Flashback No.5

January 1991. Just as scud missiles started flying towards Israel, with coalition forces ready to strike against Saddam, while the US were urging people not to travel, my boss decided I needed to be in Russia. I flew out on a Saturday night from the then Pan-Am terminal at JFK. The terminal was empty. My flight was empty. I was alone in Business Class onboard a Pan-Am 747. There were 4 other passengers on the plane, all in coach. They were Jewish activists on their way to Russia to help the last of the refuseniks (a few weeks later the first direct flights from Moscow to Tel-Aviv became something one would regularly see at Sheremetyevo 2 airport, so I am not exactly sure how necessary the type of mission these guys were apparently on was in those days).

My first Russian experience, in the dead of Winter, and my contact in Moscow decided this was a nice time to go visit the birth-place of the Russian Orthodox Church: Suzdal. This picture was taken in Suzdal, very early in the morning, around 7 am, as we walked around checking out churches which were each a few hundred years old. The picture is a little damaged, but let's just say that even those fancy hats were not enough to keep the cold at bay (and, no, I'm not really short - the guy I was with is VERY tall).