By Lt. Col. Ann Peru Knabe

Heberle’s international interests and success in the U.S. led him to bring the trial program to Russia in 2000. He believed so strongly in the program that he sold his home, gambling his life savings of $200,000 on his democracy dreams.

To gain acceptance into Russia, the colonel immersed himself into the Russian culture, spending a year in St. Petersburg.

“The Russians were testing me,” he explained. “They wanted to make sure I understood their culture, and understood democracy front and forward.” Colonel Heberle’s vetting experience involved a barrage of questions over two hours as Russian professors tested his knowledge.

He passed their scrutiny, and moved to the Province of Karelia to start his democracy experiment. Karelia proved to be an excellent location for training; the province is small enough and receptive to new ideas.

As word of the colonel’s experiment in democracy grew, teachers would come to his training after teaching their students all day. Colonel Heberle noticed they wore the same dresses day after day, and realized they only had one set of professional clothes.

He asked the Russian teachers why they came to his training day after day for free.

“Because we don’t want to go back to the past,” the teachers replied. At that point, Colonel Heberle realized his program was one small hope for the people of Karelia.

The teachers soon spread the democratic values to classrooms, and in less than a year school children were learning how to be good citizens, and they even held mock elections.

In the last couple of years, Colonel Heberle has gained support from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The program is in its fifth year, and he spends six to eight months a year in Russia working on it.

His staff of six volunteers has trained more than 1000 teachers, who in turn have trained more than 20,000 students in 45 schools, representing 10 percent of the Karelia population. 

“The Russians really want to succeed like us,” he said, referring to other democratic countries. “They believe in excellence and continual improvement in themselves.”

Since starting the program, Colonel Heberle has received requests to bring his democracy lessons to Mexico, South Africa, Guatemala and other countries.

He said the real measure of effectiveness was an increase in number of babies born in Karelia.

“The people had stopped having children, they had lost hope,” he said. “Today they are optimistic and excited about democracy, and once again they have hope for the future generations.”