So I crossed the Iron Curtain ( Mathias Rust )

It happened 20 years ago, flying in on the rented plane walking, Mathias Rust was able to invade the Soviet airspace, flying over a dozen top-secret military air bases and missile and landed in Red Square. Gorbachev, while going through a difficult moment in the dialogue with Reagan, and in opposition to the orthodox in the country, but he wanted disarmament and reform. And youthful levity of this young man, carried away with stories of Karl May, violated the reality.

- Mr. Rust, some see in you a valiant pacifist, others - such as irresponsible. How and why did you decide on this flight?.

- Reflecting today on that act, I feel free. Then the soul wandered the other senses. Reagan and Gorbachev summit in Reykjavik, failed, and the one on the other hand feared the new cooling. I thought of a symbolic gesture. Flying as an ideal bridge. To tell the leaders of both blocs, that the people on both sides of the Iron Curtain just wants to live in peace. Do you remember the song by Sting Russians? . I believed in it. This decision was made spontaneously, or you have carefully prepared for him?.
I am well prepared. On this plane I was flying over the Atlantic. I would like to test your nerves, do you know for hours to fly over the sea - a severe psychological testing. May 25, three days of flight, I arrived in Helsinki. I decided that I will not give.

- Making the flight from Helsinki to Moscow, flying over the dozens of secret military installations, you will not feel fear, one of the most natural human feelings.

- Yes, I asked myself many times, I am doing right or not. But I was a maverick and was ready to risk, as it happens in 19 years: yes, I did lightly, but at that age you think a little about the danger and fear. I thought only about the distance between Helsinki and Moscow, and how to reach a gas station.

- You have made false documents?.

- I presented the Finnish authorities to plan the flight to Sweden. I flew to Helsinki and headed to the West. He was flying at an average altitude of 600 meters, and when he found himself above the sea, changed the course. I went to the southeast. After an hour flight, I saw the coast of Estonia. I experienced mixed feelings of tension and relief. I was happy I was flying to the target. And with every moment more clearly understood that we can not change your mind, turn back. From Moscow I was separated for nearly five hours of flight. When I arrived, I had more fuel for two hours.

- It's true that you were flying very low, so that you do not intercepted?.

- Average height - 600 meters, not too low. Of course, it's not 15 and not 30 meters from the ground, like fly modern military aircraft. I did not want to hide. The gesture of peace should be clear. I just dropped below a couple of times, and then only because the screw and began icing the wings. I keep watching the direction of the compass, I had food with them, but I did not eat or drink. And suddenly, quite unexpectedly, I fear pierced.

- I was flying in the clouds, almost nothing has been seen by him when in front, a few kilometers, there was a silvery, fast moving, aim at me, the object. It was the ' MiG ' - aircraft defense, suggestive fear of the Soviet air defense system. This was my first meeting and ' them '. Heart Strike. It was very difficult to keep my nerves under control. It lasted only a few minutes, terrible minutes. You know, the memories of the ' Boeing ', shot down over Sakhalin in the era of Andropov, were still fresh. ' MiG ' caught up with me, flying very close, was first back, then turned the side. The speed he was more than I. I noticed the pilot's eyes under the helmet. He briefly pursued me, then sped up and disappeared into nowhere. A few minutes seemed like an eternity to me. I was again seized by a mixed feeling. Relief, because I was not fired, and doubt and anxiety, because now I knew: they know that I'm flying over their territory.

- You have calmed down, when arrived in Moscow?.

- Yes. No ' MiG ', no defense, no signals from the ground. Below me, a small Cessna wings was a great city, took my breath away. To navigate, I tried to see the hotel ...

Type of area increased fear of. From the top it seemed to me less than I imagined. But to make a landing on the Cessna, was enough for me to 200 meters, I made three attempts and three gained height again: at the bottom of a crowd of curious, what is happening was like a Fellini film. I was afraid of hurting someone or crush. I saw a large stone bridge, a wide, six-lane bridge on it and I sat down. Making taxiing, I got up to the area, drove past the church and the monument to Minin and Pozharsky and found the entrance to the Spassky Tower. Then I killed the engine and sat in the cockpit, a quarter of an hour.

- Why?.

- Because I asked myself, should not take off again and back. Too late, Mathias, I said to myself. Fuel is not enough. I decided, opened the cab and went down. I was immediately surrounded by a crowd.

- You were afraid?.

- No, people did not seem hostile. They were curious, they smiled. ' How came? ' . ' Of the Helsinki ' - I said nervously. ' But on the plane the German flag, not the Finnish. You are a comrade from the GDR? ... I'm from Germany, arrived with a gesture of peace '- I replied hesitantly. ' Oh! ' . They showed a doubt, but not a threat. A young woman broke the ice: she smiled and walked towards me and gave me bread and salt, greeted me this way.

- And the police, the KGB and the military?.

- It has been almost an hour. Came black ' Seagull' - remember those Russian ' Cadillacs '? . We spoke in English. They were calm and polite. They asked for my documents, searched the plane. Then he returned the passport. An older officer told me, ' Boy, I'm head of the Moscow police. Where is your visa, dammit? .

- When you were arrested?.

- It has been a lot of time, I have not looked at the clock. Came black ' Volga ', then the truck with the police: officers found fence, drove the crowd, but people did not want to move away from me. ' Young man, I'm sorry, but you have to follow us - told me politely. - Sit down, please. The department clarify your story with the visa '. I sat in the ' Volga ', we arrived at the nearest police station. One of them was translated into German. They are clearly pronounced in my native language: ' We are from the State Security Committee '. Fortunately, the German translation I do not know Russian acronym KGB, otherwise would have died of fear.

- How many questioning lasted?.

- A few hours. I explained that I had landed in Red Square, because I wanted to make a gesture of peace. ' Anyway, he has no weapons on board ' - they said. They did not want to believe, but did not know what to think. The building of the police department was very old. ' Let's go, let's continue the conversation in a more convenient place to Lefortovo ' - they said. I did not know that it was the central prison. They began to ask more tough questions. ... Admit that the imperialists are you paid for this provocation '. - ' No, I - I insisted - I thought of myself '. They did not believe, and the interrogation continued until 4:00 am. I was tormented by headaches, I was dead tired, asked to stop questioning. 'Well, the guy - they answered. - Eat something, then we 'll take you to bed. But you know, we can not take you to the hotel, how would you like any of this '.

- It started life in Lefortovo?.

- Yes, I'm afraid that I do not go there. For several weeks I lost 10 kg. I was in a double chamber. Alexander, my cellmate, a Ukrainian, was sitting in the hotel trade on black market ' Astoria ', he reassured me, reading an article from ' Truth '. We did not know what's going on behind the walls of the prison: a small window located near the ceiling was made ​​of thick glass of cloudy. Then there was the process. Correct, no violence or threats. Regular contacts with the German Embassy. The verdict was harsh: four years in labor camps. I thought that was the end. An old fellow in uniform came to me in a cell.

- Who was it?.

- Petrenko, chief of the prison. He began to speak, zhurya my paternal. ' Man, listen, when I was your age, how old are you now, in May 1945, I served in the Zhukov, who took Berlin. I went along with the other in the Reichstag, with a red flag and a gun in his hand. Do not you think that you, the Germans have made ​​a lot of things? ' . Maybe I made ​​a mistake, but I thought only about the gesture of goodwill '. Since then he has become my visit often. We talked about the war and the present. Then I learned that he was on the verge of retirement. And asked to postpone his retirement, because my case has not yet been settled. He came into the chamber to explain it to me. ' Man, you are sentenced to labor camps, but decided to leave you in Lefortovo: with us you are safe. After your flight severely punished many of the military, who can guarantee your safety if you send in Siberia? '.

- 14 months in Lefortovo. How do you remember about them?.

- It was hard. I'm not holding anyone hurt, but inside I experienced severe pain, I told myself every day why I did it? . I told them I had lost 10 kg, I have anorexia, stomach cramps. Alexander supported me. And month after month, thanks to articles in the ' Truth ', which he translated to me, I saw that the world outside the prison is changing: there have been reports of changes in the East, the East-West detente, the blocks are no longer opposed to each other.

- Then Amnesty?.

- It was unexpected. After 14 months of the sentence. I remember that day. It was 14:00. guards came. They brought me clothes that I had to wear pajamas instead of a prison during the meetings with lawyers, parents, German diplomats. Alexander explained everything to me. ' Man, you seem to be lucky - he said. - You do not think that you will carry in these clothes to Siberia? ' . There was the new warden of solutions, the judge Dobrowolski and lumps and Vera, she was a translator on my process. Lumps got a red folder and opened it. Read the decree, I was pardoned and had to leave Soviet territory. The decree was signed by Andrei Gromyko, then chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. I felt that I come alive. Mr. No sign my release!.

- In Germany, you are greeted as a hero?.

- Well, you started having problems. The siege by the media. Hostile articles in which I was exposed as a madman threaten the peace. I was deprived of the rights to flying, started an investigation against me with absurd accusations: a threat to peace, or treason, then the case was closed. But I have no regrets, je ne regrette rien ( song of Edith Piaf ' No regrets '. - Note. ed. ). It was a frivolous adventure? . The flight marked fears, experiences that made ​​the mistake too late to go back? . And yet, I did the right thing, realized his dream. Even at that terrible moment when the ' MiG ' red arrow zipped around me in the cold sky, Russia.



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