Organizational Committee for the Festival

The task of realization of this idea was entrusted to a small group of dedicated volunteers which formed the Organizational Committee for the Festival. It was composed of five active members and Alexandre Pouchkine of Bruxelles, Belgium, the last direct descendant of the poet on his father’s side, who kindly accepted obligations of the Honorary Chairman of the Organizational committee.Mr. Alexandre Pouchkine and his spouse, Maria Dournovo-Pouchkin, are founders and presiding officers of a charitable organization “Fondation Internationale Pouchkine."

The members of the Committee were:

Alexander Yahontov, Architect/MBA
Co-Chair of Long Beach-Sochi Sister City Association, acting as a Co-Chairman and Executive Director

Harold Schefski, Ph.D.
Professor of Russian Language at CSULB, acting as a Co-Chairman and Director of Facilities

Nina Antoville, Ph.D.
Coordinator at University Library of CSULB

Steve Ingistov
Principal Engineer at the BP

Richard Madeira
Co-Chair of the Long Beach-Sochi Sister City Association

As the composition of the Organizational committee shows, the Pushkin Festival project was the result of the joint efforts of the Cal State University Long Beach faculty and members of the Long Beach-Sochi Sister-City Association, in order to give to the city of Long Beach a worthwhile cultural event accessible to the community at large.