All Around the World with the Most Travelled Indian
By Nitin Gairola
As you know, my travels in most cases lead me to the natural world of deserts, ice caps and forests but sometimes they take me to the human world as well. I clearly love Geography more than History and it shows in my travel choices. But I did a recent visit to the Russian border town and the Baltic & Scandinavian countries, all of which had a very geopolitical undertone and very little to do with the natural world. So this is my third and final piece from this recent travel of mine, post which it will be back to first hand stories from the natural world.
I feel the perfect way to start the feature would be to quote a quote of Ruskin Bond – “when all the wars are over, a butterfly will still be beautiful”. I was really moved by this line when I read it the first time and it has remained with me since. And it is so relevant at this time.
Let me also say that I don’t profess to have much (or any) knowledge of military vehicles and equipment since I am but an ordinary traveller and just a student of the world I witness. But what I witnessed in this trip were military vehicles and weapons at armed forces expositions, open air tank displays and military convoys on the roads particularly in Lithuania, Estonia and Finland. This seemed like the obvious impact of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War and perhaps a way to awaken some national pride.
I was in Lithuania and visited quite a few towns but there was another area that I decided to go to. It is called the Suwalki Gap and is just a 65 kilometer or 40 mile stretch of land that links Lithuania with Poland, both NATO nations. But on the north of this gap lies Kaliningrad, a military enclave of Russia (inside Europe) and to the south is Belarus, a strong ally of Russia that shares a major border with Russia itself. So NATO believes that if Russian Kaliningrad and ‘Russian Belarus’ take over this narrow corridor, then they essentially cut off the three Baltic brothers (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) from the rest of NATO territories in Europe. As you can see in the map, to the north of the Baltic nations is the Baltic Sea and to the East is ‘big brother’ Russia looming down on them. So they and NATO feel that this could be a real scenario playing out sometime in the not-so-faraway future.
Because of this, NATO has stationed soldiers and vehicles in this area, particularly in places such as Druskininkai, Alytus and Varena. As recently as May of this year, NATO conducted a military preparedness exercise at the Suwalki Gap, dubbed Brave Griffin 24/11. Over 20,000 NATO troops participated in it as part of their larger plan to defend the Suwalki Gap (the plan itself is called the ‘Orsha Plan’). I also visited a nearby town called Kaunas, close to the mouth of this Suwalki corridor. There I got access to a military exposition and saw some incredible military machinery which I hope will never be used on the battlefield. When it is there to be appreciated for its beauty as an automobile, it is fine. But when it turns into a killing machine then all the beauty of the beast goes away.
These days you might be hearing the news about the ongoing Ukrainian offensive in Kursk Oblast within the Russian territory. This is the first Ukrainian offensive inside Russian soil and has raised all sorts of alarm bells across Europe, America and the world at large. With Russia’s warning to NATO post this offensive, the western military alliance will now also deploy 5,000 troops in Mikkeli, Finland, very close to the Russian border. I was near this area too during my stay in Finland, and it may well be a future frontline of a war that no sane man wants to see.
Coming back to Lithuania, in Kaunas I met a fantastic Finnish Army officer, Matas Toliusis, and he gave me a great overview of all the machinery that was at the exposition. It was possibly one of my top travel days during this visit, in such an unlikely place. The reason why this became an even more special experience is because I was the only one there in the middle of all this metal. I had almost forgotten about the cobbled streets of Vilnius (Lithuanian capital) or Riga (Latvia’s capital) or any other place in between. It is such experiences that are unexpected, unanticipated and somewhat uncontrolled that add true value to travel. This act of movement has to also move you to make it truly meaningful.
In my conversations with Matas I learned about his apprehensions of an invasion and how he plans to defend the land for his family. His feelings came out quite strongly on this topic and I, as always, didn’t agree or disagree. Political topics have no end and no justification, so of what good is the judgement.
My stay in Latvia was very short but in Estonia I visited quite a few places. There I came across something very interesting called ‘the SAS’, abbreviation for ‘Saturdays and Sundays’. Basically it’s what the citizen-soldiers are called in Estonia because they undergo voluntary military training during the weekends when they are not at work.
Later on in the trip, when I exited the Baltic States, I found myself in Finland. There I went further north-east towards the Russian border since I had heard of a military buildup in the area and wanted to see what was going on first hand. However here the real access was difficult and what I had to settle for was seeing a few old tanks and armoured vehicles on display inside a forested areas with tall boreal trees in Parola. As you can imagine it is quite a sight to see war vehicles in the setting of tall trees but in reality all of them were on display for military enthusiasts and the real military training action was elsewhere, away from us tourists. But still it wasn’t bad as I ended up with some excellent photographs of combat vehicles including the popular Panther and T-55 tanks.
During this strange trip I also ended up seeing and touching actual equipment used in the current Russia-Ukraine War including tanks and various guns such as U.S.A’s anti-tank missile launcher, called Javelin. While I am not much for such kind of dark tourism, I did like the part that this was current world news and I was there. In that sense I suppose I do like to be seen as a reporter, not just the regular world traveller and writer. This peripheral view away from the actual war zone gave some perspective and insight into the mood of a continent that had maintained peace for 76 years, until it was broken in February 2022. May this part of the planet find its peace again and may we all find ours too.
Nitin Gairola is from Dehradun and has travelled the natural world more than almost any Indian ever. He has set world travel records certified by India Book of Records, has written for Lonely Planet, and holds National Geographic conservation certifications. He is also a senior corporate executive in an MNC and in his early days, used to be a published poet as well. More than anything else, he loves his Himalayan home. Reach him at facebook.com/MostTravelledIndian/
