This year from May 19 through June 3, I led thirty-two people to the following places in the Soviet Union: first, Leningrad; then by bus to the ancient northern cities of Pskov and Novgorod; next by train to Petrozavodsk, one night's ride to the north of Leningrad and the capital of the Karelian Autonomous Republic. (The language of the natives here is a dialect of Finnish.) From Petrozavodsk we traveled one hour by hydrofoil boat to an island -- Kizhi -- in Lake Onega, one of the largest lakes in Europe. On the island is a famous museum complex of ancient wooden architecture. We were the first people there this year. Usually there is still ice in the middle of May. We were lucky. After another train ride back to Leningrad (where we stayed two more days), our group flew to Moscow for three days and thence via KLM to Amsterdam, where we stayed one full day.

The trip went perfectly, so I have decided to go again next year -- to Leningrad, Minsk, Kiev, Yalta and Moscow. The democratic revolution continues to gain momentum in Russia. While we were in Moscow everyone in the city took off work to listen to the speeches of the elected delegates on TV. I believe the last time Americans cared that much about elections was the Kennedy-Nixon campaign. The economy, however, is worsening, judging by the fact that the exchange rate on the street was 10 rubles for one dollar -- seventeen times better than the official rate of 60 kopecks for a dollar. This meant you could buy good wine for a quarter a bottle, see a ballet for a buck, buy granny a souvenir for 50 cents. All my cash purchases in the USSR came to only $15.00. I feel guilty about it, actually.

As for insulators -- I came armed as usual with a dozen photos of my collection and a plastic bag full of military insignia picked up cheap at flea markets. Teenage boys will do anything for military insignia, including stealing a bushel full of insulators for you.

The first people I showed my pictures to were our bus drivers. They were much amused, but kept their eyes peeled for good specimens. We traveled hundreds of miles with these drivers, who worked in shifts. The roads are like ours of the 1940's. There are no "restrooms" along the way, no picnic tables, no nothing. Once we lost a muffler in the remote wilderness. While the drivers made temporary repairs, I checked out some power lines that stretched overhead near where we had stopped. I found no sombreros in the muskeg swamp, but I noticed that the newest and lowest of the three lines carried a new style of sombrero. Two glass pieces had been cast together, like two sombreros in one, so that there was a distinctly visible deep groove all around the center of the circumference of the piece.

One day in Pskov, while our group was being conducted through a famous cave monastery (with piles of bones and caskets in one corner of it), our waiting drivers busied themselves on my behalf by climbing upon a balcony of a nearby building and unscrewing two small white porcelain insulators for me. (See Photo 5., second from right). Of course I made out that these insulators, of which I already have several, were the rarest things on earth!

I saw thousands of desirable insulators as we rode along -- but none were conveniently lying on the ground. Teenagers seemed scarce as well. But then on our last day in Novgorod, as we left our bus to visit the famous St. Sophia Cathedral, some boys crowded around us, pushing and shoving, wanting to buy and sell things. I decided to "scare" them a little by saying, "Hey, you better watch it -- all of us are cops!" One little guy about fifteen stared back at me and said, "We're all KGB." So I picked him out to be my insulator dealer. Although I did not have my military stuff with me, this kid, Misha by name, believed my trade offer. I told him to get me porcelain signs as well as insulators.

At. 9 p.m. we met in a vacant lot behind the hotel, near the river. Misha and his friends had so much loot that it took three of them to carry it. Once I saw that huge green glass power insulator (see ill. 2), I knew I had hit the jackpot -- but there was lots of other good stuff besides. Altogether, they had collected twenty pieces -- but they had had to buy two bottles of vodka with which to bribe the manager of the power substation. Even so, they were ecstatic over the sergeants' stripes, small flags and officers' bars that I foisted off on them. They felt they had robbed me blind, felt sorry for me. They also brought me a porcelain high-voltage warning sign with a crudely drawn skull on it. And they had a porcelain street sign (once on a downtown building twenty feet off the ground) that was as big as the top of a kitchen table. I felt very sorry to give it up, but I had to toss it, along with three of the insulators that carried a lot of metal. Though delighted with my coup, I felt depressed about having to carry this massive extra weight for the last two-thirds of our trip -- probably only to have it seized by customs anyway. However, at least this year I had room for the dear little things: my intelligent wife Judy, also participating in the trip, had made me take a huge, nearly empty suitcase for my anticipated loot.

The accompanying photos show the great range of insulators I received from Misha and his crew. Too bad only three are glass. But the brown porcelain pieces are terrific. And heavy! Around 5 pounds each. I figure the total weight of my loot this year was 40 pounds, minimum. Better to say fifty.

I sweated out the usual couple of pints of blood while moving slowly through the baggage-inspection line at customs. I could see that at the end of the line you went either to the guy on the left or the guy on the right, whichever was free. They guy on the left was basically reading a comic book and not even looking at his x-ray screen. But the guy on the right was staring at his tube as though it had "Hef and Kimberly" in the grotto on it. If I had to go right, I was cat meat. When it was my turn to move, both guys were busy. I was on the verge of fainting as I waited for my fate; but suddenly it became clear that the poor traveler on the right was a Russian. He had to open all his bags. He'd be there a week. Made it again! I zipped through inspection in two minutes flat.

During our day in Amsterdam I never even saw an insulator (if you don't count trolley junk), much less find one.

At the kind of prices I like to charge for Russian insulators, I figure I smuggled out about $2000 worth of the goodies. But I'm keeping half for my collection. I keep waiting for the competition to move in, but so far it hasn't.

(Photo 1.) Twenty glass and porcelain insulators obtained by Fiene in the USSR during May and June of 1989.

(Photo 2.) Only three were glass. The insulator on the left is similar to CD-540, except that it measures 3-1/8 "x 4-1/4". It is sharply embossed with distinctively Soviet high-voltage insulator logo: 

The insulator on the right is the same, but it's turned 90 degrees to show side profile. The large power insulator is unique. See accompanying drawing for details. I do not know what the embossing means, except that it is an interesting combination of both Cyrillic and Latin letters, and the date is 1979. A factory in a republic using the Latin alphabet (such as Estonia) might well identify itself with Latin letters (that is, same as our letters).

(Photo 3.) The three largest power types. The brown porcelain on the left is a duplicate of one I found last year and described in detail in November, 1988 Crown Jewels of the Wire. That on the right also requires a new U-number. See accompanying drawing. (For discussion of mark, see photo #5) See photo #2 for information on the large glass power.

(Photo 4.) The four different types of brown porcelain obtained. The strain on the left is virtually identical to that described in CJ (Nov.1988), except that it is stamped in back on the bottom:

The large letter stand for "electricity" or some variation of it. The medium-sized brown power type on the right is similar to one obtained and described last year -- but not similar enough to sell. The only embossing is a date on the skirt: 1961.

(Photo 5) The seven different types of white porcelain obtained. The insulator on the far left is very close to U-1695. It has an incuse logo on top:

This mark is a combination of the distinctly Russian letter "" with the letter "". I don't know what they stand for, but they prove the insulator was made in the USSR. On the other half of the top of this insulator is the incuse date: 88. The companion insulator to the right has the same markings, except that the date is given in full: 1981, and it is shorter, making it a U-1686. The next insulator to the right is described in the drawings. It is similar to German and Polish glass types. I do not know what the letters stand for in the mark, but the logo in the center of the date, like a Christmas tree inside a circle, is a distinctly Soviet symbol. The next two insulators to the right are fancy spools, described in the drawings. The small pin insulator, similar to U-1633, except that it measures 2 x 2-5/8 ",has the incuse marking on the top:

The letters are the Russian equivalents of "K, D, Z." The number at the bottom is the date (1970). The last insulator on the right is a sleeve or bushing.

(Photo 6.) Black and white porcelain passenger-train sign: "Chelyabinsk (a city in Siberia) to Moscow." 4"x 48"

(Photo 7.) Porcelain high voltage warning sign "Climb and you die" on left was obtained in 1989; the rusted and repaired iron sign on the right was obtained in 1988.

(Photo 8.) Large insulator, about 11" x 18", found in a ditch near Wilmington, N.C. A flea-market, plaster, spray-painted angel is wired to THE TOP.

(Photo 9.) Giant insulator, one of 100 made in 1965 for a TVA hydroelectric dam that was never built. 48" high; flags are 19" wide at bottom and 14" at top. The core widens from 8" in diameter at top to 14" at bottom. A local antique dealer is selling these for $100 each. I got mine at the flea market for fifty. It weighs over 200 pounds. (How much bigger do insulators come?)

(Photo 10.) Large Pyrex antenna insulator bought from Chuck Haymond at the Eastern Regional, Nashville, 1988. For more information on this type of insulator, write Jim Singleton.