I had the pleasure of visiting the black sea when I was in the navy and one incident from that visit really stuck in my mind. We where visiting Odessa which, bar this incident was a beautiful place to be. To cut a long story short we were going out into town and to get there we had to climb the Potemkin Steps which where made famous by a Sergei Mikhailovich Eisensteinenstein’s movie
The Battleship Potemkin.
Or another review for the movie buff’s
It was at the foot of these steps where we where greeted by a young lady handing out flyers. Innocently I took one and the following was the message. I still have the original. The steps have actually been designed so that the top is narrower than the bottom to make them look even more impressive.
Everything including spelling and Grammar are as per the original.
Start
To the Sailors of the NATO Navy
Gentlemen! Continuing active visits of foreign war ships to the berths of Odessa and other Soviet ports show the dangerous tendency to direct occupation of Black Sea Northern coat and of country as whole, which is masked under the name of “partnership for peace”.
We know about existing of American plan “Drop shot” foreseeing the landing of a half-million army army to the Odessa region with the following attack against Kiev and Moscow. It isn’t a secret that exist Western plans to reduction the population of Ukraine from 52 to 15 million with the help of destroying medicine, organisation of famine and spreading of AIDS. Tensity have artificially created around Ukraine and other Slav states.
It’s resembling that Yugoslavian events of the last years have considered by USA and NATO as a range for the further split of geopolitical area of USSR. One can see a directed playing of “Chechan card” and “Crimean card”. The degree of USA intervention into our social and political life mount to defiant scopes.
We, Soviet people, shall defend our Motherland by using all possible methods and shan’t allow to neither foreigners nor traitors to play the master here.
Please bring to the notice of your President, Government, leadership of Pentagon and NATO block that further increas-ing of the West presence on the Soviet territory will oblige us to consider any military man of NATO stepped on our land as a representativve of occupation army, with all consequences arising thereof.
Go Home!
Patriotic Forces
End
Needless to say this greeting was not what I was expecting and it did put a bit of a damper on the whole trip to Odessa. We where very pleased to find out that the residents of Odessa were a very nice bunch of people and we had several really good nights there.