People’s diplomacy and the importance of town-twinnings in a contemporary world

Dear friends, Greetings from former Stalingrad!
  First of all, let me thank the organisers of this forum, who have been defending the principles of humanity and justice in the international arena for many years.
  I would also like to thank all those present at this conference today for the fact that your sanity has not left you and you are here!
  I am sure that all of us gathered at this difficult time for the world, representatives of different countries and confessions, and, above all, those who have experienced the horrors of war, feel our involvement and responsibility for the fate of the world.

‘In 1945, it was obvious
to everyone that the hegemony
of one country was impossible’

When Hitler’s regime, based on the insane ideas of National Socialism and militarism, fell in 1945, it was obvious to everyone that the hegemony of one country and one ideology in the world was impossible. Unfortunately, 80 years later, we see that the lessons of history have remained unlearned. But history teaches us that war must be fought against before it begins.
  The situation now is such that there is a common enemy in the modern world – it is a real threat of war. People feel that the danger of war on an unimaginable scale is becoming greater every day.
  Unfortunately, the tendency to change the balance of power in the international arena in favour of peace, reason and goodwill has been infected with an evil virus. Mankind is tired of the endless succession of ‘thaws’, colour revolutions and prolonged cold spells, military conflicts as in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and other countries, and common sense, the natural instinct of self-preservation, refuse to understand the logic of suicide.

‘The time has come
to rally the ranks
of the common-sense forces’

I am sure that the time has come to rally the ranks of the common sense forces, to intensify and intensify our efforts!
  And here I want to take you all back to 1985. At the invitation of Willy Brandt, the Soviet Committee for the Defence of Peace sent a delegation, which I had the privilege of leading, to participate in anti-war events in Nuremberg.
  Willy Brandt, a Nobel laureate, in his own words, one who was not afraid to swim against the tide, organised the West-East Forum in Nuremberg (where the famous trial of fascism took place) 40 years later, and this was a new phase of relations. The leaders of the cities most affected by the war were represented there: Warsaw, Oradour, Dresden, Cologne, Rotterdam, Coventry, Stalingrad, Leningrad, Minsk. This Forum was called the ‘Nuremberg Peace Talk.’ Willy Brandt said at the time: “We recognise that we have a responsibility and we do this so that peace and the freedom of social justice can flourish.” This was a man of high citizenship.

Twinning

We also spoke with Norbert Burger, the Lord Mayor of Cologne, who, unfortunately, is no longer alive, with whom we signed an agreement on twinning our cities in 1988, which is still alive and quite effective – the societies ‘Volgograd -Cologne’ and ‘Cologne-Volgograd’ are still in operation. And the point of our speeches was that we must look for future occasions to talk, to meet and to act together again and again. War is terrible and ridiculous, and it is impossible to imagine the consequences of a nuclear catastrophe. Today the nuclear weapons that have been accumulated on earth are quite enough to completely destroy the human race and it is quite clear that any nuclear war, if unleashed, will mean a world crisis and will end in the total elimination of humanity. There will be no us humans, young and mature, loving our loved ones and being loved by them. This is still a theory, and we will fight for the right to live!

The role of the USA

Today, the United States of America is the pretender to world domination. This state and its satellites are firmly committed to hegemony – military, political, economic, cultural, even moral. They impose artificial geopolitical constructions on the world, their perverted understanding of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ values, substitute international law with a certain ‘order’ based on ‘rules’ invented by them. They act according to the principle: ‘whoever is not with us is against us’.
  How should we feel about the words of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, spoken in Munich in February this year, to the effect that the world is divided into those ‘at the democratic table’ and those on its ‘menu’? Does this not remind us of the policies of the colonial empires of past centuries?
  But any sensible person realises that today’s world is too complex and diverse to be completely subordinated to one idea or one regime. Moreover, new centres of influence are emerging on the planet today in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Global changes in international relations are taking place. Under these conditions, a unipolar American world is simply impossible. It is necessary to develop multipolar co-operation. And this is confirmed by the creation of the BRICS.

Multipolar cooperation …

Another excellent example of such multipolar co-operation is the international twin-cities movement, whose origins 80 years ago were the Soviet city of Stalingrad and the British city of Coventry. In June 1944, the two cities, which had suffered severe bombing raids and fought together against Nazi Germany, declared each other ‘twinned’. This event, which took place at the height of the Second World War, became a symbol of unity, solidarity and mutual support in the fight against fascism.
  The most important moment in the establishment of the world’s first twinning relations was the fact that it did not happen by administrative order, but as a result of mutual aspirations for each other of ordinary citizens, who made their joint contribution to the struggle for life and common victory. It was a real people’s diplomacy.
  After the Second World War, the example of Stalingrad (renamed Volgograd in 1961) and Coventry was followed by other cities. Thousands of cities around the world have cemented their relations with each other and formed the international twinning movement, which has become an important player in international relations over the eight decades of its existence.

… and people’s diplomacy

Currently, Volgograd has 44 twin cities and partner cities from 21 countries around the world. Relations with them are carried out in various spheres. Naturally, due to current events, while Europe is coming to its senses, the focus is on the East.
  For example, just recently, in July 2024, the collective of the children’s choreographic ensemble ‘Volzhanochka’ took part in the International Youth Music Festival of the twin cities, which was held in Chengdu, China. Young artists from China, in turn, actively participate every year in creative competitions organised by the Volgograd Regional Children’s Art Gallery. There are also joint projects with the Turkish twin city of Izmir and with many other of our friends around the world. It is gratifying that a significant part of these activities is carried out by young people who have yet to build their future. This interaction through people-to-people diplomacy allows us to develop ties between the city and its residents in the world and strengthen international friendship.
  Over the past two years, I have met at the Volgograd Region Peace Foundation with residents of Germany and the Czech Republic, members of civil society organisations, who are convinced that the real Russia is not what the Western media portray it as. They do not consider the Soviet soldiers who liberated Europe from fascism 80 years ago as ‘invaders’. And they do not believe the arguments of today’s European politicians that Russia is seeking to invade neighbouring countries. These are people of different ages, professions and social status who are convinced that friendship between peoples and states, not conflict, is the basis on which international relations should be built.
  Just 2 years before the start of the special military operation conducted by Russia, the Volgograd Region Peace Foundation together with the Federal Association of German Societies West-East and the German-Russian Forum planned to hold a youth conference in Berlin, then travel by a special Remembrance train from Berlin through Warsaw, Brest, Minsk, Smolensk and Moscow to visit memorial sites, to draw the attention of the adult and young generation of Europe and Russia to the struggle for peace. But the well-known events did not allow the fulfilment of the plan.

‘Peace in Europe is impossible
without Russia’s involvement’

And so, on 30 July 2024 I received a copy of an open letter from an activist of the German Die Linke Party, a member of the German-Russian Friendship Working Group of Saxony to the German government and the President of the Russian Federation. Here are excerpts from it: “The Soviet troops and their allies liberated Germany and the whole of Europe from fascism. Our gratitude to the liberating heroes cannot be expressed in words!” “We demand that our government stop supplying arms to Ukraine, take diplomatic initiatives to end this war, and stop demonising Russia.” “The justification for sending offensive weapons to Ukraine was the accusation that the Russian state was the first to attack Ukraine on 24 February 2022, thus starting a war against Ukraine. We know this is not true! The US started the Ukrainian war with a bloody coup in its own territory of Ukraine in 2014 with indirect support from other leading NATO states. This war included Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.” “Peace in Europe is impossible without Russia’s involvement.”
  People’s diplomacy holds great potential both for improving the global international environment as a whole and for strengthening friendship and mutual understanding between individuals in different countries. And as long as there are people who choose this path of development instead of enmity, humanity has hope for a bright future.
  The world needs peace!  •

(Translation Current Concerns)

* Yuri Fedorovich Starovatykh, born in 1937 in Stalingrad (now Volgograd), was the Lord Mayor of Volgograd from 1986 to 1990. He is a civil engineer and was involved in the construction of the Panorama Museum ‘The Battle of Stalingrad’ in Volgograd, as well as the metro and several social projects. He was Vice President of the international organisation Mayors for Peace, a member of the executive committee of numerous international organisations such as the International Association of Peace Messenger Cities, the Federation of Twin Cities, etc. To this day, he is committed to Volgograd’s town twinnings around the world. During his term of office, 40 town twinnings were established. Yuri Starovatykh is the chairman of the regional branch of the ‘Russian Peace Foundation’ in Volgograd, an honorary citizen of the hero city Volgograd, an honorary citizen of Hiroshima and the bearer of the medal of honour “For the consolidation of peace and understanding between peoples”.