Russian Cultural Tour: Saint Petersburg and Moscow

Your author's aerospace career was founded on working on systems to counter the USSR Cold War systems. Such Cold War work was a big push for the US, European, Asian, and Russian economies. I lived in Spain when the Soviet Union collapsed and was surprised by the large number of Russians who migrated to Spain. For example, the Concert Mistress of the Malaga Symphony Orchestra and 30% of the members of the orchestra were Russians who had migrated to Malaga, Spain, after the Soviet collapse. I found myself wondering how the Cold War had pitted two such civilized communities against each other. I found the Russians in Spain were such nice people, and asked myself, "Why would Americans want to eliminate Russians?" I had traveled throughout the world working on tasks required by the Cold War. I had been everywhere except Russia. Now I wanted to take a cultural tour of Russia. I had viewed many Russian ballets performed in the US and Europe and had the desire to learn more about the former enemy of the Cold War. I emphasized the musical culture of Russia in this book. However, to give a more complete picture I also included a chapter on US-Russian relations and another on the Russian Space Programs.