Soon after her first visit to the U.S.S.R. in 1983, Sharon Tennison decided to form the Center for Citizens Initiatives (CCI), aiming to bridge the gap of misunderstanding between Soviets/Russians and U.S. citizens.

But Tennison later found out that little would be achieved in this direction without fundamentally changing people's mentality and their social environment.

As a result, the CCI has grown from an organization that simply brought U.S. citizens to see the Soviet Union for themselves in the 1980s to one that supports civil society and provides diversified, long-term programs aimed at cultivating Western-style managerial expertise in emerging businesses.

In between discussion sessions at a CCI-sponsored conference at St. Petersburg Hotel last month, Tennison spoke to The Russia Journal.

The Russia Journal: You first came to the Soviet Union in 1983, after which a self-proclaimed Citizens' Diplomats program – aimed at improving the level of understanding between Soviet and U.S. citizens – was formed. Why did average Americans – people who were not from the State Department or the White House – decide to pursue these goals?

Sharon Tennison: We were very concerned about the issues in the world having to do with the superpowers. This was because we understood that these nations have a lot of nuclear missiles targeting each other. Besides, this was also the time President [Ronald] Reagan was running his "evil empire" campaign against the Soviet Union.

So, we arrived at a conclusion that something really had to be changed in the relationship between the peoples of these two nations. We started by trying to find out the real truth about the Soviet people, as most U.S. citizens then never saw any picture of any other Soviets except for [Leonid] Brezhnev or had any realistic information about the Soviet Union.

So, we came over in 1983 on something like a fact-finding mission. We held small pieces of paper saying "we are Americans trying to know your country and its people better." The notes asked people on the streets to talk to us if they wanted.

We saw genuine, wonderful and humane, caring and modest, highly intelligent and cultured people much different from what we'd been made to believe over the years.

On the way back to the United States, we decided to do something to improve the situation, though at that time, we did not know exactly what we wanted to do.

At first, we started by contacting everybody in our address books, telling them of our experience in the Soviet Union, and later, we got media involved in the process.

Several people wanted to see for themselves, and we later created a non-profit travel agency to help organize trips to the U.S.S.R.

RJ: Over the past 19 years, what would you say is CCI's biggest achievement in bridging the gap of misunderstanding between Russia and the United States?

ST: Russia is entirely different today. Then, in the early ‘80s, when we first came here, people were very guarded in their behavior, didn't look foreigners in the eyes, and were very much afraid.

Even streets were unusually dark and buildings were all grey or brown. But today, things are totally different. People are very open, their behaviors have changed, and the whole social environment has changed.

RJ: You said in one of your speeches that you've raised more than $60 million for the CCI programs. How difficult was it to raise this amount, and who were the major benefactors?

ST: I'd never had any experience raising funds before starting the CCI. It was a mystery to me, but I had to learn in order to get the program's work done. The art of fundraising was learnt the hard way – step by step and dollar by dollar.

Our major benefactors over the years have included philanthropists, U.S. government and several foundations. In the financial aspect, The CCI is an open book, a plate-glass window in which nothing is hidden. This is my principle, and it's also the best way to meet everyone's expectations and avoid any kind of misunderstandings.

RJ: The majority of Western-funded organizations are headquartered in Moscow. Were there any particular reasons why you opted for St. Petersburg as the CCI's headquarters in Russia?

ST: Well, I'm not fond of Moscow. This is because Moscow, to me, is like New York, and I'm not fond of it either. That is why I live in San Francisco, which to me is also like St. Petersburg in Russia.

RJ: At the close of the conference, the participants submitted recommendations on ways to improve the business climate in the country for small- and medium-sized businesses. Is there any way these recommendations can be passed onto the Kremlin?

ST: Definitely. Every word in those recommendations will reach its addressee. First, I will study them to find out what the priorities are, or sort out which of the issues discussed here are of utmost important to the majority of the entrepreneurs.

Then, I personally need to be very clear about the terms used after their translations from Russian into English – as you probably might have seen,

I've not learnt the Russian language over all these years – so that I can really understand what these people want.

We've a pretty direct line to Andrei Illarionov, the presidential economic adviser. He is our first line of attack in the Kremlin because he has direct access to President Vladimir Putin.

Therefore, he can pass the information directly to him. We know this because we've passed information through him to Putin before.

RJ: Could you explain a bit more on the information you and some of the CCI's alumni passed to Putin through Illarionov? Was this information reflected in policy adopted after that?

ST: In October last year, 100 Russian young businesspeople, mostly owners of small- and medium-sized businesses, met with Illarionov in the Kremlin.

For more than three hours, the group discussed the SME problems and their solutions with Illarionov.

And, two weeks later, Putin made his speech on the SMEs where a lot of programs to redress the problems afflicting the sector and ways to overcome them were highlighted.

This was the first break for SME development as President Putin came out officially to support SMEs at the State Council held Dec. 19, 2001, using some information from our group's discussions. So, we know Illarionov is a good guy, and I just love him.

RJ: How do you see the future of these CCI programs in Russia?

ST: Well, one can't say what the future holds for these young people. We've trained 4,000 Russians in the United States through these programs, and my goal is to train up to 10,000.

For the most part, I would say the experience has been transforming for them.

But who knows what these people will do in the future, and which of them will become the next Putins.

But I don't think these young people will be in politics, but then they might be tomorrow's [Henry] Fords of Russia because they are so bright and so amazing.