Gennady Alferenko
Encyclopedia
Gennady Alferenko is a Soviet and Russian social innovator; in 1970 he established Terpsichore, the first local community organization registered as a legal entity
in the USSR; in 1985 he established the Foundation for Social Inventions
of the USSR, and in 1987, the foundation for Social Innovations USA. Alferenko is an Honorary Citizen of New Orleans, San Francisco, San Diego, Atlanta, Juneau, and Seattle.
and Geophysics
at the Novosibirsk State University
from 1966 through 1973. During this period, in 1970, Alferenko founded Terpsichore, a ballet
club, which was the first local community organization
registered as a legal entity
in the USSR. Terpsichore organized events with performances of Soviet and world culture stars, such as Galina Ulanova
, Maya Plisetskaya
, Ekaterina Maximova
, Alicia Alonso
, Vladimir Vasiliev
, Maris Liepa
, and Mikhail Baryshnikov
. Also, he established a network of 450 local foundations to provide financial, organizational, and legal support to youth initiatives across the Soviet Union. From 1973 through 1985 Gennady Alferenko headed the NSU's oil and gas deposits research team in Eastern Siberia and on Sakhalin
island.
In 1985, following Alferenko's publication on an idea of a national campaign to facilitate innovators and change-makers, Mikhail Gorbachev
pledged his support and invited Gennady to Moscow to set up a national fund promoting social innovations. Alferenko established the Foundation for Social Inventions
at the Komsomolskaya Pravda
newspaper, as a readers' voluntary association, to implement initiatives facilitating creation and establishment of an open civil society
. The Foundation for Social Inventions established and provided organizational and financial support to over 300 non-governmental organizations using a unique mandate to launch new organizations under its auspices. Some of the initiatives that Gennady Alferenko launched with the FSI, were Siberia-Alaska in 1988, and Space Flight Europe-America 500
in 1992.
Siberia-Alaska was a project to establish a visa
-free travel regime for native families in order to reunite Soviet and American Yupik Eskimos in Chukotka
, and open direct flights between Siberia, Russian Far East, Alaska and California. Before, those who wished to travel legally across the Bering Strait
had to go round the world.
Europe-America 500 was a private spaceflight
conceived with the aim of increasing trade between Russia and USA, and was followed by a Russian-American entrepreneur
exchange program promoting development of small and medium-sized businesses in Russia. During the course of the program, over 10.000 young unemployed people had been sent for 4-6-week internships in the United States for developing entrepreneurial skills and gaining experience.
In 1987, Gennady Alferenko established the US Foundation for Social Innovations, which, jointly with the FSI of the USSR, launched the first student exchange programs between the USSR and the USA for 100.000 students, and organized a meeting of the Vietnam War
US veterans and Afghanistan War
Soviet veterans to develop mutual support programs and establish joint business ventures, such as manufacturing of prosthetics and wheelchair
s.
In 1989, Alferenko together with the Esalen Institute organized Boris Yeltsin
's first trip to the United States, arranging meetings for Yeltsin with President George H. W. Bush
, Vice President Dan Quayle
, National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft
, former President Ronald Reagan
, and many other leaders in business and government. The trip covered eleven cities and fulfilled Yeltsin's dreams of seeing the Statue of Liberty
and an example of a free enterprise economy.
In mid-1990s Alferenko had developed recommendations for Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov
to establish a state-owned company Rosneft
.
In 2000, Alferenko organized Ring-2000, a civic initiative to create a National idea bank for the new President of Russia, Vladimir Putin
. The main events were held in Russia concert hall in Moscow linked with 33 Internet centers in universities across Russia.
Since 2000, Gennady Alferenko has been a strategic advisor to national and international companies, including Standard Bank
, Gazprombank
, Ernst & Young
, and PwC
.
Legal personality
Legal personality is the characteristic of a non-human entity regarded by law to have the status of a person....
in the USSR; in 1985 he established the Foundation for Social Inventions
Foundation for Social Inventions
The Foundation for Social Inventions of the USSR was founded in 1986 by Gennady Alferenko, a social innovator and entrepreneur, to launch initiatives for turning Russia into an open civil society....
of the USSR, and in 1987, the foundation for Social Innovations USA. Alferenko is an Honorary Citizen of New Orleans, San Francisco, San Diego, Atlanta, Juneau, and Seattle.
Education and Career
Gennady Alferenko studied GeologyGeology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
and Geophysics
Geophysics
Geophysics is the physics of the Earth and its environment in space; also the study of the Earth using quantitative physical methods. The term geophysics sometimes refers only to the geological applications: Earth's shape; its gravitational and magnetic fields; its internal structure and...
at the Novosibirsk State University
Novosibirsk State University
Novosibirsk State University was founded in May 1959 in the USSR by Soviet academicians Mikhail Alekseevich Lavrentiev, Sergei Lvovich Sobolev and Sergey Alekseyevich Khristianovich in a program of establishing a Siberian branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences...
from 1966 through 1973. During this period, in 1970, Alferenko founded Terpsichore, a ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
club, which was the first local community organization
Community organization
Community organizations are civil society non-profits that operate within a single local community. They are essentially a subset of the wider group of nonprofits. Like other nonprofits they are often run on a voluntary basis and are self funded...
registered as a legal entity
Legal personality
Legal personality is the characteristic of a non-human entity regarded by law to have the status of a person....
in the USSR. Terpsichore organized events with performances of Soviet and world culture stars, such as Galina Ulanova
Galina Ulanova
Galina Sergeyevna Ulánova is frequently cited as being one of the greatest 20th Century ballerinas. Her flat in Moscow is designated a national museum, and there are monuments to her in Saint Petersburg and Stockholm....
, Maya Plisetskaya
Maya Plisetskaya
Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya , born is a Russian ballet dancer, frequently cited as one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century. Maya danced during the Soviet era at the same time as the great Galina Ulanova, and took over from her as prima ballerina assoluta of the Bolshoi in 1960...
, Ekaterina Maximova
Ekaterina Maximova
Ekaterina Sergeevna Maximova was a Soviet and Russian ballerina of international renown.-Career:Maximova was born in Moscow, Soviet Union. An artist who combined great technical prowess with piquant prettiness, Maximova enjoyed her greatest successes in Giselle, Don Quixote, Cinderella and The...
, Alicia Alonso
Alicia Alonso
Alicia Alonso Martínez is the Cuban prima ballerina assoluta and choreographer. Her company became the Ballet de Cuba in 1955....
, Vladimir Vasiliev
Vladimir Vasiliev
Vladimir Vasiliev is the director and chief instructor of the Toronto School of Russian Martial Arts located in Thornhill, Ontario, where he teaches Ryabko's Systema as the top student of Mikhail Ryabko. V. Vasiliev has allegedly served in the Russian Special Forces...
, Maris Liepa
Maris Liepa
Māris Rūdolfs Liepa was a Soviet Latvian ballet dancer. He graduated from Riga Choreography School where he was taught by Valentīns Bļinovs. He performed in Moscow for the first time in 1950...
, and Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov is a Soviet and American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974...
. Also, he established a network of 450 local foundations to provide financial, organizational, and legal support to youth initiatives across the Soviet Union. From 1973 through 1985 Gennady Alferenko headed the NSU's oil and gas deposits research team in Eastern Siberia and on Sakhalin
Sakhalin
Sakhalin or Saghalien, is a large island in the North Pacific, lying between 45°50' and 54°24' N.It is part of Russia, and is Russia's largest island, and is administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast...
island.
In 1985, following Alferenko's publication on an idea of a national campaign to facilitate innovators and change-makers, Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
pledged his support and invited Gennady to Moscow to set up a national fund promoting social innovations. Alferenko established the Foundation for Social Inventions
Foundation for Social Inventions
The Foundation for Social Inventions of the USSR was founded in 1986 by Gennady Alferenko, a social innovator and entrepreneur, to launch initiatives for turning Russia into an open civil society....
at the Komsomolskaya Pravda
Komsomolskaya Pravda
Komsomolskaya Pravda is a daily Russian tabloid newspaper, founded on March 13th, 1925. It is published by "Izdatelsky Dom Komsomolskaya Pravda" .- History :...
newspaper, as a readers' voluntary association, to implement initiatives facilitating creation and establishment of an open civil society
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
. The Foundation for Social Inventions established and provided organizational and financial support to over 300 non-governmental organizations using a unique mandate to launch new organizations under its auspices. Some of the initiatives that Gennady Alferenko launched with the FSI, were Siberia-Alaska in 1988, and Space Flight Europe-America 500
Space Flight Europe-America 500
Space Flight Europe-America 500 was a goodwill mission conceived in 1992 as the first private spaceflight by the Russian Foundation for Social Inventions and TsSKB-Progress, a Russian rocket-building company, to increase trade between Russia and USA, and promote use of technology once reserved only...
in 1992.
Siberia-Alaska was a project to establish a visa
Visa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
-free travel regime for native families in order to reunite Soviet and American Yupik Eskimos in Chukotka
Chukotka Autonomous Okrug
Chukotka Autonomous Okrug , or Chukotka , is a federal subject of Russia located in the Russian Far East.Chukotka has a population of 53,824 according to the 2002 Census, and a surface area of . The principal town and the administrative center is Anadyr...
, and open direct flights between Siberia, Russian Far East, Alaska and California. Before, those who wished to travel legally across the Bering Strait
Bering Strait
The Bering Strait , known to natives as Imakpik, is a sea strait between Cape Dezhnev, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, the easternmost point of the Asian continent and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, USA, the westernmost point of the North American continent, with latitude of about 65°40'N,...
had to go round the world.
Europe-America 500 was a private spaceflight
Private spaceflight
Private spaceflight is flight above Earth altitude conducted by and paid for by an entity other than a government. In the early decades of the Space Age, the government space agencies of the Soviet Union and United States pioneered space technology augmented by collaboration with affiliated design...
conceived with the aim of increasing trade between Russia and USA, and was followed by a Russian-American entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
exchange program promoting development of small and medium-sized businesses in Russia. During the course of the program, over 10.000 young unemployed people had been sent for 4-6-week internships in the United States for developing entrepreneurial skills and gaining experience.
In 1987, Gennady Alferenko established the US Foundation for Social Innovations, which, jointly with the FSI of the USSR, launched the first student exchange programs between the USSR and the USA for 100.000 students, and organized a meeting of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
US veterans and Afghanistan War
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
Soviet veterans to develop mutual support programs and establish joint business ventures, such as manufacturing of prosthetics and wheelchair
Wheelchair
A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, designed to be a replacement for walking. The device comes in variations where it is propelled by motors or by the seated occupant turning the rear wheels by hand. Often there are handles behind the seat for someone else to do the pushing...
s.
In 1989, Alferenko together with the Esalen Institute organized Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...
's first trip to the United States, arranging meetings for Yeltsin with President George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
, Vice President Dan Quayle
Dan Quayle
James Danforth "Dan" Quayle served as the 44th Vice President of the United States, serving with President George H. W. Bush . He served as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from the state of Indiana....
, National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft
Brent Scowcroft
Brent Scowcroft, KBE was the United States National Security Advisor under Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush and a Lieutenant General in the United States Air Force. He also served as Military Assistant to President Richard Nixon and as Deputy Assistant to the President for National...
, former President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, and many other leaders in business and government. The trip covered eleven cities and fulfilled Yeltsin's dreams of seeing the Statue of Liberty
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886...
and an example of a free enterprise economy.
In mid-1990s Alferenko had developed recommendations for Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov
Yevgeny Primakov
Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov is a Russian politician and diplomat. During his long career, he served as the Russian Foreign Minister, Prime Minister of Russia, Speaker of the Soviet of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, and chief of intelligence service...
to establish a state-owned company Rosneft
Rosneft
Rosneft is an integrated oil company majority owned by the Government of Russia. Rosneft is headquartered in Moscow’s Balchug district near the Kremlin, across the Moskva river...
.
In 2000, Alferenko organized Ring-2000, a civic initiative to create a National idea bank for the new President of Russia, Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
. The main events were held in Russia concert hall in Moscow linked with 33 Internet centers in universities across Russia.
Since 2000, Gennady Alferenko has been a strategic advisor to national and international companies, including Standard Bank
Standard Bank
The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited is one of South Africa's largest financial services groups. It operates in 30 countries around the world, including 17 in Africa.-History:...
, Gazprombank
Gazprombank
Gazprombank is the largest Russian non-state owned bank, which is among the three largest banks in Russia. It is a joint stock bank founded in 1990. The bank is owned by the Russian gas company Gazprom, which controls 62.59% of shares directly and also retains shares through its subsidiaries...
, Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms, along with Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers ....
, and PwC
PwC
PricewaterhouseCoopers is a global professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest professional services firm measured by revenues and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms....
.