“Garst’s farm? That’s the first time I heard of it. Where is it? In Iowa? No, I don’t know,” an American journalist I happen to know told me. He was accredited by one of the largest newspapers in Moscow.

Today, Roswell Garst’s name, indeed, does not mean much for many people – in the US or in Russia. Meanwhile, from the 1950s to the 1960s, Soviet newspapers were printing articles about his “innovative method”, numerous copies of books devoted to Garst’s corn farming were published; and he was an honored guest in the Kremlin.

On corn and the atomic bomb

Roswell Garst came to the Soviet Union for the first time in 1955 – he visited the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition. Garst, who arrived as a member of an Iowa delegation made up of 12 farmers, which was invited to the Soviet Union by the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Vladimir Matskevich, spent a lot of time talking about the production and processing of corn, land fertilization, and the mechanics of how the American experience could raise the level of Soviet agricultural output. From Moscow, the delegation went to Kiev, Odessa, and from there - to the Crimea to meet with Khrushchev. By that time, the general secretary had been thinking for years about corn.

“Why do you know so little about the American agricultural sector? If you needed no more than three weeks to develop the design of our atomic bomb, then why aren’t you able to steal our corn growing secrets?” Garst asked, beginning negotiations quite provocatively.

“You’re wrong. It was only two weeks,” said Khrushchev, playing along.

It was from this conversation that Khrushchev and Garst’s friendship began (that is how it is reconstructed in a book by an American historian, William Taubman, who received a Pulitzer Prize for his book: Khrushchev: The Man and His Era). Khrushchev’s personal translator, Viktor Sukhodrev, admits that their relationship was not only professional and warm, but friendly.
“I translated several times during Khrushchev and Garst’s meetings,” Sukhodrev told Trud, “and I can say that these were the conversations of two people, one of whom was a true corn specialist, and another – who thought of himself as a specialist.”

It’s no wonder that even when he arrived at Garst’s farm in the US, Khrushchev tried to give the farmer advice.

“We arrived in Iowa and spent the night in Hotel Fort in Des Moines. We were planning on going to see Garst the following morning,” says Viktor Sukhodrev. “That day I, for some reason, woke up early and went downstairs to the lobby to buy some postcards for my relatives in Moscow. All of a sudden, to my surprise, I saw Khrushchev and Garst walking down the stairs. Garst came for Khrushchev earlier than the agreed time and Nikita Sergeyevich said: “Why wait for the escorts? They don’t understand anything anyway.” And we headed to the farm.
Of course, corn crops are taller than a person. But the most interesting thing is that, even while talking to Garst, the best American farmer, the real “king of corn”, Khrushchev, began giving him advice and saying that the corn had been planted too densely. There was another funny episode. A crowd of journalists was pushing forward, trying to get as close as possible, and to Garst it seemed that they were getting in his way of showing Khrushchev the fields. In the end, the farmer lost it; he grabbed cobs of corn and began throwing them at the journalists.
Then we headed to Garst’s main field and had a picnic right there under the blue sky – everything that could possibly be made of corn was there, including meat – after all, the local bulls were also fed on corn.”

Not even a sympathizer

His friendship with Nikita Khruschev cost Roswell Garst a lot.

“Of course, in those days, frequent trips to the Soviet Union, negotiations at the top level, contracts, supplies of seeds to the Soviet farms - all of this prompted astonishment and questions, if not more,” says Liz Garst, the farmer’s granddaughter. “You know, because of this our family’s relations were ruined with many - some of our partners refused to continue working with us.”

Also, the US State Department was initially very much against any kind of partnership with the Soviets. The FBI questioned Roswell Garst, though the content of these conversations remains in the archives of the bureau. The main charge that Garst was faced with was – cooperation with communists.

“No, of course my grandfather wasn’t a communist,” laughs Liz Garst. “He was not even a communist ‘sympathizer’.”

Roswell Garst was definitely not a communist, he was a capitalist. And such a good one that he managed to sell his goods and ideas not only to the USSR, he also worked with Chili, Germany, and France. It was he who was able to convince the ideological rival of every respectable American that there is no other product that’s healthier and more beneficial than corn. A simple culture: if it can grow in Iowa, why can’t it grow in the land of the Soviets? But as practice showed, for some reason corn grew better in Iowa than in Russia’s middle latitudes. It continues to grow on Garst’s farm to this day.

More than just corn

However, today Roswell Garst’s descendants (he died in 1977 from cancer) are not surviving on corn alone. They have recently been trying to push a new trend, and much more profitable by today’s standards,– agricultural tourism. One can spend the night in one of the rooms where Roswell Garst used to live, for a starting price of $105. And the amenities are much better than those that existed half a century ago - Jacuzzi, DVD, Internet access. There are rooms at a more modest price from $55 to $85 per night. But, they don’t include a Jacuzzi. For a separate fee, you could catch fish, swim in a river, look at the stars through a telescope, play golf and hunt for pheasants. And, of course, you will have the chance to attend an excursion where you will be told about Garst’s farm and the family’s most memorable moment of the century, with a display of photographs of Khrushchev in the Iowa corn fields. A film should be produced in the near future, but for now, funds are being raised.

The best entrepreneur among the communists

The nostalgia for those events can be felt in the words of the relatives of the most successful American farmer in the middle of the last century. When explaining the reason why they decided to remember Nikita Khrushchev’s visit, they use words that resemble the conciliatory rhetoric of the “thawing” period.

“My grandfather was ready to share his knowledge at the time when the USSR was trying to raise its agricultural sector. With the help of agriculture, he wanted to overcome ideological differences,” Rachel Garst admitted to Trud. She is one of the initiators of the upcoming event. “We are holding a festival, the Days of Khrushchev in Iowa, for the sake of strengthening friendship and cooperation during a time when relations between these countries are deteriorating.”

In the end of August (the event is scheduled in August between the 27 and 30) Sergei Khrushchev, Russian Ambassador to the US, Sergei Kislyak, and Secretary of Agriculture and a former Governor of Iowa, Tom Vilsac, will arrive in Iowa. The guests are promised to be treated to the same food as the Soviet delegation was treated to exactly 50 years ago – the 1959 corn menu is stored in the family archives.

“Despite anything that anyone might say about Khrushchev, he was an interesting person,” Rachel Garst told Trud, “and, of course, the best entrepreneur among the communists.” After taking a moment she added, “You know, there was actually another reason as to why my grandfather decided to cooperate with the USSR. He often said: ‘Hungry people - are dangerous people’.”

Read the article on the newspaper's website (in Russian)

According to Bowman, the crew who will pilot the spacecraft to Mars will include citizens of many nations; meanwhile, the mission will be led by NASA and the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos). “I think that this absolutely must be an international crew,” said Bowman. He noted that success can be ensured only with the participation of all leading countries in the organization of the expedition. He added, however, that before heading to the Red Planet, the International Space Station (ISS) program must be completed and manned space flights to the Moon must be organized.

Oleg Korablev, Deputy Director of the Institute of Space Research at the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) also believes that, at first, the earthlings would work on lunar programs. “Experience shows that we don’t have enough investment for even the unmanned Mars programs,” he told a Gazeta journalist. “This is a problem of will and not technology. From a technical point of view it will be possible to fly to Mars in 15 years. But no one will invest very much in these programs because they are not of the highest priority.” According to Korablev, S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation (RSC), Energia, has the necessary knowledge, and manned spacecraft equipment, that are rather universal and may be used in expeditions to Mars. In turn, during a convention that was held yesterday, Boris Chertok, Chief Scientific Adviser for RSC Energia, said that in today’s economic and scientific conditions, sending a manned spacecraft expedition to Mars is unprofitable. “The time for a manned mission to the Red Planet will come in 100 years, at least 50,” he said. “Meanwhile, the slogan of modern cosmonautics should not be ‘To Mars!’ but ‘To the Moon!’.”

Korablev noted that, currently, nothing is being done in the planning of flights to Mars. According to Korablev, no manned missions to Mars are mentioned in the new legislation, which is being developed by a new space exploration federal program designed to be active until the year 2020. There are only two Mars exploration projects conducted by machines that are designed to collect soil samples. “Currently, Mars expedition talks are being held in the circles of enthusiasts who are wishing that this project is carried out as a distant national goal,” noted Korablev. “But so far, everything that was being done was conducted in the RSC Energia framework when it was still a state enterprise and not a corporation.”

Rossiyskaya Gazeta: Alexander Ivanovich, there are many versions of the events and unsubstantiated rumors related to the capture of the dry-cargo ship. At times, they are so scandalous that it’s difficult to get to the truth. Could you make it clear what actually happened?
Alexander Bastrykin: There really aren’t any secrets to the story. Remember the film “Pirates of the 20th Century” – this was basically a reenactment of the scenario. This happens almost every day on the coast of the Horn of Africa. But, the fact that it happened in the Baltic is unusual.
As part of the investigation, we took quick measures. As soon as the naval marines released the captured ship, our investigators were already at the detention place to which they arrived by plane. With the arrival of the crew and the delivery of 8 hijackers, the investigators began questioning victims and suspects.
RG: Alarming information has been made public that, allegedly, the crew is being isolated from the outside world and they can’t even call their relatives. This is being perceived as arbitrary behavior on behalf of the investigators.
Bastrykin: We consider the sailors to be victims who urgently need to be interrogated. But it isn’t true that they are not allowed to call their families. They can, and already are calling. We are doing everything necessary to conduct the investigation promptly and efficiently. We have provided them with clothing, food, and a place to stay in a hotel. The interrogations have been completed; now, we are deciding on where we will inspect the vessel.
RG: There are rumors that the vessel did not only contain lumber, but also some sort of contraband.
Bastrykin: That is exactly why we need to examine the vessel, not to leave any gaps in this case. We are not excluding the possibility that lumber was not the only thing being transported on the ship. In part, that is why we asked the crew members to stay a little longer in Moscow – we also need to investigate whether or not any of them were responsible for what happened. Not everything is yet clear, but we will get to the bottom of everything at our own pace. Just don’t create any excitement. And, most importantly, thanks to the Russian Navy we got the hijackers.
RG: Does the investigation have enough evidence gathered to charge the hijackers? After all, they are calling themselves peaceful ecologists.
Bastrykin: That is the point of the investigation – to gather this evidence. But I would like to draw your attention to the issue of the legal foundation of the investigation. One media source even ran a story about us not having the legal right to conduct an investigation of the vessel because it isn’t Russian and that it needs to be returned immediately.
Of course, I am stating that we have full legal rights to conduct investigations of the crew and the vessel. Article 105 of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) says that any state that has established its jurisdiction over a pirate or a ship captured by a pirate, has the right to institute criminal proceedings, investigate, arrest the perpetrators and transfer them to the national court of the party that established the jurisdiction. Therefore, we answer: we will return them after we have completed the investigations. We won’t delay the process.
RG: What is your personal impression? Was this an organized criminal group or simply a hired mob?
Bastrykin: It seems to me that we are entering into a new phase, a time when new types of criminality emerges. Piracy, which has been forgotten, is now taking on new forms and an international character. This needs to be seriously studied. All the hijackers are well-matched; they are all in excellent physical shape. After a week and a half we will release new information, including information about the hijackers.
RG: On another subject, the barbaric crime committed by police Major Evrosyukov, who in the heat of an incomprehensible hysteria opened fire in a store, which resulted in many deaths, caused a very loud reaction. Today, the case seems forgotten. Supposedly, he lost his mind and needs to be treated medically. Did the examination confirm this diagnosis?
Bastrykin: The investigation in this case has not been concluded, it is now in its final stages. I set out a task to find out what kind of person he is, whether or not he is mentally healthy. The inpatient forensic psychiatric examination found him sane.

RG: Have the reasons for this breakdown been identified?
Bastrykin: According to the investigator, Evsyukov has been experiencing an inferiority complex for a long time. There have been problems in his family as well, as on that day they had a fight. The result of the bottled up complex led to him wanting to release the pressure through such an insane action. We decided to conduct a psychological examination as well. According to psychiatrists, he is psychologically healthy. We want psychologists to have their say, as well.
RG: There has been talk about him being a drug addict and that he was at the initial stage of cirrhosis due to his chronic alcoholism.
Bastrykin: No such data exists. At the time when he committed the crime, he was under the influence of alcohol, but not pathologically intoxicated. A pathological state is when a person does not realize what he is doing. Evsyukov understood everything.
RG: Is the investigation coming to an end and will he soon be transferred to the court?
Bastrykin: Yes.
RG: Perhaps this was the result of complete lawlessness and confidence that he will walk away with clean hands? They say that many policemen experience a similar syndrome.
Bastrykin: His father also works within the police units; this means that he did not join the police forces by chance. This event should be a serious alert that we all, and not only the Ministry of Defense, need to deal with staffing issues. For example, in one year we held only 30 investigators criminally liable. Our position is as follows: not to conceal anything, if a person committed a crime – open a case, investigate it, determine how he gained employment with us, in other words, draw conclusions about the human resource management. Our duty is to do everything in order to ensure that there are no people at the Investigative Committee of the General Prosecutor’s Office who are not suitable for the difficult work of an investigator, which carries many responsibilities.

A detailed report about the “business meeting” with Alexander Bastrykin will be published in the upcoming Rossiyskaya Gazeta issue.