Tree Of Friendship

The Tree of Friendship in Sochi is a peculiar symbol of peace, friendship and fraternity between the peoples, as well as unique monument of scientific achievements.

The branches of this Tree have grown from the buds, graffed by people from different countries, of different nationalities and professions.

The Tree has a very interesting history. In 1934, Fyodor Mikhailovich Zorin, a horticulturist, planted a small wild lemon tree (Poncirus Trifoljata). To obtain frost - resistant citrus varieties he grafted it with Japanese tangerine, Italian lemon, American Grapefruit, Spanish orange, Chinese kumquat (Fortunella), some new hybrids grown up by the Soviet scientists, totally 45 species.

The experimental tree drew attention of numerous visitors, due to it's unusual appearance. Otto Yulievich Schmidt, a prominent Soviet Arctic explorer, visited the garden and was amazed to see a six - year old tree that bore citrus fruit of different varieties. He made a commemorative grafting on it. This was the first branch of the future Tree of Friendship. Sixteen years had passed and the Yugoslavian Professor of Biology R. Glavinic made a grafting on the tree in honour of collaboration between Soviet and Yugoslavian scientists. In 1957, Vietnamese medical doctors offered the name of the Tree of Friendship to the orchard - tree. By now the representatives of 167 counties of the world have made more than 635 graftings on the Friendship Tree. Among them are heads and members of government: Ho Shi Min (Vietnam), Mauno Koivisto (Finland), Mussa Traore (Mali), A. Benn (Great Britain), Raul Castro Russ (Cuba), A.N. Kosygin (USSR), L. Strougal (Czechoslovakia); winners of the international Lenin Peace prize: singer Paul Robson (USA), D.A. Siqueyros (Mexico). Finnish Professor of Mathematics Ph. Iversen, English journalist Gordon Shaffer, pianist Van Cliburn (USA), President of the World Council of Christian Churches M. Nimeller (West Germany), Archimandrite A. Abudy (Iraq), biologists Peniezek from Poland and Chi-Tsu from China; Soviet cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin, Vladimir Komarov and Valentina Tereshkova, American astronaut S.Carpenter, Syrian M. Faris - all of them have left their green autographs on the Friendship Tree. Some of the graftings are commemorative; they are dedicated to such prominent people as M. Lomonosov, I. Michurin, Ch. Darvin, E. Tsiolkovsky, W. Pick, F. Joliot - Curie, J. Kennedy, J. Henry.

Beside the Tree of Friendship, other sixty young trees grow, graftings are made on them too: this tradition expresses people's desire to live in peace and friendship. There are trees of war, party and labour veterans, the cosmonauts' tree, one of test - pilots, physicians, newsmen, Soviet cultural workers, ambassadors, youth from different countries: Bulgaria, Cuba, Vietnam, the USA, France, Czechoslovakia and others. Every branch has a label indicating names and dates of grafting.

In 1981, a museum was opened in the Garden. The Garden-Museum is a part of the Association of Scientific and Production Floriculture and Mountain Horticulture. The new varieties of fruit and flowers, raised by the selectionists of the Association, are used to decorate the gardens of the subtropical zone of the Black Sea coast - the northernmost subtropics in the world. The most interesting varieties and new methods of their cultivation (worked out by the researches) are demonstrated here.

A kind of international grafting school works in the museum. Most visitors don't know anything about grafting. Therefore they are taught the art of "plant surgery" on the spot. The grafting done, the guests are issued Friendship Gardener certificates. Dozens of thousands of Friendship Gardeners live and work in different parts of the globe. They remember their Tree of Friendship, send letters, books, national souvenirs, photographs of peace champions, and other invaluable gifts.

Letters come from all parts of our country and from abroad. The address is simple:
Tree of Friendship
354060 Sochi, Russian Federation

In May 1965, the staff of the Leo Tolstoy Museum in Yasnaya Polyana sent to Sochi some soil from the grave of the great Russian writer. Then came soils from memorable and revered sites of many European, Asian and American countries. Soils have been brought here from the grave of Karl Marx, from Gorky Leninskiye, where Lenin spent his last years, and from places where Hans Christian Andersen, the Danish story-teller, as well as poets Robert Burns, Goethe, the composers Mozart and Chopin and other great men lived and worked. The people of Sochi hold most sacred the soil sent from Mamayev Hill in Volgograd, from the memorial to French Resistance fighters from the Department of Ain, from the place, where the Nazis shot Polish patriots, fighters for the liberation of Warsaw and from the extermination camps of Buchenwald and Oswiezim.

In 1967, Sidzo Hamai, the Mayor of Hiroshima, sent to the Tree of Friendship a fragment of charred jug and a disfigured porcelain cup, mute witnesses of the nuclear tragedy. One year later Hamai died of radiation sickness. But here remains a branch on the Friendship Tree dedicated to the victims of Hiroshima. Memory of the people's tragedies and wars, deaths of millions is an appeal to people all over the world to work for peace, to struggle for disarmament and annihilation of all the means of mass destruction.

After seeing the Tree of Friendship, honorary guests make entries in the visitor's book. Thousands of entries have been made. More than Sixty books for honorary visitors have already been filled. Champions of peace of the Peace Committee from North Carolina, USA, visited the Memorial garden in July 1987 and wrote in the Visitor's Book:" The image of one root feeding a tree with different fruits is a symbol most characteristic of and vital for our time: it nowadays reminds us of different nations living on our planet, have to find one universally recognized humanitarian approach to different aspects of human life. And like the roots of the one and the same tree, all of us are to bring in the ideas of mutual understanding, peace and goodwill".

On each page of visitors, books one can see postages or postcards of countries whose representatives have made entries. The tradition arose in March 1963. A delegation from the United Trade Union Centre of Chile visited Sochi. The guests made a Commemorative grafting on the Tree of Friendship and put their names in the visitors' book. Greatly impressed by the tradition of the Tree of Friendship, in commemoration of their visit, they pasted two trade union and postal stamps under their signatures. After that, stamps and postcards from different countries began to appear in the visitors' books.

Another tradition associated with the Tree of Friendship is to celebrate the national holidays of our friends who visit the garden. In the Garden - Museum the Russian Peace Committee and the Russian Peace Fund organize meetings for participants of disarmament conferences, peace marches and youth's festivals. Many good traditions have developed in Sochi, expressing people's desire to live in peace and friendship.

On the Glade of Friendship in the Riviera Park grow evergreen magnolia trees planted by statesmen, public leaders and cosmonauts.

On October 1, 1975 the Soyuz and Apollo space crews planted two trees here. In 1973, a palm alley dedicated to the friendship of befriended cities was made in the Sochi Arboretum.

Tourists from Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, France usually plant trees around the "Svetlana" and "Fregat" pensions on their national holidays as a gesture of friendship with the Soviet people. The trees grow and gain strength, and so does friendship of the people of Sochi with the peoples of the world.

In September 1987, Sochi was awarded the honorary title of the " Envoy of Peace" by the United Nations Organizations.

The Friendship Tree, a symbol of peacemaking activities of the Sochi inhabitants, has become a living monument of our time. The Garden-Museum "Tree of Friendship" is opened daily from 9.00 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14