Perm celebrates International Twin Cities Day

Photo by Vitaly Koksharov

International Twin Cities Day  was marked by a public event at The Youth Center  in Perm including  a ceremony of Appreciation Awards from the Perm Mayor Aleksey Demkin and presentation of a hand-made gift from Oxford, 

Perm is twinned internationally with 6 cities, namely Amnéville (France), Louisville (USA), Oxford (the UK), Qingdao (China), Duisburg (Germany) and Agrigento (Italy). The efforts of Perm City Administration in public diplomacy have repeatedly received high  recognition  at both national and international levels. 

– International Twin Cities Day is traditionally celebrated on the last Sunday of April. Perm has every right to be proud of its business and friendship relations with all the six twinned cities. Rather than increasing the number, we are aiming at upkeeping our links and filling them with real content, making them deeper, efficient and beneficial to Perm residents, said Tatiana Grigorieva, head of International and Inter-municipal Relations at Perm City Administration. 

In 2020 Perm and Oxford  marked the 25^th anniversary of the friendship link.  Part of the anniversary celebrations was the exchange of symbolic gifts – the hand-made patchwork hangings representing each city’s most notable landmarks and realia were made by the residents of the two cities.  These quilts were displayed for the event participants in the lobby of the Youth Center in Perm.

One example of a variety of  creative  projects and online events in 2020  was the dance project whereby the dancers from Perm learnt traditional Morris dance, and their counterparts from Oxford learnt the Urals folk dance. TheTwin Cities Day  celebration  concert  presented the Morris dance performed by the Perm dancers from New Vision group. 

During the event, Head of Mayor’s  Office Svetlana Ivashkina on behalf of  Perm Mayor Aleksey Demkin awarded  Letters of Appreciation to mark  personal contribution of the activists  into the development of people’s diplomacy and strengthening the twinning links. 

– Developing and strengthening the twinning links is an important part of the activities of Perm City Administration.  However, it would be impossible to  upkeep the high level of  relationship without the active involvement  of the residents of Perm and their participation in joint projects, events and meetings, stressed Svetlana Ivashkina. 

The Appreciation Letters were presented to  Senior Lecturer at Perm State Polytechnic University Elena Moshchanskaya, Editor-in-Chief of Business Class newspaper Vadim Skovorodin, director of German Reading Hall at Gorky Library Tatiana Makshakova, head of regional office of Russian-Chinese Friendship Society Mikhail Kamenskikh, Senior Lecturer at Perm State University Svetlana Polyakova. 

Also awards were given to the participants of the international  joint projects, namely     Director of Youth Center  Ekaterina Bokova,  member of Perm-Louisville Committee Anna Podgayets,  head of Science and Technology Department at  Perm City Archive  Anton Ponomaryov. 

The event featured a video greeting from Louisville by Xiao Ying  Zhao, Executive Director of the World Affairs Council of Kentucky & Southern Indiana. The celebration  finished giving  a start  to «From heart to heart » action:   a big group photo of event participants  showing “heart” symbol was produced  which will be sent from Perm to all its twin cities was a sign of love and friendship. 

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Twinning movement started during WWII, when in 1943  the English city of Coventry  severely bombed and destroyed  by the German aviation, and the Soviet  Stalingrad that never surrendered to the enemy, decided to establish   friendship relationship for the sake of peace and  future  well-being of the people. Since then the noble goals of the first  twinned cities have been shared and appreciated  worldwide. 

Over the years of twinned  links,  hundreds of Permians  took part in numerous international programmes, conferences and forums, both in Perm and abroad.  Development of the  relationship  would not be possible  without the involvement  of the city residents who understand the importance of public diplomacy and  are enthusiastic in initiating the projects to promote the links between the cities and the countries.