "the Man" in the American sense dates back to a letter written by a young Alexander Hamilton in September 1772, when he was 15. In a letter to his father James Hamilton, published in the Royal Dutch-American Gazette, he described the response of the Dutch governor of St. Croix to a hurricane that raked that island on August 31, 1772. "Our General has issued several very salutary and humane regulations and both in his publick and private measures, has shewn himself the Man." ^{[dubious – discuss]} In the Southern U.S. states, the phrase came to be applied to any man or any group in a position of authority, or to authority in the abstract. From about the 1950s the phrase was also an underworld code word for police, the warden of a prison or other law enforcement or penal authorities.