By: Ilia Kolesnik

My first acquaintance with the United States was in 2017 when my school team was lucky to win a contest from the US Embassy in Moscow. We created a computer quest about Fort Ross, the Russian settlement in California, and won a visit to New York, Washington and California. I was really impressed by the excursions and meetings we had. That is why seizing the opportunity of taking part in the International Student Conference, I suggested to my friends from the English Club “AcademGorodok “ that we join  immediately.

In fact, this project has become a great challenge for us. While we were preparing our videos for the conference, we learnt new skills and took on some new roles: producers, designers, editors and, even, actors. We were completely plunged into the whole process of brainstorming ideas, gleaning the information, choosing technical tools, music or visual effects. Moreover, we became aware how much the lives of our countries had collided in different ways: during the famine in 1921-23, in the nuclear arms race after World War II, in space exploration, in local conflicts which predestined the future of the whole world.

Conducting research about the military officers, Stanislav Petrov, Vasily Arkhipov and William Basset, we learned how much each of them had contributed to keep our fragile world in peace. Those men were able to make the right decisions and prevent the atomic holocaust.

However, the most appealing thing of the conference is the real chance to discuss vital issues with the delegates of the US team. Nothing can be compared with the pleasure of being engaged in lively conversations, brief exchanges and stormy debates. We were looking forward to meet American students and ask them questions either about their attitude to the issue of nuclear disarmament or about their preferences in everyday life. Once again, I was struck by the fact how little we knew about each other and how little we differed.

It is no doubt that Russia and the United States bear special significant responsibility for the global security. I believe that taking steps to resolve crucial issues in one arena will consequently tend to results in another.

My ambition is to work as an IT specialist, so I truly believe that this area can become the fundamental key to successful cooperation between Russia and USA. In fact, there are no obstacles in IT sector if people from different countries are able to unite and work together for the common good.

I am sure the uncontrolled arms race can lead to Armageddon. That is why the extension of the New Start Treaty is presently one of the controversial issues. It was extremely exciting to draw up and adopt the Resolutions from US and Russian teams. Although they included various proposals, they did not differ significantly. On the contrary, they have proved that our common goal is to strive for detente and peace. I hope that The International Student Conference will become the part of important steps towards this direction.

On behalf of the Russian team, I would like to express our deep gratitude to everyone who has put in a great deal of effort to organize such an amazing event in tough times of the summer 2020:  Jonathan Bogen and Pavel Palazhchenko from the Gorbachev Foundation and honored speakers, Ted Deutch, Konstantin Kosachev, Igor Yurgens, James Timbie, David Matlock, Vladimir Dvorkin. It was a great surprise to receive the warm greetings from Mikhail Gorbachev and Condoleezza Rice to the participants of the Conference. We did appreciate their support and good wishes!

We sincerely hope that our actions will serve as good examples for young people from US and Russia how not to stay indifferent to the future of our world. Hoping that new conferences and meetings wait for us soon…

As Ronald Reagan said:

“A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. The only value in our two nations possessing nuclear weapons is to make sure they will never be used. But then would it not be better to do away with them entirely?”