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To Russia with love
ISU professor's project is a lasting institution in Vladimir
By Steve Arney
sarney@pantagraph.com

A traditional dance accompanies the 15th anniversary celebration for the American Home in Vladimir, Russia. The project's main organizer, Ron Pope, is at right. (For The Pantagraph)
The Soviet Union was nearing its last days as the 1990s dawned. Also at the time, Bloomington-Normal was engaged with Vladimir, Russia, to establish a Sister Cities friendship.

A politics professor, Ron Pope, helped with translation during a delegation's visit here. But something more was stirring within him.

"I decided in 1990 that I wanted to try to do something other than give lectures, write articles, teach classes and so on. I wanted to get actively involved."

But doing what?

Over coffee with Pope one morning, agribusiness professor Rick Whitacre tossed out an idea -- almost an idle thought, Whitacre recollects now -- that it'd be interesting to construct an American house in Vladimir as a demonstration of construction techniques.

Said Pope: "That just popped for me. Exactly the kind of project I was looking for."

It was a demonstration of what the American economy produced -- and not a lecture on what the Russians need to do.

The Soviets already were acutely aware that their state-planned system wasn't generating quality.

Pope once went into a Soviet store to buy a padlock only to discover all the padlocks in the store could be opened with all the keys to the padlocks, he said; the padlock factory was rewarded for meeting a production quota without regard to whether the product provided security.

Said Pope, "The system encouraged irrational behavior from the standpoint of final product and made it dangerous to point that out."

Pope had been an Illinois State University professor since 1976, and he still holds the job. He traveled to the Soviet Union and its republics as his schedule allowed. He saw what he describes as a coupling of power monopoly and an economy based on the will of planners, not wants and needs of consumers.

He now was doing what few college teachers do -- stepping out of his professorship and into practice.

Whitacre would help him - and so would scores of others.

Whitacre, through the Sister Cities program, already was helping a group of Russians convert a cooperative farm into a private, market-driven undertaking.

Also, Whitacre's family was interested in home remodeling and was starting a furniture store in Hudson. He guesses that's how the idea for the American Home formed.

Pope headed the effort to solicit donors of supplies, as construction products available in the USSR at the time were shoddy. He enlisted volunteer builders, and 25 people ventured to Vladimir to show Soviets the American style of building.

Whitacre donated three weeks of his time at the site.

He saw it as building cross-culture relations. While it showed American construction techniques, it didn't demonstrate capitalism so much as the ability of Americans to pool resources for a project. It also built good will, Whitacre said.

"We had almost fans at the construction site," he said.

The American Home was dedicated on July 4, 1992. By then, the USSR had folded.

The home's purpose has evolved over these 15 years, led by circumstance and willingness to try, create and adjust.

Pope thought he would be a broker of international trade and investment, working through the home, which operates on land leased from the city. He founded the company Serendipity-Russia, a way to directly facilitate Russian engagement with free markets.

One idea was to import to America, as a collector's item, World War II-era motorcycles. They still were being manufactured in Russia as common-use vehicles.

But there were barriers as Pope worked on some 30 proposals, and none came to completion. A major stumbling point was the Russians' unfamiliarity with cost mark-up as products are shipped, warehoused and moved from wholesale to retail market, according to Pope.

To keep the bills paid, the American Home taught English courses, and Serendipity-Russia established a remodeling business 1994.

The remodeling business folded when the home's director was caught embezzling. She served a prison sentence. Despite this negative outcome, Pope believes the business set high standards for building renovation that the emerging market-driven economy aspired to match, while the American home also provided jobs to Russian builders.

Within a year of the business's creation, he said, the market had created worthy competition.

The Russians may have improved the remodeling industry on its own, he said, but he added: "We hurried things along in Vladimir."

The English courses had taken hold -- drawing 250 students by the third semester -- and it became the core direction for the American Home.

Galya Altonen was promoted from educator to director of the American Home and continues at the job. Her husband, Alexei, directs special projects. Its teachers are Americans who commit to a one-year minimum. They are paid a stipend, plus room and board, and benefit from the overseas experience.

This school year, the home employed its 100th teacher. It has worked with more than 7,000 students.

The students pay tuition, although some are given payment waivers. At 400 students, the American Home has a waiting list.

The home serves a rejuvenating Russian economy in a less direct way than initially envisioned, but it does serve toward that end, said Pope. As English is the language of international trade, language proficiency helps the individual student and the overall Russian economy, the professor explained.

A newer program links the American Home with groups of American teachers doing summer study of Russian society. The University of Illinois has been one of the partners, sending two groups after securing Fulbright-Hayes study grants.

The Russians and the Americans at the American Home give the groups a base and "tremendous insight" into what they are seeing and hearing during their trips, said Lynda Park, who helped on 2004 and 2007 trips as associate director of U of I's Russian, East European and Eurasian Center.

Still more is sought by Serendipity-Russia and the American Home -- and sometimes a project emerges simply by seeing unmet need.

Vladimir, population 310,000, is rich in history and attractive for tourism. Yet it had no English-language tourism map until the American Home made one, with city permission.

Serendipity's tourism project, done cooperatively with the city, began in 2004.

Serendipity used tourism specialist Bruce Wicks from the University of Illinois; Moscow native and U of I student Katya Lakshtanova; and former Springfield Mayor Karen Hasara to help Vladimir benefit from its tourism potential.

Serendipity maintains an English-language Web site, www.vladimir-russia.info

Other examples of programs are discussed at www.serendipity-russia.com

But transcending programs and accomplishments -- or accounting for their achievements -- are relationships and reputation.

Twice, the American Home has been vandalized, and both acts were deemed retribution for American military action that was unpopular in Russia, said Pope. Both times, he quickly added, media coverage and other public expression were overwhelmingly sympathetic to the American Home.

Russian-American relations cooled under President Vladimir Putin but Pope sensed no accompanying decline in relationships between the American Home and Vladimir, Russia.

Fifteen years into the experience, the home has become an institution, and Pope said he will only accept a piece of credit for projects involving hundreds of people. He said he has put all his income from projects back into the institution.

"I personally couldn't have built the home. I personally couldn't have organized law enforcement exchanges, a basketball program or the English program."

But he found people who can and do -- with his persistence or stubbornness or, he added with a self-effacing laugh, because of his foolishness.

He is sure the American Home will outlast him, and he has no plans to depart.

Pope intends to be cremated when he dies, but if he had a tombstone, he said, he'd want it to say: "He tried to make a difference, and he had at least some success."



Varied program



The American Home project in Vladimir, Russia, is more than just a house. Here's a look at what is under way:

• It enrolls more than 400 people in English courses.

• Through American universities and Fulbright-Hayes study grants, educators travel to Vladimir for summer studies programs.

• Tours headed by Serendipity-Russia, which operates the home, enable cultural exchanges and help pay costs.

• A humanitarian aid program started in 1993 with construction of a playground at an orphanage, and a boarding school for deaf children continues today.

• An arts program has assisted musicians and visual artists through grants, loans and exhibits.

• A basketball program included furnishing of equipment and uniforms during hard economic times in Russia and now features an annual street ball tournament. University High School coach Cal Hubbard held a summer clinic.

• In 2004, Serendipity-Russia and the city of Vladimir began a cooperative project to boost tourism in Vladimir.

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Take a look
Visitors huddle for a group shot at the house. (For The Pantagraph)
Teaching English evolved into a primary mission for the American Home and Serendipity-Russia. (For The Pantagraph)
A toast accompanies a birthday celebration at the American Home in Vladimir. (For The Pantagraph)
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