Episode 2744: GORKY, RUSSIA: FIRST MAN IN: MEMOIRS FROM BEING THE FIRST AMERICAN ALLOWED INSIDE RUSSIA'S CLOSED EXILE CITY by Donn G. Ziebell, Ph.D. - a podcast by Ric Bratton
from 2023-08-24T19:33:08
Russians needed internal visas to travel outside their place of residence. It was rare for foreigners to get such travel permission. After 30 years of corporate employment the author made an improbable career change. His new boss and two VP’s were black-listed by the KGB and could not enter Russia. The author was asked to write a business seminar proposal for Russia to see if he could open a door and get in. One of the three Russians who received the proposal got approval nine months later by Moscow’s Ministry of Education and the KGB . Surprisingly the seminars were designated to be held in Gorky, an exile city for political prisoners and closed to foreigners.The Russian Embassy in Washington D.C. and the officials in Moscow would not issue a travel visa to Gorky. So the author took the chance to be driven 250 miles to Gorky without a visa. The Russians in the city had never seen an American before. The seminar was attended by 60 top industrial personnel, including some suspected to be KGB. The author describes seminar incidents which reveal the thinking and unexpected responses by the Russians. He was taken to meet with many different people and visited many sites during his stay. The memoir is filled with events, pictures and entertaining cross-cultural experiences. From his time inside Russia, readers follow the many twists, turns and surprises the author encountered which entertain and hold reader’s attention. Gorky was not opened to foreigners until the year after all these events took place.
About the Author: Donn Ziebell's pursuit in doctoral studies with The Union Institute University, Cincinnati, Ohio, intersected simultaneously with his receiving of the approvals from Moscow's Russian Ministry of Education and the KGB to present business seminars in Russia. Delivering his first in a series of lectures in August 1990, the seminar program proceeded with his sending a number of US instructors with specific disciplines into Russia to lecture on their business areas of expertise. Their trip reports provided original research for writing a cross-cultural experiential doctoral dissertation to receive his Ph.D. degree. Previously, his B.S in Metallurgical Engineering from the U. of Missouri, Rolla, and a MBA degree With Distinction from the U. of New Haven, West Haven, Connecticut, expedited his earlier career in manufacturing and consulting roles within Fortune 500 Corporations for thirty years, including five years in his own manufacturing consulting firm, Ziebell Associates, Inc.
http://www.bluefunkbroadcasting.com/root/twia/82423dzec.mp3
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