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I used to work for a Russian Oligarch.


Wilbur

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I used to work for a Russian V.P. of Minerec, a Dow Chemical subsidiary, named Val Zolotuchin, a chemical engineer who was born in Chile.

A major part of our production, Minerec A, went to the El Teniente copper mine in Chile.

So, Val stole the secret synthetic plans from Minerec, went down to Chile, and opened his own plant to make the stuff.  Chile's corrupt government protected him.

Don't trust those Russians!

Minerec was soon relying on the Specialty Chemicals whose low-cost processes I was developing for materials already in existence but expensively made elsewhere including a biodegradable pesticide, intermediate chemicals for pharmaceuticals, and a non-carcinogenic material that made kid's clothes flameproof.

Unfortunately, around that time (1980), it was becoming obvious that a lot of the chemicals we were handling were carcinogenic and that Industrial Bench Chemist was the career with the shortest lifespan of college graduates.

So I went into teaching at a low salary but with a great pension.

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The professor who taught my Cognition and Learning Class said that when he went to college, a Duchess of the royal Romanov Family, who fled Russia after the Revolution, taught Russian at the college so he took a course in Russian just so he could meet her.

Several years later, he's drafted into the air force as the Korean War is beginning and he's sent to a secret U.S. base without any explanation.

When he gets there, he's allowed to speak nothing but Russian. It turned out the Air Force picked him because he was on a list on people who studied Russian.

After a few months, he's brought up to near-fluent level, trained in air-traffic control, and is sent to Korea.

It turned out that a lot of the North Korean MiG pilots were Russian and his job was to intercept radio contact between the planes and with ground control and relay any information he could gather.

He said one of his group was so good he spoke Russian without an accent and sent NK planes on goofy missions.

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