Last Day in E-burg

Photo: Promenade down the center of Lenina Prospect in Ekaterinburg, a pleasant walk 5.5 km long


I forgot to put the roses in the bathtub last night. In Russia I’ve learned that long-stemmed roses really benefit from being laid out in a tub of cool water overnight. You can have freshened roses on your breakfast table if you let them rest overnight when you do.

The roses I have now were a gift from a young man who was grateful for something I brought for him from the U.S. I had also exchanged small gifts with my friends, after dealing with the difficulty of finding things in the U.S. made in the U.S.

The dinner party Friday night could be termed a success. The ratatouille was well received; the carrot curls were eaten only by the women. The golybsti and fish pie that I half-expected never got made, but the French-boned roast chicken turned out well, and there was plenty of food.

Tomorrow I leave for Moscow, and on Tuesday for the U.S. One of the tasks I had set for myself in Ekaterinburg has been only partially accomplished, and that is going through old files and weeding them out. It’s easy to get bogged down reading things that once seemed important, and now at least bring back memories.

I came across a resume for Roman Chigerev, which I helped him write. Roman was my translator at the Urals Center for Cultural Initiatives. My task at UCCI was to train trainers on fundraising and marketing principles for cultural organizations. The expectation was that cultural organizations in Russia would find their state funding dwindling, and they would have a need to be self-supporting. I found out that the cultural organizations feared that if they started such innovations as differential pricing for tickets, setting up subscription series, and organizing patrons, their state funding would diminish accordingly, and they’d be left with no extra money after a lot of effort.

The Philharmonia went ahead with these innovations, and I will attribute much of their current robust status to a U.S. AID program that was separate from what I did. U.S. AID had a cultural exchange program that brought the chief administrator of the Philharmonia to the U.S. to meet colleagues in several cities. He came back inspired. Today the music center offers a variety of programs, from symphonies to jazz to the ethereal choral music of the Orthodox Church, which is what we went to hear last Monday. Performances are regularly sold out.

In contrast, the Musical Comedy Theater where I saw “Die Fledermaus” this week shows signs of the old regime. The facility has been lavishly renovated with money beyond what $10 tickets could buy, and I think that the sparse audience agreed with me that casting the 19th century Viennese libretto in 21st century Russia didn’t work very well, although the large cast had excellent singers. But if the Musical Comedy Theater pleases just one person (the city cultural officer) then they are assured of funding.

As I worked through Roman Chigerev to convey basic principles of marketing for non-profit organizations, Roman realized that I was talking about basic principles of marketing – period.
When I left UCCI, he started marketing himself as a business consultant. He was smart and he had truly learned a lot, plus he had initiative. As his list of clients grew, he understood the value of sharing “best practices,” and with recommendations from satisfied clients he has developed a consulting business from one side of Russia to the other.

Another piece of paper I came across was a letter of recommendation I had written for Olga Sidorenko, one of my students at Urals State Technical University. Here’s a paragraph from that letter:

“One class assignment was to pick three business opportunities, describe them briefly, and then a few weeks later choose one for a thorough analysis. There were many students who did a fine job, but Olga’s work was unusual in one important way: all three of her ideas were entrepreneurial and quite feasible as business start-ups, even in the current difficult economic situation. I made a strong recommendation that she choose a particular one for her class project. She chose a different one because it fit a burning interest of hers. She has ideas of how to meet pent-up demand for stylish home decorating in a low-cost manner. The result of her class project is that she has plans for something that may become a family business.”

Two pieces of paper, and a flood of memories…There are many Romans and Olgas in Russia, and I wish them all well.