FACTS ABOUT PERVOURALSK
Pervouralsk is a factory town, supplying 25% of Russia's industrial
tubes. The name means "First in the Urals" -- that is, the first center
for tube manufacture. In 2007, Pervorualsk will celebrate its 275th
anniversary. It was a rural area up until World War II when it became an
industrial town serving as a major center for the manufacture of munitions.
It has a population of approximately 137,000. Pervorualsk is set in the
midst of the ancient Ural Mountains. The mountains produce an exquisite
array of stones used in jewelry as well as in the palaces of tsarist times.
In this area can be found one of the few mines in world that produced the
famed Alexandrite stone, the stone that turns from deep red to deep green
depending on the sunlight. (See an excellent article about the discovery of
the stone at:
www.palagems.com/alexandrite_russia.htm )
DECEMBER 2001: OUR ADVENTURES BEGIN
The train journey from Moscow to Pervouralsk had taken 28 hours. It was
Christmas Eve, it was snowing, and it was two days later than Nikolai had
expected to arrive. Anatoly and Vladimir met him at the station already
bustling with early morning activity. The snow and the holiday decorations
gave the streets of the aging factory town, tucked deep in the Ural
Mountains, a festive air. The men made their way through the crowded,
overheated station and out into the cold.
The Middle School of Pervouralsk was only a ten minute drive from the
station despite all the traffic lumbering through the snow. Over the hum of
the car's heater, Nikolai explained the reason for his sudden appearance in
Pervouralsk. He had not been home in two years and had now arrived with the
strange news that he had made friends that summer with an American who was a
book publisher. . . . He had agreed to help. . . . He was supposed to buy
as many books as he could for the school. . . . He needed to meet with the
director and teachers to find out what they needed. . . . If the weather
didn't worsen they should go Ekaterinburg on the 26th to buy the books and
arrange to deliver them by the end of the week. They would need to take
both Anatoly's and Vladimir's car. . . .
It was now ten years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and, like
the great majority of towns and villages in Russia, the school's small
library and classrooms were filled with books more than 50 years old as
there was no money to replace them. In their day, the books had been
clearly beautiful, but the world had changed a lot in the last 50 years, and
new books were more than a little needed.
It was our first library project and our budget was small, only $2000.
As a result, Nikolai had decided at the last minute to make the journey home
by train rather than plane. The delay would most certainly mean that the
children would already be on their break, but Nikolai was certain that the
director and teachers would not hesitate to return once they heard the
news. When the three men arrived at the school, the director, Nina Petrovna,
the librarian, Irina Arkadevna, and the teachers were all there to meet
them, with everyone wondering the same thing. How on earth had such a thing
happened to them? Even Nikolai was hard pressed to explain. It was just
happening and that was all that could be said about it.
By the end of the afternoon the teachers had drawn up a list of 100 or
more requests. As Nikolai read down the page, it began with the most needed
books and progressed in orderly fashion to list the most dreamed of books.
The foremost request was for encyclopedias and new textbooks, including
English language books. Then came the classics, Shakespeare, Dickens,
Hemingway, and Twain and, of course, all the Russian greats. For the younger
children they would bring back Winnie the Pooh, Robinson
Crusoe, and The Wizard of Oz. The school could also use pens and
pencils, and pads of paper.
Nikolai, Vladimir, and Anatoly started out early December 26th for
Ekaterinburg, the famed city where Tsar Nikolai and his family met their
fate during the early days of the communist revolution. Ekaterinburg still
has all the beauty and grace of a tsarist-era city. Even in the depths of
winter there is a warmth to the city, with its tree-lined promenades, old
wooden two and three storied houses, and its numerous museums, universities,
and public buildings delicately ornamented and painted in soft shades of
yellow, blue, and pink.
In the end, the journey over the mountains to Ekaterinburg had proved
more successful than any of us had imagined possible. For those waiting in
America, the story that came back would be their first lesson in Russian "villikaidushea"
or generosity. Our Russian friends worked until they found everything the
teachers and director wanted purchasing, when all was said and done, over
600 books.
On December 31st an e-mail arrived in the United States which said, "I
have only a few minutes to send this message: We bought all the books. We
did our very best. The director and teachers are elated. The asked me to
send many kind words to you and your friends. The books are waiting to
surprise the children when they return. Happy New Year. Nikolai."