The 19-Year-Old Boy Who Landed in Red Square with Pamphlets and a Message of Peace, and Humiliated the Soviet Defence System

Mathias Rust descended in full Moscow in 1987 because he wanted to build an imaginary bridge between East and West. The young man crossed the iron curtain and evaded the security of the airspace of the Soviet Union in an act that shocked the world. The reckless gesture and what came next: a condemnation and justification by the authorities to purge the military stations.

Many viewers of Austrian and West German television in the Czechoslovak border region still remember those images. It is May 28, 1987. A small Cessna flies over Red Square in Moscow and then “parks” next to cars parked in front of St. Basil's Cathedral. Mathias Rust, a 19-year-old pilot with only 50 flying hours, has just landed on Red Square in Moscow.