Since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Russian and western scholars have arrived at a general consensus that while Lend-Lease was far more important to the USSR’s war effort than Soviet scholars were willing to acknowledge, the decisive role in securing victory was, nevertheless, played by Soviet soldiers and citizens. It’s a view that is on display, for example, at the visually rich English-language Lend-Lease page sponsored by the Russian Air Force (ВВС России).

While post-1991 revelations have provided us with a clearer picture of the material aspects of Lend-Lease, there hasn’t been as much written about Lend-Lease as “lived experience” in the USSR. Just what was life like for the Soviet airmen, soldiers, and civilians who helped transport American supplies to the front lines from isolated outposts in the Far East?

The subject has garnered some attention as of late at least in Russia. The Lend-Lease program provided the backdrop for the 2006 motion picture, Перегон: a “detective-drama” set in 1943 at a transit airfield in the desolate and icy Chukotka peninsula. (Unfortunately, the recently released DVD version is not available with foreign subtitles.)

If you’re not willing to drop $22 on the Russian-language DVD, you can still catch glimpses from the daily life of Soviet “lend leasers” for free on-line. Earlier this month, a personal collection of more than 150 photographs from the period were uploaded to the Internet. The photos belonged to Nikolai Ivanovich Aleksandrov, a VVS pilot who was based in the Far Eastern city of Yakutsk during the latter half of the war. You’ll find plenty of photographs of Lend-Lease airplanes (including American B-25 “Mitchells” and P-63 “Kingcobras”). More interesting, I think, are the fascinating images of the “everyday life” experienced by fliers, support staff, and local civilians during the War. Although non-Russian readers will find themselves at a disadvantage (the captions are in Russian), the photos are well worth one’s time. If you’re interested in these things, I’d suggest that you take a look at the collection sooner rather than later. There’s no telling how long it will be available.

The collection bears the title “Peregon” (roughly, “The Transit Station”) after the movie. A more accurate title might be: “Lend-Lease Photos: A Private Archive.”

ScP

[Many thanks to Ray Finch of KU's Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies for brining the Aleksandrov photos to my attention]

According to Hansen, the emphasis placed by very large numbers of amateur writers and aviation buffs on the airplane as an artifact had produced an excessively antiquarian edge in the writing of aviation history in the United States. With only a few notable exceptions, books about aviation history tended to adopt a near sacred reverence for the machine itself in which facts, figures, data, and diagrams dominated historical writing to the exclusion of analysis and interpretation. The result was a plethora of books containing reference information and technical minutiae, but little guidance that might help readers understand the broad and complex roles that machine-powered flight had played in shaping modern culture and society (and vice versa).

In the years that have passed since the publication of Hansen’s article, the subfield of aviation history has grown considerably. A number of major new works have appeared which fulfill quite well Hansen’s call for flight historians to adopt a “wider view.” Although much still remains to be done before the history of flight technology will be as squarely situated in the professional “mainstream” as, say, military, diplomatic, or political history, aviation (and aerospace) history is, today, in much better shape than at any time in the past.

As such, it might now be “safe” to say a few things about the continuing important role played by amateur historians and aviation buffs to the field. At least, that’s what I increasingly came to think this past week as I undertook work on a class that I’ll be teaching in the spring of 2008 (”History of Flight Culture”).

One of the key challenges that I am facing in preparing the class involves the time-consuming process of tracking down the visual records that I will need to enable students to see for themselves the personalities, planes, and events that shaped the “aviation imagination” in the twentieth century. Here, I have found the ubiquitous presence of aviation enthusiasts on the internet to be an overwhelmingly positive and immensely helpful thing.

One case in point is the UK-based website “Those Magnificent Men.” Devoted to the history of European aviation between 1910 and 1914, the site contains a terrific collection of historic images as well as handy information summaries about the planes (and some major early events) that were so crucial to shaping the “dawn of aviation.”

The site’s proprietor, Tom Brearley, is a private pilot, airplane buff, and amateur historian who clearly knows well and enjoys the subject. I’m looking forward to including his site in the list of internet resources that I’ll be recommending students visit next spring.

In the end, I think that James Hansen was absolutely correct in calling for a “wider view” in the study of the aeronautical past that moved beyond the antiquarian tendencies of many aviation enthusiasts. Even so, professional scholars should not overlook the contributions that continue to be made by amateur historians and airplane buffs. Few other subfields can boast of so large a group that so frequently provides helpful resources and handy information.

ScP