The following narrative is the story of how the Rotary Club of Eugene (Club) worked to get Rotary invited into the Soviet Union and helped charter and form the Irkutsk, Siberia Rotary Club. The narrative was written in the first person by Rotary Club of Eugene member and 2000-2001 past President Ron Gietter.
In 1988, the City of Eugene, Oregon and the City of Irkutsk, Siberia officially established a Sister City relationship. In the fall of that year, the mayor of Irkutsk announced that he was coming to Eugene for a visit. This was a period in time when Mikhail Gorbachev announced an easing in the tensions between the Soviet Union and the “west” known as Glasnost and Perestroika. A small group of members from the Rotary Club of Eugene thought this might be an opportunity to discuss with the mayor the possibilities of starting a Rotary club in his city. If the Club could make this happen, it would be the first Rotary Club established in the Soviet Union since Rotary was banished from the USSR during the Cold War. The Club’s objective was to promote peace and a better understanding of each other. In the Fall of 1988, a meeting was scheduled with the Irkutsk mayor and the following Rotarians from the Club: John Alltucker, Rick Cleveland, Dick McClintik, Ralph Lafferty, Chuck Wiper and Ronald Gietter. At that meeting the Rotarians explained (through interpreters) to the mayor what we would like to do. He was very skeptical and kept asking us what we really wanted. We kept repeating that all we wanted to do was establish a Rotary Club in his City. We had to explain to him what Rotary was all about. We left the meeting with the mayor saying he would think about it.
During the following several months a number of delegations from Irkutsk came to Eugene for a visit. We discussed the same idea with them. Soon the idea started to catch hold in Irkutsk. In the fall of 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, the Irkutsk mayor returned to Eugene for a visit and we asked for a meeting. This time he was more receptive. We talked about setting up a Business Persons Club to resemble a Rotary Club made up of prominent men and women in Irkutsk. In order to do this we had to get all the policies and bylaws of Rotary translated into Russian. At this time, I (ed. note: Ron Gietter) was the Chairperson of the Youth Exchange Committee of the Club, I asked the mayor if he would be interested in a high school student exchange between our two cities. The mayor requested that we explain the process. When I told the mayor that it was for one year, he said “Nyet”. I suggested six months, again “Nyet”, three months? “Nyet”. When six weeks was suggested, “Da” – he agreed! – as long as the students were accompanied by a chaperone. The Eugene Rotary team arranged for four Irkutsk students to come to Eugene in the spring of 1990 and attend South Eugene High School. In return, we would then send four students and a chaperone to Irkutsk in the fall of 1990. The Club was very excited that we had a plan in place. We called Rotary International to give them the good news. To our surprise, they said that Rotary would not go back into the Soviet Union without a personal invitation from Mikhail Gorbachev – “and by the way, you are on your own to get that invitation”. To say the least, we were disappointed. We conveyed this news to our friends in Irkutsk. In the first week of November, 1989, we got a message from Irkutsk saying they had set up an appointment for us in the Kremlin (the week of our Thanksgiving) to ask Gorbachev for the invitation. We could not believe it. We then had to figure out how to get to Moscow in two weeks without each of us spending thousands of dollars. Rick Cleveland’s wife Stephanie was a travel agent and she had an idea: She called SAS Airlines (the main western carrier to Moscow) and explained what had just transpired. She was told to wait a day and they would get back to us. The next day, SAS called Stephanie and said that SAS convened a special Board meeting regarding our issue and decided that what we were doing was of such international importance, they would fly each of us to Moscow and back for $400. The morning after we arrived, John Alltucker, Rick Cleveland, Dick McClintik, Ralph Lafferty and I were walking through Red Square towards the Kremlin! We knew that not many American citizens had made this journey to the Kremlin, we knew that we were walking through a crack in the door of history and we did not know how long it might be open. When we got to the Kremlin, we were escorted upstairs into Mikhail Gorbachev’s offices. A man by the name of Genrick Borovik greeted us. He spoke perfect English. He apologized that President Gorbachev was unable to meet with us. He said President Gorbachev knew why we were there and he was going to invite Rotary back into the Soviet Union. We spent some time going over how and where to send the invitation. After we left the Kremlin, we flew to Irkutsk, which is four time zones east of Moscow. Getting on an Aeroflot plane with bald tires and very little safety in mind was quite an experience. After two refueling stops, we arrived in Irkutsk at 3:00 A.M. We were whisked away to what we were hoping was a hotel, but instead we went to a large banquet dinner with prominent citizens of Irkutsk. After many rounds of toasting with vodka and eating, we finally got a few hours of sleep. The next few days were spent meeting with future Siberian Rotary members and setting up their Club.
One of my visits while in Irkutsk was to a school where I met the four students and their chaperone who were coming to Eugene in the spring of 1990. I met their parents and assured them that their children would be well taken care of in Eugene. During another visit with the future Club members we suggested that they pick their inaugural service project and start recruiting volunteers to do the project. Volunteerism was forbidden in the Soviet Union, so this idea was very foreign to them. Everything was supposed to be done by the Government, or should I say, not done by the Government. They decided that their first project would be to paint an old age home.
After arriving back in Eugene, we took a break for the holidays. After the first of the year, we started planning for the first ever USSR/US private student exchange. We asked our Club for host families and quickly filled the spots. The exchange was only for six weeks rather than our regular one-year exchange like we were used to so the search for host families was comparatively easy. The students would not only go to South Eugene High School, but we would also be showing them the many beautiful sights in Oregon. In April, 1990, the students and their chaperone arrived. One of the female students stayed with my family. My daughter Lindsay and our exchange student Yana became very close even though neither one could speak the other’s language. We took the students to the coast and to the mountains. There were many dinners at Rotary member’s homes. Also, during the exchange, we continued to work with Irkutsk in forming their club.
After the students left, we started the process of interviewing students to go to Irkutsk in October, 1990. Ed King, a longtime member of our club, volunteered to be the chaperone. We got in touch with all the high schools in the area and quickly developed a list of interested students to interview. In the meantime, my daughter Lindsay said that she wanted to be interviewed. I told her that she was too young (12 years old) and that she was not in high school. Still, he insisted on being interviewed! My wife Jo and I agreed knowing that there was no way she would be picked. I took myself off the interview committee so that there would not be a conflict of interest. I told the other interviewers to placate her and tell her she was too young. After the interviews, I got a call from a committee member that Lindsay was one of the best students interviewed and they wanted her to go. My wife and I were shocked!
Mikhail Gorbachev did invite Rotary into the the Soviet Union. However, we were told that the first Rotary Club in the USSR had to be in Moscow. Rotary International worked on that requirement. As for us, our Club continued to plan for the chartering of the Irkutsk club and we set a charter date of November 23, 1990. We let it be known to our Club members that anyone in the club wishing to go to Irkutsk and be a part of the historic event was welcome to attend, of course, at their own expense. The interest in this event was great and 18 Rotarians, spouses and friends went on the trip.
Our group flew to Moscow in mid-November, 1990. We didn’t know it at the time of course but a year later, on December 21, 1991, the USSR would no longer exist. We toured St. Petersburg and Moscow with some of our new Irkutsk friends as tour guides. In Irkutsk, we had a charter party at a Chinese restaurant and the Irkutsk Rotary club was born. Afterwards, we met with our students in Irkutsk and then traveled home together.
The following newspaper headlines and stories were written during our efforts: The Eugene Register Guard – “Group hopeful of exchanges with U.S.S.R”. Wall Street Journal – “The Eugene Oregon Rotary knows of 20 community leaders in its sister city, Irkutsk, Siberia, U.S.S.R who are hot to get a Rotary club going”. The Oregonian – “Rotarians found club in former U.S.S.R”. As of May 16, 2022 (when this story was written) there were 127 Rotary Clubs in Russia and 62 in Ukraine. It is difficult to determine how many active Rotary Clubs there are in all the states that were formerly part of the USSR.
Epilog (R. Gietter) – I wrote this story because I am the only living person from the original Rotary Club of Eugene group of six who were part of this historic event and I do not want it to be forgotten. There were many side stories that took place that would be too long to describe. I also have a scrap book of pictures, official letters and newspaper articles of this event.