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Happy New Year, Rotarians. President Mark started off the new year by asking Bill Roen to lead the pledge of allegiance followed by PP Benjamin Fisher giving the Thought of the Day using spiritual quotes. President Mark then thanked PP Peter More for greeting everyone and asked PP Ed Gauld to lead the crowd in singing a Scottish song, Auld Lang Syne for old time's sake.
Guests were then introduced, Emily, who works at UCLA and came with Lucy Tseng and, UCLA Rotaractor Meggan, who is the Development Chair.
PP Chris Bradford came forward to induct Lucy Tseng formerly of the Lawndale Rotary Club & member of the Fighting Human Trafficking Club into the Rotary Club of Westwood Village. Welcome Lucy!!
In keeping with tradition, PP Tom Barron and David Stover once again forgot to wear their Rotary pin and were asked to donate $5.00 each to the Foundation. PP Benjamin Fisher volunteered $250.00 for the Foundation in honor of his new grandson Miles who was born on January 1, 2026, in California.
The first part of the meeting was then wrapped up with PP Peter More talking about visiting other Rotary Clubs including the Manhattan Beach Club in the near future, inviting everyone along; PE Bob Simon, then discussed a Rotary Magazine article about Service Above Self explaining that Rotary makes a difference around the world every minute of every day;, PP Tom Barron released the names of the Rotarians and their teams for the professional football playoffs; and finally, President Mark talked about events in time that took place during the second week of January such as the first female governor being elected, Wyoming and New Mexico becoming states and, Standard Oil being established by the Rockefellers.
Without further ado, second cousin and President Mark then introduced Janet Schwartz to talk about and answer any questions on the Soviet Union. This was a continuation of her craft talk which took place in 2023.
Janet began by talking about the Russian alphabet (Cyrillic script) which was derived primarily from the Greek alphabet and comprised of thirty-three letters. She reflected on how similar it is to English in some ways and showed some word comparisons. Janet began to study Russian at UCLA. After transferring to UC Berkeley, she received a B.A. and M.A. in Slavic Languages and Literatures. In 1969, she went to the Soviet Union for the first time as a participant on a study tour sponsored by Indiana University. While on another study tour to Yugoslavia in the summer of 1973, she sought permission to return to the Soviet Union, which was granted in September 1973. While there, she worked as a nanny for American and British families and, as a dog & cat sitter. She lived in a compound guarded by militiamen who kept track of where she went while in the Soviet Union. Janet did have some relatives from Russia, and she became interested in the language. She also read Russian novels such as “The Quiet Dawn” by Mikhail Sholokhov and books by Leo Tolstoy which increased her curiosity about Russia.
Janet explained that from 1969 to 1991 the Soviet government owned all houses, and people lived in apartments. There were always long lines for goods in demand, and the citizens had to become creative on how to get necessary items. Janet was not subject to this as much as she had access to the American embassy goods. People would barter for goods from the US embassy. Janet spoke on how she was able to attend the the Bolshoi ballet by providing goods from the embassy.
Many questions were asked such as, how did Oligarchs come about? Janet stated that some people in the Soviet Union had privilege and power, and they eventually became oligarchs. What entertainment was enjoyed by the citizens? Dance and classical music. They also enjoyed American movies that they could see only after they were reviewed by the government. They enjoyed cross country skiing and ice skating. If citizens wanted to leave the Russian empire, they would have to pay to get out.
The Soviet Union was an atheist country that did not recognize Christmas although they did give gifts and celebrate a form of Christmas on New Years Day. There is a lot of drinking and alcoholism in Russia to this day.
Janet believes the people of Russia want government change and are not supportive of Putin.
It was a wonderful presentation as Janet is extremely knowledgeable about the Soviet Union, especially the time she was there. There were many wonderful questions and great participation by the audience.
President Mark thanked Janet but forgot her speaker gift!
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