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Summer 2005
Our Archangel Committee has received a grant to host a five person Archangel "Local Government" delegation from Friday, December 9 to Saturday, December 17, 2005. The grantor is the U.S. Library of Congress based "Open World Program" and such grants are made available to members of Sister City International. The delegates are from the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea and want to learn ways to better promote the economic and social development of the Islands. Delegation members are expected to be Olga Koroleva (Head of Social Welfare and Tourism in the Solovky Municipal Administration) and three officials of the Solovki State Historical - Architectural and Natural Reserve Museum: Dmitri Lugovoy, Anna Balandina and Svetlana Lebedeva. A facilitator from Moscow will also accompany the delegation to Maine.
American convoy veteran Donald Wampler and his wife Gloria of Oak Harbor, Washington joined over 100 British World War II arctic convoy veterans in Archangel in May, 2005. The group celebrated the 60'h Anniversary of Victory Day with ceremonies at Archangel's Eternal Flame and at the British Cemetery in Solombula. Britain was represented by Her Majesty's Counsul General of Russia George Edgar and First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Alan West. Ships in attendance were British frigate HMS Sutherland (F81) and Russian frigate RFS Zadorny. Donald presented a commemorative letter from our Archangel Committee to Archangel Mayor Alexander Donskoy, and Donald has graciously sent us a number of documents relating to these events which we hope to post on our website soon at www.arkhangelsk.org
Denis Kulizhnikov, a Traffic Safety Engineer with Archangel's Department of Transportation (AVTODOR), was hosted by the Maine Department of Transportation from May 18 to June 1, 2005. MDOT's Cliff Curtis (624-3568) reports that Denis had a busy schedule, including attending a Snow Plow Rodeo and visiting the State Police Dispatch Center, the new Waldo-Hancock Bridge, and the University of Maine Engineering Lab. Denis learned a number of new concepts, including the use of wake-up rumblestrips on the sides of the interstate and the in-city use of speedbumps. Socially, Denis got a Maine fishing license (and caught a good-sized pike) and enjoyed lunch with members of our Archangel Committee. Regretfully, he reports that the colorful trams have been permanently removed from Archangel's Troitsky Prospekt!
We mourn the recent passing of committee member Hilary Hartnett. She was an early and enthusiastic supporter of our Committee, first traveling to Archangel in the March 1991 People to People Delegation. A medical transcriber, Hilary made contact with Archangel's herbal/folk medicine practitioners and met her future husband Vladimir Titov, who hosted the delegation in his position as the International Relations Director in the Mayor's Office. Hilary and Vladimir, who lived in both Archangel and in Maine, had a daughter Anya who is now 12 years of age. At the family's request, the services were private in New York.
August 1 to 18 Waterville delegation to Kotlas. August 3 to 14 Large delegation from Severodvinsk visits Portsmouth, NH (FMI: Alex Herlihy at 603-964-9079). August 11 and 12 Conference of northeast U.S. Russian Sister City Programs in Saratoga Springs, NY (Dennis Marrotte and Jean Souliere plan to attend). September 17 to 24 Maine will host a nine member legal delegation from Archangel. September 24 Waterville committee's "Russian Sampler Day for Adults" at Colby College. December 9 to 17 Our Committee will host a "Local Government" delegation from the Solovetsky Island in the White Sea.
In May 2005, Maine District Court Judge David Kennedy led a five person legal delegation to Pskov (near Saint Petersburg, Russia). Other members were South Portland Police Officer Allen Andrews, Family Crisis Services Executive Director Lois Reckitt, Family Crisis Services Workplace Violence Education Coordinator Ellen Ridley and Violence Intervention Partnership Director Faye Luppi. The group joined counterparts from Archangel to help conduct a large regional rule of law conference focusing on Family/Juvenile Law and Domestic Violence. The Archangel delegation included Vice Prosecutor Ludmilla Kovtunyak, Pomor Law Professor Tatiana Zykina, Archangel "Bridges of Mercy" Crisis Center Director Olga Liapounova, and defense lawyer Vladimir Morev. Legal professionals from nine Russian regions and their American partner states combined to make this an excellent conference on how to improve the criminal and civil legal systems' response to domestic violence and child protection.
> Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap and Representative David Trahan spoke of their 2003 trip to Archangel on Maine Public Television recently > Southern Maine Community College Professor Lisa Hayden Espenschade reports that she may be teaching a Russian language course that is open to anyone (FMI: 741-5500) > Natalya Fokina, an Archangel secondary school principal, recently visited schools in the Pittsburgh area on an Open World delegation > The Norwegian energy company Troms Kraft has announced plans to build a wind power generating facility on the Solovetsky Islands > The Russian Postal Service has begun service to the four lonely meteorologists stationed in Franz Josef Land (a group of islands hundreds of miles north of Archangel) where the average summer high temperature is 36° F and the record low is -56° F.
By the late 1700's, Russians were trading extensively with the Native Americans in Alaska. In 1799, Alexander Baranof, the General Manager of the Russian American Company, founded the city of Saint Archangel Michael in Alaska and re-named it New Archangel in 1802. For the next 65 years, New Archangel was the capital of the Russian Empire in Alaska; the city was re-named Sitka when the United States purchased Alaska in 1867. Alexander Baranof (1746-1819) was born in Kargopol, a beautiful old city in the southwestern part of the Archangel Region. |
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