How did my collection start? Where did it all start? One would think my collection started with the first item I bought or maybe the first model I bought but when I start to think about it, I come to the conclusion that it started a lot earlier than that.
Back in the late 80s and early 90s, at the end of the cold war, is when my curiosity about the Soviet Union started. I would hear about the Soviet Union on the radio, see news about it on TV and read about it in the newspapers. I was in gradeschool at that time and my friends and I would talk about the Migs and Sukhois, submarines and the Soviet Navy and I was in heaven. I tried to get anything related to Soviet submarines and airplanes that I could but there just wasn't much available at that time.
Then came the movie The Hunt for Red October. I loved it since the first time I saw it. I bought the book and read it many times. I also read Red Storm Rising and loved that too.
In the early 90s the Detroit Red Wings started getting Soviet players. The first one was Sergei Fedorov. He was my favorite. Watching him play in the NHL was something out of this world. It was amazing. Eventually the Red Wings got four more players and formed the Russian Five. They were at a level above everybody else.
I used to look at Russian words and the backwards R and N amazed me. Toys R Us also had the backwards R and my dad spent quite a bit of money at that store because of me. One day I saw a Russian language course in cassettes at Barnes and Noble and I bought it. It came with a little booklet and two cassettes. I listened to it over and over many times trying to self teach myself Russian. I still have it today. Other books and courses followed throught the years and the more I learned about the USSR, the more hooked I got. Every one of these things just fueled my desire to learn more about the USSR, a country that was closed off to the world for over 7 decades.
I think the first item I bought was a pilot helmet. I remember when it arrived in the mail I went to put it on and it was way too small for me. I was so happy to get the helmet but at the same time so mad that it didn't fit me. This was in the late 2000s. I still had a long way to go to learn Soviet sizes for clothing and shoes but I didn't consider myself a collector. I just bought things I liked and was interested in. It wasn't until 2016-2017 that I got serious about it. I was decorating my room in an Aeroflot theme and I saw an Aeroflot model and bought it. Then I saw an airport vehicle and bought that too and it just took off from there.
Today I don't even know the correct number of items I have but it is well over 1000. Hopefully with the museum online I'll know exactly how many items I have. I showed parts of my collection to my niece who enjoys going to museums and she told me I should start my own museum and display my collection for people to see. After some thought I decided to do it and I hope people will enjoy it and learn something too.
