Dear Friends,
You may be asking, “How does CCI find all of these Russian people to host Americans in cities and regions across Russia?” It’s very simple. Between 1988 and 2008, we brought more than 8,000 Russians to American cities. They came on various CCI trips: from simple citizen diplomacy to more sophisticated programs such as learning business and non-profit management. They still have a great fondness and gratitude to CCI for their exposure to the outside world and, in many cases, the life-changing business education they received in the U.S. Many still keep in touch with us on occasion. The next paragraph is about one of these Russians whom we hadn’t heard from since 1989.
On June 12th of this year, I received a message from an unknown man in Kungur, a small town in the Perm Mountains region, where the East meets the West in Russia. The email said, “Dear friends, I am one of 400 lucky people who visited the USA in 1989 according to your program, Soviets Meet Middle America. This trip greatly changed my life and since that time I have become the leader of the region-wide Association of Teachers of Foreign Languages. One of our goals is to present the American way of life to Russian students. We would be grateful if we could have a link with a similar organization in the USA and organize an exchange program among our students. We do believe and hope that citizens’ diplomacy is still as workable nowadays as it was in 1989. Sincerely yours, Victor Alexeev, PhD.”
At that very time, I was getting in touch with various Russian cities inviting them to host our September 2018 delegation of American travelers so I answered this email immediately. Victor Alexeev was delighted to get a response and learn that he could host three first-time American travelers to Russia in his small town of Kungur. This town is near Perm, a large industrial city, which had also contacted us in 2017 to inquire if they could in some way participate in CCI’s activities. It was a delight to correspond with this former CCI program participant. Please meet Victor Alexeev!