The newest history of musical-political agitation goes back to 1996, to memorable action "Vote or you will lose!"
Organized by Sergey Lisovsky, this largest political show has brought Boris Yeltsin up to 5 million additional voices. The action was unprecedented on scope and almost ideal on the organization. The automobile race, a forum of democratic youth passed, the cassette and a compact disc with specially written songs were let out under the slogan "Vote!" besides concerts of stars in tens cities of the country. Radio station "Freedom" has compared the action " Vote or you will lose! " with the best samples of western political imagement. Certainly it is possible to argue about the substantial and esthetic part of an affair, but the overall objective the action had reached - the youth came on the elections.
At that time many celebrities had already passed training and confidently flied in our aeroclub. At once there was an idea to organize something absolutely unusual. For example - "pre-election" air flight. And, when the others went with songs and dancing on boundless open spaces of the native land, two conducting showmen of the country, Yuri Nikolaev and Leonid Yakubovich rose in the air. In it's direct sense - from June 27 till July 1 1996 within the framework of "Vote or you will lose!" campaign they, piloting our aeroclub' Yak-18T planes, visited and acted the mass dramatized representations of "Morning mail " "Field of miracles" in five cities - Nizhni Novgorod, Ufa, Kurgan, Kemerovo and Novokuznetsk.
Yuri Nikolaev tells:
- It was Lyonya's idea to arrange flight, but I as an adventurous person inclined to spirit, naturally, supported it. But I involved him in it. When two years ago I got crazy on flights for the first time, I suggested him to fly with me. Is it pleasant or is it not pleasant, it's already another business. In any case, fresh air is already well. He took his son, and we came to Myachkovo. My guys lifted him in air. Then I look, he is already arranging about the following lesson. And he liked it so much, he got driven, that for today he has more hours of flight time than me. Because he like a madman goes to airfield almost every day.
- Actually it was very interesting. Both on meetings and on receptions and on press conferences and, certainly, on the flight because we never flied on such distance in our lives- four and a half thousand kilometers. And there were such cities as: Moscow - Nizhni Novgorod - Ufa - Kurgan - Kemerovo - Novokuznetsk. I speak only about cities, but there were also intermediate landings because planes are small and need refueling.
- We rose on two thousand meters and crossed a ridge for the first time in our life. For the first time I flied 20-25 minutes in continuous clouds. It's very unpleasant. First, orientation is lost, you can't understand where is top, where is bottom, left - right and so on. You can fly under a corner, gain height or fall and simply not notice it. And that's why the instructor told us all time: "Look only on devices, fly only on devices". It's really terrible, and somehow there were a feeling that something should appear before a nose, in what you will necessarily run.
- Leonid took off the first we went the second. But never the less we missed and went independently. Sometimes we simply lost each other, and sometimes they gave us different echelons from reasons of safety, but we were in more favorable situation when took off in a pair. He did not see, how it's beautiful, and I saw. There was an opportunity in Kemerovo, I think. There was a wide runway. Usually one takes off, and then after a while another. And here we went together with a distance, probably, in ten meters. When two planes are taking off, it is, certainly, cool. I see: he start to turn a little, I'm flying behind him and trying to do all in parallel, it's, certainly, madly interesting.
- It was certainly too hard in general to cover such a distance for six days. It's not easy: you had arrived, had a rest and departed again next day. You got flight, press conference and a three-hour concert. We in fact flied towards the sun so time worked against us. Each time day was reduced on one hour. It would seem, the concert begins in each city at six o'clock, but a difference in Novokuznetsk is already 4 hours. It's, certainly, tiresomely. But on the other hand, nobody forced us to do it. But it was difficult enough, the big loading because the to do legs got very tired. Four hours in a very inconvenient pilot armchair, a permanent legs' work, and then it's rather tiresome to stand on a stage for three hours.
