Salvation Shore:
A Project for the Creation of  Rehabilitation Center for the Overcoming of Chemical Dependency and Recovery of the Shore of Salvation Bay (Peter the Great Bay, Japanese Sea)

Sergei Yakovlev

translated by Sr. Mary Catherine Shambour, head of Russian Studies at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota

A dwelling of transcendence and new birth for those obsessed by alcoholism, drug addiction, and other physical and psychological dependencies.

Principal purpose of the center consists in the teaching of a sober life-style to those who are not in a condition independently and with the aid of medicinal methods completely to rid themselves of the use of alcohol and other narcotics; in educating to a new way of thinking and acting in the changing of the wretched style of life of the favorite and slave to the life of a proprietor and one’s own master.

Beauty will not someday save the world as Fyodor Michailovich Dostoevsky thought; it is saving the world daily even on planet Earth and it is granting peace and spiritual rest to every person worn out physically and spiritually. Often it is precisely beauty and love for life that literally saves the person perishing from alcoholism and drug addiction for whom it is simply vitally important to see the real world—the physical world and the spiritual world, its beauty and harmony and to create a similar world within himself. Spiritual devastation and unsatisfied spiritual thirst drive a person again and again toward narcotics. A person violating the physical and spiritual laws of being begins to die long before his death and that is not an unsubstantiated allegation. Having at one time abused alcohol—evil with such force began to consume me that only concrete acts, and not good intentions which in my life were no less than hundreds, pulled me out of a hellish existence. Yes, my alcoholism stole 20 years from my life—I am now 50—but from how many of my post-war generation, whose lot was not to fall in a bloody war, did it take away their lives. We were fighting with something which by ourselves, from our own nature we could not overcome. Neither the alcoholic nor the drug addict will ever be able to be satisfied by means of his "favorite" chemical substance, for it will kill him earlier. Chemical dependency is stronger than life, but those who are prepared to humble themselves and themselves to act, and not rely on a physician, do find an exit.

PROBLEM: Drug addiction has to do with a deadly illness—chemical dependency in Russia, alcoholism and drug addiction "are flourishing"—in a country susceptible to this illness from president to cooks, criminally small attention is being paid to it as a problem or to its solution. However, this problem IS OF KEY IMPORTANCE FOR RUSSIA. Sick people cannot build a healthy life, just as slaves cannot build a free society.

In the United States and in Europe, there exist rehabilitation centers using the “12 Steps” program, worked out by the Alcoholics Anonymous society (AA), and guiding their patients to further recovery in groups of AA and Drug Addicts Anonymous (AN).

On February 6, 2001, the Vladivostok group of AA “Welcome” became 8 years old. People have appeared, members of this group, who by their own witness of a sober life (11, 7, 5, 4, 3 years) are able to help others achieve sobriety. Efforts are being made for the creation of independent groups of AA and AN in the city of Vladivostok and other cities and settlements of the Primorye Krai: Ussurisk, Nakhodka, Arseniev, Slavyanka, Lesozavodsk, Dalnegorsk.

The idea of the creation on the shore of Salvation Bay of a "Dwelling of Spiritual Transformation” on one hectare of private land arose in the mind of the author of the project in December, 1993, after acquaintance with the "12 Step" program of recovery created by association of Alcoholics Anonymous.

EXECUTOR OF THE PROJECT: S(ergei) N(ikolaevich) Yakovlev (born in 1950); a candidate of biological sciences, from August, 1973 the chief scientific assistant of the Institute of Marine Biology (Russian Academy of Sciences). From November, 1993, the chief member of the Vladivostok group of Alcoholics Anonymous. From December, 1995, the chief consultant of the (Primorye) Krai’s Narcological Dispensary. In 43 scientific works I have researched the biology of the multiplication of 17 types of sea urchins from Antarctica to Kamchatka. However, my latest work (in August, 2000, I retired from the Russian Academy of Sciences) is bound up exclusively with assistance in the recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction; the accumulation of experience, the working out of new methods of recovery, and research of the spiritual aspects in the overcoming of chemical dependency.

Now I am working as a consultant at the (Primorye) Krai Narcological Dispensary. I was drawn to this work from one side by my own illness and by the realization of the deadliness of this illness, but from another side by a burning desire to help at first the friends of my childhood, then my colleagues, and now to anyone who is seeking an escape, but who, like myself at one time, almost has despaired of finding it. Each person who is incompetent independently to solve chemical dependency can create a group and begin to recover. Yes, to accomplish this is not easy, but is more possible than independently to stop drinking.

The course of the “12 Step" program in the rehabilitation center being set up will help the patient to make a correct choice and will guide him into a long (minimum of 5 years) but realistic recovery in groups of AA and AN.

From 1996 till 2001, I have written and published 12 articles in Primorye newspapers about the possibility of recovery for alcoholics and drug addicts.

From September 2000 to April 2001, in 5 cities of the Primorye Krai (Vladivostok, Ussurisk, Nakhodka, Arseniev, Lesozavodsk) I have to school pupils, and students (a total number of 2,551 listeners) delivered 73 lectures on the following themes:

1. Realistic facts about alcoholism and narcotics vitally important for every living person.
2. Alcoholism and drug addiction are fatal diseases, but not hopeless and for each person who is able not only to be cured but himself to act, there is a chance for recovery.
3. What is necessary in order to stop progressive alcoholism and drug addiction and to come to recovery.

The recently concluded twentieth century, as none other, invented much that was useful for a person, but even its scientific-technical accomplishments do not have the right to change the natural requirements of each of us for physical labor, for intercourse with nature, and for spiritual growth. In the third millennium from the birth of Christ, it will become more and more a vital thesis that man does not live by bread alone. Contemporary technological progress endows us with many blessings, but material satiation alone will not be able to satisfy a person of the twenty-first century. Without the development of a spiritual point of view and satiation, he will not be able in a full measure to receive satisfaction from life. Spiritual growth cannot be in a pure state in the use of the knowledge accumulated by cultures of the world and in travels about that world. It is in the perfection of actions and deeds, in a change of the vain style of life associated with contemporary civilization, desires to adapt oneself to everything and to find a medicine for everything.

I was fortunate that a part of life and works were connected with the peninsula Gamova. On Vityaz Bay there was a biological research station and aquarium of the Institute of Biology of the Sea, on Salvation Bay there is located a station-ship of the Far-Eastern Sea Reserve. For a quarter of a century these shores partially and similar landscapes became near and dear to me. But even if I were here only for a short time in the capacity of a tourist, I could not help but admire these shores, and this is not an unsubstantiated confirmation, but the judgments of my colleagues and friends from Moscow and St. Petersburg. For the time being, let’s put aside the western outreaches of Russia. Let us take our Far-Eastern region: the Khabarovsky Krai, Yakutia, Sakhalin, Kamchatka, Kolma and wherever, even there where there is the ocean, there is not the possibility for the ordinary person to bathe in it, to sunbathe, to wander about its most picturesque shores. All this can be fully propounded about the peninsula Gamova. The first tourist groups from Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk appeared in the settlement Vityaz at the end of the 1980's. While staying on the station-ship of the Sea reserve on Salvation Bay, the tourists heard lectures about the historical past of the peninsula, its bays and islands, and about the flora and fauna of the reserve. In the spring of 1994, the public-service organization "Natural and Historical Center ‘Salvation’” was founded, the principal purpose of which was the organization of a nature park on the peninsula Gamova, the regulation and raising of the culture of tourism on reserves, and the construction of the chapel of Nikolai Mirlinsky. In December, 1995, the chapel was constructed, and in spite of the opinion that it would be rarely visited, to it come both the local inhabitants and tourists and not one hundred have been baptized in it. The newly rebuilt chapel, the Gamovsky lighthouse built in 1900, the unique 180 millimeter towering artillery installations of the former 516th towering artillery battalion, established in 1942, protecting Posyeta Bay and distant sea approaches to Vladivostok until 1996, are not only worth-seeing sights of the peninsula, but serve as a spiritual support for the Russian person on the shore of the Pacific Ocean and rapidly developing "Pacific Ocean civilization."

Vladivostok itself is simply bound to become the capitol of Russia on the Pacific Ocean, to strengthen our values and culture on its shores from the Tuman River to the Bering Strait.

In the dwelling will be able to take place:

1. Health-improving-prophylactic tourism with spiritually-orienteering methods of recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction for patients, their relatives and children.
2. Ecological tourism with excursions around the bays and islands.
3. Physical labor in the nature park: the planting of trees and mowing around young trees suffering from fires, mowing hay and creating anti-fire patches. The author of the project is one of the organizers in 1994 of the (Public Organization?) Nature and Historical Center “Salvation” (84 hectares [?] of land from Salvation Bay to Telekovsky Bay was received by the organization for the creation of the nature park). After a number of and more years, a tourist, having visited these places again, will be able to look at the results of his labor—the rising forest, of which will remain even after his death. Restoring nature, you are restoring yourself; saving what is living, you are saving your own soul.
4. The organization of small scientific symposia and seminars about the problems of chemical dependency and survival of the person in contemporary civilization.
5. Consultative services and the enlightenment of the local population of the Khasansky region about the real possibilities of recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction.
6. Scientific investigations in the area of non-medicinal methods of recovery from physical and psychological dependencies.
7. The socialization of experience and the creation of a personal program of recovery.

PRINCIPAL METHODS: Work in groups according to the "12 Step" program worked out by the association Alcoholics Anonymous and saving tens of thousands of lives, and if one is to consider also the fact that not only the drug addict is living but also his near relations, then many more persons are being returned to life. Knowing and preserving wild nature, a person eradicates his own wildness. Since recovery is also financial independence, the rehabilitation center will help with work at the center or in the opening of one's personal business with guardianship. Consultative services in the formation of new groups of AA and AN.

COLLABORATION: (The Primorye) Krai narcological dispensary, the (Primorye) Krai administration, the city administration, the Public Organization Nature and Historical Center “Salvation,” Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran churches. Collaboration and exchange of experience with similar rehabilitation centers in Russia, Poland, the United States (Minnesota, Alaska, California), Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

Dear compatriots, the founders of the “Primorye Krai division of the Russian Public-service Charitable Foundation: 'No to Alcoholism and Drug Addiction’" (registered on February 16, 2001) are appealing to you with a request for whatever feasible material and other help possible in the creation of an "Informational/Consultative and Rehabilitation Center" in Vladivostok and on the shore of Salvation Bay "Salvation Shore" for the overcoming of chemical dependency and recovery.

Unfortunately, very few of our fellow-citizens have realistic knowledge about alcoholism and drug addiction, although treatments of every kind are being proposed daily, but treatment—this is still not recovery. Now alcoholism and drug addiction do not appear as hopeless diseases, but the path toward recovery is complex and difficult, and many Russian citizens, having tested not one method on themselves, having despaired, leave this life. The majority of those who will be working in the rehabilitation center themselves have felt the fatal nature of the syndrome of chemical dependency and the possibility of recovery.

The problem is even more pressing because the older generation had a weaker narcotic—ethyl alcohol, which allowed them to live through another ten years, but our children are being caught on a deadly hook of stronger narcotics, and not having lived to 20-25 years, are dying. Help in the making and development of the Primorye Division of the Foundation and Rehabilitation Center "Salvation Shore" in Vladivostok and its branch in the Khasansky Region. Persons interested in a larger degree in the saving of the young generation can become trustees of the center or the foundation.

In the establishment and development of the center will be helping specialists and professors from Vladivostok, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Warsaw, Minneapolis, Saint Paul and Los Angeles.

The principal directions of activity of the “Primorye Krai Division of the Russian Charitable Foundation ‘No to Alcoholism and Drug Addiction’” registered February 16, 2001 are:

1. The creation of an "Informational-Consultative and Rehabilitation Center" in Vladivostok and on the shore of Salvation Bay: "Salvation Shore" for the overcoming of chemical dependency and recovery. In the establishment and development of the center will be helping specialists and professors from Vladivostok, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Warsaw, Minneapolis, Saint Paul and Los Angeles.
2. Preventive-lecture work in the Primorye Krai among school pupils and students by their receiving the real facts about alcoholism and drug addiction.
3. Collaboration with the departments of the (Primorye) Krai Narcological Dispensary.
4. Advertising-publishing activity in the producing of banners, booklets, films. Preventive work: delivering lectures and carrying on conversations in schools, enterprises, firms and organizations as a source for the actuality of knowledge of alcoholism and drug addiction (alternative approach). The organization of television and radio programs directed toward the prevention of alcoholism and drug addiction help in the formation of new groups of AA and Drug Addicts Anonymous AN.

S. N. Yakovlev, candidate of biological sciences, chairman of PKD RCF NAN (Primorye Krai Division of the Russian Charitable Foundation “No to Alcoholism and Drug Addiction”)