Reddit Reddit reviews Mig Pilot: The Final Escape of Lt. Belenko

We found 16 Reddit comments about Mig Pilot: The Final Escape of Lt. Belenko. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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Mig Pilot: The Final Escape of Lt. Belenko
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16 Reddit comments about Mig Pilot: The Final Escape of Lt. Belenko:

u/BurtGummer938 · 957 pointsr/HistoryPorn

I was reading a book about the Russian that defected to Japan with a MiG-25 Foxbat. The first time he saw a supermarket in the US he thought it was a CIA deception. He refused to believe it was real until going to several stores on his own accord. He was shocked that they left meat in the open where anyone could steal it. The quantity, variety, quality, and prices did more to validate his disillusionment with communism than any of the other culture shocks he experienced. At one point he accidentally ate cat food and remarked how much better it was than what he could get in the USSR.

u/etildard · 26 pointsr/infj

Ah, I understand now. Thanks for clarifying!

If you're interested, here's the book I was talking about. Super fascinating read.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0380538687?fp=1&pc_redir=T1

u/Warbird36 · 12 pointsr/AskHistorians

There was an excellent book I remember reading: MiG Pilot, about the MiG-25 pilot named Viktor Belenko, who landed his Foxbat in Japan. They pumped him for all the info they could on the MiG-25, including putting him in a simulator against a pair of F-15s--and they gave him the positional advantage (six o'clock high) on the Eagles. On top of that, the virtual MiG-25 had capabilities exceeding the real deal.

They still shot him down very quickly.

u/Hypothesis_Null · 10 pointsr/todayilearned

Mig Pilot

The edition I have has a caricature of the guy on the front. Kind of looks like Chevy Chase. I'll see if I can find a link and edit it into this comment.

Edit- Found it http://www.amazon.com/Mig-Pilot-Final-Escape-Belenko/dp/0380538687

Also on google books: http://books.google.com/books/about/MiG_Pilot.html?id=KuS4AAAAIAAJ

u/4514N_DUD3 · 7 pointsr/CombatFootage

His story can be found in this book; very quick read and fast paced as well. Highly recommend it.

u/Boozeville13 · 7 pointsr/todayilearned

There is a really good book about this as well...

http://www.amazon.com/Mig-Pilot-Final-Escape-Belenko/dp/0380538687

u/crash6674 · 6 pointsr/The_Donald


Effort Post:



This is a good read and it opened my eyes about socialism / communism please consider reading it:


https://www.amazon.com/Mig-Pilot-Fi...o/dp/0380538687

http://imgur.com/a/UGwYg

It's about Viktor Belenko, a soviet fighter pilot in the 1980's. Dude was a rock star for the communist party. At the beginning of his career he was a hard core party member and in the elite class. He was paid 600 rubles a month (ruble / dollar value where roughly the same) which was 5x what a normal person got. He could afford a black and white tv when very few people could. The jet that he flew was top of the line cutting edge, costing 6 million dollars. His life, and the lives of his people were pure hell.

The party bosses were corrupt and syphoning away every bit of money they could get. His people were forced to stop military operations to plow fields two months out of the year to help local farmers plant crops with hand tools, and harvest by hand because there was no machinery and if the military did not intervene the entire crop would spoil. The military leadership was incompetent and afraid of punishment for reporting anything negitive, to the point where the enlisted soldiers were illegally having to sneak off base to shoot deer so they wouldn't starve to death. Most became raging alcoholics to endure life in there shitty barracks. With men routinely being killed in safety accidents. His personal life was being destroyed because of the grueling hours his commander placed on him.

The plane's jet engines, bleeding edge technology allowing the jet to blast off to 20,000 feet in two minutes would destroy itself in it was not properly cooled. This was done with a 500 gallon tank of pure alcohol. So much of this industrial grade booze was being siphoned off by the soldiers the planes only had enough for two flights a month. The base he was stationed at had over 100 million dollars of planes, Top Secret, The best the Soviets had. They could not afford to feed the people that maintained the machines.

Everything Victor was seeing was making him panic inside, his leadership was actively trying to sabotage any change that would make the situation better.

He decided to defect.

He waited an entire year, planning his escape because they only allowed the planes to be fully fueled in rare training exercises. Finally he had enough fuel to reach Japan.

It was so close that he ran out of fuel costing down to the japanese airport, sliding off the runway and coming to a stop in a field.



His decision helped prevent a third world war and changed his life for ever.

When he was taken into custody of the "Dark Forces" both in japan and the U.S. he could not believe his eyes.

Did not believe, for months that what he was seeing was real. That it was all faked to impress him.

After being granted citizenship UNANIMOUSLY BY THE ENTIRE U.S. CONGRESS (wtf right), he went on a road trip across the country and lived on a farm of one of his CIA handlers relative's.

He came to the conclusion that the U.S. is the ideal Communist paradise.

Everyone was fed, everyone was wealthy, even the hobos were more wealthy than the people he saw starving in a ditch on the side of the road in russia. Even people who worked in denny's were making more than he did as a fighter pilot. Everyone had a color t.v., a car, a house. You could walk into any hospital and get top notch treatment. People that were out of their luck still could get help. No one was starving, with thousands of grocery stores, piles of food everywhere you looked.

The Communist Dream was America.

The farm where he stayed at and worked as a farm hand in the midwest had four people. It out produced an entire division of Soviet troops toiling away in the fields with shovels and pick akes.

The people were happy. Everyone worked hard for jobs they took pride in. In a year of driving around the country he was only in one bad situation where someone tried to rob him. When in Russia you would be robbed or killed if you were caught going outside the base by yourself.

Viktor Belenko, a true hero and overall cool and good guy.

People should be wearing pictures of this dude on their shirts, not che guevara.

Read the entire book here: http://testpilot.ru/review/mig_pilot/ch_6.htm


Working capitalism is the best ideal of communism. Be proud you live in the best country in the world.


Two points i also want to make are:

Viktor Belenko saw Jimmy Carter's America with all the good and the bad. I'm not saying pure capitalism is the answer for everything. But overall, the system we have is pretty dang good. We should be proud of what America stands for, The ideals that caused a communist party elite to not believe what he was seeing for months. Where a waitress working at Denny's was making more than a Soviet fighter pilot. Sure we have faults, but the communist reality that he grew up with was in stark contrast that many people in the west thought was the socialist paradise. The only paradise Viktor Belenko grew up with was drinking himself into a early grave.

The other point was to circumvent the "lol russia is a capitalist country now and is totally fucked lol" narrative. Yes russia is capitalist, but it is still being run by the party elite, ex-kgb and any strong man that had the forethought to snatch up the nationalised entities after the fall. Russia and the old soviet block in general has none of the checks and balances that America has in the Constitution. A guarantee of rights that every citizen is entitled to. Something that at the time of its creation was unheard of, its creation sparked democracy in the "west". In Russia today the lack of a constitution backed up with separate Judicial and Legislative branches that act as checks and balances to each other basically allow Putin to act as a dictator. Turning and Squeezing an entire country for one mans profit.

u/GodzirraEN · 4 pointsr/flying

Haha pretty much.

This is on my reading list

https://www.amazon.com/Mig-Pilot-Final-Escape-Belenko/dp/0380538687

u/redtert · 2 pointsr/askscience

I don't know about the F15, but there's a great book called MIG Pilot by Victor Belenko, the pilot who defected and handed us his MiG-25. It talks about his life in the USSR, the airplane, his defection and his adjustment to life in the US. The first time he was shown an American grocery store, he thought it was a fake set up by the CIA for propaganda purposes.

u/daniel14vt · 2 pointsr/worldnews

Mig Pilot : The final escape of Lt. Belenko
One of my favorites growing up

u/ReasonReader · 2 pointsr/todayilearned

I read his book. Highly recommended.

One thing I found particularly interesting was the problem the Soviet Air Force had with theft of their jet fuel. It was the purest Ethanol available in the country, and more of it was drunk than burned in jet engines.

u/lurkallday91 · 1 pointr/hoggit

Guys! You are forgetting Mig Pilot: The Final Escape of Lt. Belenko

https://www.amazon.com/Mig-Pilot-Final-Escape-Belenko/dp/0380538687

Loved this true story of the guy with the huge balls that defected with his then super secret MIG-25 to Japan.

u/halfwaymysandwich · 1 pointr/worldnews

this book is out of print but it has a section describing what youre talking about. It's a great book, about the guy from russia who flew his mig plane over to the other side

https://www.amazon.ca/Mig-Pilot-Final-Escape-Belenko/dp/0380538687

u/ALargeClam · 1 pointr/NoStupidQuestions

> Do you think your government is above lying to you? Do you think it’s possible your government would tell you lies about a country they were at war with? Of course your government told you communism doesn’t work, but you really shouldn’t have believed them.


its not the government that convinced me that communism is shit, its the people who actually survived it that convinced me.

https://www.amazon.com/Mig-Pilot-Final-Escape-Belenko/dp/0380538687

u/SpecialCake · 1 pointr/todayilearned

There is a great book written about his experience. It's a great read, and a powerful narrative about life as a soviet fighter pilot.

It's called "Mig Pilot".