I recently read that Russia was flying their large bombers along the English Channel with our fighter jets shadowing them and this reminded me of my visit to the USSR mentioned in the previous post. With my missing visa stamp problems sorted we travelled 800 miles southeast of Moscow and in those strange cold war days we had a few incidents.
At an airport not often used by foreigners we ordered cups of tea and were given mugs full of hot water and teabags which looked home made from folded tissue with safety pins holding them together but the tea was nice. We eventually boarded an old looking TU134 airliner which was not full and I decided to sit by a window to have a look at the scenery. Wrong decision because the women flight attendant shouted at me in Russian and pulled me from my seat into an aisle seat. A Russian sitting nearby whispered in English that foreigners were not allowed to sit by windows on internal flights. I decided not to complain about my seat belt which had a faulty clasp and would not fasten.
Eventually we landed at Kuibyshev (now renamed Samara) and the plane stopped some distance from a hanger type building and all the passenger luggage was chucked out on to the tarmac. A small bus arrived but we found it was only for Russians and it drove off leaving us standing among large jets some with their engines running. Wondering what to do we started walking towards the buildings when another bus arrived which took us straight out the airport for a 70 mile drive to a city named Togliatti where they made Lada cars and Niva jeeps. Our hotel had a floor which only accommodated foreigners with the lift and stairs supervised by a lady who made us sign a book every time we went in and out. Entering my room I had a quick look around for hidden microphones - well I had seen all the spy films of those times.
Next morning we were taken to the large AvtoVaz motor plant and they proudly showed us the cars moving along the production line. In one inspection area we noticed a young couple on the back seat of one of the new cars having a very serious snog! The managers looked embarrassed but we thought it was nice - we were suddenly seeing a different side to Russia.
Day long meetings started and we argued over details in the contract because we had been instructed not to yield too much and sat there mostly saying no. We were not offered mid day meals and becoming hungry we said we wanted to buy some food from their canteen but for some reason we were not allowed to. We then said we would stop the meetings unless we had some food. One of the Russian managers then went out on the shop floor and we looked on as he took lunches and flasks from some workers who grimly watched as he brought their food to us in the office. I did feel slightly sorry for the workers as I ate thick rye bread sandwiches with thin slices of salami.
Having argued over almost every word we eventually signed an agreement and because the Russians thought they had got more out of it than we had, they suddenly became very friendly and offered to take us to a beach by a nearby large lake. The weather was a gorgeous 90F with blue skies so I put on my bright blue flared trousers, flowery shirt, and I had 1970s style long hair and we boarded a bus to the beach. The locals on the bus had probably never before seen British 1970s fashions so we were closely looked at.
On the beach many vodkas and beers were drunk and we had quite a party. I was starting to like Russia but was already thinking about the long journey home because I was due to drive down to North Devon on the Saturday morning. Our journey home was far from smooth arriving in Brum late Friday night, but I did make it down to Woolacombe next day.
These days I am surprised to see that Google Streetview have been to the Samara area and an aerial pic of the beach is shown below. I have had a 'streetview wander' along the roads past the car plant. It is now hard to believe how strange those cold war days could be.
The beach on the lake which
unusually for a lake had slight tides !
The car plant and the trolley buses.
Still sunny weather but a lot more cars.