If you were stationed around Germany in the late 1980s.....you kinda remember the guy. Most folks who never lived in Germany....have zero memory over his 'contribution' to German history.
Rust can be described in 1987, as being an idealist 18-year old kid, who might have been at the opposite end of the spectrum when you talk about 'snowflakes' today. This was a guy with zero need for a 'safe space'.
This is a young man who'd gone and passed all the flight tests/exams in 1986, and achieved a flight license. Some would even hype the fact that he passed the final exam easily.
So in the spring of 1987, with all this US-Russia peace-talking going on and front-page news in Germany, Rust apparently got this wild idea.
On 13 May 1987, he rented a Cessna 172 (which had the longer legs capability) to fly from Hamburg, to the Faroe Islands. Yeah, it's a four-hour flight and a bit north of England. Then resting up....he'd fly onto Iceland, as the Reagan-Gorbachev Summit was wrapping up. It's hard to sum up what he expecting to occur or had in some planning stage at this point.
On the 25th of May, he would arrive in Helsinki, Finland. He would rest for three days, and then start this odd plan. He would fly straight into Moscow. No permission....no worry about defensive measures.
It's roughly 5.5 hours to reach there and various defensive measures should have occurred (like shooting the Cessna down). Yet, nothing occurred.
Somewhere around 6:15 PM, he would arrive at Red Square. Yep, right at the Kremlin. My guess, on fuel, is that he had pretty much burned up reserves.
He would land and proudly walk out of the plane to talk of 'world-peace'. He was promptly arrested.
Up and down the line....military consequences fell into place. Failures of leadership would be the appropriate term. There were a minimum of 300 commanders in the Russian Army fired in the weeks after the event.
Rust? About three months would pass, and a court episode would occur. He was sentenced to four years of hard prison time (the work-camp atmosphere). Fourteen months would pass, and suddenly....he was pardoned. No one says if German diplomacy was played here, but I would imagine that some conversations did occur.
Rust would return to Germany to find that he needed to fulfill 'national service' (the draft). He stepped to the side and said no to the military....opting for the medical service.
You would think he'd gotten all this foolish nature out of his system....but no, roughly a year after his release from the Soviet prison.....he's back into trouble in Germany.
In November 1989, he stabs a nurse at a hospital....primarily because she refused to kiss him. That got him into additional trouble (a 30-month prison sentence for assault). Again, he got lucky and was pardoned after 15 months in a German prison.
Six months later (more or less), he's working as a waiter in.....Moscow. Yes, he's returned to Russia.
He kinda disappears then, and around eight years later, comes up on store theft in Hamburg.
His occupation today? It's not very clear but he has done an interview or two in the past decade to suggest that he is a professional poker play (yes, the type that makes money).
My general impression of Rust? On risk-taking....he's a rock-solid 'ten'. Most folks after spending a year or two in some Soviet prison....would have come out a broken guy, but not Rust.
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