Dear CCI Friends,
I asked Paula Day, lawyer and a dedicated CCI volunteer, to write you regarding her experience traveling with Volodya Shestakov and me over thousands of miles across Russia less than a month ago. The following is her description of our travels in addition the impact of the situation with Dennis, one of our two CCI men traveling on another route across Russia.
It was great traveling with Paula, sharing her previous experiences and mine with her. Enjoy her fresh take on the people we met. Later I’ll send you photos to give you a sense of where Russia and her people are today.
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
From Paula Day:
Friends:
As I was drafting the letter below I received word of Dennis Ortblad’s death in Moscow on October 24. It was a shock, and I still cannot quite believe it. I met Dennis two years ago when we were both part of CCI’s 2019 delegation. We hadn’t been introduced; Dennis just happened to be the tall, distinguished man standing next to me in a hotel lobby as we waited for transportation to one of the many CCI events. We struck up a conversation, on the cynicism of our political class in scapegoating Russia for our failures (apropos of what I cannot remember) and we were immediately immersed in seriously satisfying talk. It’s the sort of thing that happens with CCI people.
I next saw Dennis in late September this year when we met on an Aeroflot flight to Russia. He was on his way to a one-week, Russian language immersion course in Novosibirsk to be followed by two weeks touring cities in the south. Dennis was exuberant, excited about the upcoming trip, pleased with his progress in the language, and above all, engaged – in life and in meaningful work, the betterment of relations between our countries. Could you possibly conjure up a more fitting “retirement” for a former career diplomat at the US State Department?
My sincere condolences to Dennis’s family. I can only imagine the pain of their loss and hope and trust it may be mitigated someday by their memories of such a fine person.
8 November 2021
“Strange Birds”
Dear CCI Friends,
Sharon and I returned in mid-October from a three-week, seven-city journey through the heart of Russia – from Moscow to Siberia to Crimea and back to St. Petersburg. Volodya Shestakov, whom many of you know, accompanied us and somehow managed to finesse everything involved in the hassles of travel plus daily back-to-back hours and hours of dual translation without breaking a sweat. It was, from beginning to end, a great trip.
For Sharon the visit meant an opportunity to connect with many Russian friends and to catch up on the progress and development of many CCI programs; for me it was an opportunity to see parts of Russia I had never experienced before and to really appreciate the history and enduring stature of CCI there. Most importantly, it was a chance to meet many wonderful people, the Russian friends of CCI. For both of us, the purpose of our excursion was to strategize for CCI’s next delegation – June 22 to July 5, 2022 – and to consult with those Russian friends on how to make sure CCI’s citizen-to-citizen diplomacy missions continue.
I would like to share a few of my impressions and observations with you but so as not to bore you to death with a “my-trip-to-Russia” travelogue, I’ll break my accounting into small, hopefully digestible bites. And I would like to start at the end because it was during our last evening in St. Petersburg before returning to the US that Volodya made the comment that caused me to look back over our three-week journey with new eyes. He referred to Sharon and me as “strange birds,” and I realized he was right, and it put our trip in its proper context. You birders out there understand the excitement on seeing a new bird in your neighborhood, especially one thousands of miles from its normal habitat and warbling a strange tune. As Americans with our feet on the ground in Russia in 2021 and talking to everyone we met about the need for respect, friendship, and collaboration between our two countries, we were indeed strange birds.
My first trip to Russia (the Soviet Union) was in 1983, and the second was with CCI’s 2019 delegation. You are all aware of the stunning changes that occurred there during those thirty-six years – from the drab and repressive Soviet era, through the catastrophic ‘90’s, to the social and economic comeback of the 2000’s. The tremendous transformation over the last thirty years is almost impossible to take in, as I thought in 2019. I was not expecting much observable change between then and now but, in fact, there is a different, subtle and darker feel to the country than existed two years ago.
Of course, much of this change is due to covid which has cast its pall over the population there just as it has done in the United States. There appears to be much less fear over the virus in Russia although, not speaking Russian, I was unable to follow the television or printed news on the subject. But, in speaking directly to many people, I saw that the virus was viewed calmly, vaccination mandates were almost universally viewed unfavorably, and most of those I spoke with who had been vaccinated were unhappy that they had been forced into accepting the jab in order to keep their jobs.
Covid aside, however, there was another element to the rather uneasy atmosphere we encountered. Over and over again, when asked how they viewed the political situation between our countries, our friends responded negatively; they were “worried,” the situation was “dangerous” and “alarming,” they were “apprehensive” about the future, “troubled” and “disturbed” at the deterioration in relations. I recall none of these thoughts being expressed so openly and so frequently in 2019.
The big picture is obviously alarming – increased bellicosity (including serious discussions in Western media on a first-strike nuclear policy), wider economic sanctions, increasingly belligerent military posturing by NATO, our State Department’s warning to US citizens against all travel to Russia – and would seem to be enough to depress any aware citizen. But it is unquestionably also the small things – the inability of Russian citizens to obtain Visas to visit or to study in the United States, a feeling of being shut-in, ostracized and vilified– that get the ordinary citizen down and leave him or her with this inchoate sense of gloom.
I believe it is this shadow over the collective psyche of the Russians we encountered that put Sharon and me in the category of “strange birds.” When discussing the odd phenomenon that strangers were frequently showing up at the many, many meetings we had with old friends of Sharon’s, with former participants in the business training programs that CCI oversaw throughout the ‘90’s and early 2000’s, with Rotarians, and with some folks who just tagged along as we visited a museum, or gallery or new business enterprise – it was Volodya’s opinion that it was simply and obviously because we were “strange birds.” There we were, responding to today’s pervasive doom and gloom with the same message CCI has been spreading for nearly 40 years: it is up to us, Russian and US citizens, to take matters in hand, to act as sane, rational and humane adults who will not sit by and allow the unthinkable, nuclear war, to happen. We must take the initiative to be the diplomatic emissaries our leaders are not. As we articulated those views the response from the Russians we met was invariably the same: a relaxation in their posture, a huge smile, a thumbs up and a palpable feeling of solidarity – and more often than not, a bear hug. Who knew being a strange bird singing an unfamiliar tune could be so satisfying?
I will try to pull together a few facts and details of the cities we visited and the people we interacted with in the next few weeks but first and foremost I wanted to share this thought with you: now, more than at any time in our history, we, ordinary citizens, must put ourselves out there as ambassadors for peace. Not just passive supporters, we must actively align ourselves with other citizens of this world in demanding the peaceful space we need in order to tackle, together, the serious issues facing this beautiful planet.
You may call this a sales pitch if you like, but if you are on the fence about joining CCI’s citizen-to-citizen diplomacy mission to Russia next June please, stop waffling, climb down and sign up. And please, please share this message with your family and friends. When Sharon told the Russians we met of her determination to bring 100 Americans to their country next year their eyes lit up. I believe it is a commitment they see as a genuine affirmation of faith that we can make a difference. Imagine the sound and effect of 100 strange birds warbling!
Wishing you the best of this beautiful autumn season.
Sincerely,
Paula Day