International News
Monthly Newsletter of the Utah-Russia Institute
and the Office of International Affairs
October 2005
Volume 6
Issue 10
UVSC Participates in New York UN Conference
UVSC Academic Vice President Brad Cook and International Associate Vice President Rusty
Butler were in New York City prior to the opening of the UN General Assembly. They had
gone to unveil a new book co-published by UVSC and Global Scholarly Publications of New
York authored by the President of Tajikistan. Approximately 150 heads-of-state were in New
York during that time.
They also participated in a Fordham University-sponsored (UVSC co-sponsored) symposium
on the challenges of globalization in the Islamic world. Former Utah Governor Olene Walker
Left to Right: Former Utah Governor
gave an address on globalization challenges for the U.S. Participants included ambassadors
Olene Walker, Dr. Rusty Butler, Dr.
and other diplomats from Iran, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and the Vatican, as well as from area Brad Cook
universities and the United Nations.
UVSC student Happiness Peterson, who is interning for GSP and the UN, helped organize the symposium.
Marriott Family Hosts International Event
Inside This Issue:
Focus:
2
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Recipe of the month:
2
Mushroom and Potato Soup
Russian History Page: 3
October Manifesto
Consular Corner:
Rescuing Stranded Cambodians
4
Many international ambassadors and their families, as well as other senior diplomats
from Washington, DC were hosted at the Marriott Ranch in Virginia for a gala South
Pacific luau. The Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii sent a troop of performers to
entertain the large gathering.
Representing UVSC were the National Presidential Advisory Board (NPAB) members
Lew Cramer and David Peterson from Washington, DC along with Rusty Butler. Rusty
joined Erlend “Pete” Peterson of BYU to help host the dignitaries. Also attending were
Utah-born senior officials of the Bush Administration. Senator and Mrs. Bob Bennett
were among the many politicians present.
Several ambassadors expressed a desire to visit the UVSC campus and speak to the student body about international affairs. Some will do so in the spring.
Contact
Office of International
Affairs and Utah-Russia
Institute:
Utah Valley State
800 West University Pkwy
Orem, UT 84058
Ph: 801.863.8897
Fax: 801.863.6021
Email: [email protected]
www. uvsc.edu/russia
Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan
Ambassador of Guatemala
Ambassador of Tajikistan
Editor: Maryna Storrs
Assistant Editor:
Rebecca Moreno
UV International News page 2
FOCUS
A L E K S A N D R
One of the leading Russian writers of the 20th century, Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, born Rostov-on-Don, Dec.
11, 1918, received the Nobel Prize for literature on October
8, 1970 "for the ethical force with which he has pursued the
indispensable traditions of Russian literature." Solzhenitsyn's
novels are autobiographical, presenting a vivid account of a man main“Truth seldom is
taining his freedom against the vipleasant; it is almost
cious repressions of an authoritarian
invariably bitter.”
regime.
Commencement
address at Harvard His difficulties with the authorities
University. June 8, began on Feb. 8, 1945, when he was
arrested for having written critical
remarks about Joseph Stalin in a letter to a friend that was intercepted by the censors. Sentenced
without a trial to 8 years of hard labor, he remained until
1953 in a number of labor camps.
During the period of de-Stalinization, he was called
"rehabilitated" and in 1956 was allowed to return to European Russia. He settled in a town southeast of Moscow, taught
high school mathematics and physics, and worked on his
stories and novels. The short novel One Day in the Life of
Ivan Denisovich (1962; film, 1971) was the first of Solzhenitsyn's works to be published in the Soviet Union. It created
an instant sensation because its subject is Stalin's forced labor camps, and it brought Solzhenitsyn immediate recognition. Praised initially, the novel became the
Recipe of the Month:
Mushroom and Potato Soup
Russian Cuisine
Ingredients
5 tbsp butter, divided
2 leeks, chopped
2 large carrots, sliced
6 cups chicken broth
2 tsp dried dill weed
2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
2 pounds potatoes, peeled and diced
1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 cup half-and-half
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Fresh dill weed for garnish (optional)
S O L Z H E N I T S Y N
basis for further action against him. After 1963, his work was
not published in the Soviet Union for many years.
Open conflict erupted with Solzhenitsyn's May 1967 letter to
the Fourth National Congress of Soviet Writers, in which he
demanded the abolition of censorship, the "rehabilitation" of
many writers killed during the purges, and the restoration of
his personal papers, confiscated by the KGB (secret police)
in 1965. The confrontation grew more intense after the publication abroad of The First Circle (1968)--the title of which
refers to the first circle of Dante's hell--and The Cancer
Ward (1968-69), and after his winning the Nobel Prize in
1970. Further public statements by Solzhenitsyn, as well as
the publication of the first volume of August 1914 (1971) and
the first volume of the Gulag Archipelago (1973), led the
Soviet authorities to exile him to the West in February 1974.
Having settled first in Zurich, Solzhenitsyn and his family
later moved to the United States, where they took up residence in a small Vermont town. While in the West, Solzhenitsyn completed the Gulag Archipelago.
Solzhenitsyn faced prison and the threat
of a mean death with immense moral
courage. He achieved greatness both in
enduring oppression and--in his works-as a witness to it. His beliefs may be
seen as a consequence of his experiences
and, perhaps, as the means by which he
survived.
In 1989, the Gulag Archipelago was
published as a serial in the literary magazine Novy Mir.
Info: http://honors.montana.edu/~oelks/TC/SolzBio.html
Instructions
Melt 3 tbsp butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Mix
in leeks and carrots, and cook 5 minutes. Pour in broth. Season with dill, salt, pepper and bay leaf. Mix in potatoes, cover
and cook for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are tender but firm.
Remove and discard the bay leaf.
Melt the remaining butter in a skillet over medium heat, and
sauté the mushrooms 5 minutes, until lightly browned. Stir into
the soup.
In a small bowl, mix the half-and-half and flour until smooth.
Stir into the soup to thicken. Garnish each bowl of soup with
fresh dill.
UV International News page 3
Russian History Page
The October Manifesto
Democracy Debuts in Russia
Strife and unrest in the capitals and in many parts of Our empire fill Our heart with a great and heavy sorrow…
We impose upon the government the obligation to fulfill Our
inflexible will:
1.
2.
3.
To grant the population the unshakable foundations of
civil freedom, rooted in the principles of the true inviolability of the individual, freedom of conscience, speech,
assembly and union.
To immediately have those classes of the population that
are now completely deprived of elective
rights participate in the Duma.
To establish as a firm rule that no law
shall come into force without the approval of the State Duma.
We call upon all true sons of Russia to remember their duty to the Motherland, to help
put an end to this unprecedented strife, and
together with Us to devote all Our efforts to
the restoration of peace and tranquility to
Our native land.
an elected legislature—the State Duma. The gulf between society and the authorities had been growing. Students no longer
wanted to attend the lectures of professors who held conservative views. In educated circles, it was simply unseemly not to
sympathize with the revolutionaries. And the authorities were
not shy about the means they used to staunch the growing crisis. After a peaceful demonstrations carrying a petition to the
Tsar who was shot at on January 9, 1905 (Bloody Sunday),
there was an uproar: “Freedom, we want freedom!” These
words resounded in the hearts of workers, who refused to go to
work, in peasants, who burned their masters’ estates, in lawyers, who defended the revolutionaries, and in teachers, who
instilled forbidden ideas in the minds of their pupils.
In the fall of 1905, events reached a certain
point beyond which people were eager to
move. Yet, at the same time, there were also
afraid of the abyss that lay beyond. By the
end of September, the number of strikers
could be measured in hundreds of thousands.
In October, life in Moscow and St. Petersburg came to a standstill—the trams were
not running, the banks were closed, schools
and universities were empty, newspapers
were not being published, the theaters were
silent and the city water ceased to run. After
the railroads ceased operation, the strike
instantly spread to other cities.
So many things had to happen in Russia before such words could be heard…
Tsars had, from time to time, thought about
At this fateful moment, so much depended
making changes to the structure of governon the kind, simpleminded, weak-willed Tsar
ment. Empress Catherine created electoral
Nicholas II. Nicholas was completely conbodies for the nobility and for those living in
vinced that Russia was made for autocracy.
cities, wishing to accustom her subjects to
He, like many at court, was convinced that
taking part in the running of the country. Yet Emperor Nicholas II
only miscreants or their weak minded folthe tsaritsa could not quite bring herself to
Picture source: http://cgfa.sunsite.dk
lowers could oppose the authorities. The
give up her own absolute power. She foresaw
notion of dialogue between the authorities
too many perils down that path—memories of the Pugachev
and society never took hold.
Rebellion and the savage forces it brought to the surface were
But by October a decision had to be made, and Nicholas ponstill fresh.
dered it in a state of agony. General Trepov, who had a great
At the beginning of the 19th century, Alexander I had dreamed deal of influence over Nicholas, tried to convince him to introof giving Russia a constitution, renouncing the throne, and
duce a dictatorship and bring troops into the capital. Count
settling somewhere in Germany, on the banks of the Rhine,
Sergei Witte urged him to make concessions.
with his wife. But these dreams remained just that.
Nicholas did not want to give in to the strikers, but he also did
As might have been expected, revolutionaries were often ready not want bloodshed. He asked his relative, Grand Duke Nichoto take things farther than the rulers. In December 1825, young las, to take over as dictator, to which the latter replied that he
revolutionaries filled Senate Square in St. Petersburg with the could not turn down the tsar, but he also did not want to doom
doomed hope of a constitution, or perhaps even a republic.
the nation. Therefore, the only other option left was for Witte
Later in that century, members of the People’s Will party em- to draft a manifesto. Russia was given political freedoms, ambarked on a bloody hunt for Alexander II. In 1881, this tsar— nesty and a legislature.
who had freed the serfs and introduced trial by jury and the
It worked. The country began to prepare for elections. Witte
Zemstvo, a local elected body—was killed by a terrorist’s
was appointed Prime Minister, but after only half a year in ofbomb.
fice, he would be sent into retirement. In another twelve years,
One hundred years were to separate the fanciful dreams of
the tsar would be overthrown. In thirteen he would be shot.
Alexander I and the moment when his great grand nephew,
Nicholas II, signed the October Manifesto and brought Russia
Source: Russian Life: September/October 2005
UV International News page 4
Rescuing Stranded Cambodians
Upon returning to Washington, DC from the
Marriott Ranch, UVSC NPAB member David Peterson and Rusty Butler passed a
stranded motorist in rural Virginia. Deciding to be of some service, they returned to
find the Ambassador of Cambodia Sereywath Ek and his family struggling to change
a flat tire with insufficient tools or knowhow. However, using Utah ingenuity and
jury-rigged tools, they compensated for the
lack of equipment and successfully changed
the tire. In response, the grateful Ambassador eagerly accepted an invitation to visit
the UVSC campus in the future.
Left to Right: Dr. Rusty Butler, Cambodian
Ambassador and his family, and Dr. David
Peterson
CONSULAR
CORNER
Russian Federation
Consulate General -Utah
Calendar of Upcoming Events
October
October 10—Columbus Day (U.S.A.)
October 14—Intercession (Russia)
October 24—United Nations Day
October 31—Halloween
Mission Statement
The purpose of URI is to promote mutually beneficial humanitarian, cultural, educational, commercial and technological projects in order to foster greater understanding,
friendship, free enterprise, civil society and a strong democracy among and between the citizens of the Russian
Federation and the state of Utah in particular and the United States in general.
Utah-Russia Institute
Chief Executive Officer
Kerry Romesburg
Executive Director-Utah
Dr. R.E. “Rusty” Butler
Executive Director-Russia
Dr. Vladimir Dmitriev
Founded in 1993
by Former Russian Federation Prime Minister and
Minister of the Economy, Yegor T. Gaidar and by
Former Utah Governor Michael O. Leavitt with the
assistance of George Lendrihas