Gennadiy N. Lepeskin: My father, after he completed his service up... he served up north. After his service up north, he was transferred to Tver. Its name used to be Kalinin. There was a military base there called Migalo, on the outskirts of the city. The river ran through it, it was upstream from the city, the city was downstream, and the water was very clean. We used to love swimming there, sunning ourselves, we loved fishing and gathering mushrooms. We played sports a lot. We lived on the grounds of a military unit, a division. The place was well stocked with sports equipment. We used to play soccer, hockey, volleyball and often we played against... we were little whippersnappers, in ninth or tenth grade, and we played against young soldiers, and we always beat them, because we were in better shape than they were. Yes, those were the days.
All of this was back in the sixties, the first satellites were launched back then, that was when Yuri Gagarin went into outer space, and we were all tickled pink, no doubt about it. We were very pleased, just thrilled with the might of the Soviet Union. We were thrilled with the triumphs of Soviet science, and I was raised in that spirit, too, I was always proud of my country.