Famous Days for Students of English

28-05-1987

It is 1987. Mathias Rust lives in West Germany. He is 18 years old. The Cold War is in Europe. Mathias doesn’t like the Cold War. He wants to stop the war. He wants to speak to the Russian president. He wants to fly to Russia.

Mathias waits for nice weather. He tells his parents that he flies to Scandinavia. He flies in a small plane. He flies alone.

First, he flies to Iceland, then Norway, and then Finland. In Finland, Mathias prepares for the last part of his journey – a flight to Moscow.

On May 28, 1987, Mathias starts his flight from Finland to Moscow. It is very dangerous. The Russian planes can destroy his plane and kill him.

For the first hour, he flies without problems. Then a Russian plane comes to him. The plane flies away after some time. The planes come to him twice more. The planes always fly away. The planes don’t attack Mathias. It isn’t clear why they don’t attack. It is a mystery.

In the late afternoon, Mathias comes to Moscow. He lands in the center of Moscow.

Russian people don’t understand when they see a small West German plane in the center of Moscow.

The police come. The police take Mathias to a police station. Then, Mathias goes to prison in Russia. After 14 months, he can go back to West Germany.

Difficult words: Cold War (a bad political situation between Western and Eastern Europe), flight (traveling in a plane), destroy (to break very much), twice (two times), mystery (a situation which people don’t understand).