Shirt a Phobia

The Center for Citizen Initiatives is a nonprofit organization focused on citizen diplomacy. It began in 1983 to try to reduce tensions between two major superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union.

History

The organization began when a group of Americans led by Sharon Tennison went to the Soviet Union in 1983 to talk with ordinary people there. When they returned, they spoke about their trip publicly, then formed a nonprofit organization called the Centre for U.S.-U.S.S.R. Initiatives (CUUI).^[1] The nonprofit’s travel program took 1,000 American citizens to the Soviet Union on the condition that they would spend six months speaking about their experience afterward.^[2] In 1987 the organization began bringing people from the Soviet Union to the United States as part of a program called “Soviets, Meet Middle America” (SMMA). While initially the organization largely brought Communist Party officials on these trips, after working with Gennadi Alferenko they were able to bring the friends they had made during previous visits instead, a notable feat since most non-Communist Party members were not able to travel internationally. Some of the events put on as part of the program were protested by American anti-communist activists. Despite that, participants in the program reacted positively and came away from it with fewer negative stereotypes about their counterparts.^[1]

The Center for Citizen Initiatives also started several programs in the Soviet Union, such as the Productivity Enhancement Program, which was a business and entrepreneurship education program. The program ended due to financial difficulty in 2009, after the termination of State Department grants and the global financial crisis.^[2]

Support for Russian Leader

While advocating for peace, Tennison has repeatedly championed Russia’s President. For example, in 2018, she wrote, “Putin isn’t the problem, friends. The problem is the projection of our own ‘shadow’ on Putin and Russia.” In September 2020, Tennison observed, “Putin seems to ignore detractors and continues efforts to create venues to bring peoples and countries together despite vilifications.” And the day after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Tennison posted, “I am deeply concerned about a NATO country being on Russia’s borders in Ukraine … As for Putin’s current dilemma, I’m sorry he felt he had to intervene in Ukraine!”^[3]

References

^ ^a ^b Foglesong, David Scott (April 2, 2020). “When the Russians really were coming: citizen diplomacy and the end of Cold War enmity in America”. Cold War History. 20 (4): 419–440.
^ ^a ^b “Center for Citizen Initiatives”. www.careerinstitute.us. Retrieved 2026-03-28.
^ “Tulsi Gabbard’s Biggest Political Donor in 2021 is a Putin Apologist”. Forbes.

External links

Soviet Union–United States relations
Diplomatic posts	Embassy of the Soviet Union, Washington, D.C. Ambassadors of the Soviet Union to the United States Soviet ambassador’s residence Embassy of the United States, Moscow Ambassadors of the United States to the Soviet Union Spaso House Consulate-General of the Soviet Union, New York City John Henry Hammond House Consulate-General of the Soviet Union, San Francisco Elmcroft Estate Lothrop Mansion Pioneer Point Permanent Mission of the Soviet Union to the United Nations Killenworth Russian Soviet Government Bureau Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs
Diplomacy	Lend-Lease Lend-Lease Sherman tanks Moscow Conference (1941) Moscow Conference (1942) Moscow Conference (1943) Declaration of the Four Nations Moscow Conference (1944) Yalta Conference Potsdam Conference Tehran Conference Moscow Conference (1945) Stalin Note Berlin Conference (1954) Geneva Summit (1955) Lacy-Zarubin Agreement United States restitution to the Soviet Union State visit by Nikita Khrushchev to the United States United Nations Security Council Resolution 135 Dartmouth Conference Vienna summit Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament Moscow–Washington hotline Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Glassboro Summit Conference Détente Linkage Bion program Kosmos 782 Kosmos 936 Kosmos 1129 Kosmos 1514 Kosmos 1667 Kosmos 1887 Kosmos 2044 TOPAZ nuclear reactor Moscow Summit (1972) Washington Summit (1973) 1973 United States–Soviet Union wheat deal Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions Geneva Conference (1973) Moscow Summit (1974) Vladivostok Summit Meeting on Arms Control NATO Double-Track Decision Zero Option Geneva Summit (1985) Reykjavík Summit Washington Summit (1987) Geneva Accords (1988) Moscow Summit (1988) Governors Island Summit US/USSR Joint Statement on Uniform Acceptance of Rules of International Law Governing Innocent Passage Malta Summit Helsinki Summit (1990) Madrid peace conference letter of invitation European Advisory Commission Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls Council for American–Soviet Trade Council of Foreign Ministers
Cold War	Origins Timeline 1947–1948 1948–1953 1953–1962 1962–1979 1979–1985 1985–1991 Espionage Cold War in Asia Cold War tensions and the polio vaccine Nuclear arms race Space Race Timeline United States war plans (1945–1950) U.S. Army Field Manual 30-31B American espionage in the Soviet Union and Russian Federation Active Measures Working Group Air-to-air combat losses between the Soviet Union and the United States CIA activities in the Soviet Union Containment Rollback Red Scare The Moscow rules Seven Days to the River Rhine Sheldon names Strategic Defense Initiative United States aerial reconnaissance of the Soviet Union Bomber gap Missile gap NSC 68 Smolensk Archive Soviet Military Power Operation Shocker Plan Totality Nitrophenyl pentadienal Venona project Operation Anadyr Operation Breakthrough Operation Cedar Operation Chrome Dome Operation Cyclone Operation Dropshot Operation Giant Lance Operation Gold Operation Denver Operation Ivy Bells Operation Keelhaul Operation Lincoln Operation Monopoly Operation RYAN Operation Safe Haven (1957) Operation Sunrise 7th Air Escadrille Project Azorian Project Coldfeet Project Dark Gene Project Genetrix Project Grab Bag Project HOMERUN Project Moby Dick Project Mogul Project Hula
Incidents	Sisson Documents Turkish Straits crisis Welles Declaration Gorin v. United States Atomic spies Baruch Plan Iran crisis of 1946 Niš incident Berlin Blockade Kasenkina Case Shostakovich v. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. Hollow Nickel Case Moscow Signal Capture of the Tuapse We will bury you Kuzma’s mother Sputnik crisis Berlin Crisis of 1958–1959 1958 C-130 shootdown incident 1960 U-2 incident 1960 RB-47 shootdown incident Transfermium Wars Arrest of Mark Kaminsky and Harvey Bennett Martin and Mitchell defection Shoe-banging incident Berlin Crisis of 1961 1961 F-84 Thunderstreak incident Cuban Missile Crisis Crateology SS Metallurg Anosov Ich bin ein Berliner 1964 T-39 shootdown incident Pan Am Flight 708 Seaboard World Airlines Flight 253A Dymshits–Kuznetsov hijacking affair Aeroflot Flight 244 Gambell incident Project Azorian Soviet submarine K-129 (1960) Feodor Fedorenko Siberian Seven United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union 1980 Summer Olympics boycott Yellow rain Urengoy–Pomary–Uzhhorod pipeline Evil Empire speech Korean Air Lines Flight 007 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident Able Archer 83 Autumn Forge 83 1984 Summer Olympics boycott We begin bombing in five minutes Arthur D. Nicholson John Anthony Walker 1986 Black Sea incident Soviet submarine K-219 Karl Linnas Tear down this wall! Yeniseysk-15 1988 Black Sea bumping incident Chicken Kiev speech
Military relations	Allied Control Council Allied Kommandatura Allied technological cooperation during World War II ALSIB Arctic convoys of World War II Berlin Victory Parade of 1945 Elbe Day Four Policemen Four Power Naval Commission Four-Power Authorities GIUK gap Line of Contact Military liaison missions Northwest Staging Route Pacific Route Persian Corridor Persian Gulf Command Warsaw airlift Tripartite Naval Commission Eisenhower Doctrine Truman Doctrine Reagan Doctrine Stimson Doctrine Bell P-63 Kingcobra Belorussia-class cargo ship SS Dakotan SS Indigirka SS Iowan Tupolev Tu-4 Tupolev Tu-70 Tupolev Tu-80 USCGC Southwind USS West Bridge United States and the Russian Revolution American Expeditionary Force, North Russia American Expeditionary Force, Siberia North Russia intervention Siberian intervention
Legislation	Russian Famine Relief Act Executive Order 8484 Jackson–Vanik amendment Soviet Nuclear Threat Reduction Act of 1991 Former Soviet Union Demilitarization Act of 1992 FRIENDSHIP Act of 1993
Treaties	Moscow Declarations Potsdam Agreement Wanfried agreement McCloy–Zorin Accords Outer Space Treaty Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space Four Power Agreement on Berlin Agreement Concerning Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes U.S.–Soviet Incidents at Sea agreement Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War Threshold Test Ban Treaty Strategic Arms Limitation Talks National technical means of verification Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty 1990 Chemical Weapons Accord USSR–USA Maritime Boundary Agreement Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany START I Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe
Organizations	American Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia Ark Project American National Exhibition Kitchen Debate American Peace Mobilization American Relief Administration American Russian Institute American University speech American–Soviet friendship movement American-Soviet Peace Walks Amerika (magazine) Amtorg Trading Corporation And you are lynching Negroes Androgynous Peripheral Attach System Anglo-American School of Moscow Anglo-American School of St. Petersburg Ansonia Clock Company Apollo–Soyuz Apollo-Soyuz (cigarette) Center for Citizen Initiatives Communist Party USA Dewey Commission Institute for US and Canadian Studies International Conference of Laser Applications International Cospas-Sarsat Programme International Publishers Kennan Institute Kersten Committee Freedom Sunday for Soviet Jews Friends of Soviet Russia Foundation for Social Inventions Gennady Alferenko Friendship Flight ’89 Friendship Flight (Alaska Airlines) Fund for Armenian Relief National Committee for a Free Europe National Council of American–Soviet Friendship Organization for Jewish Colonization in Russia Russian-American Industrial Corporation Russian War Relief Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry Society for Technical Aid to Soviet Russia Soviet Government Purchasing Commission in the U.S. U.S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine U.S. Peace Council
Related	Russian Empire–United States relations Russia–United States relations Russian Embassy School in Washington, D.C. 1972 Olympic men’s basketball final 1976 Philadelphia Flyers–Red Army game 1989 visit by Boris Yeltsin to the United States Baltic Freedom Day Bush legs Captive Nations Captive Nations Week GAZ Goodwill Games Glasnost Bowl Little Joe Miracle on Ice New world order (politics) Pushinka Refusenik SAGE Self-propelled barge T-36 Shvetsov M-25 Super Series Sovereignty of Puerto Rico during the Cold War Sovfoto Triangular diplomacy U.S.–Soviet Space Bridge US vs. USSR radio chess match 1945 USA–USSR Track and Field Dual Meet Series Uzel White Coke World Chess Championship 1972 X Article Yardymly Russian Life Soviet Interview Project Soviet submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Comparison of the AK-47 and M16 Bobby Fischer Georgi Bolshakov Samantha Smith Roswell Garst Suzanne Massie Who’s Who in the CIA Eagles East The Admiral’s Daughter Deep Black The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks Stalingrad Free to Be… a Family “In Soviet Georgia“ Red Wave “Ordinary People“
Category:Soviet Union–United States relations

Sample Page

History

Support for Russian Leader

References

External links