Despite its recent origins (the first Salon was held in 1992), MAKS is steeped in history. As President Vladimir Putin proudly noted in his welcoming address, MAKS “continues the longstanding tradition of aviation parades and air show holidays that has always existed in Russia.” His statement was no boast. Tsarist Russia opened its first “International Week of Aviation” in April 1910, just three months after Los Angeles-area aviation patrons hosted the first such meet in the United States. Dozens more events were held in Russia during the years leading up to 1917. In the Soviet period, public air shows, exhibitions, and spectacles were commonplace as Communist Party leaders exploited aviation to generate public faith in (and foreign fear of) their country’s military might.

MAKS is, by definition, an international event. However, its primary purpose has always been to showcase and promote the accomplishments of the Russian aerospace industry. President Putin’s opening day assertion that his government’s main task “is maintaining our leadership in the production of military aviation technology,” [emphasis added] should be understood in this light. It’s a classic example of “compensatory symbolism:” the historic propensity of Russian officials to exaggerate technological accomplishments and military standing in order to mask weakness and deficiencies vis-à-vis foreign rivals. That President Putin should sense a need to embellish the truth doubtless stems from the precipitous decline in Russian air power that followed the collapse of the USSR in 1991 and from continuing doubts about the current status of the post-Soviet air weapon.

Recent innovations on display at MAKS-2007 such as the S-400 air defense system, the 3M25 “Meteorit” cruise missile, and the latest models of Su-35 and MiG-29 aircraft notwithstanding, the Russian military’s current aviation inventory hardly garners the full respect of aerospace observers. Moscow-based defense analyst Pavel Felgenhauer dismissed the Sukhoi and MiG aircraft appearing at the Salon as “flying toys that have not been launched for production.” Commenting on Moscow’s decision last week to resume long-range bomber patrols, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack brushed off the development stating that “If Russia feels as though they want to take some of these old aircraft out of mothballs and get them flying again, that’s their decision.” Meanwhile, in separate editorials published Wednesday in The Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph, Max Hastings and David Blair dismissed out of hand Russia’s pretensions at once again becoming a major military power citing, among other things, the country’s underlying poverty, economic inequality, and industrial backwardness.

While Hastings may be correct that Russians “cannot make toasters or microwaves, washing-machines or cookers that could find an export market anywhere outside Cuba,” he and other Western observers would be well advised not to underestimate the abilities of Russian aerospace engineers. Likewise, they should not underestimate the value that the Russian state places on air power. It is not happenstance that Putin has presided over the opening ceremony at every MAKS event held during his presidency. He is keenly interested in aviation. And he has repeatedly expressed his goal of re-establishing Russia as a key player in the international market. His administration has undertaken concrete steps to realize that goal. Chief among these has been the formation of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), an umbrella organization that has brought previously independent Russian aircraft firms like Suhkoi, MiG, and Tupolev under a single administrative entity controlled by the state. This, too, has clear parallels in Russia’s Soviet and Imperial pasts. Throughout the course of the twentieth century it was the state, not private enterprise, that controlled, promoted, and sustained domestic aviation. It appears that the same may be set to happen in the twenty-first century.

Having survived very difficult times in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian aviation is currently experiencing a renaissance. And once again, the Russian state is serving as mid-wife. Flush with cash thanks to the revenues generated from the sale of oil, gas, and other natural resources, the Putin administration is sinking billions into the refurbishment of aviation infrastructure, the design and construction of new aircraft, and the creation of international partnerships with companies like Boeing and Airbus. These partnerships will provide Russia access to the advanced technology it needs later to compete independently against American and European manufacturers.

In mid-August UAC President Aleksei Fyodorov proclaimed that the Russian Federation will surpass Soviet-era production levels by building 4,500 civilian aircraft over the next 18 years. If the government is to make good on this audacious target, it will have to find buyers for these new planes. Recent announcements regarding the pending sale of advanced Sukhoi fighters to Iran and Venezuela suggest still further ties to past precedent. While many in the West view these new deals as efforts designed to score geopolitical points at the expense of the US, such contracts are far more important as inroads to negotiating sales of the new civilian airliners expected to roll out of Russian factories beginning in 2015. It’s a strategy that hearkens back to the 1950s and 1960s when, unable to find buyers for their civilian aircraft in the West, the Soviet Union secured passenger aircraft contracts with Third World governments by sweetening deals for Ilyushin and Tupolev carriers with offers of MiG and Sukhoi fighters.

When analysts like Felgenhauer and Hastings characterize Putin’s agenda as a Cold-War throwback destined to fail owing to economic weakness and industrial backwardness they are mistaken. Putin’s approach, in fact, is a well-tested model that has very deep roots in Russian history. At the turn of the eighteenth century Imperial Russia’s “Westernizing” tsar Peter the Great borrowed heavily from Europe, importing technology, expertise, and equipment while using state authority and finances to spur development at home. In very short order he transformed Russia from a backward, impoverished, and peripheral also-ran into one of Europe’s leading military powers. The Soviet Union accomplished much the same thing in the 1930s through the state-directed industrialization campaign launch by Josef Stalin. Although the modernization programs under both Peter and Stalin came at a steep price for the country’s ordinary citizens and ultimately proved only qualified successes, they radically altered Europe’s military and political landscapes by quickly vaulting Russia into the ranks of the major powers. The events surrounding MAKS-2007 suggest that Russian officials are hoping to alter radically the aerospace landscape in the years to come. They also suggest that Russia’s approach to rebuilding its air arm will follow tried and true patterns derived from its history.

Peter the Great is alleged to have quipped: “We need Europe for a few decades, and then we must show her our ass.”

It is not difficult to imagine that Vladimir Putin is thinking the same thing.

ScP

I am happy to announce that last night the site went “live.”

It’s called The Russian Front. In addition to offering visitors commentary and articles written by professional historians, The Russian Front is intended to serve as a resource depot for documents, teaching materials, original translations, and the like relating to Russian military and diplomatic history.

Right now you’ll find a word of welcome and a few never-before available translations of important Soviet documents. We’ll have much more in the days and weeks to come as new resources are stockpiled and as my fellow “frontoviki” being adding articles of their own.

If you’re interested in military history, I hope you’ll consider making The Russian Front a regular part of your Internet travels. It promises to be informative, useful, and, we hope, entertaining. At the very least, I guarantee that you’ll find your experiences there far more rewarding than these guys did.

[ My apologies for the long delay in posting the last segment of my series on the VVS Museum. After uploading Part Five, I took a week off to visit family and friends. Since then I've been hard at work with some colleagues developing what we think is going to be an exciting new web resource. I'll have more to say about that in a few weeks. In the meantime, here at last is my last word on The Russian Air Force Museum at Monino.]

As I first mentioned in the second part of this series, two of the displays housed at the VVS Museum are currently closed to visitors. The Museum’s hangar containing “Unique Flying Apparatuses” is unavailable while repairs are being undertaken to its roof. It is expected to re-open early this fall. Meanwhile, the exhibition devoted to the history of Russian aviation has been closed since a fire gutted much of the Museum’s main building in 2005.

Despite the fact that you cannot currently view these displays, we’ll conclude our field guide with a description of what you can expect to see once these parts of the Museum re-open.

“Unique Flying Apparatuses”

Located in a hangar opposite the entrance to the open-air collection of planes, the Museum’s display of “Unique Flying Apparatuses” contains a sizable number of historic and replica aircraft representing machines largely constructed during the decades preceding the Great Patriotic War.

The “oldest” plane in the collection is a Farman IV, a box-kite pusher biplane (patterned after a slightly earlier Voisin model) that first debuted in 1909. Notwithstanding its light weight and flimsy appearance, the wood, wire, and lacquered canvas contraption proved both sturdy and highly modifiable. This model was the first one to emerge from Moscow’s Dux aircraft factory. Dozens more were assembled by other enterprises and amateur constructors. Although the precise number built is impossible to ascertain, the Farman IV was arguably the most popular airplane among Russia’s first generation of aviation pioneers.

The Farman IV housed in the Museum’s collection is a working replica built on order of the Lenfil’m studio for use in The Aviator (Воздухоплаватель), a 1975 feature film loosely chronicling the life of Ivan Mikhailovich Zaikin (1870-1948). An Odessa-based circus strong-man (and later champion Greco-Roman wrestler), Zaikin was a noted celebrity in pre-WWI Russia. He earned initial fame for public demonstrations of strength in which he broke iron chains with his hands and bent steel bars across the back of his neck. In 1910 he became one of the first Russians to fly a biplane when he took to the air aboard a Farman IV. According to the Museum’s official guidebook, the replica housed in the VVS collection completed fifty flights before being donated by the film studio in September 1975.

In addition to the Farman IV, the Museum’s collection of unique planes includes a full-scale mock-up of Imperial Russia’s most famous native aircraft: the Il’ya Muromets. The brainchild of Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky (1889-1972), (the pioneering constructor who would later develop the world’s first functional helicopters) the four-engine Il’ya Muromets is justly recognized as one of the most innovative and revolutionary airplanes ever built. The plane was also colossally large by the day’s standards. The initial version measured 62 ft. in length and possessed a wingspan of just over 101 ft. It was capable of lifting more than 2,000 pounds and could cover more than 350 miles while staying aloft for upwards of five hours.

Although the Muromets was not the world’s first multi-engine plane — that honor belonged to Sikorsky’s 1913 Russian Warrior — (aka Big Baltic or Grand), the flying behemoth introduced numerous ground-breaking components. The plane’s most distinctive feature was that its passenger hold was incorporated into the fuselage: a design innovation that served as a model for nearly all subsequent military and civilian aircraft. Over five feet wide and six feet high, the passenger compartment was capable of comfortably accommodating up to one dozen people. The plane also possessed a sleeping cabin and an observation platform as well as a generator for producing electric light to illuminate the cabin, a heating system, and, in another aviation first, a toilet.

In addition to being the first true passenger aircraft the Il’ya Muromets also served during the Great War as the world’s first strategic bomber. In December 1914, the Russian General Staff ordered the formation of a group of twelve Muromtsy which it designated the “Squadron of Flying Ships.” Initially employed as reconnaissance platforms, the planes were soon utilized to bomb enemy positions. The Squadron was responsible for history’s first effort at mass bombing. It also undertook the first nighttime bombing raids and the first bomb damage assessments using photographic equipment. Before Russia exited the war in April 1918, Sikorsky’s giants amassed an impressive service record. Despite flying more than 400 sorties, only one of the 73 airplanes deployed was lost to enemy fire.¹

The Museum’s standout example of a unique Soviet “flying apparatus” is its copy of the famed Tupolev ANT-25 Stalin’s Route (Сталинский маршрут), the most celebrated Soviet airplane of the pre-WWII era. Stalin’s Route first garnered recognition in July 1936 when a flight crew consisting of pilot Valerii Chkalov, co-pilot Georgii Baidukov, and navigator Aleksandr Beliakov set a world distance record by flying just over 5,800 miles non-stop from Moscow to the Pacific rim island Udd. The next year, the same crew and aircraft made history again when they successfully completed the first trans-Polar crossing on a flight between Moscow and Pearson Air Field in Vancouver, Washington. A second ANT-25 flown by pilot Mikhail Gromov, co-pilot Sergei Danilin, and navigator Andrei Iumashev followed up the success of Stalin’s Route by completing an even longer (6,300 mile) non-stop trans-Polar flight from Moscow to San Jacinto, California one month later.

“History of Russian Aviation Exhibition”

The final stop in our tour of the VVS Museum is the history of Russian aviation exhibit normally housed in the main administrative building. When open, the exhibit is a treasure trove of fascinating information, models, and artifacts. If you read a bit of Russian, you can get a sense of the presentation by taking a look at the Museum’s official homepage where you’ll find detailed descriptions of the Museum’s fixed displays. Unfortunately, the descriptions are only available по-русски. The on-line guide suggests that the Museum collection is divided into ten so-called “halls.” It should been noted, however, that only nine are described on the site (the list is mis-numbered, skipping “hall” seven). Moreover, the “halls” described on-line include the aircraft parked in the open-air display [previously described in parts 3-5 of this series] and the two hangars.

Here, I will limit coverage to general descriptions of the types of materials displayed in the five rooms typically located in the Museum’s main building.

Display One: “Development and Growth of Aeronautics and Aviation in Russian to 1917”

Not surprisingly, the first display area in the Museum’s history of aviation exhibit is devoted to the dawn of Russian aviation. Here, visitors are introduced to scientists like the great Mikhail Lomonosov (1711-1765) who (among other things) conducted early experiments on atmospheric properties and Dmitrii Mendeleev (1834-1907), the inventor of the Periodic Table of Elements, who took part in a hot-air balloon ascent in 1887. More directly, the Museum devotes considerable attention to the life and work of Nikolai Zhukovskii (1847-1921) the pioneering mathematician who founded the Russian study of aerodynamics.

Although the history of aeronautics is covered in sections devoted to the Russian military’s use of observation balloons during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) and the ensuing deployment of military dirigibles, most of the coverage is given over to the development of Imperial Russian aviation. Visitors are introduced to early constructors including Ia. M. Gakkel’, D. P. Grigorovich, and A. A. Porokhovshchikov as well as early Russian airplane firms like Dux and the Russo-Balt Carriage Factory. While most Russian constructors relied heavily on the importation and licensing of engines from foreign companies like Nieuport and Wright, the Museum devotes considerable space to the first Russian-made motors. Early “sportsmen-aviators” including Mikhail Efimov and Nikolai Popov, their airplanes, and the air shows in which they participated are also described.

The first display room concludes with materials relating to Russian aviation during the Great War. Particular attention is given, of course, to Sikorsky’s giant airplanes. Well-worth noting is the section on Russia’s most celebrated WWI aviator Captain Petr Nikolaevich Nesterov (1887-1914). In addition to being the first pilot in history to loop an airplane (1913), Nesterov was the first Russian pilot to down an enemy aircraft. He accomplished this feat in early September 1914 when he rammed the unarmed Albatros he was flying into an Austrian reconnaissance plane. Both he and the two fliers aboard the enemy aircraft were killed in the resulting crashes.

Display Two: “Continuing Development of Aviation to June 1941”

The second room in the Museum’s historical display contains materials relating to the development of Soviet aviation between 1917-1941. The exhibits here address subjects ranging from Civil War aviation and the founding the Society of Friends of the Air Fleet, to the expansion of Soviet aircraft industry during the first Five year Plan (1928-1932) and the earliest years of Soviet civil aviation.

Particularly interesting are the materials relating to aerial propaganda missions like the 1925 “Great Flight” from Moscow to Peking (and then Tokyo) and the visit of the ANT-4 Land of the Soviets to the United States in 1929. Here, too, is where the Museum provides background information (and some rare photographs) relating to famous prestige airplanes such as the ANT-20 Maxim Gorky and the ANT-25 Stalin’s Route. There’s also a good deal of material on “Stalin’s falcons” (including pilots Valerii Chkalov and Mikhail Gromov) and the various world records set by Soviet airmen (and women) during the 1930s.

Displays Three & Four: “The Great Patriotic War”

Not surprisingly, the centerpiece of the Museum’s history exhibit consists of the two separate rooms devoted to the accomplishments of the VVS during the course of the Great Patriotic War.
What may strike foreign visitors as a bit odd is the extent to which the presentation and tone of these materials reveal ideas and attitudes seemingly held-over from the Soviet era. These tendencies are likewise reflected on the Museum’s web site which proclaims, in characteristic fashion, that “the first days of the Great Patriotic War clearly revealed the guiding organizational role of the Communist Party and its close and unbreakable bond with the masses.”²

Even if your knowledge of Operation Barbarossa is limited to a single show that you once saw on the History Channel, you know that this claim is utter nonsense. Those a bit more familiar with the contours (and content) of Soviet history, will recognize statements like this for what they really are: propagandistic boilerplate that Party leaders used to maintain their legitimacy in the years that followed 1953.

In addition to echoing from time to time Soviet-era propaganda, the Museum’s materials occasionally cite misleading figures in advancing dubious claims about the performance of the VVS. For example:

“From the beginning of the Great Patriotic War the enemy encountered the powerful blows of Soviet aviation. In the first three months of combat in the air and at aerodromes upwards of 3,500 fascist planes were destroyed. During this period 250,000 sorties were flown of which 47% resulted in the destruction of enemy tanks, motorized columns, and infantry on the field of battle.”³

While it is certainly true that the fall campaign strained the Luftwaffe to the breaking point, German air losses were closer to 2,500 than to 3,500. Moreover, the Museum’s account glosses over an equally important aspect of invasion: the more than 21,000 Soviet aircraft destroyed between June-November 1941.

Given the vast scope of the Museum’s Great Patriotic War display, it would be futile to try countering all of the questionable statements appearing in the exhibit. It’s also unnecessary. Despite the tendentious language, discerning visitors stand to learn a lot about the wartime experiences of the VVS. Still, you’d be well-served to read-up a bit on the war before and after visiting the Museum. [In an upcoming post, I’ll recommend some good recent books on the Russian Front]. Whatever the case, the Museum’s displays contain a great deal of information with which even aviation junkies are probably not familiar.

Much space is understandably devoted to the USSR’s wartime heroes including Nikolai Gastello who sacrificed himself by flying his damaged plane into an advancing column of tanks in the open days of the War and Aleksei Maresev who went on to become an ace despite having his feet amputated after being shot-down. The stories of other individual pilots are also recounted in detail. Particularly noteworthy were Ivan Kozhedub, Aleksandr Pokryshkin, and Nikolai Gulaev (who lead all Allied aces with 62, 59, and 57 kills, respectively) and the women pilots of the “Night Witches” regiment who played essential roles in the skies over Stalingrad.

Display Five: “Recent Aviation Developments”

The last section of the Museum’s historical display covers the period from the end of the Great Patriotic War to the present day. As one might expect, given the rather long time frame this segment addresses (and, no doubt, state concerns regarding the release of sensitive information), this section lacks some of the found in the previous rooms. Certain subjects are, again, given short shrift (such as the German origins of the Soviet jet program). Still there’s good material here on things like the downing of Gary Power’s U-2 (1961) and the development of Soviet SAM technology.

And there you have it.

If you’ve managed to work your way through all six of the posts in this series, I hope that you found them to be informative and helpful. If so, please let others know about the “field guide.” If there’s something you thought particularly interesting (or, if you have questions about something you read), post a comment and let me know. Likewise, if you’re privy to updated information on the ongoing reconstruction at the Museum, I’d love to hear from you. I’ll post updates as I receive them and will add a bit more during my next trip to Moscow.

Oh, one more thing for those of you who actually have the chance to visit the VVS Museum…

Before heading back to Moscow you might want to stop off at the white tent located in the wooded area between the administrative building and the entrance to the outdoor aircraft display. There’s a counter inside where you can purchase drinks and snacks. The choices are a bit limited, but if you want some water, soda, or are in the mood for ice cream or a candy bar you can get it there.

Most importantly, the snack tent has Baltika Seven on tap (or, at least it did when I was there in late June). They also sell Baltika’s ideal “pairing:” кальмар.

1. For a complete discussion of Sikorsky and his behemoth airplanes, see Dictatorship of the Air, pp. 55-71
2. The Russian reads: “С первых дней Великой Отечественной войны еще полнее раскрылась направляющая и организующая роль Коммунистической партии, ее тесная и неразрывная связь с массами”
3. ”С начала Великой Отечественной войны враг узнал силу ударов советской авиации. За первые три месяца войны в воздушных боях и на аэродромах уничтожено до 3500 фашистских самолетов. За этот же период произведено 250 тыс. самолето-вылетов, при этом 47% всех вылетов совершено на уничтожение танковых и моторизованных колонн противника и его войск на поле боя”

Fortunately, I recovered just in time this evening to tune in to the History Channel’s “Dogfights” marathon.

In the event you haven’t seen the show (which debuted this past November), “Dogfights” uses computer animation, interviews, and archival footage to recreate famous air battles from the Great War through the present. Although some of the episodes seem to stretch their material to make it to the one-hour mark, they have been uniformly engaging, educational, and immensely entertaining.

“Dogfights” regularly airs Fridays at 10 EST /9 CST. It’s well worth watching.

ScP

Today, the Moscow Times is running a related story concerning soldiers who have alleged that they were forced into prostitution by senior officers. While it remains to be seen if the soldiers’ accounts are accurate, this is hardly the first time that allegations of this nature have surfaced.

ScP