Kotlas Connection Holds Annual Meeting
By Gregor Smith
The Kotlas Connection held its annual meeting on Tuesday, November 9, in the REM Forum at 93 Main St. in Waterville. Twenty people were present.
The meeting opened with the Co-Chairmen's Annual Report, in which Phil Gonyar reviewed the Kotlas Connection's major accomplishments since the last annual meeting. These included our ornament sale last December, Russian Sampler in March, our purchase and installation of a granite marker by the Kotlas birches at Head of Falls in May, and our food table at the Voices of the Kennebec Festival in June. Of course, our most accomplishment was the receipt of a grant through Sister Cities International that enabled us to host a mayoral delegation from Kotlas in June.
The focus of the fifteen-minute business meeting was the election of next year's executive committee. The assembly elected Jack Mayhew to a two-year term as co-chairman. He replaced Phil Gonyar, who is barred by our bylaws from serving another term as co-chairman but who remains a member of the executive committee. The attendees also re-elected Ellen Corey to two more years as secretary. Co-chairman Herb Foster and treasurer Cindy Rowe were halfway through their biennial terms, and thus were not up for re-election this year. Additionally, the Kotlas Connection's membership re-elected Mary Coombs, John Engle, Mark Fisher, Pauline Mayhew, Sheila McCarthy, Martha Patterson, Gregor Smith, Julie Stowe, Jan Whitcomb, and Wayne Whitcomb to the executive committee for one year terms as members without portfolio.
The executive committee welcomes one new member, Carl Daiker. A long time friend of outgoing co-chairman Phil Gonyar, Daiker is a recent immigrant to Maine. Until his retirement, he was transit coordinator for Orange County, New York, in which capacity he sought grants to fund the county's system of public transit busses. He is an avid traveler, having visited all fifty U.S. states and all eleven Canadian provinces. He has not yet been to Russia, although he participated in a study tour to Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic last fall with Phil Gonyar and a group of other retirees.
After the business meeting, Ellen Corey and Julie Stowe presented a computerized slide show about the Kotlas mayor's visit. The slide show also included several images from the visit of the last delegation to Kotlas, in August 2002, by way of introducing the trip planned for this coming August. The show closed with a picture of our beloved Natalia Kempers, co-founder of our sister city pairing with Kotlas, who passed away in September.
Finally, two young Russian visitors, Artyom Serischev, an exchange student at Messalonskee High School, and Masha Zhurbina, this year's Russian Language Assistant at Colby College, introduced themselves and answered questions. Also, throughout the meeting, a bulletin board with photos of and newspaper articles about Natalia Kempers was on display, with a silver bowl in front to collect contributions in her memory for the Kotlas orphanage for infants and toddlers.
Russian Student Attends Messalonskee High
Since last September, Russian exchange student Artyom Alexandrovich Serischev has been attending Messalonskee High School. The following profile of Artyom is excerpted from the article "MHS Goes International: Two Exchange Students Join the MHS Ranks," which originally appeared in the November 2004 edition of the Messalonskee Messenger, a semiannual publication of MSAD #47. The article was written by MHS library assistant Kiri Guyaz and appears here by permission of MSAD #47 Superintendent Dr. James C. Morse, Sr.
 Artyom Serischev |
Artyom was born May 10, 1989 in a Russian town named Ufa. He now lives in Syzran, which was originally founded as a fortress by Tsar Peter the Great on the Volga River. He and his parents live in a second-floor apartment, and though he has no brothers or sisters, many cousins live nearby. His mother is a nurse, and his father is driver for the military. Artyom's favorite time of year is the Russian New Year's, which is held a week later than ours and is the equivalent of our Christmas/holiday season.
What would he most like Americans to know about his home country? He paused, grinned and replied, "You Americans are not so bad as Russians are told," then he laughed and considered it more seriously. "American people need to know that not all Russians are connected to the Russian Mafia, and that there are many kind Russian people." Artyom is excited to be here in Maine and welcomes people to come talk to him and learn more about Russia, a very beautiful and complex country.
He has taken English classes for seven years, but his favorite subjects are literature, biology and physical education. In Russia, his day is very busy. School, sports, household chores, then homework, frequently past midnight. Excelling in school, he has received a number of honors in Russian literature, and one in Russian language as well. His plans include travel but also medical school, to become a surgeon. All young men in Russia must serve in the military, either at age 18 or immediately following university. Artyom is not certain how his life will unfold, but he might become a military surgeon.
Artyom's favorite authors are Vladimir Mayakovski and Ivan Sergeiovich Turgenev, and his favorite movie is the Russian film Brother. He also enjoys football, basketball, nature, collecting coins and listening to music, particularly Russian rock, and rap. He is very interested in photography and shooting video, and is enrolled in the visual media class at MHS. His favorite things about the USA so far are fairs, traveling, seeing American culture and shopping. Artyom has joined the Key Club, because a strong component of ORAP is learning the way organizations function and learning the power of volunteerism through community service.
Artyom is very positive and resourceful, with an impressive adaptability and problem-solving attitude. When asked about the pluses and minuses of being an exchange student, he said simply, "The minuses are not important." Although introspective, he definitely has a sense of humor-he's just so quiet about it you might miss it if you're not watching closely.
During his American sojourn, Artyom is staying with Mark Fisher, an Oakland town councilor and member of the Kotlas Connection's executive committee. Last year, Fisher hosted Alexey Sokolov, who attended Waterville High School and who came from Ufa, Artyom's birthplace. During the 2005-2006 academic year, Fisher will be hosting Aleksandr Glekov, a 16-year-old from northern Belarus.
Kotlassians Elect New Mayor and City Assembly
By Gregor Smith
 Sergey Melentev |
In municipal elections held on Sunday, December 19, Sergey Nikolayevich Melentev easily defeated two other candidates to become the new mayor of Kotlas. He will serve for four years.
Melentev was an assistant to his immediate predecessor, Aleksandr Shashurin, for eight years. He celebrated his 45th birthday two days before the election.
The two unsuccessful candidates were Nikolay Nikolaevich Savadsky, publisher of the private, weekly newspaper Vecherniy Kotlas ("Evening Kotlas") and Boris Mikhailovich Tukavin, a former chairman of the city's assembly of deputies, or city council.
Meanwhile, outgoing mayor Shashurin, who visited Waterville last summer, was elected as a deputy to the regional duma, or legislature, in Archangel. Like his successor as mayor, he was elected by a comfortable margin. Another of last summer's visitors, Kotlas businessman Andrey Palkin was also elected to that body.
Elections for the Kotlas assembly of deputies had a curious result: in half of the twenty electoral districts, a plurality of the voters voted against all the candidates. (Russian ballots have a "none of the above" option: after the list of candidates for any given office is a box one can check to reject all the candidates.) In those wards, a second round of elections was held on March 13 to bring the assembly to full strength.
The assembly's new chairman, Aleksandr Yuryevich Stepanoff was director of a children's school of arts. Among the other deputies are three businessmen, including publisher of Vecherniy Kotlas and unsuccessful mayoral aspirant. The assembly also comprises teachers, doctors, heads of the state and municipal establishments, three workers, and the head of railroad workers' union. The oldest deputy was born in 1945; the youngest in 1976. Only three are incumbents from the previous assembly. Like the mayor, deputies serve for four years.
Thanks to Irina Dubrovina for supplying the information for this report.
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