RUSSIA: Father's Little Watchman

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In Moscow on Aviation Day, all roads lead to Tushino. Even before dawn, thousands of streetcars and buses stream towards the huge airfield twelve miles from the city's heart. By 11 a.m. one day last month, 500,000 people blotted out the flag-decked stands, overflowed on to nearby railroad embankments. In the reviewing stand, flanked by his Politburo, stood Joseph Stalin himself. The Soviet national anthem blared out over the plain. "Dear Comrades, Muscovites," crackled the loudspeakers, "the festival of Stalin's aviation has started."

The thunder of 100 guns died away; the...

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