I planted a cessna near the Kremlin. Airplane on Red Square

On May 28, the Soviet Union celebrated the Day of the Border Guard. In 1987, this holiday was hopelessly spoiled by the Soviet border guards - in the center of Moscow, near St. Basil's Cathedral, a foreign plane landed.

Light aircraft "Cessna-172", piloted by an 18-year-old German Matthias Rust, had a huge impact on the history of the Soviet Union.

Landing on Red Square was the reason for the resignation of the Minister of Defense Sergei Sokolov and the Commander-in-Chief of Air Defense Alexandra Koldunova, who were opposed to politics Mikhail Gorbachev, as well as for a large-scale "purge" in the ranks of the Soviet military, which, according to foreign experts, was comparable only to the "purge" of the "great terror" of the late 1930s.

Even 28 years later, there is no consensus on whether Rust's flight was the prank of a lone youth or an elaborate intelligence operation.

Rust himself insisted years later that it was a mission of peace. Inspired by the thaw in relations between West and East, the young man decided to build an "air bridge" by flying to Moscow and landing in the very center of the Land of Soviets.

Lost over the Baltic

Rust received his pilot's license in 1986 at the Hamburg Aeroclub. In the same flying club in May 1987, the German rented a Cessna-172, and also received detailed maps necessary for the flight. According to Rust, he did not inform anyone about his true intentions.

Starting on May 13 from the airport of Uetersen, Rust reached Iceland on May 15 through the Shetland Islands and the Faroe Islands. On May 22, the German flew to Norwegian Bergen, from there on May 25 to Finnish Helsinki.

In the capital of Finland, he made the final decision to fly to Moscow.

On the morning of May 28, having refueled the Cessna, Rust took off from the airfield, declaring Stockholm as the target. The airfield staff noticed that the Cessna was not only filled to capacity, but additional fuel tanks were also installed in the cabin. The flight to Stockholm obviously did not require such an amount of fuel. Nevertheless, Rust was allowed to take off.

The Cessna took off at 12:21, and twenty minutes later the plane left the airport control area. Rust stopped communicating with the air traffic control service, turned to the coastline of the Baltic Sea and at about 13:00 disappeared from Finnish airspace near Sipoo.

The disappearance of the Cessna was regarded by Finnish dispatchers as a possible accident, raising the alarm for rescue services.

"Cessna" was led from the very border

Rescuers found an oily spot in the sea, which allowed them to conclude that a disaster had occurred. Where the stain came from is not clear to this day. Subsequently, when it became known where Rust's plane actually flew, the Finns billed him for 100 thousand dollars for the work of rescuers. True, when there was a big fuss around the world around the flight, the lawsuit was withdrawn.

"Cessna" Matthias Rust at that moment crossed the Soviet border near the town of Kohtla-Jarve and headed for Moscow. The pilot was guided by a magnetic compass and pre-planned objects - Lake Peipsi, Lake Ilmen, Lake Seliger, the Rzhev-Moscow railway line.

Immediately after the flight of Rust, a persistent myth appeared that the military, who were celebrating the Day of the Border Guard, “slammed” the intruder aircraft, as they say. Actually it is not.

At 14:10 "Cessna" was detected by radio equipment of air defense units. Three anti-aircraft missile battalions were put on alert, but they did not receive orders for destruction.

Rust's aircraft was also later visually detected near the city of Gdov by Soviet fighters, who identified it as a "sport aircraft of the Yak-12 type".

The Cessna was flying at low altitude and low speed, and the fighters were unable to escort the light aircraft. Therefore, having flown around the intruder, they returned to base.

To shoot down - it is impossible, to plant - it does not work

The picture of the helplessness of the Soviet military in front of Matthias Rust, which is firmly entrenched in many, is completely wrong. Indeed, the air defense system is built with an eye on much more serious and dangerous targets than a light aircraft.

Nevertheless, the Cessna was spotted and could have been destroyed. However, orders for such actions were not received from Moscow.

First of all, because the history of the destruction of the passenger South Korean Boeing on September 1, 1983 dominated the USSR. And although in that story, by and large, there was no fault on the Soviet side, the Kremlin in no way wanted a repetition of such an incident.

In addition, the report of the pilots confirmed that we are talking about a light civilian aircraft, and the Soviet military did not have the right to shoot down civilian aircraft. Actually, it was the same in the case of the South Korean Boeing, since it was mistakenly identified as an American reconnaissance aircraft.

The Convention on International Aviation, also known as the "Chicago Convention", prescribes that in case of violation of the airspace of countries by light-engined sports aircraft, they should not be shot down, but forced to land. It was not possible to plant Rust with the help of combat fighters for the reasons described above, and the military did not quickly find another way.

Rust Bridge

Thus, the Cessna flew safely to Moscow at 18:30. As Rust himself said, he wanted to sit in the Kremlin or on Red Square, since he simply did not know other places in Moscow. But there were no conditions for landing in the Kremlin, and there were a lot of people on Red Square.

As a result, the pilot, entering from the direction of Bolshaya Ordynka, landed on the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge, which with good reason can be called Rustov Bridge from that time, and coasted to St. Basil's Cathedral.

Curious people gathered around the plane. Rust got out of the cab, began to communicate with people. Among the Muscovites and guests of the capital there was a schoolboy with an excellent knowledge of a foreign language, who served as a translator. The German pilot began to take autographs.

Surprisingly, in the first minutes, there were no special services among those who surrounded Rust. Only the policeman on duty asked if the pilot had a visa and, having learned that it was not, left the German alone.

While Matthias Rust was telling Muscovites about his desire to talk with Gorbachev, the military appeared, cordoned off the plane, but did not take tough actions. It was only around 20:00 that three people in civilian clothes suggested that Rust come in to give explanations.

Later, the pilot said that he was interrogated somewhere near Red Square. This is not surprising - Muscovites know that the complex of buildings of the State Security Committee is within walking distance from the Kremlin.

Lefortovo hospitality

We communicated politely with Rust, asking who organized the flight and what his goals were. The German insisted - he was for peace and friendship, he flew in to express his support for Gorbachev.

He really supported Gorbachev - thanks to his flight, the Soviet leader dealt a powerful blow to the positions of the military, who critically assessed his policies.

But Gorbachev did not want to meet with Rust. The hopes of the German that he would be reprimanded and released were not justified either. He was charged with hooliganism, violation of aviation law and illegal border crossing. On September 4, 1987, Matthias Rust was sentenced to 4 years in prison.

In fact, Rust spent only 432 days in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center. Although they treated him correctly, the German was in a depressed state. And in vain - the Soviet prison looked like a much more pleasant alternative than the surface-to-air missile, which could well have "visited" Rust during the flight.

In the summer of 1988, the famous head of the USSR Foreign Ministry, and at that time the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Andrei Gromyko, signed a decree amnestying Rust. On August 3, 1988, the pilot returned to Germany, where for some time he became a very popular person.

An open meeting of the Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of the USSR in the case of German citizen Matthias Rust, a 19-year-old amateur pilot, who is accused of violating the rules of international flights and malicious hooliganism. Photo: RIA Novosti / Yuri Abramochkin

"It was an irresponsible act"

However, it didn't last too long. Rust was again remembered in the fall of 1989, when he was already on trial in Germany. He did an alternative service in a hospital, where he stabbed a nurse who did not share his love feelings. In 1991, a German court sentenced Matthias Rust to 4 years - that is, to the same term as the Soviet court had previously. As in the USSR, in Germany they showed leniency towards him, releasing him after 15 months in prison.

Rust then traveled the world, married an Indian, converted to Hinduism, became disillusioned with both his wife and religion, returned home, where he was again on trial - in 2001 he was caught stealing a sweater in a department store.

It seems that the memories of the flight to Moscow have become for him the main business of life. He willingly meets with journalists, talking about him, for his 25th birthday in 2012 he even released a memoir.

Then, in 2012, the Stern magazine published the opinion of 44-year-old Matthias Rust about his act committed in May 1987: “Now I look at what happened in a completely different way. I certainly would not repeat this and would call my then plans unrealizable. It was an irresponsible act."

Mathias Rust, an 18-year-old German, was at the helm of the plane that landed on Red Square in 1987. A joke immediately appeared that in the center of Moscow there is now Sheremetyevo-3 Airport. The Soviet generals were no longer in the mood for jokes - many lost their posts, up to the Minister of Defense.

Matthias Rust himself, who has served time both in the USSR and at home since that time, recently in an interview with the Stern magazine called that his flight irresponsible and added that now he definitely would not repeat it. However, it cannot. The sky of Europe is still closed to him, although history itself is not closed even 25 years later.

Matthias Rust prefers to be in control. He recently returned from Latin America. There he again passed on the pilot. I flew. In Europe, Rust has not been allowed to fly a plane for 25 years.

“Sometimes I dream about that flight, usually in the afternoon when I take a nap after lunch. And if there is some free time, memories pop up on their own,” says Matthias Rust.

Rust sat on the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge. Then he drove to Vasilyevsky Spusk, willingly signed autographs, spoke, brought a letter of peace to Gorbachev. They even brought him bread and salt. And it seemed that the iron curtain was just a smoke screen, because everything was so simple.

“Flight maps were available. The KGB still didn’t want to believe me that I just ordered them, like any other road atlases. Then they themselves ordered the same maps through the Soviet embassy in Bonn and were very surprised when they received them ", - says Matthias Rust.

Here is the itinerary of an 18-year-old pilot who flew only 50 hours at that time: a long flight from Germany over the sea to the Faroe Islands, followed by Iceland (Reykjavik), Norway (Bergen), Finland (Helsinki), and then almost at random to Moscow. He followed the railroad. This part of the route is full of the most amazing coincidences. Rust's plane flew into the area of ​​the rescue operation. The bomber crashed. Lots of helicopters in the air. "Cessna" Rust is mistaken for a light-engine Soviet aircraft. Then he is once again assigned the code "I am mine." At the same time, Rust was discovered immediately after he crossed the state border and could have been shot down, including on approach to Moscow.

“We have S-300 systems, it takes a target at 100 meters. And if I launch three missiles at this shabby airplane and they explode at a height of 50-100 meters, and there will be a kindergarten under the bottom, what will I do next? It was a provocation planned 100% advantageously, "- said the commander of the Moscow Air Defense District in 1987-1989. Vladimir Tsarkov.

Tsarkov claims: Rust's flight is an operation of the Western special services. And the border violator himself is a well-trained pilot, and he has already visited Moscow in advance. Rust says: sat at random.

“Without visiting the place, it is impossible to land in such difficult conditions. What if a cable passes over the road there, it’s unknown,” said Michael Hanke, an instructor at the Pegasus Pilot School.

And although pilots of the same planes in Germany still sometimes jokingly say: "Well, let's wave to Moscow," they all understand that such an adventure would be impossible now.

In fact, the flight of Matthias Rust had practically no effect on the development of small aircraft in Europe. Influenced by the September 11 attacks. After them, a special device is installed on any aircraft, which transmits the individual aircraft identification number to ground services. That is, on the radar it is no longer just a dot, but a dot with its own unique number, that is, for example, this plane cannot be confused with any other in the air.

The Soviet court sentenced Matthias Rust to 4 years in prison. He served a little more than 14 months in an exemplary colony. After his release, his fate was not easy. He returned to Germany, but even after that he broke the law. First, an attack on a woman with a knife. Time again. Then stealing a sweater from a department store. Explains - barely making ends meet.

"It all worked out because it had to happen. It's just my destiny," says Matthias Rust.

The aircraft in which Rust made the historic flight is on display at the Technical Museum in Berlin. Here it is one of the symbols of the end of the Cold War. However, his wings are still decorated with signs resembling a bomb. There are too many questions in this story today. The materials of the pilot Rust's case are still classified.

May 28 marks a kind of anniversary: ​​on this day in 1987, the plane under the control of the German pilot Matthias Rust landed on Red Square. This incident became, oddly enough, one of the most striking events of perestroika.

Who else, besides the German pilot, made "invasions" on Red Square, the site says.

Flight of Rust

On May 28, 1987, news outlets reported that a foreign civilian plane under the control of a German pilot had landed on Red Square. Rust's plane flew across the entire territory of the USSR: from the Gulf of Finland to Moscow - and was not shot down.

It is still unknown what motives drove the German pilot, to whom and what he wanted to prove, and most importantly, why he landed on Red Square, but the fact remains that Rust's plane crossed the border of the Soviet Union and Finland without hindrance and flew towards Moscow.

The plane could have been shot down several times - several fighters went up on alarm from the Estonian airfield, but, having not received an order to shoot down the air transport of the border violator, they returned back. And the air defense of Moscow, consisting of automated air defense systems, was turned off that day for unscheduled preventive maintenance.

Matthias Rust. Photo: ITAR-TASS

Rust's plane landed on the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge, and then coasted to St. Basil's Cathedral. The pilot who got off the plane was arrested, having managed, however, to distribute several autographs to those who wished. The court sentenced Rust to 4 years in prison, but the pilot spent a little more than a year, after which he was amnestied and returned to his homeland.

In the future, Rust repeatedly came to the attention of law enforcement agencies in Germany. In 1989, he stabbed a nurse who refused to see him, for which he was sentenced to 4 years in prison.
And 12 years later, Rust was tried for stealing a sweater from a store. Now the former pilot makes a living playing poker.

Note that Rust was not the first to venture on such a flight. 50 years before the German pilot - in 1938 - an Englishman Brian Montague Grover, who fell in love with a girl from the Soviet Union, tried to commit a similar act. He flew on a single-seat plane from London to Germany, and then flew to the USSR. To Moscow, like Rust. Only Grover's goal was not Red Square, but the Tushino airfield, where military parades were then held.

However, Grover did not manage to fly to the capital of the USSR - the plane ran out of fuel, and he was forced to land in the Tver region on one of the collective farm fields. The Englishman was arrested and could well have received 10 years in prison for illegally crossing the border, but the court turned out to be humane and sentenced him to a fine of 1,500 rubles.

Other cases of "invasions" on Red Square

It is not clear why Red Square began to attract Russians as an autodrome, but recently cases of entering the country's main square in cars and other vehicles have become much more frequent. This is strictly forbidden: Red Square can only be visited on foot, and even then not always – sometimes the main square of the country is completely closed to the public, for example, during the preparation of open-air concerts.

However, this does not prevent the Russians from breaking the rules. One such incident occurred on September 20, 2010, when a biker drove into the square. A young man in a helmet drove off from the side of Vasilyevsky Spusk and intended to drive towards the State Historical Museum. The police and FSO officers immediately rushed to the motorcycle. The violator, seeing the danger, tried to escape, but failed - the motorcycle turned over. The driver was not hurt. An administrative offense report was drawn up against him.

It should be noted that travel to the territory of the Alexander Garden and Manezhnaya Square is also prohibited. However, this prohibition was also violated. On October 12 last year, a MGIMO student, a native of Chechnya, was detained, who drove an off-road vehicle into the territory of the Alexander Garden. As it turned out later, the young man showed the center of Moscow to two passengers of the car. An administrative report was drawn up against the violator.

On March 20 of this year, a Muscovite driving a foreign car was detained for a similar offense. The woman went to Red Square to show the city center to her friend, a citizen of Finland. The perpetrator was arrested and fined.

On May 2, the police detained a teenager who drove into Red Square on a scooter. The young man had no rights with him. An administrative report was drawn up on the fact of the offense.

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Today is the 25th anniversary of the landing of a German "amateur" pilot under the walls of the Kremlin

Today is the 25th anniversary of the landing of the German pilot Matthias Rust in the very heart of Moscow, under the walls of the Kremlin. His defiantly impudent flight on May 28, 1987 from Finland to Moscow, which was never stopped by our air defense systems, became one of the milestones in the collapse of the great power - the Soviet Union. A powerful, perfect for those times, air defense system was able to "overcome" a small single-engine aircraft, piloted by the same "amateur".

How could this happen? Unfortunately, many circumstances of what happened a quarter of a century ago are still carefully hidden by someone. Nevertheless, over the years, more and more evidence has been found that the “breakthrough” of the Soviet air defense system, which allegedly testified to the collapse of the entire Soviet system, was in fact someone carefully planned secret operation, which was successfully implemented primarily with the help of traitors. from the highest echelons of the Soviet leadership. And these traitors then used this incident to discredit the Soviet army and almost completely replace its command. Military journalist Yevgeny Kirichenko tells about this today on the pages of the Free Press.

Rust: “I was waiting for the command to land. But it didn't follow."

In fact, Rust's plane, which did not respond to the request "Own - alien”, was immediately detected by our radar facilities. The radar operator, Private Dilmagombetov, was the first to spot him, about which he immediately reported to Captain Osipov, on duty at the company's control point. Then the mark from Rust's Cessna was spotted by the operator of another station, corporal Shargorodsky, and informed the operational duty officer that he was observing an unidentified target. However, at the higher checkpoint, the issuance of information “upstairs” was delayed for 15 minutes, taking a timeout to figure out who was flying - violator of the state border or violator of the flight regime. Lieutenant Colonel Karpets and Major Chernykh decided, who were later made guilty of this whole story. - demoted and convicted by a military tribunal for five years.

But after all, the information, although belatedly, was issued further on command. A fighter piloted by Senior Lieutenant Puchnin took off to intercept Rust. He circled the Cessna twice and reported to the ground that in front of him - "light-engined sports aircraft with a blue stripe along the fuselage." If he had received a command from the ground to destroy the border violator, he would have done it easily. According to Rust, recorded in the interrogation protocol, he only once saw a Soviet interceptor and even distinguished orange overalls and oxygen masks of Soviet pilots in the cockpit, who were sitting in one row.

- I was waiting for the command to land - Rust said. - But it didn't follow. So I kept heading 117, moving at altitude 600.

Rust was lying. He was not going to land, because his task was to fly to Red Square at all costs. And the intruder flew around more than once. To avoid further encounters with fighters, Rust will then go to low altitude. Such a decision could only be made by a pilot who was well aware of the ways to counteract our air defense system.

Although Rust could have been easily shot down that day. This decision has already been made by General Kromin - Commander of the Leningrad Separate Air Defense Army. The instruction that appeared after the September events of 1983, when a South Korean Boeing was shot down in the Far East, as if by mistake, violated the Soviet border, interfered with it. The instruction forbade shooting down passenger and light-engine sports aircraft, and the general painfully searched for a solution, thereby saving the life of the German guy. Here is an excerpt from the transcript of his talks at the army command post:

- Well, shall we shoot down? The pilot reports: Yak-12 type (Soviet light-engine sports aircraft, similar to the Cessna).

It was the similarity of the Rust aircraft with the Yak-12 that misled our pilot, and behind him - and everyone else. The general decided that he was dealing with a violator of the flight regime, who forgot to turn on the identification mode on board or took off with faulty equipment. The target was handed over for escort to the units of the Moscow District, which regularly "led" it until the mark from the "Cessna" disappeared from the indicator screens.

Rust sat down for refueling near Novgorod, where was he "dressed"?

As you know, Cessna-172, piloted by Rust, took off from Helsinki at 13:15 Moscow time, and landed on Red Square at 19:30. That is, she was in the air for 6 hours and 15 minutes, covering a distance of about 880 km. This means that the Cessna was traveling at an average speed of about 140 km/h, which is much lower than the cruising speed of this type of aircraft, which is 220 km/h.

In addition, over most of the territory where the violator of the Soviet border flew, a favorable wind was blowing for him. That is, according to all calculations, Rust should have been in Moscow two hours earlier than the actual landing time. Consequently, the Cessna either deviated significantly from the route (it is not known for what purpose), or made an intermediate landing somewhere.

It is not surprising that inquisitive people, including the correspondent of the West German magazine Вunde M. Timm, having made similar calculations, asked themselves questions: where did the “amateur” pilot “sit down” and who could change his clothes? “After all, from Helsinki, - correspondent wondered - Matthias Rust took off in jeans and a green tunic, and after landing in Moscow, he got off the plane in red overalls. In Helsinki, according to Timm, there was no image of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on the tail fin of the Cessna. Where did it come from on the plane after it landed on Red Square?

Rust's version of the intermediate landing is also supported by the fact that shortly after the Soviet interceptors flew over the intruder, air defense reconnaissance equipment began to issue information to the higher command post about the reduction of the target, then at about 15:32 it was lost. Apparently, the Cessna, having met with the fighters, decided not to tempt fate and, choosing a suitable site, landed.

By the way, in the area of ​​Staraya Russa, where Rust could have made the alleged forced (or maybe planned) landing, at that time there were up to fifty airfields and more than 60 sites belonging to various departments. None of these sites in that area had communication with the authorities controlling the order and rules for the use of airspace. In a word, even if they wanted to, the witnesses of the landing of the overseas guest would not be able to call where they should. Just an ideal place to “dive” from the all-seeing Soviet air defense radars. And if Rust accidentally chose such a landing site, then this accident is a match for winning all the main prizes in one lottery.

But still - could a German amateur pilot need an intermediate landing? Judging by how skillfully, with a sharp loss of altitude, he got away from the Finnish air defense fighters, we can conclude that Rust was not afraid of interceptors. Masterfully simulating a fall into the bay, he crossed our border, and the Finnish pilots, having discovered a rainbow spot on the waves from the air, returned calmed to the base.

Here, by the way, is another mystery: how could an oil stain appear on its own at the place of Rust's "fall"? A technical examination, carried out later, showed that it was impossible to fake such a stain using a canister or a barrel dropped into the bay from an aircraft. Such camouflage support for a German pilot could only be provided by a submarine or boat.

Another riddle. Why did not only our fighters sent to intercept Rust, but also the locators of several radio engineering units at once lose an air intruder? It happened somewhere in the middle of the route.

- Most likely, - as Lieutenant Colonel V. Petrenko, senior navigator of the Aviation Administration of the Moscow Air Defense District, then explained to the author of the publication in SP, - being an experienced pilot, of which there is no doubt, Rust had a good idea of ​​​​what to expect from a meeting with fighters. It was enough for the interceptor to pass over the Cessna in afterburner, and it would have been blown to pieces. Therefore, it is quite possible that Rust dived sharply, having gone to a low altitude, where it is not like a fighter - not a single locator will hook. Or even took it and landed ...

The former deputy head of the combat training department of the radio engineering troops of the Moscow Air Defense District, Lieutenant Colonel E. Sukhoverov, believes that the German pilot deliberately went to an intermediate landing in order to confuse our radar officers. That is, from a border violator, as he was identified in the Gulf of Finland, to become simply a violator of the flight regime, at which no one will shoot.

Those who prepared his adventure with a landing in Moscow, sums up the author of the publication, could not help but know how the duty forces of the Soviet air defense in September 1983 in the Far East shot down a South Korean Boeing, which allegedly flew into Soviet territory by mistake and did not responded to requests from the ground. This sad experience helped Rust to deceive the Soviet missilemen, because when the Cessna was re-detected, the locators conducted it on their screens not as an “air enemy”, but already as an “aircraft without an identification signal”, that is, a violator of the flight regime. On the part of the air defense, this already meant other, more loyal actions. However, as you know, our troops could not accurately identify Rust from the very beginning ...

If the events unfolded in this way, the author continues, then calling the flight of the “dove of peace” that landed on Red Square is simply a prank somehow the language does not turn. It seems that Rust and those who prepared him imagined the system for collecting and processing radar information of the Soviet air defense system too well.

Again, only a strange coincidence of circumstances can explain the fact that the route of the violator of the state border ran through the area where the MiG-25 fighter and Tu-22m bomber crashed the day before. Active search and rescue operations were going on in the zone of the alleged fall of the aircraft, several “turntables” were spinning in the air. Naturally, in such a hodgepodge it was possible to miss the “air enemy”, which, I emphasize, was already identified at that time as a “violator of the flight regime”. Moreover, Rust flew his plane at the same height and at the same speed as the search and rescue helicopters that were spinning along his route.

No less strange is the appearance of six unidentified targets at once in the area of ​​​​Ostashkov, Kuvshinovo and Selishche. The duty shift of the radio engineering battalion, observing these marks on the screens of their radars, began to give out the coordinates of the targets at 16:39. Their escort lasted about half an hour. Then, making sure that the targets were moving with a course and speed commensurate with the direction and speed of the wind, they stopped paying attention to them, deciding that they saw marks from the clouds on their indicators.

However, the then head of the radio engineering troops, Colonel A. Rudak, who after these events was removed from his post by the new Minister of Defense of the USSR Dmitry Yazov (although Rudak was on vacation on that ill-fated day on May 28, 1987), still believes that the locators observed not meteorological formations, and the so-called. MRSH (small balls). They were launched by someone in the Lake Seliger area. According to the officer, the configuration of marks on the radar indicators most of all coincided with the configuration of the MRS. And their "heap" location on the locator screen speaks for itself: it means that they were launched in one place.

Moreover, the balls appeared in the area of ​​responsibility of the radio engineering battalion just at the time when the Cessna flew through it. The radar operator could easily lose the mark of an air intruder among the marks of the MRS, moving in the same direction, the course of a tailwind, which, as luck would have it, was blowing towards the Mother See. Later it turned out that on May 28 there was a group of West German tourists in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bLake Seliger. And launching such a ball, as knowledgeable people explained, is as easy as shelling pears. Enough gas lighter or aerosol can.

Experts do not exclude that at the time of Rust's flight, the balloons were launched to overload the air defense information channels: our Scandinavian neighbors practiced this tactic more than once in the northern and northwestern directions. However, for some reason, experts from the authorities did not begin to check this version.

By the way, just at the time when the radar operators were trying to figure out the tinsel of all kinds of marks that covered the indicator screens, the operational duty officer of the command post of the Moscow Air Defense District, Major General V. Reznichenko, gave the command to turn off the automated control system for unscheduled routine maintenance. This general decision during a complex search and rescue operation, when several important air objects were in the air at once, looked rather strange.

- I think there is no military secret in this, if I say that during combat duty the ACS equipment is never turned off, - Vladimir Borisovich later recalled. - Even if electricity suddenly disappears, the automated control system will be transferred to backup power supply. Therefore, when unknown persons in civilian clothes approached me and asked me to turn off the automated control system, I was even taken aback. In the air - several unidentified targets, and among them - either an “air enemy”, or a “violator of the flight regime”, and I will take it and turn off the equipment ?! In addition, a group of inspectors from the General Staff worked in the troops, which at any moment could “launch” a control target. I asked them directly: “Who are you?” And then they said that they were techies, that is, representatives of industry. I flatly refused to turn off the ACS ...

The "industrialists" began to insist, and Major General Reznichenko demanded from them an official paper signed by at least the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Defense Forces. The operational duty officer was sure that such a document would hardly be shown to him. And I was very surprised when the "representatives of the plant" literally in a matter of minutes brought a paper signed by the commander in chief ...

- After all, I was not going to turn off the ACS after that, - worried from the surging memories Vladimir Borisovich, - but they began to threaten me: they say, we will call where necessary, and you will not end up with troubles. Oh, if only I knew what it would lead to later ...

Vladimir Borisovich admitted that from the very beginning he was alerted by the ridiculous request of the "representatives of the plant", who started preventive work at an odd hour. Previously, in such cases, the opinion of the operational duty officer was always taken into account. Why were they neglected this time?

“The West managed to attract people from Gorbachev’s inner circle to the implementation of the project”

The Soviet newspapers of that time, writes Kirichenko, as if by agreement, dubbed Rust's unprecedented flight a boyish prank, a hooligan trick, for which, it seems, one should not be punished. At the same time, Rust's "air hooliganism" led to the resignations of the highest army officials and gave Mikhail Gorbachev a reason to start a radical reduction in the armed forces. This was followed by the destruction of the Warsaw Pact, the fall of communist regimes in the countries of Eastern Europe and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, which was so prevented by the then Minister of Defense of the USSR, Marshal Sokolov.

When you think about it, the prank of a German amateur pilot seems far from harmless. This whole story is very much like a performance played out according to a carefully thought-out scenario, in which Western intelligence agencies and numerous agents of influence embedded in our echelons of power were probably involved.

The author of the publication cites the words of American national security specialist William E. Odom, who believes that after the passage of Rust, radical changes were carried out in the Soviet army, comparable to the purge of the armed forces organized by Stalin in 1937.

“From the moment Gorbachev came to power, - writes Odom, - only the Deputy Minister of Defense for Armaments remained in his post. Among the replaced officials were the Minister of Defense, all his other deputies, the Chief of the General Staff and his two first deputies. Commander-in-Chief of the Warsaw Pact Allied Forces and Chief of Staff of the Allied Forces, all four "supreme commanders", all commanders of groups of troops (in Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary), all commanders of fleets, all commanders of military districts. In some cases (especially with regard to the command of the military districts), commanders were replaced three times ... It is difficult to say how far the wave of purges swept down the official ladder, but it probably reached at least the level of command of divisions, and possibly went even lower"...

Given such devastating consequences, it can be assumed that the flight of the West German amateur pilot was not at all a boyish prank, but a skillfully disguised spy mission to study missile-hazardous directions and the duty schedule of Soviet air defense radar systems.

- There is no doubt that Rust's flight was a carefully planned provocation by Western intelligence agencies, - the author quotes the words of Army General Pyotr Deinekin, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force in 1991-1997. - And, most importantly, this special operation was carried out with the consent and knowledge of individuals from the then leadership of the Soviet Union. This sad thought about internal betrayal is suggested by the fact that immediately after the landing of Rust on Red Square, an unprecedented purge of the highest and middle generals began. It was like they were waiting for the right occasion.

- At that time I was the commander of the anti-aircraft missile forces of the air defense of the USSR and found myself, as they say, at the forefront of events, - recalls another direct participant in those events - Colonel General Rasim Akchurin, brother of the famous cardiologist Renat Akchurin. - At that very fateful moment, I was checking the Leningrad Air Defense Army in the Baltics. If Rust were shot down, I assure you, even his fragments would not be able to be collected. But we did not have the right to fire at him, we could only force him to land. Landing him, however, did not work out, because the fighters and Rust's plane had too different speeds. But Rust was escorted, and our cars flew over him.

- I believe that it was a brilliant operation developed by Western intelligence agencies, - considers Igor Morozov, a former KGB colonel, a participant in the war in Afghanistan. - After 25 years, it becomes obvious that the West (and this is no longer a secret to anyone) managed to attract people from Gorbachev's inner circle to the implementation of the grandiose project, and they calculated with absolute accuracy the reaction of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. But there was only one goal - decapitate the Armed Forces of the USSR.

These are the sad facts that military journalist Yevgeny Kirichenko cited in his publication.

28 May 1987, a German citizen Rust landed on Red Square.
It happened exactly on the "Day of the border guard". His American-made sports plane Cessna was not touched by Soviet air defense and landed in Moscow on the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge and already coasted to St. Basil's Cathedral.

Rust flew through Helsinki. And he made one landing in the USSR to cover his tracks.

Rust's plane crossed the air border of the Soviet Union at 14.20 at an altitude of 600 meters above the Gulf of Finland in the area of ​​the Estonian city of Kohtla-Jarve. Air defense locators recorded this, and the missile battalions on duty were put on alert. A fighter jet was sent to intercept, which quickly discovered the intruder. But he was not allowed to shoot down the Cessna, and further, right up to Moscow, Rust's plane was "led" (periodically losing and finding again).

The intruder was reported to the top, although officially, he allegedly flew "incognito". The fact is that since 1984, the USSR had an order prohibiting opening fire on civilian and sports aircraft, and this aircraft was clearly civilian.

They reported to the top, but no one wanted to take responsibility for themselves and dragged out time, shoving responsibility on each other. So he flew to Moscow, where the air defense system that day was generally turned off for prevention.

Why was it allowed through their territories by Norway, Sweden and Finland? There is a suspicion that with the plane everything was not as simple as it seems.

Nevertheless, the plane flew safely to Moscow. When the pilot got out of the cockpit, he immediately began to sign autographs. There was no shortage of photographers, including among foreign media. He was arrested only 10 minutes later.

The violator turned out to be a citizen of Germany, 19-year-old athlete-pilot Matthias Rust. His father was a businessman who sold Cessna aircraft in Germany.

Rust after receiving a flight license before flying to Moscow.

Newspapers of that time wrote: “The country is in shock! An amateur pilot, and, as luck would have it, a German one, immediately dishonored the huge defense arsenal of the USSR and on such a holiday - Border Guard Day. Defense Minister Sergei Sokolov, Commander-in-Chief of the Air Defense Forces Alexander Koldunov and about 300 other officers lost their posts.

Defense Minister Sergei Sokolov

People began to call Red Square "the Sheremetyevo-3 airport".

On September 4, 1987, Rust was sentenced to 4 years in prison for illegally crossing the air border, violating international flight rules and malicious hooliganism.

His parents came to court. Rust himself stated at his trial that his flight was a "call for peace".

After spending a total of 432 days in pre-trial detention and prison, on August 3, 1988, he was pardoned by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and expelled from the territory of the USSR.