Yes, that's him!
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Your story is great! Sounds like you were there during Soviet times? - unless you're still in your twenties!
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I am easily divisible by twenty.
It was the height of the cold war. Upon arrival we were detained and interrogated at the airport for three hours with threats that we were bringing contraband into the country. We were carrying LP records that they confiscated. What they really wanted were our jeans and our books. Because of this flap they canceled our outing to the Bolshoi ballet and other scheduled items. We were, however, able to see Swan Lake in Leningrad (I think Leningrad has had a name change again, back to Saint Petersburg).
One of the spookiest moments for me came while on a bus ride out of Leningrad to the Czar's palace on the gulf of Finland. I tried always to sit near the interpreter which was at the front of the bus near the driver. Through the interpreter I learned that this bus driver had lost his entire family (nine as I recall) during the German 900 day siege of Leningrad. I had never been near anyone that had experienced so much grief. It was a chilling moment for a mostly protected naive kid.
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