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Friends United Meeting |
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Galina Orlova Retires at Friends House Moscow
Friends House Moscow’s (FHM) first staff member, Galina Evgenievna Orlova, has retired. Expressions of gratitude and love for her were at the top of the agenda at the October 31 meeting of FHM’s international board.
Patricia Cockrell, who introduced Galina to Friends, remembers their first meeting: “I first met Galina when the British Foreign Office and the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs acceded at last to my request for a school exchange in 1988. The school assigned to us was School 31 in Moscow, and there in the staff room, I introduced myself to the senior teacher of Russian literature, Galina Evgenievna, and was invited to her next class.
“During the intervals between classes we chatted in the corridor and she asked me what had given me the energy to keep going for 20 years writing letters to presidents and prime ministers and attending meetings in London and Moscow in pursuit of this experience for the school students of our two countries. I told her this was my contribution to the Quaker peace testimony: I had faith that the cold war would not last forever, especially if the young could be encouraged to resist the propaganda. Galina had come across the word ‘Quaker’ in one of Leskov’s stories, where during a family dispute, someone says, ‘Let’s send for the Quaker lady, she always calms things down.’ She was intrigued to know more. Our friendship deepened over the years; she invited me to her home and I invited her to England.”
When British Friends began sending workers to encourage the Quaker movement in Russia, Patricia kept Galina informed and encouraged her to visit the small Moscow Meeting. Hesitant at first, Galina became a regular attender, then a member, then the group’s first official clerk. Patricia was part of the second team of workers appointed by British Friends to serve in Moscow.
She continues her account: “In the short space of 5 years, Galina, who had no English and no knowledge of Friends, had acquired a fluency, especially when reading, which was invaluable as we translated chunks of Quaker literature into Russian, and also a deep understanding of Quaker faith and practice which has guided her life.
“Galina worked closely with me during the time of my placement in Moscow and in 1995 she took early retirement from her school. Having been very involved in the preliminary work, including the practical matter of fi nding premises, she was appointed staff at Friends House Moscow when it opened on January 1, 1996.”
Much of Galina’s work involved administration, contacts with other organizations, oversight of social service projects and care of visitors. Her work expanded as she became an Alternatives to Violence trainer and national resource person.
In 1999, Galina brought a concern about the suffering people of Chechnya to the FHM board, who adopted the concern. As treasurer, Eleanor Barden recalls, “In October 2000, Galina went with Aina, a young Chechen woman, to Pervomayskaya, together with a man from that village. They visited the most needy people (105 families in all), giving $9 to each, to enable them to buy a sack of fl our. This action was extremely courageous; Galina was well aware of the danger for a Russian woman visiting Chechnya during the conflict. But Galina had a clear leading and went to Chechnya again in September 2001, this time to the village of Petropavlovskaya near Grozny. She heard many more tales of distress from the people she visited. This time she gave $17 per family to 62 families since the price of food doubled during the year.” In that same year, she went with Patricia Cockrell to Ingushetia to facilitate a workshop for Alternatives to Violence facilitators, who were all refugees. While there she visited a project for traumatized Chechen children and a woodworking project providing employment for Chechen refugees, both of which received assistance from Friends House.
Declining health ended Galina’s travels to projects and ultimately led to her giving up the office work as well. Her many friends inside and outside Russia hope and pray that her spiritual influence will continue to flourish at Friends House and in Moscow Meeting for years to come.