Back in the USSR

Past Rotary International Director Jorma Lampen recalls his unique year as District Governor.

MY ROTARY YEAR 1990-91 as ROTARY GOVERNOR OF THE USSR.

In 1990, when I was installed as governor in my District 142 ( today 1420) in Finland  the political situation in the neighbouring Soviet Union  was somewhat incoherent after Mikhail Gorbachev´s Glasnost and Perestroika policy. It was very exciting for me to step into that vast country of differences and try to introduce Rotary´s ideas and idealogy.

The first Rotary Club in the USSR (Moscow) was chartered on the 5th of June 1990, a couple of months before my governorship started. There were twenty five charter members in this first club. It was established at  the order of Rotary International (RI) President Hugh Archer. He had the opinion, that the first club in a country should always be chartered in the capital.

Rotary International had never been allowed to establish itself in the Soviet Union except within the (then independent) Baltic countries between the two world wars. The RI Board had agreed in preparatory discussions between RIP Hugh Archer and Past RIP Rolf Klärich with Jevgeni Primakov, later the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, which clubs were to be established in the USSR.

The first club I chartered during my governor year was Irkutsk Rotary Club on the shore of the Baikal lake. The Irkutsk Rotarians were very sorry, that their club was not the first in the Soviet Union. They reminded me about the fact that at the beginning of the 19th century, in St. Petersburg, there was the so called Dekabrist Rebellion. The Tsar of Russia sent many rebellious intellectuals to Irkutsk. Therefore, people like to say , that Irkutsk is the intellectual capital of Russia. If you visit a Irkutsk grave yard, you will see many famous names on the grave stones.

Irkutsk Rotarians looked after my wife and I for one whole week in their city. We stayed in a big, luxury hotel suite, where previously it had hosted James Baker, the US Secretary of State, when he negotiated with Eduard Shevarnadze, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR.

The Irkutsk Rotary Club  was, as a whole, very interesting in many ways. For example, it contained the first lady members in our District 142. They numbered four out of a total membership of twenty seven. During my visit, I was asked in this club: How many woman members do we have in our district? A few weeks before my trip to Irkusk I had visited Tuusula RC near Helsinki. Tuusula is a garrison city and there in the club membership were serving military officers. In Tuusula, I had asked how they would feel to introduce lady members into their club. The President answered thus: "We have nothing against ladies, but we take as members only those who have done their military service". I repeated this in answer  to the Irkutsk question. And what happened then ? A big, strong looking lady stepped up and said : "I am a general in the Soviet army."  She was the wife of  the Irkutsk Rotary Club President, a general in the army and the general prosecutor in the city of Irkutsk. In Soviet Russia, it was a custom then, that women, who had passed their academic examinations, were also named to some military position.

Another interesting experience I had in Irkutsk was with the charter President. He was the Chief Executive Officer of the leading Siberian construction company, a very big firm covering the whole of Siberia. It was difficult for him to leave his Presidential position after one year. He said, he would lose face, if he left after one year. Regardless of our traditions and customs he stayed as President for three years.

The sponsor club of Irkutsk Rotary Club was the Rotary Club of Eugene, Oregon, USA. Irkutsk and Eugene were twinned as ‘friend cities’  and thus  Eugene Rotarians knew the Irkutsk people well. Eugene Rotary Club spent about $40, 000 USD for the establishment of Irkutsk RC. Most of this sum was spent in travel costs. Big delegations traveled long distances both ways. Normally the establishment of a Rotary Club in the Soviet Union would cost about $20, 000 USD. After establishment, the sponsor club would be responsible for overseeing the next two years of the newly-sponsored club‘s activities.

On 24th October 1990, FN-Day, we celebrated the third USSR club. The Rotary Club of Leningrad was chartered. The Charter President was Andrei Ibragimov, who later became an Assistant Governor in District 1430. This charter festival received much more international attention than the Irkutsk Charter. There were many participants from various countries. Especially many Rotarians from Finland and Norway. The main sponsor club was Lappeenranta Rotary Club in Finland and the other important sponsor was the Sköyen club from Norway. There were about 60 Finns and 30 Norwegians at the charter. Leningrad RC club got 60 banners, thus showing, that there at least 60 visiting clubs were represented. The Mayor of Los Angeles, USA participated in the evening gala dinner at the Pribaltiskaja hotel.

Leningrad Rotarians very unhappy that their club was not the first in the Soviet Union, because, after all, St. Petersburg was the first capital of Tsarist Russia and also the most ‘western’ in their opinion.

The fourth Rotary Club in the old USSR was the Tallinn club - the capital of Estonia. Tallinn had had a Rotary Club between 1927 and 1940, when the Russian army occupied Tallinn and Rotary Clubs were  prohibited as ‘western organisations‘.

In the autumn of1990, after chartering Leningrad Rotary Club, I started to get warnings from various sources, that I should stop the establishment  of new clubs in Soviet Russia because soon there might be a change of government, which might not allow new clubs any more. They might also think of Rotary as some kind of quasi-American spying organisation. However, I decided together with the Helsinki Rotary Club, which was the main sponsor, to re-start the Tallinn Rotary Club in February 1991, which however did not initially succeed. Russian tanks rolled in to the city in February, into the centrum of Tallinn and went to Toombea hill and to the front of the national parliament building. This demonstrated to  everyone  that the Russian army still governed both Tallinn and Estonia.

In February 1991 I was also informed that a revolution would soon take place within the Soviet Union (just as I had been warned about revolution in the previous autumn of 1990). Now, it was said to happen, at the beginning of March. Therefore we changed the Tallinn charter to the beginning of May 1991. We informed the club, the official reason for this was that RI President Paolo Costa would like to give the charter document personally to the President of the Tallinn Rotary Club and his travel schedule did not allow him to come earlier than May.

On the 5th of May 1991 we then celebrated the Tallinn Rotary Club charter festival. So the Tallinn club was reborn. Helsinki Rotary Club was the main sponsor now (as it had been at the end of 1920s). Rotarian Mikko Mannio from the Helsinki Rotary Club was my special representative in this rebirth . An interesting example of Rotarian continuity is the fact, that Mikko Mannio´s father Niilo A. Mannio had been an initiator and the main actor in the first chartering of Tallinn Rotary Club all those years ago.

For my wife and I, it was very interesting to meet RI`s highest leader Paolo Costa and his wife Rita. This was also a fine experience for Tallinn Rotarians. They had very carefully prepared the visit program. Because at this time there were so many uncertainties in Tallinn we had at all times a so-called ‘personal watchmen’ following us. Also during the nights we had guards outside our hotel room doors. During this Tallinn visit, I felt this great burden on my shoulders most intensely as Governor of the USSR. Military coups and power struggles were always in our thoughts and in our discussions. Again, we heard that a military take over would happen at the beginning of May. Again it didn`t happen. History records the revolution happening on the 19th of August 1991. ( Luckily for me after my governor year!)

At the beginning of the1990s in the old Soviet Parliament  there was a famous "black colonel" Alksnis, who often spoke of how "western organisations will infiltrate into Soviet society and try to cause chaos". Rotary was not mentioned explicitly in this connection, but we were afraid, that after the  take-over Rotary clubs might be forbidden and their members would be judged to be agents of western powers. We have to remember  that it was not so very long ago, when, for example it was forbidden for Russians to even speak on the streets with ‘westerners‘.

How did these 5 Rotary Clubs- Moscow, and the three which I chartered- operate during my governor year? In the beginning they had approximately 150 members between them. They represented many various public and private organisations, leading city authorities, universities, high schools etc.  Many directors  of private companies became members. In general, I can say, that I tried as much as possible to get a cross section of community representatives. I have however to admit, that it was not always an easy task. For example, the first membership list of one club included only artists.  When I asked, why so, I got the answer: "We artists are the only creative people ". In another club almost half of its members were from the same firm. They were establishing an export department within their company and tried, with the help of Rotary, to increase and develop contacts in the USA. I tried to increase this club´s mass membership in order to dilute a little of that company´s influence. There was also a hunting club that tried to transform itself into a Rotary Club.

I  still remember, vividly, one curious detail I would like to mention. Sometimes it was very difficult to get the home addresses of Rotarians. The reason was that the living conditions of these members were so poor or their home was in such a poor area, that they were too ashamed to publish them.

So how did Rotary´s ideas and ideology enter and go forward in the USSR  during its first year there? Truthfully, I must say, that it took  some time before the ideology of service could replace the ideology of egoism. In the beginning Rotary was too easily thought of as some kind of Chamber of Commerce or a Businessman´s club. Another opinion was that Rotary was purely a welfare organisation. Little by little, however, it was possible to get the idea and ethos of Rotary understood. For example, the Irkutsk Rotary Club donated  200 000 roubles to establish a radiation clinic for cancer care. The Leningrad Rotary Club initiated the  "Heart to Heart"- a program which enabled heart patient children to travel to various parts of the world for life-saving heart operations which could not be carried out in Soviet Russia. These children were mostly sent to Norway. The Moscow and Tallinn Rotary Clubs started student and scholarship student exchanges especially with the USA. The Leningrad Club sent university students to Austria for their higher education. Irkutsk Rotary planned, during their first Rotary year, to build an old people´s home. They also started a student exchange program with the Eugene Rotary Club in the USA.

I could give many, many more examples of various projects which clubs themselves and  especially the sponsoring clubs carried out in the USSR during the first Rotary year there. Besides receiving various RI grants, many of the sponsoring clubs wanted to work directly with their partner clubs. It is impossible to say the value of these different endeavours. One estimate was carried out at the end of 1990s by American Rotarian Dorothy Steinert, who stayed several years in Leningrad. Her estimate was that about $40 million USD´s worth of grants and materials had been provided by Rotarians in various projects in Russia.

As a whole I can tell you, that my year as governor in the USSR was very interesting, but it was also a very burdensome year. Today, the ‘normal’ Rotary district governor finds his/her Rotary duties and obligations time consuming. The fact was  that one quarter of the world´s earth service was added to my district. In Rotary year 1990-91, there was no system of assistant governors (AGs) to help share the burden. So, I  alone battled to communicate with perhaps over thousand various contacts, by letter , telefax, telex, phone calls etc. I tried one way or another to handle them all. Regardless of all these extreme trials, I had to finally abandon this approach and realize, that I could not handle everything any more. There was not enough time for everything. I informed RI and the RI Secretariat sent out a message asking if we could slow down interest in chartering new Rotary Clubs in the Soviet Union. But one  trial to start a new club has always remained in my mind. A determined American  club wanted to start a Rotary Club in their ‘friendship town‘ in the USSR. To hasten the administrative process, they sent a cheque for the sum required for establishment. I started to gather information about the city and found out, that the biggest employer there was the local prison. I asked myself: Can we actually establish a new club in a prison ? Alas, It was not established during my Rotary year as Governor!

In summary I can say, that my year as governor in USSR was always over-full with work, but it was also very rewarding and interesting.

I had to attend various meetings, receptions and other occasions and I was also called by other names. Ed Cadman, PRIP, called me ‘Gennaj Gerasimoff‘ (a former Russian ambassador). At District 228´s district conference Norwegians called me ‘Boris Yeltsin‘, because they said, I looked like the late President of Russia. Finally RIP Paolo Costa called me simply: ‘tsar‘.

During my governor year I met many interesting people in eventful, historic circumstances. I made many good friends in Russia. Many more such friends I met later and heard what they had done during the Soviet Union´s disintegrating years. My belief in Rotary´s future was further strengthened after my experiences there. There are not many days in my time as DG that I would like to change, well maybe some.

For about ten years after my governor year, I continued my Rotary work in Russia under various titles.