From Heart to Heart Diplomacy

By Yana Ashmanskaya, age 15
Humanitarian Aesthetic Gymnasium No.11
Dubna, Moscow Oblast

Even in small families with loving each other members there are sometimes situations which should be settled to say nothing of such a great number of different in many ways countries. It�s clear that mutual understanding and friendly coexistence between them would be impossible without official diplomacy.
But I am sure that people�s diplomacy from heart to heart is neither less important nor less effective. So, I am going to speak about my native town of Dubna, Moscow Region, and an American town of La Crosse, Wisconsin.
In November 2006, a rotunda, just like the one on the quay of the Volga River in Dubna, was built on the bank of the Mississippi in La Crosse to immortalize forever the name of David Bell who died in Dubna in September 2006. Who and what was he? A war veteran, and a retired teacher, whose life made our communities closer.
It all began in August 1985, when the first launching of peace lights down the Mississippi in memory of the 40th anniversary of the nuclear bombarding in Hiroshima took place in La Crosse, USA. Jim Baumgartner, a doctor from a hospital in La Crosse, took part in this project. Afterwards he decided to spread the "Peace Lights" movement all over the world and called his plan "The International Project of Peace Lights Exchange". He wished the lights, made with American children�s hands, would destroy the international barriers and make the planet safer for all the children in the world.
So, in 1986, Jim visited the USSR, thousands of lights with him to be given to everybody who could help in spreading them. And David Bell, an English teacher in schools, was just the right person. On September 1, 1988, he organized the first peace lights launching down the Volga. in Dubna, which was the first step towards March, 1989, when the Association of Friendship Dubna-La Crosse was established. And later, April 30, 1989 was announced as the official Day of Dubna-La Crosse sister cities partnership. This was a small bridge laid between the two hostile countries, one of those which gradually made their relationships as friendly as they are now.
Originally the partnership was meant to develop collaboration between the two cities in various fields � medicine, education, culture, city government, protection of the environment, business. But it turned out to mean much more than that: the relationship between Dubna and La Crosse became the most convincing example of people�s diplomacy, which unites nations, helps people understand each other and learn how much they have in common. This program helped many people overcome their prejudices about the other nation, realize there isn�t and has never been any need to be enemies.
So, when Patrick Zilke, the ex-mayor of La-Crosse, was only to start the project, he often thought: �Do the Russians want to drop a bomb on us? And why don�t we drop a bomb on our worst enemies? �. But when he came to Dubna everything changed. The gardens and the small houses around him were so nice and the people smiling at him were so kind, that there was only one question in his mind at that time: �Why are these people our enemies? Why do we hate each other? �. But the people around didn�t hate them, they were nice and friendly. And Patrick�s group soon felt the same.
Now every year teachers and pupils visit the other sister city, learn more about its people and culture, make new friends and strengthen and widen the bridge once laid over the ocean, over the wall separating us, over the distrust of cold war and the mutual dislike of American and Russian governments.
Mary Robinson, a teacher who visited Dubna about two years ago said before leaving for La Crosse: �We are leaving with a great amount of impressions about your wonderful cities, with a new notion about Russia and the information about what the Russians think about the Americans�.
We have learned a lot from our friends from La Crosse and, in our turn, helped them gain some new knowledge. We have experienced the wonderful feelings of friendship and united in the face of common misfortunes and now know that nothing can make us enemies any longer. This is probably the main result of all the years of our partnership. We are sure that the coming years will bring new actions and joint initiatives, which will make our friendship stronger and our cities yet more wonderful.

Resources:
1) Bell D.N., Kiff P., Shishkina T.V., Shishkin S.V. Sister Cities Dubna and La Crosse: the History of Friendship in Facts and Recollections. � Dubna: JIFNR, 2003.
2) Kutuzova S. We�re Exchanging Kids. - Newspaper of Dubna "Square Mira", July 16, 2004.
3) Melkumova O. The Tree to the Future. � Newspaper of Dubna "Square Mira", June17, 2005.
4) The letter to the mayor of the city of La Crosse, Mr. John Medinger, to the citizens of the city of La Crosse from Valery Prokh, the mayor of Dubna, and David Bell, the Honorary President of the Dubna-La Crosse Friendship Association.
5) Zhezlov V.Yu., Kuzkin M.P., Sidorkina N.A., Starchenko B.M., Yukliayev S.A. Dubna.- Dubna, 1995.

By Yana Ashmanskaya, age 15
Humanitarian Aesthetic Gymnasium No.11
Dubna, Moscow Oblast