Mathias Rust Mathias Rust Mathias Rust (born 1 June 1968) is a German aviator known for his illegal landing near Red Square in Moscow on 28 May 1987. An amateur pilot, the teenager flew from Helsinki, Finland, to Moscow, being tracked several times by Soviet air defence and interceptors. The Soviet fighters never received permission to shoot him down, and several times his aeroplane was mistaken for a friendly aircraft. He landed on Vasilevsky Descent next to Red Square near the Kremlin in the capital of the Soviet Union. Rust said he wanted to create an "imaginary bridge" to the East, and
The Elephant of Surprise The Elephant of Surprise The Elephant of Surprise is a young adult novel by Brent Hartinger, the fourth volume in The Russel Middlebrook Series, which was published in March 2013. The book continues the saga of Russel Middlebrook, his friends Min and Gunnar, and his former boyfriend, Kevin Land. The book also introduces new characters, who are followers of the movement known as Freeganism. The title of the book is a malapropism for the common expression "the element of surprise." Russel, Gunnar and Min use it to refer to the unexpected in life. Such surprises can be devastating, but they