Delegation From Cambridge to Visit Potential Sister City In Soviet Union

A group of 11 Cambridge officials and citizens left for a two-week trip to the Soviet Union yesterday to meet with leaders of what they hope will become Cambridge's "sister city."

The delegation to Yerevan, the capital of Soviet Armenia, includes City Councilor and former Mayor Francis H. Duehay '55, School Committee member Jane Sullivan, and Jeb Brugmann, an executive of the Cambridge Peace Commission.

The Cambridge Soviet Sister City Project chose Yerevan from among several possible counterpart cities because Cambridge has a large population of residents with Armenian heritage, and because both cities are academic and cultural centers, Duehay said.

Duehay said that another similarity between the cities was their ages. "We are one of the oldest cities in the country and they are one of the oldest cities in the world," he said.

Yerevan was founded in 782 B.C., Duehay said. Cambridge dates back to 1630.

The delegation will bring their Soviet counterparts gifts including peace posters, a scrapbook prepared by Cambridge schoolchildren, 15 works by local artists, and books on New England.

Future cultural exchanges could include a trip by the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra to Yerevan, said Duehay. The orchestra visited Cambridge's Japanese sister city, Yatabe, last summer.

The current trip was funded through private contributions, fundraising events, a lottery offering a free trip to the Soviet Union with the group, and a grant of about $3000 from the city of Cambridge, said Peace Commission spokesman Louise Coleman.

Whee!!

Coleman said she believed the trip and subsequent exchanges between the cities would lead to better international understanding.

"We're less likely to be vaporized by people who know us," Coleman said.

The group carries letters of support from Mayor Walter J. Sullivan, U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54 (D-Mass.), and other local political leaders as well as messages from two Eighth District Congressional candidates, Melvin H. King and State Sen. George Bachrach (D-Watertown).

The group received a welcoming telegram from the mayor of Yerevan several days ago, Coleman said.

Despite widespread concern about terrorism, as well as the recent nuclear reactor accident in the Ukraine, Coleman said that none of the participants had discussed canceling the trip.

She said experts had told the group that Yerevan was unlikely to be badly affected by fallout from Chernobyl. But as a precaution, she said, the delegates would not eat fruit or leafy vegetables during their trip.

Countering the enthusiasm of local officials, Lecturer on History William C. Fuller Jr., who leads four Harvard courses in Soviet history and politics, questioned the usefulness of the visit.

"Activities like this one have been approved by the [Soviet] central authorities and by the Party," he said. "People over here will get the impression that they're doing something, but I have a rather cynical view of such things."

"One thing is strange about Cambridge," Fuller added. "This is a city that wants its own foreign policy."