Kalamazoo's sister city in Russia will celebrate 300th anniversary: Local delegation to travel to Puskin
By Bryce Hoekenga / Kalamazoo Gazette
Published: Tuesday, June 01, 2010
KALAMAZOO — The city of Kalamazoo will help her older sister in Russia celebrate a milestone marking three centuries of growth from a summer estate for the country's ruling tsars to an historic city filled with palaces, cathedrals and other architectural wonders.
Pushkin, which is Kalamazoo's sister city in Russia, will celebrate its 300th anniversary on June 23 through 27. A delegation of 20 people, most of whom are members of the Kalamazoo-Pushkin Partnership, will travel to Russia to attend the celebration.
The 17-year-old Kalamazoo-Pushkin Partnership hosts the Kalamazoo Russian Festival each November at Western Michigan University's Fetzer Center. The 15th annual Russian Festival is set for Nov. 13.
Pushkin's tricentennial celebration will include exhibits, a parade, fireworks displays, and musical and theatrical performances. Several of the city's historic landmarks also will be showcased during the celebration.
The city's majestic St. Catherine's Cathedral was torn down during the Soviet era and was replaced by a statue of communist leader Vladimir Lenin.
After the Soviet Union collapsed, the statue was torn down and the cathedral was rebuilt. The building will be dedicated during the city's celebration. Also, three reconstructed staterooms in Alexander's Palace will be formally reopened.
"Since it is the 300th anniversary, there's going to be thousands of people (at the celebration)," said the Pushkin Partnership's president, Michael Stoline, who is leading the delegation to Pushkin, which is about 15 miles southwest of St. Petersburg.
Most of the delegates will leave on June 21 for Russia, and presents will be taken along, Stoline said.
Garrylee McCormick, a local artist and a Pushkin Partnership member, said one present will be a custom-crafted box made from the wood of the bur oak tree that President Abraham Lincoln stood under while giving a campaign speech in downtown Kalamazoo's Bronson Park.
Dennis Dahl, the owner of Homestead Furniture and Cabinetry in Kalamazoo, is making the box, said McCormick, who is one of the delegates to Russia. WMU's Theater Department is giving 10 signed posters from its previous productions.
Color photographs of the productions will be included with each poster. The gifts will be presented on June 25 to Igor Pakhorukov, the head of the Pushkin region of St. Petersburg, at the Festival of Sister Cities, which is part of the anniversary celebration.
Pushkin's 14 sister cities from throughout the world will participate in the Festival of Sister Cities. Jerolyn Selkirk, the former director of the Kalamazoo Russian Festival and a delegate headed to Russia, is organizing Kalamazoo's presentation at the festival in Pushkin.
"We're going to have a musical presentation," Selkirk said.
Joshua Siegel, who is her 18-year-old grandson from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, will perform on the piano at the festival.
Kalamazoo's Olivia Russell, 12, will give an historical presentation involving Kalamazoo. Olivia is the granddaughter of Pushkin Partnership treasurer Bettylee Ongley and will be a seventh grader this fall at the Maple Street Magnet School for the Arts.
Stoline said Kalamazoo will have a table at the festival with information on the city and mementos from the city. Pushkin was founded during the reign of Peter the Great, one of the most prominent tsars in Russian history.
Peter the Great's wife, Catherine I, secretly had a summer palace built about 15 miles southwest of St. Petersburg for her husband during one of his lengthy wartime absences. The two-story stone mansion was built on a hill and surrounded by gardens and orchards.
Other buildings were constructed in the area, which became known as Tsarskoe Selo, or the Tsar's Village. In the mid-1700s, the summer palace was enlarged and renamed Catherine Palace, which still stands today.
In the late 1800s, Tsarskoe Selo became Europe's first city to be fully lit by electricity, according to the city's website. During the early part of the Soviet era, many of the priceless treasures in the city's palaces were sold in Europe.
Alexander Pushkin - a Russian poet, short story writer and dramatist - lived and studied in Tsarskoe Selo before he died in 1837. To recognize the 100th anniversary of his death, Tsarskoe Selo was renamed Pushkin in 1937, but the name Tsarskoe Selo still is sometimes used.
Between September 1941 and January 1943, the Nazis occupied Pushkin, seriously damaged many of the city's historic buildings and plundered many of their priceless artifacts. Many of the buildings have been repaired, and many of the artifacts have been recovered.
Marie Stoline, who is Michael Stoline's wife and also is going to Russia, said the Kalamazoo-Pushkin Partnership was formed in 1992 after a delegation of doctors, city officials and other volunteers from Kalamazoo visited a hospital in Pushkin and saw the immense need for more medical supplies there.
After returning home, the Kalamazoo group sent several shipments of food, winter clothing, and medical and school supplies to Pushkin. The partnership stopped sending aid shipments there in 1995 but continues to advance relations between the two cities.
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Published: Tuesday, June 01, 2010
KALAMAZOO — The city of Kalamazoo will help her older sister in Russia celebrate a milestone marking three centuries of growth from a summer estate for the country's ruling tsars to an historic city filled with palaces, cathedrals and other architectural wonders.
Pushkin, which is Kalamazoo's sister city in Russia, will celebrate its 300th anniversary on June 23 through 27. A delegation of 20 people, most of whom are members of the Kalamazoo-Pushkin Partnership, will travel to Russia to attend the celebration.
The 17-year-old Kalamazoo-Pushkin Partnership hosts the Kalamazoo Russian Festival each November at Western Michigan University's Fetzer Center. The 15th annual Russian Festival is set for Nov. 13.
Pushkin's tricentennial celebration will include exhibits, a parade, fireworks displays, and musical and theatrical performances. Several of the city's historic landmarks also will be showcased during the celebration.
The city's majestic St. Catherine's Cathedral was torn down during the Soviet era and was replaced by a statue of communist leader Vladimir Lenin.
After the Soviet Union collapsed, the statue was torn down and the cathedral was rebuilt. The building will be dedicated during the city's celebration. Also, three reconstructed staterooms in Alexander's Palace will be formally reopened.
"Since it is the 300th anniversary, there's going to be thousands of people (at the celebration)," said the Pushkin Partnership's president, Michael Stoline, who is leading the delegation to Pushkin, which is about 15 miles southwest of St. Petersburg.
Most of the delegates will leave on June 21 for Russia, and presents will be taken along, Stoline said.
Garrylee McCormick, a local artist and a Pushkin Partnership member, said one present will be a custom-crafted box made from the wood of the bur oak tree that President Abraham Lincoln stood under while giving a campaign speech in downtown Kalamazoo's Bronson Park.
Dennis Dahl, the owner of Homestead Furniture and Cabinetry in Kalamazoo, is making the box, said McCormick, who is one of the delegates to Russia. WMU's Theater Department is giving 10 signed posters from its previous productions.
Color photographs of the productions will be included with each poster. The gifts will be presented on June 25 to Igor Pakhorukov, the head of the Pushkin region of St. Petersburg, at the Festival of Sister Cities, which is part of the anniversary celebration.
Pushkin's 14 sister cities from throughout the world will participate in the Festival of Sister Cities. Jerolyn Selkirk, the former director of the Kalamazoo Russian Festival and a delegate headed to Russia, is organizing Kalamazoo's presentation at the festival in Pushkin.
"We're going to have a musical presentation," Selkirk said.
Joshua Siegel, who is her 18-year-old grandson from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, will perform on the piano at the festival.
Kalamazoo's Olivia Russell, 12, will give an historical presentation involving Kalamazoo. Olivia is the granddaughter of Pushkin Partnership treasurer Bettylee Ongley and will be a seventh grader this fall at the Maple Street Magnet School for the Arts.
Stoline said Kalamazoo will have a table at the festival with information on the city and mementos from the city. Pushkin was founded during the reign of Peter the Great, one of the most prominent tsars in Russian history.
Peter the Great's wife, Catherine I, secretly had a summer palace built about 15 miles southwest of St. Petersburg for her husband during one of his lengthy wartime absences. The two-story stone mansion was built on a hill and surrounded by gardens and orchards.
Other buildings were constructed in the area, which became known as Tsarskoe Selo, or the Tsar's Village. In the mid-1700s, the summer palace was enlarged and renamed Catherine Palace, which still stands today.
In the late 1800s, Tsarskoe Selo became Europe's first city to be fully lit by electricity, according to the city's website. During the early part of the Soviet era, many of the priceless treasures in the city's palaces were sold in Europe.
Alexander Pushkin - a Russian poet, short story writer and dramatist - lived and studied in Tsarskoe Selo before he died in 1837. To recognize the 100th anniversary of his death, Tsarskoe Selo was renamed Pushkin in 1937, but the name Tsarskoe Selo still is sometimes used.
Between September 1941 and January 1943, the Nazis occupied Pushkin, seriously damaged many of the city's historic buildings and plundered many of their priceless artifacts. Many of the buildings have been repaired, and many of the artifacts have been recovered.
Marie Stoline, who is Michael Stoline's wife and also is going to Russia, said the Kalamazoo-Pushkin Partnership was formed in 1992 after a delegation of doctors, city officials and other volunteers from Kalamazoo visited a hospital in Pushkin and saw the immense need for more medical supplies there.
After returning home, the Kalamazoo group sent several shipments of food, winter clothing, and medical and school supplies to Pushkin. The partnership stopped sending aid shipments there in 1995 but continues to advance relations between the two cities.
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