Center for Citizen Initiatives

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(Video) GORBACHEV Speaks Out to CCI Citizen Diplomats in September

Dear CCI Friends,

We are honored to have had a two-hour meeting with President Mikhail Gorbachev on September 4, 2018.  This event was prior to our delegation of U.S. ‘citizen diplomats’ traveling across Russia to investigate how fifteen far-out cities in ten regions are faring.

Gorbachev’s decades-long private interpreter, Pavel Palazhchenko, was present to assure that the interpretation was accurate. The two-hour visit was trimmed down to two 30-minute segments.

President Gorbachev felt it very important to get his message out to the American public, as you will learn from his own words. He was in the hospital the previous day, met with us, then returned for additional treatment the following day. Although his physical self is challenged, Gorbachev’s spirit took on the energy of his younger years to get his message across.  He wants his words to go to as many Americans as possible!

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NOVOSIBIRSK: Americans Look into Siberia’s Capital City

At the turn of the 20th century, Novosibirsk, the third largest city in Russia, burst into being like a meteor.  It was little more than a large village in 1897.  The original town was to be near the projected new Trans-Siberian rail hub with an additional connection to the north-south Turkestan-Siberia Railway.

Novosibirsk became one of the first places across Russia to institute compulsory primary education. With the Bolshevik Revolution underway, the Red Army took the city in 1921. Twenty-three years later, Novosibirsk had a population of nearly 300,000. By 1962, despite WWII, Novosibirsk had reached one million citizens.  At that time it was the youngest city in the world with over a million  people. Today over 1.5  million citizens reside in this capital city. Being so far away from Moscow, there has always been a strong entrepreneurial base within the population.

Nonna Barkhatova, CCI’s Director for many years, is second from the right in the photo below.  Nonna got her business degrees in England in the 90s.  She returned home and created a dynamic business center to facilitate the development of regional entrepreneurism. Soon she learned about CCI and began lobbying to be part of our network of Russian cities from which we identified Russia’s young entrepreneurs who were struggling to create their first businesses. Nonna was persistent, sending us stories of her struggling business developers. Within a year we decided to partner with her business center.  Nonna organized CCI’s September 2018 visit to her city. [Continue Reading]

Experience Saratov, Russia, through the eyes of three Americans!

Dear CCI Friends,

We have lots of September trip information to share with you –– YouTubes of experts, regional city experiences written by our travelers, and numbers of YouTubes about life within Russia today.

I’d hoped to start our September “tell all” with President Gorbachev’s YouTube!  However, there’s a technical glitch that needs to be dealt with. This may take up to a week, so we will share some of our regional reports in the interim.

Saratov, Russia
Formerly a Closed City due to being a Military Production Site

We had no personal connections with Saratov. Months earlier an unknown Saratov woman, Olga Andrianova, emailed saying she learned that CCI would bring Americans to Russia, and she lobbied me to include Saratov.  Further she offered to organize the stay of three Americans herself. Feeling her strong desire over email, Saratov became a regional city.

Let’s take a journey with Mike Abkin (an early retiree from an engineering career and first time traveler to Russia) and his partner Louise Karr, a psychologist. Nancy Madison, also an engineer in regulatory consulting from San Jose was the third traveler to Saratov.

Below is a link to Mike’s report about what happened! There are lots of photos embedded in his report and a wealth of insights about today’s Russia. Mike dutifully checked all facts and events with Louise and Nancy and forwarded this terrific journal shortly after coming back to the states.

Enjoy!

Sharon (signature)

 

 

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

Russia Reflections
By Mike Abkin

 

Finale for St.Petersburg! Foto-Journal by Dr. Glenn Rennels

Dear CCI friends,

Dr. Glenn Rennels, an anesthesiologist from Palo Alto, CA , traveled with us to Russia in September. Knowing we wouldn’t have scheduled cultural tours, he took this trip in his own hands and purchased tickets for the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg before leaving home. Glenn sleuthed around and came up with other personal interests he wanted to pursue, which you will see below.  The most remarkable one was his intention to locate Andrei Nekrasov, Russia’s avant-garde dissident filmmaker. He did locate him and after a lengthy effort, we hosted Andrei for a fascinating evening in St. Petersburg. Glenn proved to us all that one can have both classical culture in addition to a full schedule of investigating and learning from Russians everyday.  Granted it takes not needing much sleep!

Sharon (signature)
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

St. Petersburg reminds me of Boston/Cambridge in Massachusetts:

• Rivers run through town, so you’re often crossing bridges.

• Historic buildings are everywhere.

• Major universities draw young people.

Meet professor of linguistics Ilya Utekin (tan coat) who I approached as he exited a lecture hall of St. Petersburg State University. Hearing my story — that I was on a pilgrimage to honor a legendary Russian mathematician named Markov — professor Utekin volunteered to chaperone me for a while. He took me to a campus museum and over lunch he explained Chomsky linguistic theory and Piaget linguistic theory. We talked a bit about politics, and about our families. His dad teaches pathophysiology, which is right up my alley as a doctor. I was extremely grateful to him for making an unplanned day so fulfilling. I plan to host Ilya in California someday soon.

The next day, a meeting was arranged with four students from St. Petersburg State University. They fielded our questions, and they asked some of their own.

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Farewell to St. Petersburg!

Dear CCI Readers,

Farewell to St. Petersburg, from Mike Metz!

Sharon (signature)
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

I came to Russia looking for history, that’s been my passion since retirement. I found history for sure, but mostly what I found was a country looking forward, looking away from a difficult past. Clean cities, crowded streets, new cars, busy people, peace, stability and relative prosperity.

When I watched the Russian team in the World Cup, I noticed the old Romanov crest on their uniforms and thought what an identity—centuries of czars, decades of communism, ten years of anarchy followed by nearly twenty years of Putin. Who are these people?  They are all of that.

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