Sometimes, the quest for respect makes people move mountains. Or simply build something special for that sense of achievement. Sometimes, it could emerge from a secret attic too! From Ryazan, 120 miles south-east of Moscow. Mikhail Pushkov did that.

Fed up of the suffocating Leonid Brezhnev’s regime in Russia (USSR then), Puchkov secretly built a personal submarine, the smallest, in his pursuit for respect. His family did not like it. He was barely 20 then. His first submarine, tested in 1984, sank. Over three years later, he got his submarine to dive and surface. Hard work.

He enjoyed his nocturnal submarine rides on local rivers through the years and in 1994, he decided to move to the sea on a secret cruise.

So far, the inventor has done many trips between Helsinki and St Petersburg that are 100 miles apart on Gulf of Finland’s coast. His machine plunges 30 feet deep and sails 100 miles a day on the fibre-glass made machine. Puchkov spent 20 years trying to make his submarine dream legal. And kept improving on it.

He still carries a paddle just in case. Although popular at St Petersburg, most people do not know where he lives. The machine, is officially registered as a boat.

Via: Likecool, Inventorspot