Last week a delegation from greater Portland’s Russian sister city was touring Maine and made a stop in Westbrook.

The three men and two women hailed from the Solovetski Islands, a group of islands in the White Sea off the northwestern coast of Russia about 165 miles south of the Arctic Circle that are part of the Archangel province. It was the first time a group from that province had visited Maine as part of the sister city program, which was started in 1987. In November of that year, Westbrook Mayor Phillip Spiller led a delegation to Archangel to sign the agreements formalizing the sister city relationship.

Solovetski Islands Municipality Mayor Dmitri Lugovoy led the Russian delegation. The group also included Svetlana Lebedeva, assistant to the regional government; Anna Balandina, who is in charge of public relations for the region; Olga Koroleva, director of human services for the islands, and translator Andrei Fink, who works for “Open World,” the Washington, D.C., organization that sponsored the trip.

The islands the delegation calls home are very similar to Maine’s coastal islands, with windblown shores, distorted and twisted birch trees from the constant northern winds, wild blueberries and cloudberries, mushroom harvesting in late summer, protected evergreen forests, hiking trails and manmade canals that connect dozens of natural lakes, via rowing dories, canoes or kayaks.

In a humorous vein, Lugovoy told his American hosts that even though the islands are seeing more visitors in the summer, the “carmaran” – mosquitoes – still manage to outnumber the human visitors.

Another highlight of the island’s summer are what is known as the “White Nights” where the sun brings light 24 hours a day. In contrast, winters on the island are mostly dark, with only a few hours of twilight breaking the gloom.

The Archangel Committee of Greater Portland, a non-profit organization of volunteer members, arranged home stay hosts and escorted the visitors on their nine-day stay in Maine. Westbrook’s Dennis Marrotte, the vice co-chair of the Archangel Committee of Greater Portland, helped to guide the Russians on their visit to Westbrook and throughout the state.

On Dec. 10, the delegation paid a visit to WLOB-AM and spent an hour on the air with host Kevin Crocker on his “Talk Maine” show. Lugovoy and Balandina answered questions from callers and talked about their home islands.

After spending time touring various parts of Maine, the group returned to Westbrook on Dec. 13 for an afternoon visit to the Mission Possible Teen Center. There, they were led on a tour by Kevin Joy, 13, and following the tour, they spent some time with center Director Evelyn Blanchard talking about the center with an eye on setting up a similar center in Archangel.

At a farewell dinner on Friday evening before leaving for home the next day, Marrotte said Lugovoy told his American hosts that he had a wonderful experience in Maine and he was “especially touched by how average citizens change and improve their lives themselves, and don’t wait for a miracle to come down from the government.”

Dennis Marrotte contributed to this report.

Russians On Dec. 13, a group of Russians from greater Portland’s sister city paid a visit to Westbrook’s Mission Possible Teen Center to talk with Director Evelyn Blanchard. Pictured (front row, from left) Dennis Marrotte, vice co-chair of the Archangel Committee of Greater Portland; Anna Balandina, public relations director for the Solovetski Islands; Olga Koroleva, director of human and social services for the Solovetski Islands. Rear (left to right) Andrei Strukov, driver/translator; Blanchard; Svetlana Lebedeva, assistant to the regional government of the Solovetski Islands; Andrei Fink, faciliator/translator and Dimitri Lugovoy, Solovetski Islands municipal mayor.

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