Rotary Club of Turlock

Vladimir Donskoy is the co-founder of Rotary in Russia and has been highly involved in the growth and development of approximately 100 Rotary clubs in that country. He currently serves with Russia's Rotary Leadership Academy which provides training and advice to club leaders and district governors. He is widely known as "The Rotary Guru" in his country. And he developed this expertise through the Rotary Club of Turlock.

Vladimir was a professor of English at the State University of Irkutsk in Siberia, when he was selected in 1987 to participate in a 10-week exchange for ten Soviet university instructors by American Field Service (AFS). He stayed in Turlock with a host family and served as a guest lecturer at Turlock High School to become familiar with the American system of secondary education.

Denton Palmer, a member of the Rotary Club of Turlock and superintendent of schools at that time, invited him to one of our club's weekly meetings. Vladimir was immediately fascinated with Rotary, as service clubs and volunteerism were totally unknown in the Soviet Union. He visited our club often during that stay and developed close friendships with several of our members. He also presented a very well received program about life in Russia.

Coincidentally, the City of Eugene, Oregon became a sister city of Irkutsk in 1988. The following year members of the Eugene Rotary Club met with the visiting Mayor of Irkutsk and sought his assistance in introducing Rotary to Russia. Despite his initial reluctance, those Eugene Rotarians persisted and in November of 1989 they were eventually invited to the Kremlin where they met with leaders of the Soviet Union and won Mikhail Gorbachev's permission to begin establishing Rotary Clubs. The group then flew to Irkutsk to meet with the Mayor and other leaders to establish a club there. This was only days after the Berlin Wall started its fall.

Prior to the visit of the Eugene Rotarians, the Mayor of Irkutsk had sought out Vladimir's advice about Rotary. Vladimir was one of the very few people in that city who had ever visited the United States and he was also familiar with Rotary. The concept of Rotary and volunteerism were totally unheard of in the Soviet Union at that time. In fact, volunteerism was illegal there. All services had to be provided by the state — which often didn't happen.

Vladimir was later asked to meet with the delegation of Rotarians from Eugene when they arrived in Irkutsk and he worked with them to form the club. They provided him with a number of Rotary manuals. With these manuals and having attended several Rotary meetings in Turlock, he was now the most knowledgeable person in Russia about Rotary. In July 1990, the club was formally chartered by Rotary International. Several members of the Eugene Rotary Club flew to Irkutsk to attend the chartering ceremony which was held in November.

A few months earlier, at the insistence of Rotary International, the first club in the Soviet Union had been chartered in Moscow. The Moscow club was promptly featured on the front page of the Rotary Magazine; but none of our members were aware of the efforts of Eugene Rotary or that a Rotary Club had also been established in Irkutsk.

Vladimir became a member of the club, but worked behind the scenes giving advice to the leaders. He later became its secretary. He recalls that starting the club was fairly easy — after it finally won the mayor's support and Gorbachev's approval. Keeping it going in a positive direction was difficult. He described it as the blind leading the blind. Vladimir had attended several Rotary meetings in Turlock in 1987, but had no actual experience or training as a Rotarian. Fortunately, the Rotary Club of Turlock was about to come to the rescue.

Dave Muller became President of Turlock Rotary in July, 1990. He and our members remained unaware that the Eugene Rotary Club had had established a club in Irkutsk and that Vladimir was a member. However, he wanted wanted to invite Vladimir back to Turlock for the express purpose of him learning as much as possible about Rotary to help nurture its development in Russia. Contributions from our club, along with a grant from District 5220, provided the funding for his visit.

Communication between Russia and the United States was a real challenge back then. Denton Palmer, the Superintendent of Schools, communicated with Vladimir by snail mail to invite him and make the arrangements. It sometimes took a couple of months for a letter to arrive after it was mailed.

Vladimir arrived in Turlock on February 1, 1991. While staying with local Rotarians for ten weeks, He attended dozens of Rotary club meetings and District events throughout Central California. He also observed our board of directors meetings to learn the president's, secretary's and treasurer's responsibilities. He developed numerous personal friendships in many different clubs including Rotary International President, Cliff Dochterman.

He returned to Russia as a true expert on Rotary, having developed a better understanding & appreciation of it than most of the longtime Rotarians who had hosted him in California. He provided considerable expert assistance and information to other emerging clubs in Russia, including translating Rotary manuals into the Russian language.

in 1992, through the efforts of Professor Linda Bunney-Sarhad, Vladimir returned to Turlock for a third visit — for the entire academic year as a Fulbright Scholar in Residence at California State University Stanislaus. His wife and teenage daughter were with him for this yearlong stay. In addition to teaching classes at CSUS, he used this opportunity to further improve his knowledge of Rotary by visiting and speaking to numerous clubs in California and Oregon. During the winter recess, he and his family traveled to Eugene, Oregon to spend Christmas with his Rotarian friends there.

Upon his return to Siberia, Vladimir played an increasing role in the growth and development of Rotary in Russia. In 1994 he became President of the Irkutsk club. From 1993 - 2003 he was designated as the deputy district governor for District 5010 — which at that time included all of Alaska, The Yukon, and Eastern Russia. In that role he helped to form and nurture most of the Rotary clubs in Eastern Russia.

In 2004 he became the first Russian to serve as a Rotary District Governor. Our members Tom Watling, Bob Janzen & Bob Triebsch, along with their wives, traveled to Anchorage, Alaska in 2005 to visit with Vladimir at his district conference.

Vladimir Donskoy has become one of the best known and most active Rotarians in the world. He has attended and spoken at numerous Rotary events in Russia, Australia, Canada and the United States. And it all started with a simple invitation from Denton Palmer to attend a weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Turlock. As Past President Dave Muller is quick to point out, the best investment our club ever made was to arrange and fund his return visit to Turlock in 1991. Ironically, the Rotary Clubs of Eugene and Turlock were partners in the development of Rotary in Russia — and neither club knew of the other's involvement until decades later.

Ron Gietter, Past President of the Eugene Rotary Club has also written a fascinating description of his club's persistent efforts to establish Rotary in Russia in 1989-90. It is well worth your reading.

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