Author

Alexander Potemkin presents an enigma, although it is easy to see that he is in step with the times and has always had a providential influence on the course of world history.

After he graduated from Tbilisi State University (the Chair of Journalism), Potemkin, a native of Georgia, began working for a newspaper with a more than 17-million annual circulation, which came out daily throughout the entire Soviet Union. As he witnessed the efforts all around him to build a radiant socialist future, he was alerted to the dangerous tendencies of this communist ideology aimed at curbing human initiatives and excluding personal potential. He most likely inherited his analytical and well-defined worldview from his German mother. He “weighed up the world” early in life and found it to be “too heavy,” too unwieldy and hazardous for the future.

However, his personal “future” took an unplanned turn: raised by his grandmother, he was unable to reunite with his mother, whom he hardly remembered, until he was 33 years old. After moving to Western Germany, he graduated from Bonn University. But he had no desire to be a passive victim of either Nazism or Communism. Alexander assessed the reunification of the Federal Republic of Germany—a widespread and significant world event—with his inherent perspicacity. Europe reunited, while the Soviet Union fell apart.

However, at a certain moment in time Potemkin’s Soviet past became his present creative resource. Soviet-wide publication of the well-known German magazine Burda Moden began on his initiative with the gracious support of Raisa Gorbacheva, Soviet first lady and a very stylish woman, who saw this as one of the first capitalistic enterprises in the stronghold of vanquished socialism.

In 1989, Alexander Potemkin marked another unique event in his personal calendar. After the successful publication of the German magazine on his initiative, the first foreign advertisement appeared in the Soviet press. On 3 January, 1989, Izvestia, the most well-known central newspaper of the Soviet Supreme Council Presidium, published an advertisement about the activity of foreign enterprises. This inevitably led to an advertisement boom throughout the country. Following the renowned perestroika, dramatic reforms began.

Knowledge in itself is extremely valuable to Potemkin. Nevertheless, his knowledge has always been active and aimed at transforming reality. In 1992, Potemkin took the first step toward his global project, which today he calls EuRICAA. At that time it was presented at the ERAA-92 forum held in Hamburg with the participation of well-known political and public figures. He not only made the acquaintance of Hans Dietrich Genscher, a legendary German personality, during the forum, but their contact continued afterward.

It seems that Alexander Potemkin has experienced everything in his life—epiphanies related to understanding human knowledge, as well as the pitfalls of universal social consumption, which he addresses in his creative writing (his 17 books have been translated into many of the world’s languages), scientific discoveries and practical achievements. Defense of his Ph.D. in economics at world-renowned Moscow State University led to the establishment of his NANO-ATTO Metriya laboratory, which is engaged in the research and development of atomic precision technology—standards of nano-, pico-, and femto-metric ranges, probes for localizing atoms and molecules and activating the technological processes between them, as well as super-precise metrological interferometers. Furthermore, Potemkin is the author and patent holder of technology that applies invisible marking to diamonds for determining their authenticity, as well as the developer of unique optical and electronic systems and automatic devices for thermal and/or television monitoring.

Any business ideas must also involve global humanitarian tasks, believes Alexander Potemkin. Born in an intern camp and brought up in a children’s home, it stands to reason that he gained an early understanding of the “wheel of global history,” the footprint of which can be so easily discerned in his life. By analyzing present-day humanity in his novels, Potemkin is not simply presenting himself as a contemporary writer and cultural figure of his era (he has supported a whole series of artistic projects in Eastern Europe and abroad), but also as a researcher of the future. Whereas last century, narrow fields of specialization determined the depth of research into a specific issue, today it is our intellectual capacity and diversity that determine how well we are able to prepare for the changes up ahead. This requires consistent attention to current world affairs and finding well-considered environmental to social solutions to the global contradictions that already have a stranglehold on us. It is blatantly obvious that this is what the radiant future of the younger generations requires. Alexander Potemkin is a strong fulcrum for his family, six children and many grandchildren, all of whom surround him with attention, care and constant concern over his continued health and well-being.

Of course, destroying the customary and standard and creating the new requires additional effort, both personal and on the part of responsible humanitarian and other institutions. EuRICAA—a global intercontinental transportation artery—is also a metaphor for “path.” A new path for humanity. Any new project requires conversion—changes in thinking, which always entails different forms of neo-phobias. Nevertheless, by offering the world the EuRICAA project, which is based both on the experience of several personal projects and on constant scientific monitoring of advanced information and technological ideas, Alexander Potemkin is confident that there are enough courageous, decisive and responsible politicians and intellectuals among the European and world elite capable of becoming initiators of this new stage in global civilization.