Can't reach Germany? Yeah, right.

Long live the mighty aviation of the socialism country!
V. Dobrovolsky, 1939

No enemy bomber can reach the Ruhr. If one reaches the Ruhr, my name is not Goering. You may call me Meyer.

Hermann Goering addressing the Luftwaffe (September 1939) as quoted in August 1939: The Last Days of Peace (1979) by Nicholas Fleming, p. 171; "Meyer" (or "Meier") is a common name in Germany. This statement would come back to haunt him as Allied bombers devastated Germany; many ordinary Germans, especially in Berlin, took to calling him "Meier". It is said that he once himself introduced himself as "Meier" when taking refuge in an air-raid shelter in Berlin.

Another cool aviation poster of the thirties. Here we can see the parade on the Red Square in the center of Moscow. The name “Red Square” has nothing to do with communism symbols, as in the Old Russian “red” meant “beautiful”. To the left there is a Kremlin Wall, to the right there is GUM (State Universal Store - see a GUM-poster here). The big red building with small towers in front is the State Historical Museum – one of the most beautiful and interesting museums of Russia. Before the Revolution the right gate to the Red Square was occupied by Iberian Gate and Chapel but in 1931 it was demolished in order to make room for heavy military vehicles driving through Red Square during military parades. Both the Iberian Gate and Chapel were completely rebuilt in 1996. See the Red Square and its surroundings on the interactive Wikimapia here).

Down on the Red Square there are hordes of marchers carrying red flags and communist slogans. In the center there is a large portrait of Joseph Stalin. And above there fly the pride and joy of Soviet Aviation – the red Polikarpov I-16 monoplane single engine fighter (also seen on this poster) and the dark-green Ilyushin DB-3 bomber.

DB-3 was a twin-engine low wing monoplane, which first flew in 1935. With 400 km/h maximum speed and 3500 km flying range it became one of the most successful flying machines of the Soviet Union. And it was its later deep modification Il-4, which in 1941 started first bombings of Berlin.

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No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings

Glory to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War! Glory to the Stalin’s falcons!
P. Vandyshev, L. Torich, 1941

This airforce poster was created in 1941 - right after Soviet Union entered World War 2.

In the foreground there is an aircraft gunner who operates ShKAS – a 7.62 mm rapid fire machine gun, which was designed in the thirties and entered production in 1934. It had a firing rate of 1,800 rounds/min for wing or turret-mounted versions, and was significantly more powerful than all its rivals, which could reach only 1.100 rounds/min rate for the best ones like MG-17 (Germany). In 1936 ShKAS was first used in Spain Civil War where Spanish Republic forces received aid from USSR opposing the General Franco’s regime, backed by Nazi Germany and Italy.

1936 Spain Civil War was also a first experience under fire for the aircraft in the background of this poster – the Polikarpov I-16. This was an advanced monoplane fighter with cutting-edge innovations such as retractable landing gear and a fully enclosed cockpit. Although being built from plywood (fuselage) and duralumin only in wings it was designed for speed: with 900 horsepower it could reach 462 km/h at optimal altitude. But it wasn’t the speed that made it a real pre-war champion-killer. The short plane had superb horizontal maneuverability although requiring special skills to fly. Even when the army started receiving new advanced aircrafts some pilots managed to fight the generally superior Messerschmitt Bf 109s on their “Donkeys” – the nickname of I-16 (“donkey” in Russian is “Ishak” which is similar in pronunciation to the “I-16”). And like real donkeys I-16s were very reliable as half of those plains not hit yet were still operational in 1943. I-16 could have up to 4 ShKASes in his wings – obtaining an outstanding firing density.

These two Soviet weapons got together on this poster in order to strengthen the morale of the Soviet people and show the fighting potential the country was capable of. Unfortunately it took another year to put this potential in practice – and finally stop the German offensive at the Battle of Moscow in the early 1942.

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Gotta jet!

To fly higher than all, farther than all, faster than all!
D. Pjatkin, 1954

The poster dates 1954, a year after Stalin’s death. After the victory Stalin did not cancel research and development of new weapons. On the contrary soviet military base was rapidly growing after receiving reparations from Germany. War reparations to Soviet Union were to be USD 10 bln of the total 20 bln, as it was the soviet country, which suffered the major losses. Besides, the allies agreed to this demand at the Potsdam Conference in 1945 partly in exchange to Stalin’s promise not to expand the communist regime on the liberated territories and further. This sum was paid not only in cash but also in machinery, intellectual property and labor of German captives.

In 1944 the Messerschmitt Me 262 “Schwalbe” ("Swallow") became the world's first operational turbojet fighter aircraft. Russians were behind in development of turbojet engines, although the piston aircrafts fought German machines pretty well. The first soviet turbojet prototype “BI-1” took off in 1942, but unfortunately in 1943 upon hitting 800 km/h speed fell into a spin and crashed. Actually, Me 262 suffered from the same aerodynamical problems – it even had a special instruction for pilots prohibiting speeding over the deadly 800 km/h mark.

Nevertheless, the German reparations (documentation along with the people who created it) allowed Russians to fill in the technological gap.

So MiG-9 Fargo and Yak-15 Feather became the soviet first generation turbojet fighter and attack aircraft hitting the skies in 1946 and 1947. The perspectives of the turbojet aviation were bright and ample resources were invested in the development. The propaganda responded correspondingly as you can see on this “Fly High” poster.

The pilot in the foreground is a soviet ace of the WW2, flying on a piston aircraft. The red stars on the fuselage are his kill score. And the jets in the background are a collective image of a modern soviet jet fighter of the fifties.

Fly high, the red plane!

“He who’s strong in the air, is strong full stop“

Deni V. N., Dolgorukov N. A., 1938

This is a quote by Kliment Voroshilov, who was appointed Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1935. This was a period of industrialization with thousands of heavy industry sites being built across Soviet Union. By 1938 the high probability of world war was evident for Joseph Stalin, although he was not sure about the exact adversaries. Nevertheless defensive potential was increasing at a surprising pace: military R&D facilities were constantly developing new means of destruction, tanks, submarines and explosives. And soviet people were working 6-7 days a week, 10-12 hours a day to make those designs a reality.

Special attention was paid to the airforce too. During 1939-1940 Russian army received about 15 000 of various airplanes, albeit of not very modern design. Unfortunately during the first days of the War, unexpected German aero-strikes destroyed a great many of airplanes right on the airfields near the border of the country – before they could ever take off. This was one of the causes why Russians had to retreat during the first years of War.

Only in 1943 the Red Army got hold of new advanced airplanes, which could fight German Messerschmitts on equal terms. These were Yak-3, MiG-5, La-5 models, manufactured by several Soviet factories. The turning point of the war was reached in 1944, Russians along with allied French, English and American forces launched full scale counteroffensive and finally got into Berlin – the capital of the Third Reich. The war was won, it was high time to rebuild the Europe in ruins.