June 29, 2015
Friends,
Plans for Volgograd had changed during the final weeks. We weren't quite sure how the schedule would work out. We arrived at 8:25 am on a bright sunny morning. The train came to a halt and we hurriedly got our luggage to the exit door. I was among the last to deboard and emerged to see what looked like a sea of eager faces coming toward our car. They were weighted down with flowers.
Our women in the train cars ahead were already receiving long-stem roses and bouquets. Running toward our car was Alexander (Sasha) Malashkin, the raging entrepreneur pictured on the front of my book, The Power of Impossible Ideas. Hugs and exclamations abounded. We had never had such a welcome here before! Always it was warm, but nothing like this. More on this to follow.
Our Volgograd friends had rented a van, apparently not accepting our intent to travel by taxis and metros. They whisked us off to our hotel in downtown Volgograd. I'd been gravely concerned about this hotel, remembering it as a tired old rundown piece of Soviet architecture. Since inexpensive was "in" for this trip, I took the low price and hoped for the best. Pulling up to Hotel Volgograd the exterior appeared as before, drab brown Soviet architecture; upon entering I was shocked. Renovated with 19th century moldings, gold leaf, walls full of gorgeous fabric and paintings, plus two sleek Otis elevators …. it all bespoke of foreign money. Who would have invested in this old building in an outlying Russian city? Waiting for passports, I marveled at the new stained glass behind the registration desk. On inspection, the rooms were small but elegant––and all of this for $50 to $70 a night depending on occupancy?
Later I learned that a former Mayor had purchased the hotel for a song in the 90s and renovated it himself. This was during the period when bureaucrats were making lots of money off of Russia's struggling entrepreneurs -- our alums may have contributed to this elegance, but not necessarily by choice. In any case, today Volgograd has a classy hotel that operates efficiently, has excellent food, and accommodates guests in style. I recommend it highly if you visit Volgograd in the future.
Following a fast breakfast we were taken straight to a Rotary Meeting. Since we couldn't be in Volgograd on their normal Rotary day, they chose our day of arrival! Their van drove up to an old building I'd remembered from two decades earlier. It sits in the harbor area down near the Volga River––and probably had earlier housed employees with river-related work.
The exterior was the same as in years past; however, inside it had morphed into a "business incubator" on the scale of Silicon Valley! The same types of bright techy faces peered out of cubicles similar to such incubator spaces near Palo Alto, CA. Several of them proudly gave us their product spiel. All were start-up operations ready to break into the market. It became obvious that this whole business incubator belonged to Sasha. He is mentoring and sharing his enthusiasm for micro-businesses with Volgograd's millennial generation. They couldn't hope for a better coach.
In the 90s, Sasha systematically began creating what became the largest wholesale food operation in the Volga Region. He is the owner of several other enterprises and also is this year's president of Volgograd's only Rotary Club. Those who have read my book realize that Sasha started out desperate to feed his young family in 1991. He had no way to make a living, so he borrowed a truck, drove to Moscow, picked up a load of cookies to sell around Volgograd's metros -- and in the process made enough extra money to go back to Moscow the next week and get more cookies to resell. In 2001, he told Secretary of State Colin Powell his story complete with becoming the largest food distributor in the Volga region. Powell was so excited by his story that when leaving the hall, he broke ranks with his handlers and ran over to shake Sasha's hand––hence the photo on the book cover!
This young man, educated to be a lawyer, moved into entrepreneurism to feed his wife and small son when the ruble was worthless. Today he is a multi-millionaire and is just hitting his stride.
Volgograd's Rotary meetings are held in a hall inside his business incubator. It was a typical meeting––Rotary is Rotary wherever one goes! On this day there were Russian and American flags side-by-side, Rotary banners, the Four Way Test, and excited faces that were considerably younger than in most American Rotary clubs.
Sasha rang the Rotary Bell and called the meeting to order. A large screen lit up with their club's insignia and information. Music came from all sides––the Russian anthem began; all of the Russians stood and sang in unison with gusto. Those of us who knew the melody hummed along. After the anthem, the screen gave a history of the club which was chartered by the Rocky River and Lakewood Clubs in Cleveland, Ohio back in the late 1990s. These clubs are still in touch with each other. Phil Ardussi, past President of the chartering club, sent greetings to the Volgograd Rotarians. Next on the screen the club's service projects were shown along with their newly opened Rotary Park for Disabled Children! We were the club's speakers for the day. We introduced ourselves, the 15 states we came from and told why we were making this trip.
After the Rotary meeting, we went to the new Rotary Park which is central in the city where people of all ages can get to it. A sign shows the contributors who participated in the building of this park. Different kinds of play equipment for disabled youngsters included a large swinging container into which a wheelchair can be strapped! The backdrop of it all was a park-wide lovely mural with flowers, animals and children playing in a happy world.
Volgograd's 38 dedicated Rotarians are clearly proud of their contributions to their city. The average age of club members is probably 45. They are entrepreneurs with adequate personal funds to meet financial expectations from Rotary International. Quite a few of them are Paul Harris Fellows (meaning they have contributed $1000 to RI's Foundation Fund). Some are multiple Paul Harris Fellows. They certainly embody Rotary principles and the Four Way Test.
Next we were taken to an elegant "countrified" restaurant, Gretel, in the center of town. It is owned and operated by Sasha's lovely wife, Oxanna. Gretel is something like our Blackeye Pea restaurants, but is a little more upscale. She treated us to a great lunch.
Afterward, we met with Volgograd's Rotaract Club at their service project for disabled children. The Rotaracts were delightful young people in the typical 18 to 30 year age bracket. The Center we visited was heart warming and seemed to be run by a tiny little lady, maybe 3.5 feet tall. She was all over the place, running around making introductions, getting the music makers organized, helping us feel at home. We were serenaded with songs by a combination of Rotaract members and the Center dwellers.
In case you are wondering ….. we were still on "day one" in Volgograd. We were picked up at the train a few hours earlier…. somehow it felt like a week ago. After a quick dinner in the evening, we were taken to a large group meeting where we could ask and answer questions about the differences in news coming out in each of our countries.
There are two radically different narratives about Russia in world news these days, depending on where one resides. One is in the NYT, other U.S. mainstream media and NATO countries; and the other in Russian TV and print media and other nonaligned countries. Along side both of these there are rapidly growing alternative news outlets and investigative journalists who are determined to get a more comprehensive and truthful understanding of what's going on internationally out to the world at large––they are operating primarily on Internet. Traditionally, Russians have had zero trust in their media, hence it is quite normal for them to depend only on Internet for national and international news, which they do today.
In Volgograd, we held both small and large group discussions about the painful topics between us. Our Russian hosts tried valiantly not to criticize our country, yet when it came down to it, they were vocal and couldn't imagine why the distortions coming from Washington are so exaggerated against Russia and Putin. They strongly suspect it has to do with a final attempt at world domination and were quite frank in their assessments.
Fortunately, Russians separate citizens from governments and don't hold peoples responsible for what their governments do. I encountered this first in 1984 when touring Volgograd's WWII monuments. I asked why they played German music (Schumann) at these monuments. They explained, saying that Schumann's music is the most appropriate for deep grief, and that it was written before the Nazi movement existed in Germany. At the war's end, Soviet spokespersons promoted the idea that the war was not the fault of the German people, but the cause was the heinous Nazi philosophy and economic system that caused them to do what they did. Even after the Nazi's plundered their nation, killing millions of soldiers and citizens, one never hears Russians criticize Germany or Germans––they have a very high regard for both––however they are frightened at any possibility of Nazi outcroppings, such as Kiev's Azov battalions fighting with West Ukrainian forces in the Donbass area.
The next morning we went to the Volgograd Memorials. Regardless of how many times one experiences them, the pathos is fresh and gripping––and the size of them is inconceivable. The gigantic "Motherland Calls," with sword raised toward the East where the Nazi's came across Russia, is simply too enormous to take in. How they created her, I cannot fathom. She is taller than the Statue of Liberty, but none of us ever stand at ground level around the latter. We see her from planes or ships, hence her size isn't registered. And by contrast, the Statue of Liberty is more or less static. But Motherland Calls is deeply passionate …. every limb, every curvature of her immense body is a defiant message to those who might come again with ill purpose––NEVER AGAIN!, she reiterates.
On the way to the Motherland Calls, we pass the Sorrowful Mother––the monument closest to my heart. When I first visited her in the 80s, I had three sons in their late teens and early 20s. I was simply overwhelmed with her deep grief, my grief and women's collective grief …. for mothers over the centuries who have had to lose their young sons to wars. For all of the young men born across the Soviet Union in 1923, only 3% of them survived WWII. Can we grasp what this would do to a population of survivors? Sorrowful Mother is a huge monument also, with nothing but her head and upper torso cradling the body of her dead son, he with a veil over his head …. to remind that any grieving mother can identify the veiled head as her own son. The mother and son rest in a large pool of water symbolic of tears. Google her. What a powerful message she is!
Next we visited the huge battleground Diorama portraying multiple aspects of the Stalingrad battleground where 1.7 to 2 million lives were lost. It is a masterpiece-in-the-round with actual battlefield relics such as plane and tank parts, dugouts, dummies of war heroes, battles going on throughout multiple fronts. With accompanying sound effects of planes, bombs and gunfire, it felt like we were walking through the battlefields themselves.
Afterward we visited Sasha's plaster and wall board factory. New automated equipment was churning out and packaging huge amounts of product. It's clear walking with him through these companies, he has mastered the art of human relations with his managers and staff. I ask myself, how did this guy go from purchasing cookies in Moscow to where he is today? He is still SO young, probably 45-47, but he looks 25. And he has the energy of a 15-year-old.
Our travelers were parceled out to different families for dinner. I was fortunate to go to Sasha's home and meet his mom, an aging woman of great presence, who has lived long enough to see her only son succeed. His father left early on, so Sasha became responsible when quite young. His mom committed that he always had lots of energy and worked hard as he grew up. It was great to be with Sasha and Oxanna's strongly-knit warm family consisting of Mom, one son and two lovely young daughters.
The next day group members had meetings in Volgograd's small and medium-sized businesses. In the afternoon we were taken to a large concert hall to hear the Volgograd Children's Symphony Orchestra, comprised of children from ages 8 to 18 years. They were extraordinary. Considerable funds must go into music training for the city's youth. The audience of several hundred ordinary parents, siblings and grandparents, gave us yet another cross-section of what ordinary Russians look like today: upbeat, nicely dressed and proud. We saw no babushkas with scarf-wrapped heads this trip.
Last, a wonderful farewell dinner at a Brewery and eatery -- also owned and operated by Oxanna. This completed our short three day stay in Volgograd. We hardly had time to sleep or change clothes, but we picked up impressions that will be with us for a lifetime.
Probably the most important understanding to bring home is:
This is not a city or a nation to pick a war with.
Russians across 11 time zones feel an inordinately deep patriotism to the Russian soil itself. They may be divided ethnically and may disagree on large and small points, but when it comes to protecting Mother Russia, they become shoulder to shoulder. Throughout their history they have done whatever it took to protect their "mir" or soil, their deeply embedded Russian culture and Russia's 1,000 year history. Outsiders need to remember what befell Napoleon and Hitler in their attempts to take this country down in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Consider Russian losses in WWII: 27,000,000 dead, (500,000 Americans were lost) and 25,000,000 Russians left homeless after the war …. and I always thought we won WWII.
In 1984, I was talking with a henna-haired little grandmother in Volgograd who asked me, "CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW WOMEN CAN TAKE UP WAR MAKING? We are the birthers of life. How is it possible? I will tell you. When our young men were mortally wounded and dropped their guns, we picked them up and carried on the battle in their places! You can't imagine how hard it was to do …. for us women to go against our biological urges and take life. BUT WE DID. We had no choice, there was no one else to protect our city, our country." One forgets many things, but I will never forget this little 5 ft. babushka confessing her painful past on the battlegrounds surrounding then Stalingrad.
That evening, we traveled by plane from Volgograd to Moscow to Ekaterinburg out in the Ural Mountains, a long trip after continuous activity. But not a peep out of the stalwart travelers. Amazing given the wide differences in ages, professions, and politics. The group bonded around our citizen-to-citizen mission––other aspects made no difference at all.
Next stop Ekaterinburg …..
FYI:
Earlier I pondered why Volgogradians were so attentive to us from our arrival to departure?
Russians are known for their hospitable natures. But their response to this trip was qualitatively different.
In earlier years, we had come under normal circumstances …. our countries were getting along well.
Russians were traveling back and forth to America to get training.
But this time the situation had changed drastically. Their way of life is being threatened.
Their borders are being surrounded with NATO missile installations and troops.
They read Internet, they understand the misinformation about Russia in US mainstream media.
There were no other Americans visible in Volgograd while we were there. We were the only ones.
We had come out of deep concern, disturbed about sanctions, about their currency losing near half of its value.
We had come to document in videos the Russian points of view and to make a difference if possible.
In spite of all that is going on, we will work to rebuild the bridges that have been nearly destroyed.
And wonderfully, we found that the citizen-to-citizen bridges of earlier years hadn't been destroyed.
Indeed, those bridges have become even more precious than ever.
All of this was no doubt factored into why we were treated like royalty in Volgograd.
Now to take what we have experienced and documented and make a difference with it before all life on our planet earth is further jeopardized.
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