May 28: On This Day in World History … briefly

1987: Teenage prank causes Soviet embarrassment

A West German teenager’s prank caused worldwide mirth and seriously embarrassed the Soviet Union.

Mathias Rust (19) flew his light Cessna plane from Helsinki to Moscow, buzzed the Kremlin and landed in Red Square – evading the entire Soviet air defence system. He alighted to sign autographs for astonished Moscow passersby before being taken away by bemused policemen. It was rumoured that the hard men in the Kremlin were ‘extremely unamused’ – and the prankster was in a lot of trouble.

Rust’s trial began in Moscow on 2 September 1987. He was sentenced to four years in a general-regime labour camp for hooliganism, for disregard of aviation laws, and for breaching the Soviet border. He was never transferred to a labour camp and instead served his time at the high security Lefortovo temporary detention facility in Moscow.

Two months later, Reagan and Gorbachev agreed to sign a treaty to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe, and the Supreme Soviet ordered Rust to be released in August 1988 as a goodwill gesture to the West.

Rust’s rented Reims Cessna F172P registered D-ECJB, was sold to Japan where it was exhibited for several years. In 2008 it was returned to Germany and placed in the Deutsches Technikmuseum in Berlin.

Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.

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