Back in 1987, the world was a very different place. As the Soviet Union was on a crash course of destiny, the power the country wielded — backed by a vast nuclear arsenal — put it in a decades-long gaze contest with the United States.
Mutually assured destruction is a military strategic doctrine that has brought the two nuclear powers to an impasse, which President Ronald Reagan described as a "suicide pact" while leaving the world in a state of unease about peace and war. This dichotomy was most evident in the homes of East and West German residents. The country has been divided since the end of World War II, with NATO's Western powers in West Germany and a Soviet puppet state called the German Democratic Republic in the east.
East German students sit in front of border guards at the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate in 1989 (University of Minnesota Institute for Advanced Study)
By 1987, the wheel that finally knocked down the Berlin Wall had begun to divide East and West Germany materially and ideologically, and a young man named Matthias Rust was keen to play his part in history. Like many young people, Rust is becoming increasingly politically savvy. Unlike most 18-year-olds, he also has a pilot's license and can use a modified Cessna 172 aircraft that increases fuel capacity by removing the rear seats.
In October 1986, Rust watched the Reykjavik summit between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev. When that summit ended in a stalemate, Rust felt an overwhelming urge to find a way to change the status quo.
"I think everyone on the planet is responsible for some progress and I'm looking for opportunities to get involved," he continued to tell the BBC.
Rust soon began making plans. President Theodore Roosevelt once famously said, "Do what you can, wherever, use what you have," and while Rust is unlikely to be aware of this axiom, his actions embody this premise. He assessed the skills he had, the resources available, and how he began to form ideas. He would take his little Cessna straight into the heart of the Soviet Union, a political spectacle he hoped would inspire others.
"I was thinking I could use this plane to build an imaginary bridge between East and West to show that a lot of people in Europe want to improve relations between our world," Rust said.
Rust rents Cessna 172 (Wikimedia Commons)
By May 13, 1987, Rust was ready to put his plan into practice, but he still had comprehensible doubts. Today, Russia is known for its advanced air defense systems, as are their Soviet predecessors. The Soviets had the most sophisticated and largest air defense systems in the world, and they had shown a tendency to use them against civilian aircraft. Just about five years ago, the Soviet Union shot down a South Korean airliner that had strayed into its airspace, killing all 269 passengers on board.
Rust told his parents that he was going on a trip to Northern Europe, which would help him build up more time for getting a professional pilot's license, which in the first few days was exactly what he did. After a few days of travel, he spent a few days in Helsinki, Finland, thinking about what he was going to do next. He wanted to make a major public statement, but he wasn't keen on dying in the process.
"Of course I'm afraid of losing my life. I'm weighing whether taking this risk is really responsible and reasonable. In the end I came to the conclusion, 'I have to take a risk.' ’”
He submitted a flight plan that would take him to Stockholm and then take off as usual. As Rust recalls, until long after he had been parachuted in, he was still unsure if he would ever experience it all.
"I made the final decision about half an hour after departure. I just turned the direction to 170 degrees and headed straight for Moscow. ”
Rust's Flight Path (Wikimedia Commons)
It didn't take long for Soviet air defense systems to notice his presence. They tracked him on radar, and within an hour of deviating from his flight plan, fighter jets were already scrambling to intercept his little Cessna. He flew low — about 1,000 feet above ground or 2,500 feet above sea level — and put on his crash helmet.
"I've been sitting on the plane, focusing on the dial," Rust says. "It felt like I wasn't really doing it."
However, Fate sided with Rust, and one of the fighter pilots reported seeing what he thought was a Yak-12 — a Soviet plane that looked similar to a Cessna 172. The pilot or his air traffic controller thought the plane must have been allowed there because they stopped the pursuit. Around the same time, Rust descended beneath the clouds to prevent them from freezing his wings, which also caused him to disappear from Soviet radar. Once he crossed the clouds, he climbed back 2,500 feet and then back in range of their radar.
Suddenly, he noticed that several warriors had appeared in the clouds ahead.
"It hit me very quickly and resolutely. It makes a whizzing sound! It's right above my head. I remember my heart beating very fast," he explained. "That's exactly the moment you started asking yourself: Is this when they shot you down?"
Before he knew it, the Soviet Mig-23 interceptor stopped beside him from below and to his left. The single-seat, swing-wing Mig-23 can exceed Mach 2.3 (more than 300 mph faster than the F-35) and is indeed large compared to Rust's little Cessna. In order to pinch him from the flanks, the MiGs had to lower the landing gear and unfurled the flaps to maintain sufficient speed so as not to scream next to Rust and his single propeller 172.
Soviet Mig-23 (Ministry of Defense)
"I realized that because they hadn't shot me down yet, they wanted to check what I was doing there," Rust said. "There was no sign, and the pilot didn't signal me to follow him. No. ”
Rust later learned that the pilots did try to contact him, but using high-frequency military channels. Finally, the MiGs put away the landing gear, lowered their flaps, screamed into the distance again, and circled Rust for half a mile before leaving. Rust again brushed shoulders with Soviet interceptors and still flew directly to the Soviet capital.
Later investigations confirmed that either the pilots thought the Cessna was indeed a Soviet Yak-12, or their command didn't think the situation needed to worry about. Shortly after the warriors left, luck was again in Rust's favor. Unknowingly, he entered the Soviet Air Force training area, where the aircraft resembled his own radar signals and were conducting various exercises. His small plane got lost in the radar jammer, which would hold his neck for the next few minutes.
Soviet Yak 12 looks very similar to Cessna 172 (Wikimedia Commons)
The agreement required all Soviet pilots to periodically reset their transponders, and any pilot who did not reset their pilots would immediately appear hostile on radar. At 3 p.m., such a switch was scheduled, but since Rust was flying through a group of student pilots, the Soviet commander overseeing the radar operation thought he was a student who had absent-mindedly forgotten to switch transponders. He ordered the radar operator to change Rust's radar return to "friendly" and warned that "otherwise we might shoot some of ourselves." ”
An hour later, Rust was 200 miles outside Moscow, undergoing radar and air defense checks in the new area. Radar operators spotted the small plane again and dispatched interceptor fighters, but the clouds were too thick to visually locate the small Cessna. Shortly thereafter, another radar operator labeled Rust's plane "friendly," mistaking it for a search and rescue helicopter that had been sent to the area.
As Rust approached Moscow airspace, the report forwarded to the region's air defense services listed what appeared to be flying with the transponder turned off, rather than any information about a West German teenager sneaking into hundreds of miles of heavily guarded Soviet airspace.
Soviet 2K12 "Kub" air defense system (Andrey Korchagin on Flickr)
Rust then flew his small plane over Moscow's infamous "steel ring," which consisted of multiple overlapping air defense systems designed to protect the Soviet capital from American bombers. Air defense rings encircled Moscow 10, 25, and 45 miles away, all capable of engaging heavy bomber fleets but showing no interest in the small planes Rust piloted.
Shortly thereafter, Rust entered the city's own airspace — an area where all air traffic was severely restricted, even military flights. As Rust flew over Moscow, Soviet radar operators finally realized something was wrong, but it was too late. There was no time to grab the interceptor fighter; Rust had flown from building to building, trying to identify Moscow's famous Red Square.
"At first, I thought maybe I should land inside the walls of the Kremlin, but then I realized that while there was plenty of space, I wasn't sure what the KGB would do to me," he recalled. "If I landed inside the wall, only a few people would see me and they could take me away and deny the whole thing. But if I landed on the square and a lot of people would see me, the KGB couldn't just arrest me and lie. So for my own safety, I gave up the idea. ”
Moscow Red Square
Rust found a 6-lane bridge to Red Square, with little traffic and only a few power lines he needed to avoid. He flew over the first set of wires, then quickly lowered the plane and flew below the next set of wires. Just as he was about to land, he found a car directly in his way.
"I walked to the left, passing by him," Rust said, "and as I walked, I looked and saw the expression on the old man's face like he couldn't believe what he was seeing." I just hope he doesn't panic and get out of control and bump into me. ”
Rust's wheel landed on the ground and rolled straight into Red Square. He had wanted to park the plane in front of Lenin's Mausoleum, but the fence blocked his way, and he decided to stop in front of St. Basil's Cathedral. He turned off the engine, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and reality slowly surrounded him. He did the impossible.
"A whole bunch of people were around me," Rust recalls. "People were smiling and came up to me to shake hands or ask for autographs. There was an English speaking Russian lad. He asked me where I came from. I told him I was from the West and wanted to talk to Gorbachev, to send a message of peace, [to help Gorbachev] convince everyone in the West that he had a new way. ”
Rust is next to the Cessna 172 on Moscow's Red Square
He had expected to be caught by the KGB immediately, but found the crowd confused and delighted with his astonishing appearance. A woman gave him some bread. One young soldier scolded him for not applying for a visa, but praised him for taking the initiative. What Rust didn't realize was that the KGB was already present and agents were already squirming in the crowd, confiscating cameras and laptops bearing the Rust logo.
An hour later, two truckloads of Soviet soldiers arrived. Most of them ignored Rust as they aggressively pushed the crowd away and put obstacles around the teenager and his plane. Subsequently, three men arrived in a black sedan, one of whom identified himself as a translator. He asked Rust for his passport and whether they could check the plane. Rust recalls that their mannerisms were mostly friendly, even casual.
The plane was then taken to the nearby Sheremetyevo International Airport, where it was completely dismantled during the inspection and, despite the friendly behavior of the Soviets, he was immediately taken to Levotovo prison. The prison is notorious for being used by the KGB to hold political prisoners.
A modern view of Lefortovo Prison (Wikimedia Commons)
Initially, the Soviets refused to believe that Rust had accomplished his bold mission without the support of NATO troops. The date he chose was May 28, Border Guard Day in the Soviet Union, and they accused him of deliberately choosing it to embarrass them. Then they accused him of getting the map he used to get to Moscow from the CIA... That is, until the Soviet consul in Hamburg confirmed that they could purchase the same map through a mail-order service.
After realizing that Rust was not the youngest and most ostentatious CIA agent in the world, they eventually accused him of illegal entry, flight laws violations, and "malicious hooliganism." Rust pleaded guilty to the first two charges but rejected the third, claiming he was not malicious. Still, he was convicted of all charges by a panel of three judges and sentenced to four years in prison in the same Lefortovo prison. Despite the prison's notoriety, Rust was well cared for most of his time, even allowing his parents to visit every two months.
In 1988, after Reagan and Gorbachev signed a treaty, Rust was released from prison in a "gesture of goodwill" that would allow both countries to eliminate their medium-range nuclear missiles. For many Soviet officials, however, this was not a happy ending.
Rust's reassembled Cessna is on display at the German Museum of Science and Technology
In a way, Rust's flight was exactly what he expected. The gimmick seriously damaged the reputation of the Soviet military and gave Gorbachev the chips he needed to defeat those who opposed his reforms.
Almost immediately after Rust landed on Red Square, both the Soviet defense minister and the Soviet air defense commander were dismissed for allowing such a grave violation of Soviet airspace. Shortly thereafter, hundreds of other officers were also dismissed. According to Aviation & Space magazine, Rust's flight led to the largest single movement of Soviet officers since the 1930s.
Rust would no longer sit behind the lever of an airplane, but became the only pilot in history to use a chartered single-propeller trainer to defeat the entire Soviet army. Unfortunately, Rust's seemingly heroic stunt is overshadowed by the troubled man's constant breaking of the law. In the early 1990s, he was sentenced again to prison for assaulting women who refused his romantic courtship. In 2005, he was found guilty again — this time for fraud. Today, he describes himself as an analyst at an investment bank and seems keen to leave his high-profile performances behind.