Soviet Soviet contacts

[Knarf]

Hello Gentlemen,

I think only a few of us had direct contacts to the Soviet Forces. Very often the best,rare and unusual items in a collection were obtained through a personal contact.

When the border to East Germany was opened it was possible for a short time to get in touch with GSFG.Sometimes it was easy but in some cases it was very dangerous especially when you had a camera with you.

Perhaps some people should write about their experiences,and how they got some of their collected items. Unfortunately the most people do not know much about "life under the red star" in GSFG or elsewhere.

One day we will forget breathing or forget that a train is faster than we are. A lot of knowledge will be lost for ever. Every human beeing is replaceable. Knowledge is not.

I cannot believe that the most people got everything on ebay. there was a time when it was possible to have contacts to the Soviets, to take photographs and to find out how the former enemy lived. We should write about it because that is a part of military history. This forum seems to be the best place for it.

If this is the wrong place or the topic is boring, we should forget my suggestion.

regards

Frank

[Gerd Becker]

Hello Gentlemen,

I think only a few of us had direct contacts to the Soviet Forces. Very often the best,rare and unusual items in a collection were obtained through a personal contact.

When the border to East Germany was opened it was possible for a short time to get in touch with GSFG.Sometimes it was easy but in some cases it was very dangerous especially when you had a camera with you.

Perhaps some people should write about their experiences,and how they got some of their collected items. Unfortunately the most people do not know much about "life under the red star" in GSFG or elsewhere.

One day we will forget breathing or forget that a train is faster than we are. A lot of knowledge will be lost for ever. Every human beeing is replaceable. Knowledge is not.

I cannot believe that the most people got everything on ebay. there was a time when it was possible to have contacts to the Soviets, to take photographs and to find out how the former enemy lived. We should write about it because that is a part of military history. This forum seems to be the best place for it.

If this is the wrong place or the topic is boring, we should forget my suggestion.

regards

Frank

Hi Frank,

please do write about your experiences and contact to soviets, i would love to hear about it. Also from other members. Unforunately i have started with collecting soviet awards much too late and never got the chance to meet russian veterans. I envy you "Ossies" for that, really. I wish, i would have started right after the fall of the wall, but at that time i didn?t think about collecting soviet awards, collecting girls was more important

Please do share your stories and hopefully other members will share theirs also.

regards,

Gerd

Edited June 8, 2007 by Gerd Becker

[Knarf]

I envy you "Ossies" for that,

Hallo Gerd,

I am not an "Ossi". That time everybody coming from the East was my enemy. (even members of my own family).

I will start writing tomorrow.

Regards

Frank

[Gerd Becker]

Hallo Gerd,

I am not an "Ossi". That time everybody coming from the East was my enemy. (even members of my own family).

I will start writing tomorrow.

Regards

Frank

Oops, my bad I know, what you are talking about, it was the same in my family. I suppose, there were only a few families in the BRD, who did not have any relatives there. But that could fill an own thread, i guess.

But though, i still envy them for their opportunities right after the fall of the wall.

Can?t wait to read your story

all the best,

Gerd

[Bryan]

I was 9 years old when the Wall came down, so I have no experience with Soviet veterans to say.

However, I'm not sure many people on the forum had such experience. I'm also anxious to here your story.

[Knarf]

Hello, I have just tried to post a very long story. Pressed Add Reply. Got the log in page. pressed the button.

everything was gone.

3 Hours work lost.

Try again Tomorrow.

Angry and go for a drink now.

Frank

[Gerd Becker]

Oh, well Thats, why i mostly type all messages in a seperate Editor and copy and paste them over here, when finished.

[Ferdinand]

I've had that problem as well several times

You should always copy your post (Ctrl+C) before hitting the 'Add Reply' button, it might save a lot of work when things go wrong.

[Knarf]

Hello, after a long conference and spending nearly 2 weeks in ex Soviet camps I will try again to write about the contacts.

After the fall of the wall I went to a small village in eastern Germany with our local Mini Cooper Club for a celebration. I had a few drinks too much and to get fit took a walk through the forrest. I did not know where I exactly was. Still beeing drunk I saw a wall with a big hole in it. There was a yellow sign which I could not read. I think it was an invitation to enter. I love invitations. So I had a look to find out more. Behind the wall there was a place where a lot of T-80 tanks were parked. Nobody was around and so I could not ask anybody for permission to take some photos. Walking around I came to an area where soldiers were doing theit marching. They all looked at me but nobody said anything to me. I did not recognize that I was the only civilian around. After a long time two young civilians appeared and asked a question. I replied in my best English that I do not speak their language. These men were no gentlemen. One put his fist straight into my stomach and the other one hit me in the face. Then the took me into a cell after taking my cigarettes, passport and camera. I do not exactly know how long I have been in that room with no chair and no light. Here I had time to think about my live. I thought about the warning of a British officer. He said that I will have a lot of problems if I get caught. And he said that I will never come back if the Soviets will find a camera. Now I got caught with a camera. After a while I started banging the door because I had no cigarettes. A very nice woman opened a little hole and started shouting at me. I managed to get cigarettes. The were Russian. Horrible! My lungs nearly exploded.

Later I was escorted to an office for interrogation. The offficer`s English was perfect. He was not very polite. He was shouting at me and called me a spy. I was not used to meet unpolite people so I shouted back louder the he did. Suddenly he was very polite and quiet and said: " If it would not be such a lot of paperwork I would hand you over to certain people. What will we see, if we develop the film?" " You will see some tanks. Nothing important. Please develop the film. It will save me money" I replied. He started laughing and told me that I must be a complete idiot. " Why?" I asked. " Getting caught photographing Soviet military equipment in a restricted area, starting trouble in the cell only to get cigarettes and shouting at a high rank Soviet officer without showing any respect to his rank. Only an idiot can do this."

" You are correct, Sir. May I now go back to the psychatric hospital were I escaped yesterday, Sir ?"

He offered a drink and a cigarette. ( My cigarettes!) During the following conversation I told him that I would like to know more about the famous Soviet army. He invited me to come when ever I have got the time to do it. A few drinks later he told me that we should be friends for ever. Good idea. We had a drink on that and he told me that his soldiers and officers are robbed by west Germans. They were selling cars which cost only some hundred Marks for some thousand Marks to the Soviets in front of camp. I promised my new friend to stop that. (I did stop it but had a lot of enemies after that) . When I left camp I had managed to get a sculpture of Feliks D. as a present and was taken back to that village, were my friends had a party again, by lorry and escort of 10 armed soldiers. There I invited them for a drink. In the gym of the village were we had the party, nobody dared to say a word until the soldiers were gone.

I went back to the camp a week later and spent a few days there. it was the hardest time of my life.

If you are interested I can write about it later. There was a lot of other contacts but not all of them ended that good.

I have posted this to my friend in Russia and asked him to check it. He wrote back that I should write a book with the title "The Idiot and the Red Star"

regards

Frank

(Hope it was not too boring)

[Wild Card]

Frank,

Not at all boring. On the contrary, I found your story to be absolutely fascinating and hope that you will share some other experiences. Like so many other adventures in this life when we ?step over the line?, if we make it back, they are priceless.

Thank you and best wishes,

Wild Card

Edited July 23, 2007 by Wild Card

[Bob]

I had a similar experience but more friendly. Drove in 2000 by car from Netherlands to St Petersburg (then on to Moscow, and Minsk and back). Around St Petersburg, Kronstadt, there's a naval base... drove straight onto the base and the pier and had about 15 submarines docked there... what else to do than take pictures?

Nobody saw it. Spent 15 minutes photographing, and drove off the base again like a happy camper

[Sergey]

I had a similar experience but more friendly. Drove in 2000 by car from Netherlands to St Petersburg (then on to Moscow, and Minsk and back). Around St Petersburg, Kronstadt, there's a naval base... drove straight onto the base and the pier and had about 15 submarines docked there... what else to do than take pictures?

Nobody saw it. Spent 15 minutes photographing, and drove off the base again like a happy camper

You very much risked. Under laws of Russia and some other countries these pictures you could buy for yourselves 2 years of prison for the spy work.

[Daredevil]

I have taken photos at Russian bases (Kubinka, Khronsdat among others), airports, closed museums, etc. Never had a problem until August of 2000...we were taking a small boat around the port of Sevastopol during Navy Day celebrations and taking shots of the ships and subs. No one seemed to care about the large ships and we got quite close. However, when we were over near the subs (some not looking to be in good health) we started to be chased by a small boat that was filled with plaincloths, 'stocky' and rough looking gentlemen. They were not happy with us and started to make gestures to pull the boat over. We just kept going, hoping to outrun them. One of the guys with us worked for the Ukrainian Navy in Intel. and later found out that the guys who were chasing us (they eventually turned around) were actually working for Yuri Lushkov , mayor of Moscow, who had a small private boat near the subs.

[Sergey]

Sooner or later always there are problems. And such photos do not cost bad mood. If it not business