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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 2127.PDF
148 FLIGHT International, 23 July 1964 Above, main entrance to the Exhibition of Economic Achievement. Right, instrument container of an A-3 geophysical rocket, mounted outside the space pavilion. Below, statute at the entrance to the pavilion 30 KOPECKS FOR FORTUNATELY my English-Russian phrasebook includedthe phrase "We should like to see the USSR Exhibition ofEconomic Achievement." This was useful because I did not speak Russian, did not know where in Moscow the place was, and did not want to be turned in to the nearest police station by my taxi- driver because of suspicious activities. It just so happened that I did in fact wish to visit the USSR Exhibition of Economic Achievement. I pointed to the key sentence on page 86. The taxi-driver scrutinized the phrase, looked me in the eye, and jerked into gear and away from the monumental facade of the Ukraine Hotel. We were in business, or so I thought until the policeman waved us to pull in to the kerb a few blocks later. My imagination leaped out of the taxi, raced rapidly through a selection of dire situations, and was fast approaching my future exchange at the border for some Russian James Bond before I realized that it was the taxi-driver, not me, in whom the policeman was interested. We had apparently committed some traffic offence in overtaking two other vehicles at a main crossing when the lights were against us, or something. As the driver was having his documents endorsed on the spot I congratulated myself on not having hurried to swallow my incriminating camera. The driver got back into the car and we exchanged anti-officialdom impre- cations—which is quite a mouthful even in one language, let alone two. Otherwise the journey was uneventful. We drove to the outskirts of the city. We pulled up at a wide concourse in front of a massive entrance arch, multi-columned and topped by a sculptured twosome bearing aloft a tsar-sized sheaf of wheat. I paid the taxi-driver and walked over to one of a row of paybox holes in the wall. I bought a 30-kopeck ticket and a programme, walked through the arch, and stepped into another world. This was no exhibition, but a dream city. The avenues were broad, the trees were tall, the flowers were bright, the fountains played. Classical music poured out of the air; rich buildings in an architectural miscellany enhanced the dreamlike effect. As if to complete the planned impact, it so happened that the sun was shining out of a summer-blue sky, burnishing the spray of the fountains and the gold of the buildings and statues. Each of the pavilions is designed to display the work and back- ground of a particular region, industry, art, science or activity of the Soviet Union. There are about 90 main pavilions and over 200 other buildings, covering an area of over 500 acres. Again and again one is amazed by the contrast in styles between the various
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