International Twin Cities Day 2021

The international movement of twin cities has its roots in 1944, when Stalingrad and Coventry, almost completely destroyed during the Second World War, became twinned cities. That was the first such case in the world’s history.

Through the USSR Embassy in London, residents of Coventry donated money and sent a tablecloth to Stalingrad with the words “Little help is better than big sympathy” as well as names of Emily Smith, Coventry’s Mayor, and 830 other Coventry women embroidered on it. The tablecloth is stored in the Panorama-Museum "Stalingrad Battle" in Volgograd.⠀

Nowadays, thousands of cities around the world are united by bonds of partnership and brotherhood. Krasnodar is twinned with 11 cities: Karlsruhe (Germany), Nancy (France), Harbin (China), Wels (Austria), Larnaca (Cyprus), Sukhum (Abkhazia), Nottingham (Great Britain), Burgas (Bulgaria), Tallahassee (USA), Ferrara (Italy), Yerevan (Armenia), and it is ready for further extension of the partnership geography.

Events devoted to the International Twin Cities Day:

Esports teams from Krasnodar and its sister-cities Nancy (France) and Harbin (China) took part in the International Esports Tournament on April 17. The victory was won by the Russian gamers.

Exhibition of children's drawings "Germany - the land of fairy tales" was opened at KubSU. That event was a part of the Pop-up Festival of German Culture and the German Language, organized in the framework of the Year of Germany in Russia 2020/2021. Heike Uhlig, Director of the Goethe-Institut in Moscow, awarded the winners of the competition. 

Another children’s drawings exhibition, “Friendship between Krasnodar and Harbin through the eyes of children”, was organized together with the City Administration of Harbin (China). Art school students from Krasnodar and Harbin, aged 7 to 15 years, were invited to participate. Through their works, they tried to depict the unity of both cities.

Youth orchestras of Krasnodar and Karlsruhe (Germany) held an online meeting and presented video greetings regarding the International Twin Cities Day. Among other things, there was a discussion about the Karlsruhe orchestra’s upcoming visit to Krasnodar in June 2022 in honor of the 30th Anniversary of friendship between sister cities.

The ceremony was held to hand over exhibits from our Abkhazian sister-city of Sukhum to the Krasnodar State History and Archeology Culture Preserve named after E.D.Felitsyn. The exhibits will complement the collection "Sister-Cities: Evolution of Partnership". Find time to visit the exhibition - there are a lot of interesting things there!