I'm at a dress rehearsal at Zhukovsky test center, about 25 miles outside Moscow, for a theatrical performance called The Invincible and the Legendary, set to debut the next day at a Russian arms exposition. The dry name of the Russian expo—the Engineering Technologies International Forum 2010—belies its military focus and mass-market entertainment value. One part defense-technology trade show and one part summertime festival, the Forum's first two days are designated to showcase modern military hardware for potential foreign customers, but over the weekend the Forum becomes a patriotic pep rally. To get people's attention, the organizers at the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) need a show. Russian entertainment is not known for subtlety: Enter the T-90s, stage left.
Andrei Melanyin, seated with his legs crossed, watches the tanks practice from inside a beige tent in the bleachers. As the director of The Invincible and the Legendary, he's looking for mistakes with a practiced eye. Melanyin is the head of the State Academic Bolshoi Theater of Russia, which includes the world-famous Bolshoi Theater, and a professor at the Institute of Modern Art. "They asked me to come in and do something theatrical," he says of the government organizers of the event. "They wanted something more than just a technical demonstration." The show he produced skips like a fake gemstone across Russian history, from the violent founding of the nation out of the Kiev city-state in the 12th century to demonstrations of hand-to-hand combat, set to the music of Ravel's Bolero, by modern paratroopers. The program also includes a reenactment of a raid on a terrorist camp by attack helicopters, a display by combat dogs and a parade of heavy vehicles running obstacles. And the tanks—not just jumping ramps, but choreographed in a synchronized dance routine.
"I have rehearsed a lot with the tanks, but I had never sat inside one until this morning," Melanyin says, standing in the empty stands under the cool shadow of a flapping Russian flag. "If I had, I would not have asked the drivers for so much." Indeed, it's hard not to feel bad for the crews inside given the cramped interiors and padded cloth helmets endured by the tank crews ....
