Russia, America will dock in space again, like it was in 1975

“No money so far. But they finally understood our idea and it gives them shivers.” That was the response of Alex the Producer to my yesterday’s question in the club regarding our movie project called The Docking. The real docking took place on 17 July, 1975, when US Apollo and Soviet Soyuz met in space and locked together in a single laboratory, letting five spacemen shake hands miles and miles above the Earth. Now about the mentioned shivers: Imagine an investor, giving money for that kind of project now, when the hotheads in America and Russia talk about a theoretical exchange of nuclear strikes between two nations being acceptable, as long as the weapons remain tactical and manageable. Who would risk the money on a project about a space handshake between two such nations in a bygone era of attempted friendship? But the movie production may take at least two years, to be viewed by the public maybe even later, closer to the 50-year anniversary of the docking. And we’ll be in a very different world then. So we are talking about a really big bet. My idea, as one of the prospective script writers, the idea shared by a prospective director, called Andrew, is that not just in 2025, but even this winter the whole world will be waiting for Russia and America, and the West, to get back to the early 1970s, when the idea about détente gingerly took hold. You do not have to be Hindu to believe in the Sansara wheel, that is turning all the time – we see it in our life. So the movie will hit just the right nerve if the investors overcome their understandable horror today and put the money on the future détente stake. Now, how did it come to my head that we were heading back to the early 70s? And why did Andrew the Director had the same idea from the very start? Simply because we both have been there. I, for one, was a student at Moscow University in 1972-78, so all I have to do now is to give life to the shadows of the past, shadows of the people I saw around me at that time. (The technical and factual side of that mockumentary movie is supposed to be delegated to another script writer, while my task was meant to be in creating several imaginary people of that era). And it’s through the people of that time that you may see a Russo-American situation in the 70s being very close to what we are going to have very soon. Simply speaking, today the mood from both sides is likely to become the same. The star will be an American girl, an interpreter to the delegation, let’s call her Jennifer, a daughter of a nation that was going through a horrible moral crisis, due to an unexpected loss in a war in Indochina, with ensuing split of a society. Do I have to draw all the parallels with what is going on in the present-day America? Her song will be… did I mention that I was also supposed to be responsible for a selection of music of the era? So, her song will be Winds Of The Old Days by Joan Baez (try it by search in YouTube, and you will listen to my girl). That’s a song about an end of an era, and the new and welcoming world all around. Now, the Russian with whom Jennifer will be docking closer to the end of the movie (yes, we are talking about love)… he might be called Oleg, he is a harmless-looking bespectacled young engineering genius in the Soyuz team. And his music is Deep Purple, Pictures of Home, with that fiery Ritchie Blackmore guitar solo. The thing is, we were all Blackmores at the time. The young geniuses of Russia of the 70s had no patience with all these ancient ideas about blasting American imperialism, we wanted to rival America in space and in every other sphere, so as to be appreciated, respected and befriended by that country. Friendship comes your way only if you respect the other fellow, does it? That mindset – as in no need for animosity, we may become friends and equals – lasted us until the early 1990-s. And, speaking about music, in the 70s the latest releases of the great rock-and-roll LPs were arriving to our waiting hands in Moscow faster, than they were getting their way to Canaveral, Florida, although officially they should have never been in the Soviet Union at all. In that movie, there’ll have to be a lot of suspicions about spying, as in stealing technological secrets, with a young lieutenant of KGB watching that banned Russo-American romance with concern. But let us get back to the present, rather tense, situation between Russia and everything that is Western. There has always been some mutual attraction between the US and Russia, but then there is also Europe, and the atmosphere in that case is different. Let’s look at a column by Vadim Trukhachev, a historian, titled Russia Will Need Europe According to the Residual Principle. Which, simply, means that we are going to deal with Europeans only when we have the time from our friendships in Asia, Africa or Latin America. We don’t need big embassies in Europe, says Trukhachev, better send able diplomats to other lands. There should be no critical dependence on Europe in any kind of trade. If there are Russian paintings displayed in a European gallery, then you have to have a similar exhibition on Russian territory, because these Europeans are stealing things. They also do not keep their word and display their hatred at every available chance, so signing treaties with them is useless. That kind of opinion may seem to be a bit extreme, but then it’s a logical result of watching Europeans give their everything to the Ukrainian government, which presides over terror and atrocities against anything Russian. The author is a columnist for the Russian State agency website ria.ru, as well as for other publications. Views expressed are personal. Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.