European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 31, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Above storm Clouds Darken the sky behind the ornate Spires of St. Basil s Cathedral in Moscow. At right guide Andy Hazenbrook gives his tour group a Lively morning greeting. Amp of of trusts continued from Page 3 Long been both fascinating and foreboding. In elementary school we were fingerprinted it was necessary we were told if survivors of a nuclear War with the russians were to be Able to identify our bodies. Our Early impressions of the other superpower Are tinged with other cold War images american families building fallout shelters Nikita Kruschen declaring we will Bury you or banging his shoe on the table at the United nations the cuban missile crisis monstrous rockets and endless columns of troops in Moscow May Day parades. In Light of the changes sweeping the East bloc there has been an upsurge of interest in the soviet Union among americans. In response on Post offices of the scheduled airline travel office overseas Sato of and a West German travel Agency amt Liches Bayer Sches Reisaburo Abr recently began offering a tour to Moscow and Leningrad. Stars and stripes photographer Ken George and i went on the first Outing which fortunately took place in Early Spring after the brutal russian Winter. We had been advised when we booked the tour that the soviet tourist Agency i tourist could make changes in the itinerary at any time. As if to confirm that we were notified one Day before departure that our flight time from Frankfurt International Airport had been changed from 11 45 . To 9 20 . We would have to be at the Airport by 7 20 . At the Aeroflot Check in counter we met our group Leader Andy Hazenbrook. Though he spent most of the night on a train from Munich he was smiling and joking As he passed out the tickets and checked in the Luggage. Over the next week we would Marvel that he never lost his sense of humor. Hazenbrook s group numbered 17, about evenly split Between civilians and military. Most were single but there was one married couple with two children. No one had been to the soviet Union before. Some of us had heard that Aeroflot was known for its tight Security procedures and this was quickly borne out. During the Check of hand Luggage George was made to open All of his film canisters he even had to remove the lenses from his cameras. Out on the Tarmac no suitcase was put aboard the plane until it had been identified by its owner. On boarding the Tupelo 154 we Learned another thing about Aeroflot there Are no reserved seats or different classes on its planes. Like a bus anyone can sit anywhere. This puts the airline in line with the professed goals of a country that Calls itself a classless society despite wealth or Lack of it everyone should be treated equally. But we would find out later in the trip that like Orwell s animal farm some people in the soviet Union Are More equal than others. The flight from Frankfurt to Moscow takes Only about 1v-i hours but it spans different universes. Everyone seemed to feel it after getting off the plane at Sheremetyev Airport. You could see it in the nervousness of those standing in the line for passport control the shifting of feet the hurried glance Over the shoulder. This was the land of the gulag after All of the Knock on the door in the night. After a Quarter hour for passport control came customs where everyone filed past two inspectors and neither of them was in a Rush. No one in our group experienced serious difficulties. Soon after running the official Gauntlet we were met by our i tourist guide Natasha Akhmetova. As we boarded the i tourist bus for half hour the ride to the hotel one feature caught everyone s attention. In the land of godless communism Marx denounced religion As the opium of the people foot High wooden carving of Christ on the Cross adorned the Windshield support beam. With More than 9 million inhabitants Moscow is overwhelming in its sheer mass. Even the architecture the gothic Feudal fortresses palaces and churches of czarist Days and the Gray monoliths of socialism seems intended to Dwarf and intimidate the individual. Add to this a language that does not even use the latin alphabet and you have a sizable intimidation Factor for Western tourists. Traditionally Western visitors have been continued on Page 6 4 stripes Magazine May 31, 1990