Internet and History: Ministry of Defense of Russia unveils archives on the history of Russia’s military aviation and feats of military pilots during the Great Patriotic War

On the Day of Russian Air Force (celebrated on August 12) the Ministry of Defense of Russia unveiled the multimedia selection of documents from the collections of the Central Archive of Russia’s Ministry of Defense, focused on military pilots and their aircrafts during the Great Patriotic War. The selected documents are now available on the ministry’s website.

The new selection of declassified archival materials of the Ministry of Defense includes orders, instructions, award documents and registration cards, as well as a highlight – the copy of the handwritten Order of the State Committee of Defense of the USSR, dictated by its Chairman Joseph Stalin at 2 a.m. on the night of August 8 – 9, 1941. According to the document, the commander of 81st aviation division was obliged to launch bomb attack on the heart of the Nazi Third Reich. Documents detail exploits of attack aircraft pilots – holders of orders and Heroes of the Soviet Union, whose names had long been kept secret.