If you’ve seen Moscow‘s imposing Red Square, still regularly patrolled by Russian guards, imagine seeing a plane land there. This Guardian video shows the story of Mathias Rust who, 25 years ago, flew through the Iron Curtain on a peace mission to “build an imaginary bridge” between cultures. He was an amateur 19-year-old pilot, and managed to fly from Helsinki to Moscow without being taken down by Soviet air defense. After circling a few times to show he intended to land, he stopped on a nearby bridge and drove the Cessna into Red Square like a car. Though he was greeted by happy and supportive spectators, it was the height of the Cold War, and he was subsequently arrested and sentenced to prison for four years. He served only 14 months, but the unbearable conditions made him question his actions. As he states in his current day interview, it’s remarkable to see how far one person can go.
Germany marks 50th anniversary of the Berlin Wall — where to commemorate
This year, Germany marks the 50th anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall, a barrier that isolated East Berlin from West Berlin for almost 30 years and was a powerful physical symbol of the Cold War. On August 13, 1961, authorities in East Berlin ordered the construction of the Wall in order to stem the tide of Germans moving from Communist East Berlin to Capitalist West Berlin. When it was completed, the Wall was 28 miles long, 12 feet high, and included gun towers, razor wire, and land mines on its eastern side.
To commemorate this historic anniversary, visitors to Berlin can learn more about the Wall in three poignant ways:1) The first place visitors should go to learn more about the Wall is the Berlin Wall Memorial, which contains the largest remaining sections of both sides of the Wall, a documentation center, and memorials to the many victims who died trying to escape East Berlin.
2) The German Historical Museum is currently hosting an exhibit of the photography of Thomas Hoepker and Daniel Biskup, two West German photographers who used their lenses to document life in East Berlin during and after the Berlin Wall. Aptly, the exhibit ends on October 3, Germany’s Unity Day.
3) Finally, of course, there’s an app for that. The Mauerguide is an app that relies on GPS to guide users along the original path of the Berlin Wall. In addition to its maps and handy walking instructions, the Mauerguide includes political and historical information about the Wall, film clips, and interviews.
[Photo credit: Thierry Noir via Wikipedia]
Photo of the day (10.21.10)
Do spies wear sundresses? Flickr user jrodmanjr snapped this woman in Moscow‘s Red Square and imagines she may be a cold war spy, her black briefcase full of classified documents. More likely an art student with a portfolio, but any any rate, its fun to speculate on the secret lives of strangers. As a photo, it’s pretty interesting too: nicely framed, distinctly Russian, and the mysterious girl’s dress balances nicely with the colors of St. Basil’s Cathedral.
Photograph any intriguing people on your travels? Submit your photos to Gadling’s Flickr Pool & it could be our next Photo of the Day!
Will secretary Clinton help or hinder travel to Russia?
Travelers around the world are waiting for the day when the borders to Russia open wider to visitors. Although the formerly Communist country does and will accept tourists, the application process is long and expensive — you don’t just wander up to the border to Russia, get your passport stamped and mosey down to Red Square, no, before visitors to the Red State are even allowed to apply for a visa they need to be sponsored, a process that isn’t difficult but one that takes time, money and most of all, patience.
Now that the Obama administration has the reigns, however, many have high hopes for better relations between the United States and some of her formerly cold neighbors. Cuba, for example, has recently been hinting at welcoming American citizens back into the island nation and kick starting its economy.
Such is the message that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is taking with her as she circles the globe: Give us some time and space to figure things out and rebuild bridges — we’re not here to fight.
Or at least that’s what she thought she was saying to Sergi Lavrov, Russia’s Secretary of State and a prominent official with whom she met last week. In an attempt to get relations started off on the right foot, Mrs. Clinton presented Lavrov with a gag “reset button” that was meant to symbolize the resetting of relations between the former Cold War foes.
On the bottom was written RESET, in English, while the top said PEREGRUZKA, in Russian. Which does not mean “reset.” It means “OVERLOAD.”
Thankfully, Mr. Lavrov took the gaff in stride and the meeting still went well. And with any luck, relations between the east and west will soon become even warmer, making we American tourists one step closer to easy weekend caviar and vodka trips to Moscow.
Infiltrating North Korea Part 12: A North Korean History Lesson about the U.S.S. Pueblo
The largest symbol of anti-Americanism in North Korea is undoubtedly the USS Pueblo. Naturally, this is an obligatory stop for all tourist groups.
The Pueblo is an American spy ship that was captured just off the coast of North Korea on January 23, 1968. The North Koreans claim the ship was in their territorial waters while the Americans claim it was not. It was fired upon, boarded, and then taken to the port of Wonsan.
Today, the spy ship sits moored to the bank of the Taedong River where we visited it one drizzly afternoon. We were met at the gangplank by one of the only English speaking docents we had the entire trip. She was dressed in a conservative uniform and spoke with a very matter-of-fact tone.
We followed her onto the ship and into a small room with a handful of chairs and a television. This is where we’d spend the next 20 minutes being indoctrinated by a North Korean video about the Pueblo incident.
The narrator was scathing and never missed the opportunity to add the word “imperialist” after every time he mentioned “American.” He told us how the ship was captured in North Korean waters and how the American government continually claimed it was a fishing trawler–something that even I found a little embarrassing when we later toured the ship and its enormous banks of encryption machines and electronic monitoring devices.
The video also included black and white clips of the 82 soldiers captured on board. The video made no mention of the torture and beatings they endured while in captivity, however, and focused instead focused on quotes by the sailors claiming they were being treated better than they deserved.
We were also told how the crew signed a letter of confession admitting that they were spying on North Korea. The fact that Lloyd Bucher, the Pueblo’s commanding officer, underwent a mock execution and was told that his men would be shot one by one until he signed the confession was conveniently left out of the story.
In addition, two classic acts of defiance were ignored. When the North Koreans forced Bucher to read his confession on a radio broadcast, he cleverly mispronounced “paen,” the Korean word for praise. And so he told the world, “We pee on the North Korean state, we pee on their great leader Kim Il Sung.”
Although the North Koreans never realized the pun, they did discover another act of defiance, although too late. It wasn’t until propaganda photos taken of the “healthy” crew were released to the world that the North Koreans discovered the true meaning behind so many middle fingers sticking out. Unfortunately, when they did find out, the surviving crew suffered terribly with increased beatings.
North Korea refused to release their captives until the United States apologized. It took 11 months but finally President Johnson acquiesced, much to the glee of our smartly-dressed guide who proudly told us that this was the first time the United States had ever apologized to another nation. The narrator of the video rubbed it in even further, mocking Maj. Gen. Gilbert H. Woodward who signed the apology as being too “confused” to even remember to sign the date.
Naturally, nothing was mentioned about the United States later disavowing the apology or about the statement Woodward read before signing it; “The paper which I am going to sign was prepared by the North Koreans and is at variance with the above position…but my signature will not and cannot alter the facts. I will sign the document to free the crew and only to free the crew.”
Walking through the spy ship war trophy after watching the video certainly left a bad taste in my mouth, especially after hearing the narrator’s final statement that, “the American imperialists are an aggressor that should be annihilated by force of arms.”
Yes, the Americans were spying and yes, the North Koreans caught them, but so much of the story was purposely left out to paint a very one-sided portrait of the affair. It was classic North Korean propaganda and it provided some fascinating insight into the communist government’s control, manipulation, and resultant mindset of their population. The only difference from what we experienced during our “education” about the Pueblo is that the North Korean people have no outside source of information to confirm or deny what the government tells them. Nor, for that matter, will they ever have the chance to learn for themselves about the bizarre submarine incursions their own government has ordered into the South.
For more information about the Pueblo, be sure to click here to visit a fascinating website maintained by the former crew.
Yesterday: North Korean Style Advertising
Tomorrow: Kids will be Kids