Journeys across Russia with an end|Yekaterina Zatuliveter|TEDxSadovoeRing

Would you like to pay to help other people in the development of their hometowns: to restore an ancient kremlin or fortress tower? Acting in this way, you can not only study history, but create it!

Yekaterina Zatuliveter: social entrepreneur, and the founder of the Altruism Reasonable Travel Project.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

This story began in 1992,
when I was seven.

Going out onto the playground,

I realized that children
with whom I'd played yesterday

didn't want to talk to me.

Having run home in tears, I asked my mum,
"Why aren't they playing with me?"

She just said, "Because you are Russian."

"But I was also
Russian yesterday", I pleaded.

A few days later, I came home from school

and found all our belongings
had been packed,

and we fled that night from my hometown
of Tyrnyauz in Kabardino-Balkaria.

I have never gone back to that town,

but have devoted myself
to making sense of what happened.

I have lived, worked and studied
in various towns, cities and countries.

I have completed a master's degree
on the subject of conflict resolution.

I have worked at an international
human rights organization.

Five years ago, I came back to Russia.

I saw that conflict
and general division in our society

had reached a critical point.d

It is not just about ethnic groups.

Disagreement on policy issues,

differences in people's incomes,

all of these have created social tensions.

Big cities in our country are developing,

while small villages and towns
are to be found in a poor state.

They are dying out.

I very often see that
when travelling across Russia.

Here, for instance, you can see
how much of a difference there is

in the population densities
of different regions of our country.

The exodus of people
from small towns and villages

is creating a very big problem.

In the big cities,
the population density is growing,

and that creates
a huge number of problems.

I've made the decision
that I cannot simply look on at it;

I either have to do something about it

or depart.

I decided on the former.

At first, I didn't know
what I should do exactly.

I have participated in election campaigns,

and more than once been
an election observer.

However, all that led to nothing,
nothing has changed in our society.

In terms of my theoretical knowledge
of methods for dealing with conflicts,

I realized that one of the methods
of connecting people

is through common cause.

It's about when different groups of people
are caught up together.

They may not be particularly friendly
towards each other,

but they all understand the value
of resolving an important issue,

that the outcome of the issue
is more important

than what they feel towards each other.

Here, it's important
that a platform of common cause

creates an atmosphere
where people begin to communicate,

listen to each other,
and understand each other.

Importantly: to understand
is not to agree.

However, it is crucial.

When I realized that common cause

would help to solve
the problems in our society,

and looked at the size of our country,

I realized that my mission
would need to take on a tourist format.

That's how Altourism came about.

What do I do with Altourism?

I locate active local residents
in towns and villages throughout Russia.

Together with these people,
we identify a common cause,

a cause that will really make
a positive impact

on the development
of this little town or village.

Then, together with the locals,
we organize a trip to that place

for people who want to take part

in improving a small town or a village,

to make a contribution
to the development of such a place.

We then take a trip there,
and see what we find.

We might then sit down with the locals
to identify what might form a common cause

that would help to make
an even bigger contribution

to the development of the local community,

or move on to the next stage
of development,

supporting the local residents
in setting up a small business.

Why do they need support?

As I said, there's an exodus of people,

and leaving with these people,
especially the younger ones,

from the small towns and villages,

are their ideas.

Tell me, please, who is not
originally from Moscow?

Raise your hands.

(Laughter)

I can't see you very well,
but I think that's about eighty percent.

But we don't want -

we are all bright, smart people here,

striving for constant development,

we here, in Moscow,

but that doesn't mean that we want
our hometowns to fall into decay, does it?

This is what my hometown
looks like these days.

When I left it,

it was like a little green paradise
at the foot of Elbrus.

But this town actually has
the potential of the Swiss Alps.

I don't understand why such things
are happening in Russia.

"Common cause" is not my invention;
it is international practice.

Organizations such as the UN
and other international bodies,

they very often use
common cause as an instrument

in the realization of, in the process
of coming to, a post-conflict settlement.

Let's imagine a situation:

a village in which residents
have been fighting each other.

The hostilities are over,

and an international body is tasked
with maintaining a stable peace.

They notice that the water supply
in this village has been destroyed.

They make an offer to the locals:

"We'll fund the water supply
if you get together on it."

And this is when the stage is set

for the locals to start
working together on the water supply,

to start communicating.

They begin to listen to each other,
they begin to understand each other.

To understand -
not to agree; to understand.

That's the really important thing.

This is the town of Tutayev
in the Yaroslavl Oblast.

It was the first town in which
we started working, more than a year ago.

Tutayev is separated
by the Volga into two parts.

There's no bridge between them,

and the two parts don't really
interact with each other.

The town's administration
is on the right bank,

and this side is much the bigger,
and is developing much faster.

The left bank is almost forgotten.

But its being forgotten
has both its upside and its downside.

The downside is that
there is no building regeneration,

and budget allocations have not been made
to develop this area.

But what this side has is its beauty.

Although it is crumbling,
it is not being destroyed on purpose.

There is no new housing development there.

We are just working with the left bank.

Lilia and Alexey are the main initiators
of the positive changes on this left bank.

They are developing
the Art House "Romanovo",

which is where our altourists stay.

This is our very first trip,
which took place in April 2015.

Lilia and Alexei suggested that we,
together with the local people,

might clear one of the squares of garbage.

At first, many local residents
came out of curiosity.

They met us with disbelief,

but when our altourists withstood

being covered in snow
four times during the day,

they realized we were serious.

And with that they became
very motivated themselves.

They started talking with the altourists,
and not about the weather.

For starters, they asked them:

"Is it true that you paid to come here
to us in your free time

to help us improve our town?"

Can you imagine that every altourist
had their own answer to this question,

if each was an entirely different one.

And this, our first trip,
had a profound influence on everyone,

both on the altourists and the locals.

For the altourists though,

really, travelling across Russia
was a very sad experience.

This is the Smolensk Kremlin.

You all know about it, at least
from our high school history textbooks.

A huge number of our foes
were defeated there

in different centuries,
in different battles.

However, if you plan to go there,
you will realize it's in a very bad state.

Getting up on the tower walls
is an extreme sport.

But there is no tourist infrastructure
for visiting this site.

That is very sad,

since when you travel,
recharging your batteries,

you want to be inspired
by positive emotions, not negative ones.

It is the distinct feature
of Altourism's trips:

our tourists always come back home
infused with positive emotions.

It is because they meet
active local residents

prepared to do great things
for their little towns or villages.

Something else that distinguishes
our trips from others

is that we, together with
the local residents, create new history

as we travel around.

And with that goes
another very important fact:

each of our trips is unique,
there will not be another like it.

And those tourists who go after us,

they will study the history

that we created with the altourists
and the local residents.

After our trips, the local residents
develop completely different ways

of building dialogue between each other.

They no longer moan that everything's bad,
that nothing's done for them.

They start asking themselves and others:

"What kind of town do we want to live in?"
"How do we make it like it?"

This is when we see the profound change

in their way of thinking,
in their conceptions,

that's exactly what we are trying
to achieve with Altourism.

People stop thinking
"It should be done for us",

and start thinking "We can do it".

This is the important moment.

(Applause)

However, everything
is not always as hoped,

other situations can arise.

For example, this is Torzhok, Tver Oblast.

We planned a trip here
for the May Holidays.

To my surprise, we got
the planning done very quickly.

There are local activists there
doing a lot for their town.

Over the past year,
they've really moved mountains,

but for our trip,
they chose a large-scale project

that we weren't prepared for.

When they found out
there was outside help,

they decided to go all out.

It was to smarten up this allée here.

But what happened?

We didn't get a group together,
so we had to cancel the trip.

To my great joy,
the locals came out anyway,

on the appointed day,
at the appointed hour,

and they cleaned up the allée.

Despite these positive changes,
the most important thing didn't happen:

as we weren't there,
there was no change in their mindset.

Only those people
came to the Saturday cleanup

who already understood

how important it is
to do something good around you,

to change the world
around you for the better.

But others did not come.

Our trips bring in those local residents
who are just curious,

and then they become part of us.

I'll give you one more example,

when, looking for a common cause,

we, in fact, came up with the idea
of setting up a small business.

It happened in the town
of Kotelnich in the Kirov Oblast.

I went there six months ago

when I got to know that it's
the biggest location for Permian reptiles.

And just recently,
they opened a dinopark there.

It's very cool.

But then I realized that there is
something more interesting in this area.

Locals began to tell me different stories.

I came to realize

that many cool photographers
come from this part of the Vyatka Region.

But I also learned
that in the town of Kotelnich,

the Museum of the Vyatka School
of Photography was opening.

I tried Googling
the Vyatka School of Photography

but didn't find any information.

However, after talking to people,
I realized that it does really exist.

We needed to gather information,
analyse it, and put together the details.

And if we really wanted
people to know about it

as one of the most important
tourist attractions in our country,

it somehow had to involve itself
with its own financial history.

That's when I suggested

opening a hostel for photographers
in the museum building,

a place people interested in photography
would come to from all over the world.

They could have masterclasses
given by Vyatka photographers,

and go on photo trips.

These then are three examples
of our activities.

We are now working
in six regions of Russia.

For the second year
of our activities, that's great,

but on the national scale,
it's actually nothing.

I would like to see the mindset
of the majority of our people change.

I would like small towns and villages
in our country to be developed.

I don't want young people
to want to leave their hometowns

because they need to;

but that there's a good job
where they are,

that opportunities exist there
for their self-development,

and that there are interesting
people there for them to talk to.

I would like moving
to a small town or village

to become a modern trend.

Altourism can achieve that.

But we need to take action
across the whole country.

And finally, I'd like to ask those people
who raised their hands

to think that, in your hometown, village,
you have there active people.

Introduce me to them.

And we'll move mountains together.

(Applause)