Who was Paul Wieczorek?

To many western observers the names bestowed upon Nationale Volksarmee combat units in the German Democratic Republic are but enigmas lost to history. East German military traditions and heritage often centered around figures of cultural significance and particular interest to the 'people's struggle' towards the progression of the communist movement. One of the most famous of the East German military units with a named title is the 40. Fallschirmjägerbatallion which was granted the title of 'Willi Sänger' after the pro-communist resistance fighter who was executed by the Nazis in the latter years of the Second World War. When the Soviet authorities took over administration of the eastern zone of Germany after the cease of hostilities the use of German communists and others sympathetic to the struggle of communism was seen as a way to allow the German people to embrace the struggles of communism and the exploits of their own people.

Paul Wieczorek, was another famous figure of East German military tradition. Paul Wieczorek was born in the largely protestant city of Bromberg in Prussia on 15 July 1885. In 1904, he and his family relocated from Bromberg to Berlin. After completing his schooling, he took up an apprenticeship in metalurgy becoming a metal worker. By 1903, he enlisted in the Kaiserliche Marine or 'Imperial Navy' of the German Empire. He would serve in the Imperial Navy until 1906, serving among other assignments aboard the light cruiser Medusa. Following his brief military service, Wieczorek found employment as a bus driver for the German company Allgemeine Berliner Omnibus AG. It was around this time that he became introduced to the teachings of Karl Marx and communism and become a member of the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands 'Social Democratic Party of Germany' or SPD.

With the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serb nationalist and the outbreak of hostilities in 1914, Wieczorek was reinstated into the Kaiserliche Marine at the rank of Maat or Petty Officer aboard a minesweeper. Now a committed communist, Wieczorek was reprimanded numerous times by his superiors for insubordination and military disobedience. With the emergence of a new form of warfare, and the advances taken in military aviation, Wieczorek volunteered to become an aircraft mechanic in the fledgling Marineflieger of the Imperial German Navy. Following receiving flight training, he was assigned to a military air station located at Tonder near the border with Denmark. Here he was involved in a plane crash and following a period of recovery, he was reassigned to the Marine-Landfliegerabteilung 'Naval Land Flying Service' at  Johannisthal near Berlin. It would be here that he and a friend Fritz Radtke would organize workers of the Johannis Thaler Flugzeugwerke and spread the influence of communist works amongst fellow members of the naval aviation service and military air service.

By November of 1918, Germany was facing internal struggles and with the Kiel Mutiny of naval sailors in the Wilhelmshaven fleet an increasing wave of descent swept over the crews of several battleships of the High Seas Fleet. The Kiel Mutiny would become one of the factors leading to the November Revolution in 1918. Aligning himself with prominent Marxist and anti-militarist Karl Liebknecht, Wieczorek organized other mutineers and mounted an armed insurrection at the base in Johannisthal. On 9 November 1918, pro-communist sailors and naval aviators as well as members of the illegal Spartacus League seized control of the Flugplatz Johannisthal and arrested the base commander and the officers cadre. Following the completion of the seizure of the airbase, Wieczorek and his group began heading in the direction of Berlin to link up with Karl Liebknecht and his fellow group of communist supporters. Along the way to Berlin, the group encountered armed resistance from military forces loyal to Kaiser Wilhelm II particularly in the areas of Lower Schöneweide and Treptow. Many soon sided with the revolutionaries and large quantities of weapons and ammunition were turned over to the revolutionaries.

Records become scarce after this point but it was presumed that Wieczorek and his men participated in a clash and occupation of the Reichsmarineamtes 'Imperial Naval Office' in Berlin. By the evening of the 9th of November, Wieczorek, Radtke and Liebknecht linked up and and along with Heinrich Dorrenbach a fellow socialist revolutionary and an officer in the Imperial German military began drawing up plans for the organization of armed formations in Berlin. By the time of the armistice and cease of First World War hostilities on 11 November 1918, some 600 sailors that had aligned themselves with Wieczorek and Liebknecht were using the Berlin imperial stables as their headquarters and declared the organization of the Volksmarinerat von Groß-Berlin und Vororten 'People's Naval Council of Greater Berlin and Suburbs. They organized themselves into a group they called the Volksmarinedivison 'People's Navy Division' and declared Wieczorek as their Commander.

From its inception on 11 November 1918, things would begin to rapidly deteriorate for the Volksmarinedivison. In a coup of leadership, Paul Wieczorek was shot dead by Korvettenkapitän Friedrich Brettschneider in the Berlin imperial stables they declared their headquarters. Susequently two days later, Brettschneider himself was also found dead.  The November Revolution would ultimately fail when resistance was put down forcefully, however it would lead to the abdication of the throne of Germany, the abolishion of the monarchy and the transition to parliamentary democracy. Liebknecht would not fare any better suffering the same fate that befell many communist revolutionaries in Germany.  On 15 January 1919, Karl Liebknecht was found in his Berlin apartment and arrested being placed under the custody of the Garde-Kavallerie-Schützen-Division 'Guards Cavalry Rifle Division' of the Freikorps were he was interrogated, beaten and finally shot to death.

After the end of the Second World War, Soviet authorities in the eastern sector of Germany installed the pro-communist regime and began advocating the use of German communists amongst the new government to unite the people under their exploits. In 1985, the East German communist party authorized the formation of a naval aviation wing or Marinefliegergeschwader to be operated by the Volksmarine. Organized under the strictest orders of secrecy, the new unit was officially established on 27 November 1987 at Rostock-Laage. The unit was designated Marinefliegergeschwader 28 (MFG-28) and granted the title 'Paul Wieczorek' on 6 October 1989. 

In Cold Blood along the Wall: The Killing of Peter Fechter

The Soviet Union and the communist satellite nations it subsequently developed within it's sphere of influence often went to extensive measures to make it appear that they operated and functioned to the best interests of its people. Outwardly, they embraced the ideals of freedom from oppression and equality amongst all collectively sharing everything and making great advancements in the achievements of mankind. Large emaculate festivals were frequently held and the ideas of labor highly regarded as essential to the success of the state. However, behind this facade of loving united fronts and value for human life was often a sinister truth. Desent and criticism of the state was an intolerable notion. Those who criticized the communist government or expressed ideals that were not compatible with those of the state risked imprisonment or certain death. Imagine living in a virtual prison state where the government dictated what you could do, when you could do it, how to do it and while declaring that you have 'rights' as a citizen of that nation, your rights are slim if any. Television, radio and all other media outlets are closely controlled by the state and to make matters worst, you can't even feel safe to express your true thoughts or feelings in your own home for fear you may be overheard and members of the secret police may show up in the middle of the night to arrest you. Wouldn't you begin thinking of ways to escape? Many would attempt to flee their prison nation; some would succeed and others would not.

On 13 August 1961, the East German government deployed soldiers of the Nationale Volksarmee and teams of construction workers to positions along the border of Allied controlled West Berlin and construction began on the Berlin Wall. The first concrete blocks would be put into place on 17 August 1961. With the Wall now turning West Berlin into an exclave deep in the heart of East Germany, it became much harder for persons wishing to leave the German Democratic Republic from doing so. No one could leave the communist nation without expressed permission from the government and all attempts to do so without authorization were met with armed resistance ordered to shoot anyone trying to leave without permission. The Schießbefehl or 'Shooting Order' became official policy on 22 August 1961, and the first person to be gunned down attempting to escape the repressive regime of East Germany would be twenty four year old Günter Litfin, a tailor who while attempting to escape by swimming across the Spree Canal was shot and mortally wounded by officers of the East German Transportpolizei. Litfin, would be the second confirmed casualty tied to the Berlin Wall, but he would be the first to die by being shot. Sadly, he would not be the last. After a tumultuous several months early on, life with the Wall began to normalize however escape attempts still became common place.

By the onset of 1962, the Wall and the defensive network that were associated with it had been vastly improved creating new challenges for those that wished to escape. By August of 1962, one young East German named Peter Fechter had like so many others decided that enough was enough and now he would take on the risks associated with crossing the Berlin Wall to seek better opportunities in West Germany. Peter Fechtner was 18 years old when he decided he would defect along with his close friend Helmut Kulbeik. The two young men developed a daring plan to first hide in a carpenter's workshop located close to the section of the Wall on Zimmerstrasse. They would then watch the Grenztruppen guards closely and after it was clear to do so, they would jump from a window over the initial barricade into the area known as the "death-strip", a strip of cleared area running between the main Wall and a parallel fence which was heavily patrolled by border guards and sentry dogs. Upon entry into the death strip they would attempt to run across it and climb over the 6.5 foot Wall which was topped with barbed wire and then fall into the safety of the Kreuzberg district of West Berlin not far from Checkpoint Charlie.

The date of execution of their plan would come on 17 August 1962. Initially everything went as planned, they hid in the carpentry workshop and dropped into the death strip sprinting across and reaching for the Wall itself. As they began to climb the concrete wall section, they were spotted by members of the East German Grenztruppen who began firing their weapons at the would be defectors. Fechter's friend Helmut Kulbeik managed to get over the wall, but Fechter still clinging on to the wall trying to pull himself up and over was struck in the pelvis by rounds from the East German rifles. On the West German side of the Wall, a large group of onlookers had gathered to watch the escape attempt and the wounding of Fechter was witnessed by hundreds of Western onlookers. Wounded, Fechter could not maintain his strength and fell back into the death strip on the Eastern side of the Wall but remained in plain sight of the horrified Westerners. Several people in the gathering crowd turned out to be western journalists who now had witnessed first handed how East Germany dealt with people it deemed as traitors.

Fechter lay in the death strip screaming for help, screaming in pain but his cries went unnheeded. The East German government issued orders not to provide medical assistance for persons wounded in escape attempts and to add to this, East German border troops were afraid of being fired at by West German policemen stemming from an incident several days earlier. Furthermore western citizens did not react to Fechter's cries for help out of fear of being fired upon by the East German border troops. All in all Fechter had no real chance of survival, the impact of the high caliber rifle round into his right hip had caused severe internal injuries and he was losing blood rapidly. He would lay in the death strip for one hour before he succumbed to his injury, bleeding to death before a shocked western audience. When his cries ceased, it was only an hour later still, that East German border troops and policemen finally entered the death strip and retrieved his body.

The subsequent stories regarding the shooting of Fechter enraged the West German government and brought a wave of negative publicity to the East German regime. Hundreds of people in West Berlin organized demonstrations against the German Democratic Republic, shouting "Mörder!" or Murderers! at the East German Grenztruppen border guards. As a direct result of the Fechter murder and the following backlash, the East German government revised its orders to the border troops with revised protocol including more direct restrictions on the use of shooting in public settings particularly in front of a crowd of onlookers. Furthermore, the government authorized the granting of medical assistance to any would be escapee who was wounded in an attempt to flee from East Germany. Although Fechter would not live to see the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, in the years leading up to the end of the division of Germany he became a martyr in the struggle for German reunification. Memorials would be erected in his honor and those of others murdered trying to escape. Numerous tributes would be dedicated in his memory and his death would became the subject of many films, documentaries and books. Although he would not be the last person to die trying to escape over the Berlin Wall, he was instrumental in reforming policy in dealing with would be escapees. 

Conrad Schumann: The Man Who Lept Into History

Many of the greatest events in world history are the result of seemingly insignificant acts that somehow forever alter the state of human affairs. It can also be proven looking throughout history that even though Generals and Commanders are given credit for victories, it is the enlisted man who actually fights to secure that victory. Their actions are rewarded through varying honors and citations for heroism or gallantry, but it is the General or Commander to whom the history books will record the victory in the name of. This same scenario goes for not only military engagements but also political statements in both war and peacetime. History knows it was Erich Honecker and Nikita Khrushchev who are responsible for initiating the order to begin the construction of the Berlin Wall around the allied occupied sector of Berlin. It is also recognized that Erich Honecker issued the order to shoot to kill persons trying to flee from the German Democratic Republic for freedom in West. But occasionally, there are certain everyday individuals whom in the face of increasing disagreement with policy or other acts will act on impulse and be forever etched into the face of history. One such case is that of Conrad Schumann.

Born Hans Conrad Schumann on 28 March 1942 in Zschochau, Sachsen, Germany, Conrad Schumann was young when the Second World War ended and Germany was divided up amongst the victorious allies. He would grow up in the Soviet occupied sector of eastern Germany which would later become the German Democratic Republic. He would go on to serve as a soldier in the Volkspolizei-Bereitschaften, the barracked paramilitary riot control police unit of the East German police. Following three months of training in Dresden, he was sent to a non commissioned officer's academy in Potsdam for advanced leadership. Shortly after the completion of the training academy, Schumann volunteered for service in Berlin. He would be given the rank of Sergeant.

At the time, Berlin was a hotspot of the Cold War. With allied military forces positioned in West Berlin deep inside the heart of the German Democratic Republic, Berlin would be potential ignition source for any future conflict in Europe. Citizens of the East German state were flooding into East Berlin hoping for the opportunity to escape to the West via defection into West Berlin. The so called 'Brain Drain' was severely damaging the East German economy as skilled craftsmen and laborers all fled to the relative freedom of the West. The decision was soon made by East German leaders with the approval of their Soviet allies to begin the construction of a protective barrier, a wall around the western sector of the city of Berlin to prevent further Republikflucht or 'Flight from the Republic'. The construction of the Berlin Wall would begin on 13 August 1961, with Soviet tanks and armored vehicles taking up positions at checkpoints and road crossings facing West as a deterrent while East German soldiers, policemen and laborers began stringing barbed wire and later began emplacing bricks for the Wall around the city. History would soon be made with a simple gesture which would begin in Soviet East Berlin and end in the French sector of West Berlin.

On 15 August 1961, Schumann was ordered to report to the corner of Ruppiner Straße and Bernauer Straße (Straße is the German word for Street) to stand guard during the third day of construction of the new Anti Fascist Protective Barrier as it was designated by the East German government. Schumann shouldered his MPi41 submachine gun, an East German variant of the Soviet PPSh-41 submachine gun and began his duty of standing guard along the low wire entanglement of barbed wire which comprised the Wall fortification. On the western side of the wire emplacement, citizens of West Berlin took notice of the young East German soldier standing his post. Soon, the West Berliners began shouting "Komm' rüber!" or "Come Over!" urging him to defect from the East German sector into the West. To assist in the escape, a West German police car pulled into position a short distance away and waited in case the young soldier chose to escape to freedom in the West.

With the large gathering of Western citizens, Schumann's colleagues were soon distracted by the commotion. Using this distraction to his advantage, the 19 year old Schumann, swapped his loaded submachine gun for an empty one and began contemplating his future. Hesitating momentarily, Schumann then began determined to defect to West Germany and sprinted, leaping over the barbed wire fence he ran into the back of the waiting police car and was hastily driven away from the scene by the West German police. Schumann's defection was captured on film in the form a series of images taken by photographer Peter Leibing and also his entire escape including his preparations for the defection attempt which were captured on 16mm film from the same vantage point. As he made his way to the waiting police car, he was greeted with a barrage of cheering West Germans welcoming him to the West. The images of the young East German fleeing into the West were broadcast around the world and became an iconic symbol of the Cold War, particularly the quest for freedom by the oppressed people of the East. In that instant he became both a hero of the Free World, and a traitor to his East German compatriots.

The next stop for the young non commissioned officer was a debriefing station operated by the West German police in West Berlin. A simple and modest fellow, rather than ask for some special item, favor or treatment, all Schumann asked the West Germans for was a sandwich. When inquiries began by the West Germans as to why he chose to defect to the West rather than to remain in East Germany, he replied that he was angered by a scene presented to him during his time guarding the new barrier areas. The scene he described as an East German child who had attempted to flee into West Berlin being dragged back into East German territory by border guards. He stated that he did not want to live enclosed like some caged animal.

He would later be permitted to leave West Berlin and he relocated to Bavaria in southern Germany. He would meet his wife Kunigunde in the town of Günzburg. Günzburg is notoriously known as the birthplace of infamous Nazi medical officer Dr. Josef Mengele. Conrad and Kunigunde would get married and they would have a son. Schumann would find work first working briefly as a nurse and at the Grombacher winery before landing a job working on an assembly line for the Audi automobile company. Although, Schumann had left the German Democratic Republic he had never truly escaped. It would be a mixture of the unwanted fame and attention that would drive him into a deep state of depression. For the first decade after his famed defection, he took to alcohol to comfort him. Not one dollar of the money made from his defection images would go to Schumann or his family and even though an iconic figure of western propaganda, government officials only showed interest in gathering information from him that he did not have. Schumann described the inquiries from the German government as making him feel as if he was being Squeezed like a lemon.

For a long time, the only contact he had with his family in East Germany were through letters which were being influenced by agents of the East German Stasi. As a defector, and traitor, he was a prime target for the East German secret police. His family tried to persuade him to return to East Germany promising that nothing would happen to him, a farce nonetheless dictated by the Stasi who wanted to apprehend Schumann for their own purposes. He began contemplating returning to East Germany for a visit, but this idea was only abandoned when a West German policeman persuaded him not to go back. Lonely, and depressed, Schumann declared there was only one point that he truly felt free and this was on 9 November 1989, when the Berlin Wall was torn down. It was only after this that Schumann was able to return to his native Sachsen. His return to his home had mixed results, as many people welcomed him and yet others shunned him labeling him as a traitor even though East Germany no longer existed.

With the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the communist East, Schumann was again thrust back into the spotlight as a national hero and he feigned happiness and adulation about his situation as he posed for pictures and signed posters and pictures. He made appearances at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum in the years after reunification often signing pictures for tourists. His signed posters and pictures would become a best selling souvenir at the Museum and tourists regularly formed long queues for a chance to meet the young non commissioned officer who had defected to freedom during one of the high points of the Cold War.

Following returning home from a from a family rowing trip, on 20 June 1998 the weight of his depression proved to great for the Cold War icon and Schumann committed suicide. He hung himself in his orchard near the town of Kipfenberg where his wife Kunigunde would find him hours later. Described by his neighbors as a quiet man, all he had to show for the impact of his defection years ago was the portrait of his defection from East Germany hanging on a living room wall and a photograph of himself standing with American President Ronald Reagan.

The Man with a Smile that lit up the Cold War: Yuri Gagarin

Coinciding with the massive arms buildup that became symbolic of the Cold War, was an increasing international interest in space exploration. Whether the motives behind the interest in space were to progress weapons technology, develop ways to gather intelligence on opponents without their immediate knowledge or to increase national prestige will never be precisely known however, the Cold War era drastically paralleled the often tumultuous series of events known as the Space Race. Both the United States and the Soviet Union launched a series of missions some manned or unmanned, some successful and some meeting with tragedy in hopes of outdoing the other to increase the national image of their nation. With the launch of the first artificial satellite known as Sputnik I on 4 October 1957 by the Soviet Union, there was no turning back. The stage was now set for the exploration of space, a realm which would come to be deemed 'the final frontier'. With a satellite in orbit, the Soviets soon turned their attention towards putting the first human in orbit around the Earth. The man that would be selected for the mission would be a young Russian by the name of Yuri Gagarin.

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was born in the village of Klushino near the town of Gzhatsk, Russia in the Soviet Union on 9 March 1934. His parents worked on a collective farm in socialist fashion endorsed by the Soviet government. His father Alexey Ivanovich Gagarin was a carpenter and bricklayer by trade, and his mother Anna Timofeyevna Gagarina was a milkmaid. Yuri was the third of four children born to the Gagarins. The family suffered greatly when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 during Operation Barbarossa. Gagarin's hometown of Klushino would fall to Nazi occupation in November of 1941 as the German Wehrmacht advanced towards Moscow. During the occupation, a German officer took over the Gagarin's residence and forced the family into a mut hut on the land behind the family home. The family would spend nearly a year and a half living in the tiny mud hut before advancing Soviet forces liberated the village but not before Yuri's older brother Valentin and older sister Zoya were deported by the Germans to Poland for slave labor in 1943. With the end of the Great Patriotic War in 1945, and the Soviet victory over fascism, Yuri's older siblings returned home and in 1946, the family moved to Gzhatsk where Yuri would advance his secondary education.

In 1950 at the age of 16, Yuri was enrolled into an apprenticeship as a foundryman at the  Lyubertsy Steel Mill near Moscow. Along with his apprenticeship, Gagarin took evening classes for young workers to advance his education. He graduated vocational school in 1951 with honors in the trades of moldmaking and foundry work where he was then enrolled into the Saratov Industrial Technical School, where he studied tractors and other farming machinery. It was here where Gagarin's future would ultimately begin to take shape when he volunteered for weekend training as an air cadet in a local Soviet aeronautics club. It was from here that he developed an interest in aeronautics and flight. While earning extra money as a dock laborer on the Volga River, he paid for flight lessons first flying biplanes before progressing to the Yakovlev Yak-18 Max two seat training airplane.

When he graduated from the Saratov Industrial Technical School, Yuri Gagarin was drafted into the Soviet Army in 1955, where upon recommendation he was sent to the First Chkalov Air Force Pilot's School located in Orenburg, in southern Russia close to the border with the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. It was here that in 1957 he learned to fly the Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-15 Fagot jet fighter. He would graduate from Orenburg on 7 November 1957. After graduation, Gagarin and his new bride Valentina Ivanovna Goryacheva a graduate of the Orenburg Medical School were assigned to the Luostari airbase in the Murmansk Oblast located not far from the Soviet border with Norway. Harsh weather conditions at the Luostari airbase made flight operations difficult and dangerous but nonetheless Gagarin was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Soviet Air Force on 5 November 1957 and on 6 November 1957 he was promoted to the rank of Senior Lieutenant.

Following the successful launch of the Sputnik I satellite a month earlier in October, the Soviets began focusing on the next step of preparing to put a man in orbit around the Earth. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev began planning for the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution that had brought communism to power in the Soviet and wanted a spacecraft to be launched on 7 November 1957. A more advanced satellite was under development however it would not be ready in time to meet Khrushchev's deadline so instead a new craft would be built to partake on a mission that would again bring the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to the forefront of the world as they would repeat the championing of the Sputnik I launch. This would lead to the launch of Sputnik II. As little was known about the impact of spaceflight on living organisms at the time, and methods for reentry had not been developed at the time, a stray dog named Laika was chosen to partake in the mission. Laika became the first animal to orbit the Earth, however she would die within hours of the launch from overheating.

The success of the Sputnik II mission proved to Soviet officials that a living passenger could survive being launched into space and endure weightlessness. The journey to human spaceflight was now underway.

In 1960, Yuri Gagarin along with 19 other candidates were selected for the Soviet space program. From here he along with five others would graduate to become members of the elite Sochi Six which would go on to become the first cosmonauts of the Vostok program. After submitting to rigorous tests examining their physical and psychological endurance the selection came down to two candidates Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov as to whom would be the first man into space. With his physical prowess as an avid player of ice hockey, and basketball as well as his small stature, Yuri Gagarin was chosen to be the Soviet Union's first cosmonaut to orbit the Earth.

The launch into Earth's orbit would be conducted on 12 April 1961, when aboard the Vostok I space craft, Yuri Gagarin would be propelled into history becoming the first human to enter outer space as well as orbit the Earth while Vostok I conducted the first orbital flight of a manned vehicle. Vostok I was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. When he returned to the Soviet Union from outer space, Gagarin was hailed as a national hero to the Soviet Union. For his accomplishments in the advancement of the Soviet space program, Gagarin was made a Hero of the Soviet Union on 14 April 1961.

His fame skyrocketed worldwide as he toured the world visiting both Germanies, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Egypt and Finland to promote the Soviet feat. He also would visit the United Kingdom touring both London and Manchester. It was a great propaganda victory over the West for the Soviet Union. With his sudden fame, Gagarin suffered a series of setbacks which took its toll on the young pilot including bouts of alcoholism and on atleast one occasion he was caught having an affair with a nurse by his wife. The encounter and subsequent flight of Gagarin resulted in a permanent scar above his left eyebrow after he hit his face on a kerbstone while fleeing the room.

On 12 June 1962, Yuri Gagarin was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Soviet Air Force and on 6 November 1963 he would be promoted to the rank of Colonel. He would be restricted from any further flight activities as it was feared the national hero of the Soviet Union would be lost. He would be a backup pilot for his friend Vladimir Komarov, when he would be launched into space aboard the Soyuz I space craft. The launch was contested by Gagarin who argued that the appropriate safety measures had not been taken and ultimately the launch ended terribly when upon reentry the Soyuz I space capsule crashed to Earth following a parachute failure. Komarov would become the first human to be killed during a spaceflight. The death of Komarov took its toll on Gagarin, and Soviet authorities permanently barred Gagarin from any further space flights. With no further spaceflights in his future, Gagarin began focusing on requalifying as a fighter pilot.

On 27 March 1968, the Soviet Union's worst fears were realized when Yuri Gagarin was killed during a routine training flight from Chkalovsky Air Base near the town of Shchyolkovo in the Moscow Oblast. Yuri Gagarin and his flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin had been flying a Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-15UTI, the two seat trainer variant of the MiG-15 jet fighter. It was reported that a Sukhoi Su-15 Flagon fighter, a much larger aircraft than the MiG-15 was flying a test in the vicinity of Gagarin's flight plan although it was to fly at an altitude well above the course Gagarin and Seryogin were to fly. The weather on the day of the crash was poor with heavy rain and a low cloud formation which severly limited visibility. At the time of the crash, Alexei Leonov who was a friend of Gagarin's was scheduled to perform parachute jump training when he heard two large booms. The first boom was determined to be the sound of an aircraft breaking the sound barrier and the second to be the sound of an aircraft colliding with the ground. The booms were within seconds of each other followed by an abrupt silence.

When the crash site was located investigators first found Seryogin's body but Gagarin's was nowhere to be found. It wouldn't be recovered until the following day thus dashing Soviet hopes that he had atleast ejected and survived the crash. Leonov identifed Gagarin's body by a mole on Gagarin's neck. Witnesses to the crash told an investigation board that they had seen the Su-15 streaking from the cloud formation with its tail section ablaze and smoking however it was flying much lower than the mission profile had authorized. According to witnesses it was flying closer to 2,000 feet not the 33,000 feet filed in the test report. A larger aircraft like the Su-15 has the power to roll a smaller aircraft like a MiG-15 over if they come too close to each other. The timing between the two booms indicated that the aircraft were about 30 feet apart at the time of the accident. The momentum of the Flagon flying at nearly supersonic speeds shook Gagarin's MiG from the sky, forcing it into a spiral dive and the aircraft impacted the ground at a speed of some 470 miles per hour killing Gagarin and Seryogin instantly. There was only 55 seconds between the pilot's last communication and the impact with the ground.

The identity of the other pilot was never identified and official reports covered up the incident blaming the crash on a bird strike, or alcoholism amongst other theories. Regardless at the age of 34, the man who was said to possess a smile 'that lit up the Cold War' was dead. 

Wernher von Braun: The Father of the Ballistic Missile

One of the mainstays of the Cold War was the employment on both sides of the Iron Curtain of massive numbers of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles more commonly called ICBMs for short. Upon notification at the push of a button, a weapon can be launched utilizing rocket technology to propel a potentially destructive warhead on a one way trip anywhere on the globe to deliver a destructive message upon the enemy. The threat of nuclear destruction from the heavens was the stuff of nightmares but yet an ever present danger in throughout the years of the Cold War. Each side was always trying to best the other. Rocketry has become a weapon of war on a scale never seen before capable of not only breaching the outer perimeters of our atmosphere but also in propelling weaponry at speeds inconceivable years before at such great distances that detection or interception is difficult. The development of the ICBM is derived of technology envisioned decades earlier as the brainchild of one man. His name was Wernher von Braun.

Born Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun in Wirsitz, in the province of Posen at the time part of the German Empire on 23 March 1912, Wernher was the second of three sons born to a Magnus Freiherr von Braun and Emmy von Quistorp. He was born into an aristocratic family thus inheriting the title of Freiherr or 'Baron' and he could trace his family heritage to medieval European royalty as a descendant of Phillip III of France, Valdemar I of Denmark, Robert III of Scotland, Edward III of England, Mieszko I of Poland and ultimately Charlemagne. In his early years von Braun developed a passion for astronomy. Following the signing of the armistice and the end of the First World War, Wirsitz was transferred from Germany to Poland and the von Braun family moved to Germany settling in Berlin. It was here that he had his initial encounters with rocketry when he at the age of 12 was inspired by the speed records set by Max Valier and Fritz von Opel in rocket propelled cars. After blowing up a weapon to which he had attached fireworks he was arrested only to be released shortly thereafter.

An avid amateur musician, he learned to play both Beethoven and Bach from memory. By 1925, he was enrolled in a boarding school at Ettersburg Castle near Weimar. With his passion for space travel and rocketry fuelling his young mind, he acquired an influential work on the subject the book Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen or By Rocket into Interplanetary Space written by Hermann Oberth a leading rocket pioneer. After being transferred to Hermann-Lietz-Internat, another boarding school located on the island of Spiekeroog; von Braun applying himself to the studies of physics and mathematics determined to pursue his interest in rocket engineering.

By 1930, he was attending the Technische Hochschule Berlin or 'Berlin Institute of Technology' where he became a member of the Verein für Raumschiffahrt 'Spaceflight Society'. He obtained a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Institute in 1932. From his early exposure to rocket sciences he developed the conclusion that rocket science was not advanced enough to support space exploration and would require more aspects of science than were currently applied to the field. He enrolled in the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin for post graduate studies in the fields of physics, chemistry and astronomy where he would receive a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Physics in 1934. He received encouragement for his studies from the high altitude balloon pioneer Auguste Piccard.

Coinciding with his developing interests in rocket science, the situation in Germany has been shaped in years of turmoil and political upheaval. After the end of the First World War and the abdication of the German monarchy, the Weimar Republic had been instated with a liberal democracy. President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg, a former Prussian General Field Marshal during the First World War initiated dictatorial emergency powers and reinstated the position of Chancellor of Germany by 1930. Germany would see several Chancellors in Heinrich Brüning, Franz von Papen and Kurt von Schleicher before finally Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor with the ascent of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or National Socialist German Workers Party commonly abbreviated as NSDAP or Nazi Party in 1933. With his focus on his doctoral studies, von Braun seemed for the most part unaware of the changes sweeping across Germany at the time. As a German born to an aristocratic family, he was patriotic towards his country but rocketry was his main focus. On 12 November 1937 he applied for membership in the Nazi Party and was assigned the membership number 5,738,692.

His activities with the Verein für Raumschiffahrt caught the attention of the Reichswehr, Germany's armed forces in 1932. While attending one of the launches of von Braun's rockets, Army officers took notice of the young engineer and the promise that he garnered towards the development of German rocket science. Walter Dornberger, an Artillery officer in the German Army Ordnance Corps presented von Braun with the opportunity to further develop his rockets through researching military applications for rockets. Presented with the opportunity of having his rocket research paid for at the behest of the German Army, von Braun couldn't refuse and accepted Dornberger's offer. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles following the end of the First World War, Germany had been prohibited the development of military aviation applications, rocketry had not been barred from research and thus development in rocketry was rapidly advancing.

In 1934, Wernher von Braun completed a work on the subject of rocketry in which he titled 'Construction, Theoretical, and Experimental Solution to the Problem of the Liquid Propellant Rocket'. Its contents were determined to be so vital to the national security of Germany that the document was given a classified status and transferred to the control of the German Army. Germany showed great interest in the works of American scientist Robert H. Goddard's works and regularly contacted him in the years leading up to the Second World War with technical questions and concerns. It was Goddard's works that von Braun incorporated into the development of his Aggregat or A series of rockets. The word Aggregat is a German word meaning 'The use of multiple appliances or machines to fulfill a certain technological function'. With von Braun now working with the German Army, the Verein für Raumschiffahrt which had rejected proposals from the German Army had a hard time finding funding for its own continued research and was dissolved in 1933.

With the dissolution of the Verein für Raumschiffahrt group, civilian rocket launches were banned by the new Nazi government with only rocket tests conducted for military purposes being authorized. The home for the advancement of these rocket tests and the location von Braun would come to call home was a large facility built near the village of Peenemünde in northern Germany located on the Baltic Sea. The Artillery Captain who had initially brought Wernher von Braun into military rocket science, Walter Dornberger became commander of the Peenemünde facility with Wernher von Braun as technical director. It would be here at Peenemünde in association with the German Luftwaffe that von Braun would contribute to the development of the A-4 ballistic missile and a supersonic guided anti aircraft missile designated 'Wasserfall'. Large amounts of research were dedicated to the development of liquid fuel rocket engines to power not only missiles but also aircraft engines and jet assisted takeoff devices.

On 22 December 1942, Adolf Hitler issued an order to initiate the A-4 rocket into the  Vergeltungswaffe or 'Revenge Weapon' program with aims of targeting London. Following the presentation of a film documenting a demonstration of the A-4, Hitler was so enthused by its promise that he made von Braun a professor of science. Following a bombing raid on the Peenemünde facility which killed several of von Braun's scientists by RAF Bomber Command, the first A-4 now designated V-2 for propaganda purposes was fired at England on 7 September 1944. Von Braun's rocket development in Peenemünde was in later years criticized for the use of slave labor from the Mittelbau-Dora and Buchenwald concentration camps.Under the influence of SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, Wernher von Braun had been commissioned as an Untersturmführer 'Second Lieutenant' in the Allgemeine SS. Having expressed regret that he was not progressing his research towards his achievement of space exploration but that his scientific exploits were squandered on weapons for waging war, one that was not going well, Von Braun was arrested by Gestapo under charges trumped up by Himmler stating that he was a communist sympathizer with plans to sabotage the German rocket program before fleeing to England. He was only released from prison through the exploits of Walter Dornberger  and Albert Speer, the Reichsminister for Munitions and War Production.

With the Soviet Army near Peenemünde in 1945, von Braun assembled his staff and decided that enough was enough they had to surrender and bring an end to their war atleast. But to whom would they surrender to? It was decided that surrendering to the advancing Soviet Army was out of the question. The Soviets were well known for their brutal treatment of prisoners of war especially those who were documented members of the Nazi Party. It was decided that they would flee the Peenemünde facility and surrender to American forces. Under orders from SS General Hans Kammler, the team was to be relocated from Peenemünde to central Germany to progress their work. In the final days before the relocation, a contradicting report from Kammler ordered the scientists to join the Army and fight against the advancing Soviets. He and his team of nearly 500 associates fabricated documents and were transferred to Mittelwerk but not before ordering that many of his documents and blueprints be hidden away in an abandoned mine shaft in the Harz Mountains to avoid their destruction by the SS.

Following a car accident in which he suffered a compound fracture of the left arm and shoulder, he had his arm placed in a cast although a month later his arm would have to be rebroken and realigned due to negligent care of his wound. He was then transferred to the town of Oberammergau in the Bavarian Alps.

Von Braun's brother Magnus also a rocket engineer approached an American Private from the 44th Infantry Division and announced his intentions to surrender to the United States on 2 May 1945. On 19 June 1945, two days before the area was to be turned over to Soviet authorities US Major Robert B Staver, Chief of the Jet Propulsion Section of the Research and Intelligence Branch of the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps in London and Lieutenant Colonel R.L. Williams transferred von Braun and his team to Garmisch near Munich where they were then flown to Nordhausen and Witzenhausen in the American sector of Germany to avoid their fall into Soviet custody. After being debriefed by American and British intelligence officials he was recruited under Operation Paperclip where he was relocated to the United States.

Upon arrival in the United States, von Braun along with his team were granted funding to continue rocket research under the United States government and in exchange their association to the Nazi Party would be expunged from their records. Once their records had been cleared, the government granted the scientists security clearances for work at some of the nation's most sensitive facilities. The first stop for many of von Braun's associates were to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland to organize the documents brought to the United States from Peenemünde. Von Braun and his remaining Peenemünde team were sent first to Fort Bliss, Texas and White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico where they trained military personnel on the intricacies of rockets and guided missiles before helping refurbish, assemble and launch a number of captured V-2 rockets transported to the United States from Germany.

By 1950 and the outbreak of the war in Korea, Wernher von Braun and his team were transferred from Fort Bliss, Texas to Huntsville, Alabama where he would lead a U.S. Army rocket development team at Redstone Arsenal. The results of the research conducted by the team was the PGM-11 Redstone Rocket on 8 April 1952. The development of the Redstone rocket led to the first live nuclear ballistic missile tests conducted in the United States. A subsequent development in the development of the Redstone rocket was the first high precision inertial guidance system mounted on a rocket. Soon he would be appointed as Director of the Development Operations Division of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, where von Braun and his team would led the development of the Jupiter C series rocket which was essentially a modified Redstone rocket. The Jupiter C rocket would go on to perform three suborbital spaceflights throughout the 1950s before launching the West's first satellite known as Explorer I on 31 January 1958.

Von Braun remained determined to utilize his research in the subject of space exploration he began advocating space flight. With the Soviet Union launching Sputnik I on 4 October 1957, the way had been paved for von Braun to accomplish his dreams as the United States became determined to outdo the Soviets in the realm of space exploration. On 29 July 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration better known as NASA was established and in 1960, the Marshal Space Flight Center was opened at Redstone Arsenal. The Army Ballistic Missile Agency was transferred to NASA control under the provision that von Braun and his team be allowed to continue their research on a much larger rocket than the PGM-11 or Jupiter C series rockets which would be designated as the Saturn series rocket. Von Braun was designated as the Marshal Space Flight Center's first director presiding over the facility from July 1960 to February 1970.

From the successes of the Saturn program, the Apollo program for manned moon flights was developed and his dream for putting a man on the moon was realized when on 16 July 1969, one of his Saturn V rockets propelled the crew of Apollo 11 beyond the atmosphere of planet Earth to the lunar surface. Throughout the duration of the Saturn program, von Braun's rockets would put six teams of astronauts on the moon. He would be influential in the establishment of the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville. He also envisioned the idea of U.S. Space Camp for training children in the fields of science and technology. After relocating from Alabama to Washington DC to take a senior level position in NASA, von Braun retired from NASA on 26 May 1972 with the realization that his goals for space exploration and those of NASA's were not one in the same. In his latter years he would serve as Vice President for Engineering and Development for the Fairchild Industries company and performing services as a public speaker at colleges and universities across the country.

He helped to establish the National Space Institute in 1975 and became its first chairman as well as become a consultant to the CEO of Orbital Transport und Raketen AG, or 'Orbital Transport and Rockets, Inc' a West German company based in Stuttgart. His health gradually declined following the onset of kidney cancer which forced him to retired from Fairchild Industries on 31 December 1976. He was later hospitalized from complications due to cancer and was unable to attend a ceremony in which he  was presented the National Medal of Science. Wernher von Braun would die on 16 June 1977 of pancreatic cancer in Alexandria, Virginia at the age of 65. He was buried at Ivy Hill Cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia. 

A New Red Baron in the Age of Detente: Mathias Rust's Journey to Red Square

The 1980s was a turbulent era of both hostility and reform for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. On its southern border, the Soviet Army was engaged in a war against an Islamic insurgency in Afghanistan, in 1983 the Soviet Air Force mistakenly shot down a South Korean airliner near Moneron Island resulting in the death of all 269 passengers and crew on board and the world had barely averted an outbreak of nuclear war in Europe following a mistake during Exercise Able Archer in West Germany. In the period from 1980 through 1987, the Soviet Union saw a change of leadership three times with Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev dying in 1982 and being replaced by Yuri Andropov in 1982. Andropov would pass away in 1984 and be replaced by Konstantin Chernenko. Chernenko would pass away in 1985 and control of the Soviet Union was passed on to Mikhail Gorbachev.

The era was marked by intense belligerence and distrust between the nations of the West and the Soviet Union and her allies. American President Ronald Reagan had ramped up tensions with increased military procurement and anti-Soviet sentiment which thus put many people in Germany on edge. The threat of war loomed over Europe like never before. There was however a glimmer of hope for Europe, with the ascension of Mikhail Gorbachev to the office of Premier of the Soviet Union. With his policies of Glasnost, Perestroika and economic reforms across the Soviet Union things were beginning to head in a different, generally new direction from that taken by former Soviet leaders. The world held its breath in hopes of an agreement towards the reduction of arms between the United States and Soviet Union held at Reykjavik, Iceland in October 1986. The summit ended without progress thus laying the framework for one of the most daring events of the Cold War.

A 19 year old West German named Mathias Rust, decided to take matters into his own hands and in turn change the course of world history. Rust who had grown up in Wedel near Hamburg, West Germany was an amateur pilot who like many Europeans felt despair in the failed attempt at Cold War rapprochement. Working as a data processor for a mail order trinket company, Rust invested much of his earnings into flying lessons. Aviation had long been a subject of interest for Rust since his childhood. After the US-Soviet summit in 1986 proved fruitless, Rust came up with the daring idea of creating an 'imaginary bridge' by flying directly to the Soviet capital of Moscow. He became obsessed with the idea of flying to Moscow and passing through the Iron Curtain without being intercepted to prove to the world that Gorbachev was serious about taking a new stance and establishing relations with the nations of the West. Once in Moscow, Rust planned to deliver a twenty page document he had prepared to Mikhail Gorbachev in an effort to advocate world peace.

 The risks Mathias Rust would take were great, on 1 September 1983, a Soviet Air Force Sukhoi Su-15 Flagon interceptor had shotdown Korean Air Lines Flight 007 a Boeing 747-230B carrying 269 people over the Sea of Japan. All 269 passengers and crew had been killed including an American Congressman. The Soviet response of denial and later change of stance claiming that the airliner was on a spy mission had ramped up Cold War tensions and escalated anti-Soviet sentiment. Would Rust suffer the same fate? He was willing to chance it, convincing himself that he was doing the right thing ultimately.

He began formulating details of his plan when with only roughly fifty flight hours to his credit, he departed Uetersen near his home of Wedel in a Cessna F172P he had rented from a local flying club for a period of three weeks. The airplane had been modified for extended range by replacing additional seating with auxiliary fuel tanks. The addition of these tanks boosted the tiny airplanes range by 175 nautical miles giving the airplane a range of 750 nautical miles. In preparation for his journey, Rust packed a small suitcase, a satchel with flight planning supplies, maps and aeronautical charts as well as a sleeping bag, fifteen quarts of engine oil, a life vest and a motorcycle crash helmet which he planned to use as extra protection in the event of a crash due to Soviet intervention.

His journey began on 13 May 1987 when he left Uetersen and made the five hour journey across the Baltic and North Seas before reaching the Shetland Islands. The following day, he departed the Shetland Islands where he flew to Vagar on Denmark's Faröe Island. Two days into his journey on 15 May 1987, Rust made it to Reykjavik, Iceland where the ill fated US-Soviet summit had been held to no avail. He spent a week in Reykjavik visiting the Hofdi House where US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev had met for the 1986 Reykjavik Summit. Visiting the site reinforced Rust's resolve to make it to Moscow and accomplish his mission.

On 22 May 1987, departed Iceland for Finland stopping off in Hofn, Iceland, the Shetland Islands and Bergen, Norway landing at Helsinki-Malmi Airport in Helsinki, Finland. Since leaving Uetersen, Rust had nearly doubled his flight time by more than 100 flight hours and crossed a distance of almost 2,600 miles. With the reassurance that he had the skills necessary to accomplish his flight, he made the decision that he would carry on with his plan and make it to Moscow at all costs. After a restless night, Rust made his way to Helsinki-Malmi Airport on the morning of 28 May 1987 where he refueled the Cessna, checked the weather and filed his flight plan designating Stockholm, Sweden as his destination. Stockholm would be alternate route in the event that he decided to abort his journey to the Soviet Union.

At 1221pm he departed Helsinki, with air traffic controllers directing him west in the direction of Stockholm. He was instructed to fly low level to avoid incoming air traffic destined for Helsinki and although the Cessna had a transponder on board, the airport did not assign him a transponder code. Rust turned the transponder off and held is course for Stockholm for roughly twenty minutes before exiting Helsinki's control area. As he approached the first way point of his filed flight plan, near the town of Nummela, Finland he turned the aircraft left towards the direction of Moscow. Air traffic controllers began to track the nearly 180 degree deviation in Rust's course radioing his airplane to no response. At one point Rust even flew through restricted Finnish military airspace before disappearing from radar completely. The Finnish Coast Guard, the Rajavartiolaitos dispatched a helicopter which reported finding an oil slick near Rust's last known location at the time of his disappearance. A search and rescue party was dispatched to the area to search for the missing aircraft.

At a radar station in Skrunda in the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet military authorities began tracking Rust. As per protocol all foreign flights entering Soviet airspace were required to have a permit that authorized them to fly into the Soviet Union along specially assigned air corridors. When the aircraft was designated as not flying along official corridors, it was acknowledged that the aircraft was not authorized to enter Soviet airspace and was therefore not an approved flight. As Rust approached the Soviet coastline, three air defense missile units were put on high alert. When Rust crossed the coast of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, he climbed to an altitude of 2,500 feet above sea level a standard altitude for cross country flight. He adjusted the aircraft's trim and maintained a straight and level attitude. It was also at this point that he strapped on the motorcycle helmet. He would be assigned the combat number 8255 by Soviet military forces after he failed to respond to identification signals.

 Soviet Army units were put on a state of high alert as Rust's airplane continued further and further inland with two Soviet Air Force interceptors being scrambled from the nearby Tapa airbase. Observing the airplane from a hole in the clouds, one of the pilots reported that the airplane resembled as Yakovlev Yak-12 Creek utility airplane and requested permission to engage the aircraft. The pilot received no permission to engage the airplane and the decision was made that the airplane required no further investigation. Shortly after this, Rust descended to avoid a mass of low lying clouds and icing. It was during this period that he disappeared from Soviet radar screens. When the weather cleared, he climbed to an altitude of 2,500 feet where once again he appeared on Soviet radar screens.

Now in a new district of Soviet military authority, two more interceptors were scrambled to investigate the unidentified aircraft. Nearly two hours into his journey, two Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 Flogger interceptors approached him at high rates of speed. The supersonic fighter turned and pulled up adjacent to Rust's Cessna having to be placed into full landing configuration in order for it to fly slow enough to fly alongside the tiny Cessna. The pilot now on the edge of stall speed, attempted to contact Rust with no response. It was later determined that the fighter could only communicate over high frequency military channels. After several moments, the Soviet pilot disengage, retracting his landing gear and accelerating two fly two arcs around the airplane before disappearing.

With both the flag of the Federal Republic of Germany and the registration serial D-ECJB on the tail, the MiG pilot knew the airplane was not a Yak-12 nor was it a Soviet aircraft and determined the aircraft did not pose a threat to the Soviet Union and thus disengaged.

As he continued on his flight, Rust entered a Soviet Air Force training zone where his altitude helped him appear harmless and thus avoided his being intercepted by Soviet military aircraft. Following the shoot down of the airliner in 1983, Soviet protocol had been changed so that no civilian aircraft could be engaged unless orders were received from the highest levels of the Soviet military command structure. It was determined at one point along his trip that Rust was a student pilot, and Soviet military personnel assigned his airplane a friendly radar code.

By the time he reached Lake Seliger about 250 miles from Moscow, for a third time Air Force interceptors were scrambled to investigate however the fighters never descended below the cloud cover to make visual contact with the small airplane as it was determined two dangerous to descend below the low lying cloud bank. As he approached forty miles west of the town of Torzhok, Rust was confused for one of two helicopters participating in a Soviet search and rescue operation for an air crash the previous day and again Rust's airplane was assigned a friendly code by Soviet air defense radar. Shortly thereafter, Rust departed the Leningrad military district and entered the Moscow military district. Reports were passed on between military district commanders regarding the tracking of an unidentified aircraft however information regarding the origins of the aircraft from the Gulf of Finland or that it was West German marked or its seemingly steady course towards Moscow were not included in the report.

At around 6pm Rust approached the outskirts of Moscow. With the city's airspace restricted to both military and civilian air traffic, radar controllers soon realized something was wrong. As he made his way over the Soviet capital, Rust removed his helmet and began scanning the cityscape for Red Square. He proceeded to fly from building to building he suddenly saw the turreted silhouette of the Kremlin and he began heading in its direction looking for a place to land. After rejecting an idea to land within the walls of the Kremlin amongst fear of being arrested by the Soviet KGB, he picked a spot between the Kremlin and Hotel Russia, a bridge that crossed the Moscow River and led directly into Red Square. The bridge was six lanes wide with light traffic and the only obstacles were wires strung over each end of the bridge and its center. Rust determined he had enough space to fly over the first set of wires and land before taxiing the rest of the way into Red Square.

Cutting his engine to idle and extending his flaps to full position, Rust dropped down over the first set of wires and flared the plane for landing. He barely avoided a collision with a Volga automobile before rolling along in the direction of Red Square. Originally planning, to park in the middle of Red Square just before the tomb of Vladimir Lenin, this plan was discarded a small fence chain strung about surrounded St. Basil's Cathedral and thus prevented this plan from taking effect. He chose instead to pull up in front of the Cathedral itself. After nearly five and a half hours since leaving Helsinki, he had arrived in Moscow. As he climbed from the Cessna, he was expecting to be apprehended by KGB agents but was instead greeted by curious onlookers who recognized both him and the aircraft as being foreign. The crowd was overly friendly many asking Rust for autographs. Atleast one person gave Rust a loaf of bread as a sign of friendship.

Soon thereafter, the KGB arrived confiscating cameras and notebooks while also interviewing witnesses. Soon two trucks arrived at the Square with soldiers to contain the seen and dismiss the crowd that had gathered around the young West German. Rust was soon approached by an interpreter who asked for his passport before ushering him towards a waiting vehicle. The Cessna was removed from the Square and taken to Sheremetyevo International Airport where it was disassembled for inspection by Soviet military authorities. Soviet authorities believed he had been part of a larger plot to attack the Soviet Union and during his interrogation he was accused of being a spy for the CIA or the West German military. They used the fact that the date 28 May was Border Guard Day in the Soviet Union, and that he may believe that with the celebrations that the Soviet border would be more lightly defended. The Soviets confiscated his maps initially using them to fuel their accusations of his presence as being one of intelligence gathering however this theory was defeated when the Soviet consulate in Hamburg was able to obtain the same maps from a local mail order company.

The Soviet investigation team produced pictures of the bridge into Red Square inquiring how he'd managed to land with all the wires in the way. Responding that there were only three sets in position when he landed, the Soviets learned that a public works crew had removed most of the wires for maintenance. The Soviet investigation into the incursion was concluded on 23 June 1987. He was charged with illegal entry into the Soviet Union, violation of flight laws and malicious hooliganism. Rust would plead guilty to the first two charges but plead innocent to the hooliganism charge. After a three day trial, on 4 September 1987 he was found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison in Moscow's Lefortovo Prison. The prison was more restrictive than being sent to a Soviet gulag labor camp but it ensured Rust's safety nonetheless. He spent his time in prison quietly with special privileges such as permission to work in the garden and permission to receive visits from his parents every two months.

In November 1987, American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty which eliminated nuclear and conventional ground launched ballistic and cruise missiles with intermediate ranges between 300 to 3,400 miles in Europe. As a goodwill gesture towards the West, the Supreme Soviet ordered that Rust be released from Soviet detention. He arrived in West Germany on 3 August 1988 with his return being accompanied by huge media attention.

The incident caused a great deal of damage to the credibility of the Soviet military system. The authorized and unchallenged incursion allowed Mikhail Gorbachev to dismiss many of the greatest opponents to his reforms. The Soviet Minister of Defense Sergei Sokolov, along with the Chief of Soviet Air Defense Alexander Koldunov were among the highest ranking officials dismissed over the incident along with hundreds of other military officers. Some of the officers were revered heroes of the Soviet Union having gained fame for their exploits during the Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany. The upheaval would be the greatest turnover of military personnel in the Soviet Union, since Josef Stalin initiated extensive purges of the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Rust's flight also changed the perception that citizens of the Soviet Union had of the Soviet military. The myth of Soviet military supremacy and superiority was defeated as were Soviet propaganda reports that the West was constantly searching for methods to penetrate the resolve of the Soviet people.

For the effort of the search party launched following his disappearance near the Finnish border, Rust was fined a sum of some £62,500 or about $100,000 USD.