Los Alamos and Arzamas-16: the “Sister Cities” Relationship
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“Side-by-Side as Equals”—a round table Los Alamos and Arzamas-16: the “Sister Cities” Relationship he two cities of Arzamas-16 and of the two cities. In December of 1993, some two-hundred Los Alamos Los Alamos are situated on op- 1993, Lindemuth made a presentation students contributed artwork to a Tposite sides of the globe, sepa- to the Los Alamos City Council that Bradbury-Science-Museum-sponsored rated by ten time zones, and once sepa- told the history of Arzamas-16. He ex- “Friendship Book” on the theme of rated by Cold War secrecy and politics. plained the similarities between the two peaceful relations between the two na- Each is a nuclear tions, a book that in weapons research city January 1994 was pre- and the birthplace of sented to Arzamas-16 its country's atomic Director Vladimir bomb. Moreover, Belugin. each began its exis- The pen-pals rela- tence as a secret city. tionship spread to As the people of Gallup, NM when Arzamas-16 and Los scientists from Arza- Alamos came to know mas -16 came to New each other over the Mexico in November last several years, 1993 for a joint experi- the recognition of mental campaign in similar histories, na- Los Alamos’ Ancho tional security mis- Canyon. During a side sions, and educational, trip to the Grand family, and patriotic Canyon, Jim Goforth, values led the two a member of the communities to reach pulsed-power group, out to each other and In February 1995, the administration of Arzamas-16 presented the Los Alamos and his sister, Marge begin to share a City Council with a traditional Russian-cast brass bell. Left to right: Bob Spurlin, a high school “sisterhood.” Reinovsky, County Council Chairman Lawry Mann, and Irv Lindemuth admire teacher from Gallup, Interactions be- its workmanship. arranged for the visi- tween Los Alamos tors to be welcomed and Arzamas-16 began with the lab-to- cities to the Council and noted that the into the homes of Gallup residents. lab scientific collaborations between community of Arzamas-16 sometimes That visit combined with Spurlin’s en- their respective nuclear institutes. Los jokingly refers to itself as “Los Arza- thusiasm led students in Gallup to join Alamos scientist Irv Lindemuth, who mas.” The council voted unanimously the letter-writing campaign. participated in the lab-to-lab collabora- to invite Arzamas-16 to become a “sis- Ultimately, the letter writing spread tions in pulsed power and high magnet- ter city” to Los Alamos (see “Sister throughout the Los Alamos school sys- ic fields, has played a key role in the Cities International”). tem and to several schools in Arzamas- interactions as messenger between the Also in 1992, Lena Gerdova, an in- 16. Several hundred students from both two communities. terpreter for Vladimir Chernyshev, sides of the Atlantic have participated. The sister cities story begins started a pen-pal exchange between Earlier that year,when the Los Alam- with Lena Panevkina, Alexander high school students in Arzamas-16 and os pulsed-power group was in Arza- Pavlovskii’s personal interpreter, who Los Alamos. Through Lindemuth, Ger- mas-16 for the first joint scientific ex- thought that the scientific interactions dova arranged to visit Ann Eilert’s periment, they were taken to visit the between Arzamas-16 and Los Alamos tenth grade class at Los Alamos High local hospital. There, they learned could be extended to include a cultural School. A number of the students from Dr. Valentina Ponomaryova, the exchange. During a November 1992 wrote pen-pal letters, and Gerdova re- director of the childhood and maternity visit to Los Alamos, Panevkina raised turned to Russia with the letters in her center, that essential medical supplies the issue with Lindemuth, and that dis- suitcase. Lindemuth came back from We would like to thank the Los Alamos Monitor for al- cussion led to a series of letters ex- Arzamas-16 in March 1993 with the lowing us to use information from articles written by changed between government officials first replies. Additionally, in December Steve Shankland and Chairman Schaller. 44 Los Alamos Science Number 24 1996 “Side-by-Side as Equals”—a round table “The idea of sister-city relationships is one of “people-to-people,” of citizen diplomacy “from heart-to- heart.” Only in this way will the ice left from the cold war be melted.…We would like to believe that if all Americans are like the “citizens” that visited Arzamas-16, then you and I will not perish on this fragile planet.” From a report in the Arzamas-16 Courier covering the May 1995 visit of the Los Alamos civic delegation. were available in Russia but were priced beyond the reach of the citizens of Arzamas-16, who were regularly going unpaid as the Russian govern- ment struggled financially. When the Los Alamos scientists re- turned home and reported what they had seen, the Los Alamos community expressed a desire to help. Upon the advice from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow that cash donations to the Arzamas-16 hospital would be the most expedient and effective way to help, Lindemuth and John Eilert of the Labo- ratory’s Environmental Safety and Health Group opened a bank account in Above: Russian students and teachers from Arzamas-16 at December 1993 to launch the Arzamas- the athletic field of Los Alamos high school n October 1995. 16 Children’s Medical fund. Donations Right: Los Alamos students Tony Maggiore and Chih-Cheng from Los Alamos, the surrounding Peng open pen-pal letters from fellow students in Arzamas-16. communities, and even from Colorado Bottom: Bob Reinovsky (left) greets Russian high school and Pennsylvania began to arrive. teacher during visit to Arzamas-16. When Arzamas-16 Director Vladimir Belugin visited Los Alamos in January 1994, he was given more than six hun- dred dollars to take to Dr. Ponomaryo- va. Later, Cari Zocco took over as Chairwoman of the Medical Fund, and over the years, additional cash donations have been forwarded to Dr. Ponomaryova. Soon thereafter, Ken Bower, a mem- ber of the Laboratory’s Community In- volvement and Outreach Office, and then Treasurer of the American Chemi- cal Society Central New Mexico Chap- ter, told Lindemuth that his Chapter had accumulated a cash surplus and would like to distribute the money in Russia. Lindemuth and Bower first located a rived in Arzamas-16 in early 1995. The topic of the first forum was to be nu- charitable medical organization (MAP medical supplies had a U.S. wholesale clear dismantlement; the format would International) that had access to surplus value of five-hundred thousand dollars. involve teams of students from New medical supplies and then a U.S.-State- The sister cities relationship was con- Mexico high schools researching dis- Department-supported shipping organi- summated in May 1994 with the visit to mantlement and then developing pro- zation that would ship to Russia at no Los Alamos by eight students and two posed policies for U.S. assistance to cost to the donor. Bower leveraged ten teachers from Arzamas-16 and their par- Russia. When Lindemuth heard about thousand dollars in Medical Funds and ticipation in the first New Mexico High the forum he called Judith Kaye, leader American Chemical Society fund dona- School Critical Issues Forum, a series of the Outreach group, who agreed that tions into a twenty-foot shipping con- sponsored by the Laboratory's Science Russian students could participate. tainer full of medical supplies that ar- Education and Outreach Group. The Frantic phone calls to Arzamas-16 and Number 24 1996 Los Alamos Science 45 “Side-by-Side as Equals”—a round table Sister Cities International Sister Cities International is a national, non-profit, volunteer-membership or- ganization joining United States and foreign communities. Sister city affilia- tions lead the national movement for volunteer participa- tion and community development in the international arena. The Sister City Program began shortly after World War II and developed into a national initiative when President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed the people-to-people program at a White House Conference in 1956. He hoped that involving citizens internationally might lessen the chance of future world conflicts. Initially grouped with the National League of Cities, Sister Cities Interna- tional became a separate, not-for-profit organization in 1967. The procedure for establishing an official Sister City affiliation requires that an agreement be signed by the respective mayor of each city and ratified by each city council, or its equivalent. Membership in Sister Cities International is designed to improve the cultural understanding of people of different nations as well as provide new prospects for trade and business. Student and professional exchanges and other learning experiences in schools may be initiated through direct inter-school contracts. Membership in Sister Cities International provides eligibility for various grant programs. Sister Cities International represents 125 million Americans in 1,200 U.S. cities and their 1,900 partners in 120 coun- tries worldwide. Since 1986, partnerships between U.S. cities and those in the Former Soviet Union have grown from six to one hundred and fifty-two. Today, partnerships with Japanese and German cities represent the largest number of sister-city affiliations by country. hours of paper- to meet face-to-face during this visit. work on the part In February 1995, two gifts were of the Russians presented to Bob Reinovsky and Linde- produced two muth by Gennadi Karatayev, the Arza- teams of Arza- mas-16 City Administrator. A cast mas-16 stu- bronze bell and an invitation for a Los dents to present their ideas on the dis- Alamos civic delegation to visit Arza- mantlement issue.