Today, as news of Moscow having hosted a ‘Millionaire Fair’ comes in, my mind goes back to the USSR of December 1969 — approximately two decades before communism ended in that country.When our Indian naval contingent arrived in Vladivostok — the Siberian port-headquarters of the Red Banner Soviet Pacific Fleet — the north wind was blowing and the temperature was a bitingly cold minus 30. I had wisely bought a duty-free Cognac on the flight from Delhi to Moscow and it saved me from extinction. Moreover, we had to spend a whole night sleeping on Moskva airport’s chairs, before they eventually put us on the 12-hour hopping Aeroflot flight to Vladivostok. It took us across Siberia, over Lake Baikal, and covered nine time zones. There we were housed in kazarmas or barracks, which had enormous, 30-foot high portraits of Brezhnev and Lenin looking down upon us. Yes, big brother was indeed watching. If one of us was a little friendly towards a ‘comrade’, he would have a different manner the next morning, probably because of having been ‘indoctrinated’ overnight.But life was not too bad. We may not have been given a free run of the town, but the Soviets were friendly. Those were the days of Indo-Soviet druzhba. We learnt their language and they learnt from us. One English learner dumbfounded us by asking us to explain a ‘gerund’! Three kopeks gave us unlimited tram rides. A rouble brought us nine rupees. This, when a dollar cost eight! The anti-submarine frigate, which I had been sent to bring, cost nine crore then, as against hundreds of crores today.Today, Moscow has been transformed. There were 200 purveyors of luxury goods at the Millionaire’s Fair, displaying everything from mahogany-panelled yachts to diamond-encrusted car grilles. Fuelled by oil wealth, Moscow is what Dallas was in its heyday. The country has hundreds of millionaires. Forbes counted 53 billionaires.All said and done, our Soviet connection has proved to be rock solid. The naval hardware from the Russians has served us well. More importantly, when no other western arms seller was prepared to do business with us, the Russians came forward with much-needed ships and submarines. So, long live Indo-Russian friendship, and all that — but first the Russians must agree to an early commissioning of the INS Vikramaditya!
