MiG Pilot Defector Viktor Belenko Visits a Virginia Grocery Store

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2 MIN READ - From the desk of the Cautious Optimism Correspondent for Economic Affairs and other Egghead stuff; following up from last post on the world of Marxism.

PVO Lieutenant Viktor Belenko before his spectacular defection to Japan

And not to limit our history lessons to the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet Presidium and Politburo party bosses, everyday Soviet MiG-25 pilot-defector Viktor Belenko had his own observations about the suburban Virginia supermarket he visited with his CIA handlers.

"Thirty or forty different varieties; milk, butter, eggs, more than he had ever seen in any one place; the meat counter, at least twenty meters long, with virtually every kind of meat in the world-wrapped so you could take it in your hand, examine, and choose or not; labeled and graded as to quality. A date stamped on the package to warn when it would begin to spoil!..."

“…Never had Belenko been in a closed market selling meat or produce that did not smell of spoilage, of unwashed bins and counters, of decaying, unswept remnants of food. Never had he been in a market offering anything desirable that was not crowded inside, with lines waiting outside. Always he had been told that the masses of exploited [U.S. citizens] lived in the shadow of hunger and that pockets of near starvation were widespread, and he had seen photographs that seemed to demonstrate that.”

“If this were a real store, a woman in less than an hour could buy enough food in just this one place to feed a whole family for two weeks. But where are the people, the crowds, the lines? Ah, that proves it. This is not a real store, The people can't afford it. If they could, everybody would be here. It's a showplace of the Dark Forces. But what do they do with all the meat, fruit and vegetables, milk, and everything else that they can't keep here all the time? They must take it away for themselves every few nights and replace it.”

(to read more of this amusing story, click and download the PDF link)
http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/downloadFile.cgi?file=1271-6-23581-viktor_belenko.pdf&filename=viktor_belenko.pdf