Russia Visit: A Preliminary Post-Mortem

"All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it" - Dr Samuel Johnson.

Russia!

by Kudakwashe Kanhutu

This is the stuff dreams are made of! My Russia visit had that magical quality one only finds in memories from childhood journeys. I have not been excited about anything - and I mean ANYTHING - for a long time, but boarding the Aeroflot Airbus A330, and sweeping into the night sky over London to head to Moscow, felt like a reward for a lifetime of efforts. And, being in Russia itself was even more reward as the whole country is a large answer book to all the philosophical, political, historical, military and international relations questions that I have wrestled with over the past 10 years. 

It will take me all of November to write everything of note with regards the trip to Russia, by which time I will probably have gone back again because I loved being in Russia. I have provisionally broken down what I will write about Russia into these four manageable sections: The People, Political History, Economic History, and Military Doctrine. These will be treatise length entries, and I make no apologies for their lengths, as subjects this important deserve such attention. These four categories are also not mutually exclusive, because the Russian psyche does not make such a distinction. Imagine if in “The People,” I choose to discuss Lenin as a historical figure of note, already in discussing him I will be touching on “Political History,” “Economic History,” and “Military Doctrine” because he wrote the book on Russia’s path in all these spheres from 1905 to present day. For Economic History, I will use my visit to the Stalingrad Tractor Plant as a case study for how communism and capitalism have been received in Russia. There are some interesting characters from Russia, one would never hear of if one does not go to Russia: Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov is one such character. That his brilliance is not generally acknowledged in the West, while there are monuments and paintings of him on every street corner in Russia, means I will make a separate entry for him. 

My task is simple really; write all I did to visit a certain place, the things I saw and enjoyed, and the life lessons I learnt so that my reader, if he or she feels so inclined, will make the same trip and improve upon it, and in the process improve themselves. You cannot cross a time zone and fail to learn something new that will improve you.

All the technological achievements under Communism is a subject I will talk about at length.

The Motherland Calls Monument, Volgograd.

The Moscow Metro itself has museum-worthy works of art and statues.

Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov. Adolf Hitler once said about him: "If I had one general like Zhukov, I would have achieved world domination by now."

Trip Ideas For The Discerning Men: Factory Visits

Under construction: the Airbus A380 - 800 at Airbus's Toulouse Factory. Picture Credit: Adaptable Travel.

I am a bit of an anachronism, for all my immersion and engagement in the so-called "modern/western values," what was inculcated in me as a youth in my own culture still abides: namely, a demarcation of the different roles, responsibilities and interests that should occupy women and men. Society is so much better if there is no confusion over this (we can debate this on a different day - the point is; I have chosen the title for this post very deliberately). For example, in my own youth, men sat around the fire at night - the much vaunted Dare or Council - and discussed the most pressing issues of the day. The trips in this post are really an extension of the Dare. Make no mistake, one of my female friends is a Senior First Officer on the Airbus A320 and would be a more knowledgeable companion than the men who are going with me to the Toulouse Airbus Factory Tour. Still, it is the principle that matters: the Dare or Council is for men only.

Toulouse Airbus Factory, France. 

This trip idea was copied wholly from the United States Military's 18th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - General Martin Dempsey. He visited the Boeing Factory in Seattle 2 years ago and took some truly imposing pictures while there. As you very well know, Boeing makes most of the United States Air Force's advanced air assets. I have no plans to visit the United States for now, so Boeing's European peer competitor makes a very good substitute. My friends and I have a background (and continued interest) in Civil and Military Aviation, so this trip is most logical.

Stuttgart Daimler-Benz Factory, Germany.

The Stuttgart factory tour will be a hard sell even for me - its proposer - because I am NOT a car person! The only thing that could make such a trip appealing is if it is included with much context and other things of interest. Let me suggest a few. Obviously, under the overall theme of "Factory Visits," Mercedes-Benz, one of Germany and the world's top companies, must appear in the Top 10. But there are car factories everywhere in the world. So, a trip to Stuttgart can only be made more appealing by first flying to Munich to watch Bayern Munich in their forbidding Allianz Arena. After that, the discerning men can then take the early morning ICE Train - Germany's answer to Japan's MAGLEV Train - to Stuttgart for the whole day. The day in Stuttgart can then include the Mercedes Benz Factory and Museum tours among other things.

The Daimler-Benz Factory, Stuttgart. Picture Credit: InsideEvs.

The Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. Picture Credit: AutoWeb.