Way to the Project
The project MEGAREGION -
NETWORK CONFEDERATION is a logical development of the WEST - WEST
project which began on April, 27, 1999 and proceeds now. The
information on activity of WEST - WEST club is on the site
www.west-west.da.ru and is accessible to all . By the end of May,
2002 there were 24 stenographs of sessions, articles, interviews of
participants and other materials. It is necessary to say some words
about this initial project.
The realization of the WEST -
WEST began as an answer to a revenge of the feodo-bureaucratic
forces which used to rule the country prior to the beginning of 90th
years and appeared for whatever reasons at authority by the end of
90ies, but this time with financial maintenance and, accordingly,
with a political prospect. The future participants of the project
understood that it was necessary to try to oppose this process
somehow, even with small forces, even locally. It was clear, that a
small group of enthusiasts could not hope for support of officials
and functionaries of branches of numerous federal parties in the
region. Leaders of the majority of parties had agreed with the game
rules imposed on the society by the second echelon of the former
nomenclature of the CPSU. In these conditions it was necessary to
formulate the new aimes of activity and to find the new form of
organization. Then nobody assumed, that it would be a stand-alone
network.
The purpose of the project has
become intellectual support of the process of integration of
Northwest of Russia into the world system and promotion of the idea
of self-sufficiency of Northwest region in relationships with the
federal center, Moscow. It was the unformulated hope for
confederalism, the desire to oppose the imperial elite, to restore
the economic fairness in the relationships between the citizens and
the state. Already then there was an idea of creation of a program
which would take into account not only the aims of the federal
center and the adjacent states, but also the aims of development of
the subregion which is situated on the joint between the two
civilizations.
Participants of the project at
the initial stage decided, that for maintenance of stability of this
political environment it should become independent of the state and
influence it at an informal level. The association should not have a
charter, and accordingly, it should not be registered, there should
not be a hierarchy in it, so that nobody could use the participants
of the project as a material for personal promotion, there should
not be financial assets, membership or headquarters. It was also
decided that all that occurs within the framework of the project,
should be accessible to any interested person. Therefore all
discussions were taken shorthand, deciphered, edited in small amount
, and after creation by one of the participants of an Internet site,
they were published there.
In the first meeting within
the framework of the WEST - WEST seven persons took part. Then the
number of participants slowly, but steadily grew. Selection of
participants at the beginning was extremely subjective. But it was
based on long term relationships between people with each other and
mutual trust. There were no restrictions but on mutual consent
competent, interesting people were invited first of all, those
wishing and able to behave correctly in sharp political debate.
At the beginning we used phone
for connections, then e-mail. With the appearance of a site in the
Internet the circle of correspondence participants of considerably
increased. Scholars, teachers, high school students, active workers
of liberal political parties were sent the abstracts of reports with
their consent, the abstracts were also sent to human rights
champions, journalists of Saint Petersburg, Petrozavodsk, Pskov,
Moscow, Nizhni Novgorod, Tartu, Washington, Prague, Berlin. Many did
not have time for personal participation in dialogues, but all of
them could know what was going on at meetings in Saint Petersburg.
Unfortunately, originally
proclaimed aims of the project for quite objective reasons appeared
dim. Not all subjects of discussions had the direct connection to
these purposes. It is possible to notice if one looks at the list of
the subjects discussed. Nevertheless, this first project has shown,
that the direction of activity and means of realization have been
chosen correctly. Some participants, understanding the value of this
forum, suggested to create groups which would discuss subjects of
economy, cultures, but this idea was not supported due to the lack
of time and human resources.
The new project, MEGAREGION -
the NETWORK CONFEDERATION, in some aspects returns us to the
beginning, but on a qualitatively new level of realization.
