Flight from the U.S.S.R.

Book Title: Flight from the U.S.S.R.

Author: Dato Turashvili

Published: 2008 (in Georgia)

Genre: Thriller, Historical Fiction

Flight from the U.S.S.R. is attention-grabbing from page one to the last. It's a short and engaging narrative based on a real-life event that took place on November 18, 1983, when a group of seven young individuals, desperate to escape the Georgian SSR, hijacked a TU-134 passenger plane traveling from Tbilisi Airport to Batumi. They aimed to divert the aircraft to Turkey, hoping to flee to the West. However, the hijacking took an unexpected turn when the plane, instead of heading towards Turkey, made a U-turn and returned to Tbilisi. Upon arrival, the plane was met with a special squad that had been prepared for the situation. The aircraft was fired upon from the outside, receiving 108 bullets. The assault resulted in casualties, including the deaths of two hijackers and several injuries.

It's unclear what aspects of the book are real and which ones are fabricated. That could be bothersome to some readers, and we can understand why, since we might not get a realistic view of the people involved in this event and its horrific aftermath. On the other hand, the dialogues can be greatly appreciated as they work quite well in creating relatable historical figures. As we read, we get a sense of who they are (fabricated or not) and what their fears and aspirations are. Even if some or most of these dialogues and reflections weren't conducted exactly as described, they display a very human and hopeful young mindset. They do their job by engaging and connecting the reader with each one of the people portrayed in the story, turning the account personal and intimate. If it were written just as a fact-based narration without this artistic and evolving way of telling a story, we wouldn't feel as connected to it; it would feel as something distant. Instead, one can't help but feel empathy towards the main characters and feel pain as they experience pain. The writer does a good job of portraying them as unfortunate heroes! The writer's style is engaging and effective at conveying the plot, giving the reader a description of a historical event while making sure it's read as a novel. This way of writing generates stronger emotions since the reader connects deeply with the characters and can relate to them. The pacing is good: it works at keeping attention and interest. The chapters are divided by characters, so the story is written in a format that gives the readers a better understanding of each character’s context and personality as the events unfold. The major theme addressed in the book was the depiction of the Georgian authoritarian regime, the repression of its people and the symbolism of jeans as a form of quiet defiance. I found the usage of jeans as a symbol very clever: it represented the West, the free world, youth and a quiet non-conformity. The characters were similar to one another in the sense that they display shared values, dreams and motivations. Their personalities are different, and although we don't get a deep understanding of who they are, it works well for this narrative since it's more focused on events than on character development.I believe the book touched me deeper because the story and its characters represent something bigger than themselves: a human desperation for freedom and a better life. I could connect that with the struggles of many Brazilians during the dictatorship and others from other countries in various parts of the world. Violence is real, freedom is fragile and complacency is the death of any democratic system. The book portrays the lengths to which people can go in pursuit of their freedom. I also read it as a reminder of how important and delicate our democracy and freedoms are. We often take it for granted as something permanent; it hasn't always been here and it might not be here in the future either. 

(The following paragraphs contain quotes from the book. Proceed at your discretion.)

Several parts got me reflecting, but one quote that was relevant even for our modern lives, outside of Georgian and any ex-authoritarian regime, is when Father Tevdore says that “people have to make their own choices… to choose between good and evil, light and darkness, slavery and freedom.” I think that is a useful reminder because more often than not, we get involved and consumed by group mentality. That takes away every single individual's responsibility to think, question, reconsider and then finally choose for themselves. There is comfort and some security in simply following and reinforcing narratives and choices made by a collective; however, in the end, each one of us will be responsible for the outcomes and will, therefore, inevitably have to make peace with our own conscience. Individual responsibility matters. This message is present throughout the book, and it seems to be one of the motivations behind the choice made by the hijacking group; they made their own choice and took matters into their own hands.

The reader gets a sense from the book that the main characters were faced with two possible paths: to accept oppression or to flee towards their freedom. That sense is drawn from passages such as these: “The Soviet state denied its citizens basic civil rights, the right to property among them. Freedom only came when you reached your grave, or at least the authorities stopped worrying about your freedom when you were six feet under.” The characters' understanding of this dire dichotomy led them to choose the latter path since the absurdity of the conditions in which they were living justified the absurd act of hijacking a plane and trying to flee Georgia. That is a big statement when considering that these were affluent young people. They all “agreed that it was impossible to stay in the country where their human rights were neglected, voices of opposition sat in prison and the media was tightly controlled.” This conclusion is the pressing point that pushes them to follow through with their plan.

Overall, the book is engaging, easy to read and inevitably poses some profound reflections. Fictional elements, if present as part of the storytelling, do not pose a threat to the mind-blowing reality of the historical events described in this book. Many other narrations describing authoritarian regimes show that resistance, even at great losses, is better than compliance when thinking long-term.

As many before Dato Turashvili have expressed, he also reminds us here that “...there are no bans on dreaming and hoping for the better. Hope belongs to you and only you, helping you through your life, driving you ahead, impelling you to go on with your life”. The current freedoms we so carelessly enjoy are delicate. If we in the West reach a day when we are also fooled by seductive promises of equality that mask the concentration of power in the hands of a few, I hope we are reminded of quotes such as these. Because “collective thinking always ends in hatred, not love,... collective thinking results in regimes, not freedom".