As the topic of his mission emerged, the sales manager had not
been agitated against me yet, he said he would not be against an of-
fice in Ukraine, where that man would be placed. He thought it was
settled. He briefed me in that sense during my holiday. But, in the
autumn of 1992, when the state of Ukraine regulated use of Russian
language and made Ukrainian compulsory in schools, the man con-
vinced my boss through his relative to send me to Ukraine instead of
him. He had a son of 14 and did not want to register him in a
Ukrainian-language school. Of course, the above true reason I had
to learn from him, when he was a little less sober -- he liked vodka
too much --, but it has not been very hard.
I went to Kiev to arrange my new office and housing there. Be-
fore that I handed over responsibility of the office -- in paper I have
remained the office chief until my final return home -- and the car. I
arranged all in Kiev and made a list of necessary furniture. The
Aeroflot and Air Ukraine still made their flights as domestic ones.
Next time I would face a makeshift international airport's checks. I
had to fly to Budapest to organise purchase of the furniture for the
Kiev apartment. Louis D. had been succeeded by a clever young
man, Zoltán B., and it was a pleasure to work with him. Through all
my persecutions that followed, I could always feel his presence on
my side. I have got a truck to take things to Kiev. Then I flew to Mos-
cow to prepare the move of my things to Budapest and to Kiev.
My family left before the Budapest-bound truck, I did after it. I
flew to Kiev to unload my truck. I discovered with a pleasant surprise
that another familiar driver was there to be off-loaded. He came and
helped. We were in a hurry. The next afternoon I had to fly home to
organise clearance of my things from Moscow. But before depart-
ure I helped both drivers to find their unloading or loading places.
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Kiev
When all was ready I wanted to take my holiday, but my boss
said:
“You have to open the Kiev office on July 1.” As it was June 23 I
had only time for 4 days. After that short rest I flew to Kiev and began
to assemble my furniture delivered in boards. Also I had to drill 24
holes in the granite-hard concrete to put up curtains and shades. It
took me 6 weeks to bring everything into order. During daytime I
have been in the office and evenings, as well as on week-ends, I
worked in the flat. In the middle of August my wife flew to me, she
has been followed soon by the juniors.
But before that, in July, I flew to Moscow to take my service car
back from my successor and drove it to Kiev. Until that time I used
my private car, an old BMW in a terrible condition. I had had to buy it
in Moscow, when my successor took the service car. After repair in
Kiev I drove it and my family used the service car.
My Kiev career has been short, but until that time, when it be-
came public the office would be closed, I have been successful. The
presence factor made traffic grow 3 times that of before. Technical
assistance for transit vehicles has itself paid the costs of the office,
let alone return loads, mainly raw hides to Italy and prefabricated
furniture to Sweden. Unfortunately, my new boss could not read
between the lines, he saw only direct income numbers from tariffs of
return loads. My holiday from the previous year I could take in May.
In July, after a year of unfulfilled promises, my son became an
employee again. It has not been by chance, as my Moscow succes-
sor went on holiday, and nobody could be found to replace him. I
was instructed to do that and my son replaced me. First it seemed to
last four weeks, but it became six, as he did not come back on time.
I took my wife with me and we lived in the hotel of the agency.
One evening in the second week I had a cramp in my leg and a vein
has blown up. I had pains at walking and had to use bandage all the
time left. Fortunately driving has not caused me pain. Work in the
office has been much. There were also problems during my time in
Moscow. One evening a sick driver has been found in one of the ca-
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Canned roaddust
bins. I had to organize his transport home by plane.
Very slowly that six weeks have passed and we could leave
back for Kiev. During that period, however, I met again Louis, my
cousin. I took him to Zagorsk, there were two other drivers with us.
One has been a man with southern Slavic origin and name. He was
the most intelligent of all our drivers.
Actually I consider my years as office chief in Moscow and Kiev
as a very good training in human affairs. During that time I became
acquainted with excellent people and, alas, on the opposite. To be-
gin with the latter I can mention someone, who, although he once
cheated me, I couldn't get angry with him, and whom I appreciate
since. In the spring of 1991 the transport of consumer electronics
began on direct routes from Western-Europe to Moscow. There
were thefts on the parking place and thus drivers parked more wil-
lingly in our street in front of the office building. The only trouble has
been toilet. The nearest one they could find in the building of Kiev
Railway Station about a thousand feet away, when we were closed.
March 15 has been our national holiday and two drivers asked me to
leave my key with them for making the toilet available. In the next
month I found an item in our phone bill very high. The telegraph
company informed us it was a call of 30 minutes to the U.S.
There were two drivers on frigo trucks, who saved my face
once, when one of their colleagues would not load the food assign-
ed to him. They remained reliable people over all my term.
That man to help me to take my things to the 18th floor in Kiev
had been grounded in Moscow once for two weeks. His extreme
cold blood with aggressive people and his intelligence had helped
us with Joe to solve a lot of hard tasks.
The man, who was with us in Zagorsk, I met in the autumn of
1991. Then it happened that he performed a private mission of mine
with his usual conscientiousness, and we remained in good con-
nection after that. It was he, who in Kiev once, when I had to send a
convoy of trucks to take load, took his colleagues to visit me. My
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Kiev
wife has offered them dinner, which they accepted, but they brought
raw material for it because of the general food shortage. It was in
October 1993. When he learned, during the afternoon we were go-
ing to the holy monastery of the Ukrainians, he gathered all drivers
and in his tractor he took all to the place. We met them there. He
would visit me even after my return from Kiev in my new office.
A driver, whose wife has been a saleswoman on one of our de-
partments, has been beaten and robbed before Easter 1991. I had
given him the job to take a truckload of vodka and carry it to the west
of Hungary. He was happy for the job, he was to spend the Easter
with his family, but it happened otherwise. He had to wait for a temp-
orary passport issued by the consul in that territory, as he forgot to
take his passport, when he was reporting the robbery to the police.
When he came to Moscow any time later, he would be a welcome
guest, as my son made friendship with him.
By the way, I think, my son helped me to get a lot of friends a-
mong drivers.
I spent another month at home in September 1994. I came with
my wife by train that time. From the behaviour of my new boss I felt
that I was destined to finish my term. I was right. He decided it and it
was final. It was a pity to take farewell from my partners, whom I
acquired only one year before. Preceding my leaving the place I or-
ganised a meeting between my partners in Kiev and their custom-
ers, my colleagues in charge. I wanted to offer a continuation to my
activities after me. Alas, neither side has been too keen to carry on.
And there was another factor against my will.
The organised underground crime has become so strong in
Russia that the state had to form special authorities against them.
One of their businesses represents unloading customs goods with-
out clearance. It can be found all over the world, but nowhere is it
done in a way so sophisticated as in Russia.
The deliverer of goods prepares the accompanying documents,
and one set is given to the driver to show them to the authorities at
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Canned roaddust
every point, where necessary. On the border of Russia the truck is
met by the consignee's representative. Goods coming with internat-
ional documents can enter the country, on the documents it is indic-
ated, where to go for clearance. The consignee takes it to his store
instead of the customs office and false stamps are placed on the
documents' return sheets. The truck can leave the country by these
stamps, but, as clearance has not happened, the border customs
office where the goods entered, will send an inquiry to the indicated
customs office. The answer will be negative, as the goods have not
been delivered to the office. Three months have elapsed, the con-
signee -- if there was a real name and address at all -- has been
dissolved. Joint liability of the carrier with the consignee makes it
possible for the authorities to claim everything on the carrier.
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Tenghiz