Goirle and Krasnogorsk

It was like all of Walt Disney's puppets singing "It's a Small World After All" with a vengeance when I was cycling through the south of Holland one day in May 2000, just outside the town of Goirle, and suddenly encountered a road sign saying that this small town had a friendship bond with none other than Krasnogorsk, Moscow Oblast, Russia. Fortunately I had a small camera on me and was able to immortalize the sign.

Some questions remained though. First and most importantly, what is the nature of this friendship bond? What does Goirle do for Krasnogorsk? What does Krasnogorsk do for Goirle? And secondly, why did Goirle pick Krasnogorsk of all places? Because of the presence of a certain large optical factory, or because it's the home of the Russian cinematographical archive? Maybe some day I'll write an e-mail to the Goirle–Krasnogorsk Foundation and find out more. For now, I have to make do with what's on the Internet.

This page shows that Goirle is not the only Dutch town to have a Russian sister city. This one claims Goirle decided to initiate the friendship bond on September 8th 1988, and that the bond was sealed little more than a month later, on October 18th. A bilingual plaquette commemorating the event now adorns the town hall. The Dutch text on the plate translates as: "cities establish friendship / their residents / overcome borders / reach out to each other."

Then there's this page dedicated to the Goirle-Krasnogorsk Foundation, though it's not their official site. It has its postal and e-mail address, and sending a mail is high on my priority list. The page outlines the target of the Foundation as organizing exchanges between 20–25 people, "to show friendship and exchange knowledge in various areas." Other accomplishments that I've found on the Internet are bringing Russian artists to Goirle, and organizing photo exhibitions of Krasnogorsk. The Goirle-Krasnogorsk Foundation also publishes a periodical called "Droesjba" (friendship).