Will Someone Stop You…? (1)

On Thursday 28th May 1987 a crowd of onlookers congregated around a small Cessna aircraft that had appeared unexpectedly in Red Square, Moscow. To general disbelief, a 19 year old West German, Mathias Rust, had flown 560 miles without permission, from Helsinki in the West to land by the walls of the Kremlin.

As a crowd gathered around Rust, a mix of tourists and Muscovite’s going about their daily business, puzzled Red Guards stood by. In the days to follow, images of Rust’s Cessna plane buzzing around Red Square and the curious throng were beamed around the globe.

“ I was interested in relations between East and West, particularly the Reykjavik meeting between Gorbachev and Reagan.
I realised that the aircraft was the key to peace. I could use it to build an imaginary bridge between East and West”. (2)

Rust (claims he) was unaware that the day he flew into Soviet air space was a day of celebration and holiday for the border guards. It has also been claimed that Gorbachev took advantage of the episode, replacing defence ministers with men who supported his policies of glasnost and perestroika. (3)

Mathias Rust was sentenced to four years in prison, after serving 432 days he was returned to West Germany. Rust’s Hamburg flying club were allowed to retrieve the hired plane, which was later bought by a wealthy Japanese businessman and put on display in Tochigi, Japan.

The images of Rust landing in Red Square used by the media were taken from footage filmed by Dr Robin Stott, a Briton who was in Moscow for a conference of international physicians campaigning for a nuclear freeze. Though Stott filmed the event and got close to Rust as part of the crowd, they did not speak. A number of photographs were taken by people on the day but Stott’s home movie footage (which begins with him panning Red Square and describing the location before being disrupted by Rust’s appearance) was the only film made of the event.

Emma Rushton & Derek Tyman, May 2007

1. A Russian women bystander asked Rust the question… “Will someone stop you on the way back, or will you be able to fly away free?”. When Stott’s edited footage of the event was shown on BBC Newsnight at the time of the landing, this question with Rust’s answer was the only section subtitled.

2. What happened next? Interview by Carl Wilkinson, Sunday 27 October 2002, The Observer.

3. Perestroika, policy of restructuring the economy and political system, and glasnost, policy of openness and accountability, esp., formerly in the USSR.