Volgograd is the capital of public diplomacy and the birthplace of friendship. An exhibition under this name opened today at the Volgograd Children’s and Youth Center and launched events dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the creation of the International Association “Twin Cities” and the 80th anniversary of the friendship of Stalingrad-Volgograd with the English city of Coventry.
Walking streets of Dijon, blooming Hiroshima, beauty of the Suez Canal of Port Said, Yerevan bird of the world. The works of Volgograd schoolchildren also contain other expressive images of the partner cities and sister cities of the hero city on the Volga.
As part of the exhibition “Volgograd – the birthplace of friendship,” more than a hundred children from 19 schools in the regional capital transferred onto paper the key cultural and national traditions of our city’s “brothers” and showed the peaceful life of the townspeople. Today, Volgograd is not in vain called the capital of public diplomacy: it has 44 partner cities, including 25 sister cities both in Russia and in foreign countries.
“In 1944, at the height of World War II, Soviet Stalingrad and British Coventry became the world’s first sister cities, thereby marking the beginning of the sister city movement.”“,” Inna Plotnikova, head of the foreign relations department of the Department of Foreign and Regional Relations of the Volgograd Administration, told the children.
Then, along with the collected money, a tablecloth was given as a gift to Stalingrad from Coventry, on which the names of 830 Coventry women were embroidered with the words “Better a little help than a big regret.”
In the 60s, almost immediately after the war, an international friendship club was opened in the Youth and Youth Center, uniting Stalingrad children with schoolchildren and students from different countries.
Friendship and mutual cooperation between people, regardless of their nationality and country of residence, are especially valuable today.
“We have prepared a business card about the city of Yerevan and will tell you about its attractions, famous personalities and the friendship between our cities. Our city has a lot of sister cities, and now it is very important to carry friendship through many years.”,” say Elizaveta Morozyuk and Varvara Kiryushkina, 6th-graders of gymnasium No. 16 of the Traktorozavodsky district of Volgograd.
Young Volgograd residents prepared presentations about the cities with which Volgograd is friends. Yaroslav MaksimEnko, as part of the “nine” team from the Kirovsky district gymnasium, told the jury about the city of Chengdu. They presented national costumes and explained why the panda is the national animal of a provincial town in southwestern China.
“When studying additional material, I learned that this city is one of the most developed economic centers in the world, and can also become a new fashion capital on a par with Paris and Madrid. It is very important to maintain friendship between peoples, to develop, to organize some kind of joint competitions, – says Yaroslav Maksimenko, an 8th grade student at gymnasium No. 9 in the Kirovsky district of Volgograd. — I’m glad that there are sister cities, our city has 25 of them and a lot of partner cities, I believe this significantly helps us in the economic, cultural sphere and in other spheres of society.”
Every year, Volgograd’s diplomatic ties with other cities and countries become wider, new projects and initiatives appear, in which young people take an active part.
“In fact, our youth are very friendly, and we believe that they are truly messengers of peace, and in the future they will be able to strengthen friendly, international ties with their peers, which will certainly contribute to world peace.”,” emphasized Svetlana Pyataeva, deputy head of the education department of the Volgograd administration.
The twinning movement of cities today unites thousands of territories around the world and remains one of the most powerful tools of public diplomacy. And Stalingrad – Volgograd – a successful example of effective partnership – confirms: only strengthening friendly ties and peaceful initiatives will allow all countries to live, develop and prosper.
