Maine news, sports, weather from Waterville Morning Sentinel

Russian city, Waterville continue connection

By Leslie Bridgers lbridgers@pressherald.com
Staff Writer

WATERVILLE -- If you look for them, they're everywhere.

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Former Kotlas Connection Chairman Peter Garrett looks over items in a display at the Center in Waterville that were donated by officials from the Russian city of Kotlas, sister city to Waterville. A group of Russians is visiting the city for a week.

Staff photo by David Leaming

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Seamlessly woven into the city's landscape are small reminders of Waterville's 20-year relationship with the Russian city of Kotlas.

There's the sign after the bridge coming in from Winslow, the birch trees at Head of Falls, a wooden bird that hangs from the ceiling of a conference room in The Center.

This week, the bond built between the sister cities will be even more palpable, as about dozen Kotlas residents, including the mayor, stroll down Main Street and sleep in the guest rooms of homes in greater Waterville.

It's the largest contingent of residents from Waterville's sister city that's come to Maine, according to Ellen Corey, co-chairwoman of the Kotlas Connection.

"It's been quite a lot of e-mails back and forth," Corey said about the planning that's gone into the visit from the Russians.

The visitors, who were scheduled to arrive on Friday, were given time today to recover from any jet lag. But, on Sunday, they'll start making their way through a loaded itinerary for their week-long trip.

They'll tour Augusta, bus to Acadia and eat barbecue by the Belgrade Lakes. And, of course, they'll spend some time in Waterville.

Two receptions are planned for the visitors. On Tuesday, they'll be officially welcomed by Mayor Paul LePage at 10 a.m. in City Hall. On Wednesday evening, the public can get to know the guests at a gathering in The Center at 7 p.m.

In addition to Mayor Sergei Melentyev, the visitors include Kotlas's assistant mayor and his teenage daughter, the director of railroads in the Kotlas area and several educators, some of whom are English teachers.

Corey said the relationship between Waterville and Kotlas has evolved largely into an educational exchange. Every year, the Colby College Russian Department holds a day-long workshop, called Russian Sampler, in which area middle school students can learn about Russian language, arts and history.

The annual event often draws a few visitors from Kotlas and has inspired teachers from the sister city to start a similar workshop in Kotlas about American culture.

Peter Garrett, who initiated the sister city connection with Kotlas, said he's pleased with the way education has become the focus of the relationship between the cities. He's also just happy that the connection has lasted.

"I'm delighted that it's still here after 20 years, and that some of the personal relationships that we've established right from the beginning are ongoing," Garrett said this week.

Garrett first had the idea of Waterville adopting a Russian sister city in the mid-1980s, "when the Cold War was really cold," he said.

Forming a connection between average Americans and their Russian counterparts, Garrett thought, could ease some of tension between the nations and alleviate fear among the citizens.

"Few people seemed to think that Russians were really people, just like us," said Garrett, who sought to change that.

The first thing Garrett did was go to the Colby library and start leafing through a Russian encyclopedia. He was in search of a city that shared characteristics with Waterville. After a fair amount of reading, he came upon Kotlas -- a small city in the northern part of the country where two rivers met and that had a railroad depot, a college, a shirt factory and a nearby paper mill.

Garrett started telling other people about his idea and about Kotlas. He spoke with the Rotary, Lions and Kiwanis clubs, the chamber of commerce and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

"We tried to make it a community-wide effort," he said.

Garrett then put together a package, which included a letter from Waterville's mayor, translated into Russian, as well as maps and pictures of people from Waterville. It was a couple months before the Kotlas mayor responded.

"In essence, he said, 'Thanks, but nyet,'" said Garrett.

It took some persistence, but after correspondence between a resident of Kotlas and a Waterville woman of Russian descent, officials from both cities eventually warmed up to the idea.

Garrett visited Kotlas in 1989, and, the next year, the Kotlas mayor came to Waterville and signed an accord with the mayor of the Maine city, establishing sisterhood. Since then, residents of both cities, including Corey and Garrett, have traveled between the countries regularly.

"They're very, very welcoming to guests," Corey said, and Garrett agreed.

"We might as well have been the king and queen," he said.

Corey hopes she and the other Waterville hosts will be able to match the Russian's hospitality in this latest and largest visit. She said she's confident that the trip will be a success.

"These things always seem to work out beautifully," she said.

Leslie Bridgers -- 861-9252

lbridgers@centralmaine.com