1.
Republika Srpska
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Republika Srpska is one of two constitutional and legal entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The administrative centre is Banja Luka, in Serbo-Croatian, Republika Srpska means Serb Republic. The second word is an adjective derived by adding the suffix -ska to srb-. The -ps- sequence rather than -bs- is a result of voicing assimilation, in a session on 14–15 October 1991, the Peoples Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina approved the Memorandum on Sovereignty, as had already been done by Slovenia and Croatia. The Union of Reform Forces soon ceased to exist but its members remained in the assembly as the Independent Members of Parliament Caucus, on 9 January 1992, the assembly proclaimed the Republic of the Serb People of Bosnia and Herzegovina, declaring it part of Yugoslavia. The republic was part of Yugoslavia and could enter into union with political bodies representing other peoples of Bosnia, the referendum had a 64% turnout and 92. 7% or 99% voted for independence. On 6 March the Bosnian parliament promulgated the results of the referendum, the republics independence was recognized by the European Community on 6 April 1992 and by the United States on 7 April. On the same day the Serbs assembly in session in Banja Luka declared a severance of ties with Bosnia. The name Republika Srpska was adopted on 12 August 1992, the political controversy escalated into the Bosnian War, which would last until the autumn of 1995. The boundary lines between the entities were delineated in Annex 2 of the Agreement, between 1992 and 2008, the Constitution of Republika Srpska was amended 121 times. The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina resulted in changes in the country. Some two million people, about half the population, were displaced. In 1996 there were some 435,346 ethnic Serb refugees from the Federation in Republika Srpska, in 1991, 27% of the non-agricultural labor force was unemployed in Bosnia and this number increased due to the war. By 2009, the unemployment rate in Bosnia and Herzegovina was estimated at 29%, ethnic cleansing reduced the numbers of other groups. Serb police, soldiers, and irregulars attacked Bosniaks and Croats, though on the other side, Bosniaks and Croats did the same atrocities to the Serbian population in the region of Herzegovina and the villages surrounding Srebrenica. Some were killed on the spot, others were rounded up and killed elsewhere, the number of Croats was reduced by 135,386, and the number of Bosniaks by some 434,144. Some 136,000 of approximately 496,000 Bosniak refugees forced to flee the territory of what is now Republika Srpska have since returned home, in the early 2000s, discrimination against non-Serbs was alleged by NGOs and the Helsinki Commission. The International Crisis Group reported in 2002 that in parts of Republika Srpska a non-Serb returnee is ten times more likely to be the victim of violent crime than is a local Serb
2.
Yugoslav Air Force
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Not to be confused with the air force of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav Royal Air Force. The Yugoslav Air Force was the air force of Yugoslavia, the official name of the branch was Air Force and Anti-Air Defence. At its height, it was one of the largest air forces in Europe, the Yugoslav Air Force was disbanded following the war in Yugoslavia 1991-1995. By early 1945, Yugoslav Partisans under Marshal Tito had liberated a large portion of Yugoslav territory from the occupying forces, on 5 January 1945 the various air units of the NOVJ were formally incorporated into a new Yugoslav Air Force. At the same time, a Yugoslav fighter group which had been under Soviet instruction at Zemun airfield became operational, thus, when peacetime came, the JRV already possessed a strong and experienced nucleus of personnel. On 12 September 1945 the Military Aviation Academy in Belgrade was established to train future pilots, the development of the JRV was further helped in late 1945 with the creation of the Aeronautical Union of Yugoslavia. This comprised six aeronautical unions - one for each constituent republic - with the joint aim of promoting sport flying, in June 1947 the first VSJ flying school at Borongaj started training pupils. The organization of the post-war JRV was based on the Soviet pattern of divisions, regiments, virtually all of the initial equipment was supplied by the Soviet Union – the aircraft captured during the war had quickly been retired. By the end of 1947, the JRV had reached a strength of some 40 squadrons of aircraft, in June 1948 Yugoslavia broke off relations with the Stalinist Soviet Union. The country was subjected to extreme political pressure from the Soviet Union and its Balkan neighbors. The possibility of an invasion was taken seriously, the serviceability of JRV aircraft fell rapidly, with some aircraft being cannibalised to provide spares for the remainder. However, the strength of the JRV was still declining, so in 1951 the Yugoslav Chief of Staff, Colonel General Koča Popović. It was agreed that a shipment of aircraft would be forthcoming. In October 1951, the first de Havilland Mosquito F. B.6 fighter-bombers were supplied, the following year,150 Republic F-47D Thunderbolt fighter-bombers were delivered from the USA under a Mutual Assistance Pact. The first jet aircraft to be operated by the JRV, four Lockheed T-33A jet trainers, serials for the Thunderjets were from 10501 to 10729. The first eight Thunderjets, all former 48 TFW aircraft, arrived at Batajnica on June 9,1953, at the same time, a number of Yugoslav pilots underwent jet flying training in Germany. These deliveries substantially improved the effectiveness of the JRV. Ten Westland Dragonfly helicopters were obtained in 1954, and in 1956, in 1959 the JRV was merged with the air defence units operated by the Army and became known as the Air Force and Air Defence
3.
Yugoslav Wars
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The Yugoslav Wars were a series of ethnically-based wars and insurgencies fought from 1991 to 2001 inside the territory of the former Yugoslavia. The wars are considered to be a series of separate but related military conflicts which occurred in. The wars ended through peace accords, involving full international recognition of new states, as a result, the JNA began to lose Slovenes, Croats, Kosovar Albanians, Bosniaks, and ethnic Macedonians, and effectively became a Serb army. According to the 1994 United Nations report, the Serb side did not aim to restore Yugoslavia, other irredentist movements have also been brought into connection with the wars, such as Greater Albania and Greater Croatia. Often described as Europes deadliest since World War II, the conflicts have become infamous for the war crimes involved, including cleansing, crimes against humanity. These were the first European conflicts since World War II to be formally judged genocidal in character, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was established by the UN to prosecute these crimes. According to the International Center for Transitional Justice, the Yugoslav Wars resulted in the deaths of 140,000 people, the Humanitarian Law Center estimates that in the conflicts in former Yugoslav republics at least 130,000 people lost their lives. The war have alternatively been called, Wars in the Balkans Wars/conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, third Balkan War, a term suggested by British journalist Misha Glenny in the title of his book, alluding to the two previous Balkan Wars fought 1912–13. In fact, this term has been applied by some historians to World War I. Yugoslavia Civil War/Yugoslav Civil War/Yugoslavian Civil War/Civil War in Yugoslavia, the nation of Yugoslavia was created in the aftermath of World War I, and was composed mostly of South Slavic Christians, but the nation also had a substantial Muslim minority. In the 1980s, relations among the six republics of the SFRY deteriorated, Slovenia and Croatia desired greater autonomy within the Yugoslav confederation, while Serbia sought to strengthen federal authority. As it became clearer that there was no solution agreeable to all parties, although tensions in Yugoslavia had been mounting since the early 1980s, it was 1990 that proved decisive. In the midst of hardship, Yugoslavia was facing rising nationalism among its various ethnic groups. By the early 1990s, there was no authority at the federal level. The Federal Presidency consisted of the representatives of the six republics, the communist leadership was divided along national lines. The representatives of Vojvodina, Kosovo and Montenegro were replaced with loyalists of the President of Serbia, Serbia secured four out of eight federal presidency votes and was able to heavily influence decision-making at the federal level, since all the other Yugoslav republics only had one vote. While Slovenia and Croatia wanted to allow a multi-party system, Serbia, led by Milošević, demanded a more centralized federation. This prompted the Croatian and Slovene delegations to walk out and thus the break-up of the party, the first of these conflicts, known as the Ten-Day War, was initiated by the JNA on 26 June 1991 after the secession of Slovenia from the federation on 25 June 1991
4.
Novi Sad
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Novi Sad is the second largest city of Serbia, the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina and the administrative center of the South Bačka District. According to the 2011 census, the city has a population of 250,439, the population of the administrative area of the city stands at 341,625 people. Novi Sad was founded in 1694, when Serb merchants formed a colony across the Danube from the Petrovaradin fortress, a Habsburg strategic military post. In the 18th and 19th centuries, it became an important trading and manufacturing centre, as well as a centre of Serbian culture of that period, the city was heavily devastated in the 1848 Revolution, but it was subsequently restored. Today, along with the city of Belgrade, Novi Sad is the industrial and financial center of the Serbian economy, also. The name Novi Sad means New Plant in Serbian and its Latin name, stemming from establishment of city rights, is Neoplanta. The official names of Novi Sad used by the administration are. Historically, it was also called Neusatz in German, in its wider meaning, the name Grad Novi Sad refers to the City of Novi Sad, which is one of the city-level administrative units of Serbia. Novi Sad could also refer strictly to the part of the City of Novi Sad, as well as only to the historical core on the left Danube bank. Human dwelling on the territory of present-day Novi Sad has been traced as far back as the Stone Age, several settlements and necropoleis were unearthed during the construction of a new boulevard in Avijaticarsko Naselje, and were dated to 5000 BC. A settlement was located on the bank of the river Danube in the territory of present-day Petrovaradin. In antiquity, the region was inhabited by Illyrian, Thracian and Celtic tribes, celts were present in the area since the 4th century BC and founded the first fortress on the right bank of the Danube. Later, in the 1st century BC, the region was conquered by the Romans, during Roman rule, a larger fortress was built in the 1st century with the name Cusum and was included in the Roman province of Pannonia. In the 5th century, Cusum was devastated by the invasion of the Huns, by the end of the 5th century, Byzantines had reconstructed the town and called it by the names Petrikon or Petrikov after St. Peter. Slavic tribes such as the Severians, Obotrites and Serbs, with its subgroup tribes Braničevci and Timočani, the Serbs absorbed the aforementioned Slavs as well as the Paleo-Balkanic peoples in the region. In the Middle Ages, the area was controlled by the Ostrogoths, Gepids, Avars, Franks, Great Moravia, Bulgaria, again by Byzantines. It was included into the medieval Kingdom of Hungary between the 11th and 12th centuries, in the same year, several other settlements were mentioned to exist in the territory of modern urban area of Novi Sad. Some other settlements existed in the area of Novi Sad, Mortályos, Csenei, Keménd
5.
Soviet Air Forces
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The Soviet Air Forces was the official designation of one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces, the Air Forces were formed from components of the Imperial Russian Air Service in 1917, and faced their greatest test during World War II. The groups were involved in the Korean War, and dissolved along with the Soviet Union itself in 1991–92. Former Soviet Air Forces assets were divided into several air forces of former Soviet republics. March of the Pilots was its anthem, the All-Russia Collegium for Direction of the Air Forces of the Old Army was formed on 20 December 1917. This was a Bolshevik aerial headquarters initially led by Konstantin Akashev and it became the Directorate of the USSR Air Forces on 28 March 1924, and then the Directorate of the Workers-Peasants Red Army Air Forces on 1 January 1925. Gradually its influence on aircraft design became greater, from its earliest days, the force mimicked ground forces organization especially in the 1930s, by which time it was made up of air armies, aviation corps, aviation divisions, and aviation regiments. At first, the I-16 proved superior to any Luftwaffe fighters, however, the Soviets refused to supply the plane in adequate numbers, and their aerial victories were soon squandered because of their limited use. Later, Bf-109s delivered to Francos Spanish Nationalist air forces secured air superiority for the Nationalists, on 19 November 1939, VVS headquarters was again titled the Main Directorate of the Red Army Air Forces under the WPRA HQ. Between 1933 and 1938, the Soviet government planned and funded missions to break numerous world aviation records, not only did aviation records and achievements become demonstrations of the USSRs technological progress, they also served as legitimization of the socialist system. With each new success, Soviet press trumpeted victories for socialism, furthermore, Soviet media idolized record-breaking pilots, exalting them not only as role models for Soviet society, but also as symbols of progress towards the socialist-utopian future. The early 1930s saw a shift in focus away from collectivist propaganda. In the case of aviation, the government began glorifying people who utilized aviation technology instead of glorifying the technology itself. Pilots such as Valery Chkalov, Georgy Baydukov, Alexander Belyakov, in May 1937, Stalin charged pilots Chkalov, Baydukov, and Belyakov with the mission to navigate the first transpolar flight in history. On 20 June 1937, the aviators landed their ANT-25 in Vancouver, a month later, Stalin ordered the departure of a second crew to push the boundaries of modern aviation technology even further. The public reaction to the flights was euphoric. The media called the pilots Bolshevik knights of culture and progress, Soviet citizens celebrated Aviation Day on 18 August with as much zeal as they celebrated the October Revolution anniversary. Literature including poems, short stories, and novels emerged celebrating the feats of the aviator-celebrities, feature films like Victory, Tales of Heroic Aviators, and Valery Chkalov reinforced the positive hero imagery, celebrating the aviators individuality within the context of a socialist government
6.
Ilyushin Il-2
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The Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik was a ground-attack aircraft produced by the Soviet Union in large numbers during the Second World War. To Il-2 pilots, the aircraft was simply the diminutive Ilyusha, to the soldiers on the ground, it was the Hunchback, the Flying Tank or the Flying Infantryman. Its postwar NATO reporting name was Bark, the Il-2 aircraft played a crucial role on the Eastern Front. The idea for a Soviet armored ground-attack aircraft dates to the early 1930s, however, Soviet engines at the time lacked the power needed to provide the heavy aircraft with good performance. Il-2 was designed by Sergey Ilyushin and his team at the Central Design Bureau in 1938, TsKB-55 was a two-seat aircraft with an armoured shell weighing 700 kg, protecting crew, engine, radiators, and the fuel tank. Standing loaded, the Ilyushin weighed more than 4,700 kg, the prototype TsKB-55, which first flew on 2 October 1939, won the government competition against the Sukhoi Su-6 and received VVS designation BSh-2. The prototypes - TsKB-55 and TskB-57 - were built at Moscow plant #39, the BSh-2 was overweight and underpowered, with the original Mikulin AM-351,022 kW engine designed to give its greatest power outputs at high altitude. Because of this it was redesigned as the TsKB-57, a lighter design, with the more powerful 1,254 kW Mikulin AM-38 engine. The TsKB-57 first flew on 12 October 1940, the production aircraft passed State Acceptance Trials in March 1941, and was redesignated Il-2 in April. Deliveries to operational units commenced in May 1941, the 23 mm armament of Il-2 was subject to a competition. One of the first 1940 photographs of the Il-2 show it equipped with two MP-623 mm autocannons developed by Yakov Taubin at OKB-16, the MP-6 gun weighed 70 kg and developed an initial muzzle velocity of 900 m/s. It operated on the short recoil principle and had a rate of fire of about 600 rpm, factory trials of the MP-6 gun on the Il-2 were conducted in August 1940. In the early Il-2 prototypes, these guns were fed by 81-round clips, in flight, these clips sometimes became dislodged because of their large surface, which caused them to experience significant aerodynamic pressure. The VYa-23 was declared the winner at this trial, subsequently, in May 1941, development of the MP-6 gun was terminated and Taubin was arrested and summarily executed in October that year. The Il-2 is a single-engine, propeller-driven, low-wing monoplane of mixed construction with a crew of two, specially designed for assault operations and its most notable feature was the inclusion of armor in an airframe load-bearing scheme. Production early in the war was slow because after the German invasion the aircraft factories near Moscow, Ilyushin and his engineers had time to reconsider production methods, and two months after the move Il-2s were again being produced. The tempo was not to Premier Stalins liking, however, and he issued the following telegram to Shenkman and Tretyakov, As a result, the production of Shturmoviks rapidly gained speed. Stalins notion of the Il-2 being like bread to the Red Army took hold in Ilyushins aircraft plants, the first use in action of the Il-2 was with the 4th ShAP over the Berezina River days after the invasion began
7.
Attack aircraft
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This class of aircraft is designed mostly for close air support and naval air-to-surface missions, overlapping the tactical bomber mission. Designs dedicated to non-naval roles are often known as ground-attack aircraft, Strike fighters, which have effectively replaced the fighter-bomber and light bomber concepts, also differ little from the broad concept of an attack aircraft. The dedicated attack aircraft as a separate class existed primarily during, the precise implementation varied from country to country, and was handled by a wide variety of designs. In the US and UK, attack aircraft were based on light bombers, sometimes carrying heavier forward-firing weapons like the B-25G. In Germany and USSR, where they were known as schlachtflugzeug or sturmovik, in the late-war era, the fighter-bomber began to take over many attack roles, a change that continued in the post-war era. Jet powered examples were relatively rare, but not unknown, like the Blackburn Buccaneer, the US Navy continued to introduce new aircraft in their A-series, but these were purely light and medium bombers. Since the 1960s, only two dedicated attack aircraft designs have been introduced, the US A-10 Thunderbolt II and Soviet Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot. One oddity belonging to class is the AC-130, which features as its primary armament high-caliber artillery guns adapted for aircraft use. A variety of attack aircraft exist, usually based on adapted trainers or other light fixed-wing aircraft. Presently, U. S. attack aircraft are identified by the prefix A-, as in A-6 Intruder, however, until the end of World War II the A- designation was shared between attack planes and light bombers for the Army aircraft. The US Navy used a separate system and at the time preferred to call similar aircraft scout bombers or torpedo bombers. For example, Douglas SBD Dauntless scout bomber was designated A-24 when used by the USAAF. It was not until 1946, when the US Navy and US Marine Corps started using the attack designation, as with many aircraft classifications, the definition of attack aircraft is somewhat vague and has tended to change over time. Current U. S. military doctrine defines it as an aircraft which most likely performs an attack mission, Attack mission means, in turn, specifically tactical air-to-ground action—in other words, neither air-to-air action nor strategic bombing is considered an attack mission. In United States Navy vocabulary, the designation for the same activity is a strike mission. Attack missions are divided into two categories, air interdiction and close air support. In the last several decades, the rise of the ubiquitous multi-role fighter has created confusion about the difference between attack and fighter aircraft. According to the current U. S. designation system, an aircraft is designed primarily for air-to-surface
8.
World War II in Yugoslavia
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Simultaneously, a multi-side civil war was waged between the Yugoslav communist Partisans, the Serbian royalist Chetniks, Croatian fascist Ustaše and Home Guard, as well as Slovene Home Guard troops. Both the Yugoslav Partisans and the Chetnik movement initially resisted the occupation, however, after 1941, Chetniks extensively and systematically collaborated with the Italian occupation forces until the Italian capitulation, and thereon also with German and Ustaše forces. The Axis mounted a series of offensives intended to destroy the Partisans, coming close to doing so in the winter, despite the setbacks, the Partisans remained a credible fighting force, gaining recognition from the Western Allies and laying the foundations for the post-war Yugoslav state. The human cost of the war was enormous, the number of war victims is still in dispute, but is generally agreed to have been at least one million. Non-combat victims included the majority of the countrys Jewish population, many of whom perished in concentration and extermination camps run by the client regimes, the Croatian Ustaše regime committed genocide against Serbs, Jews, Roma and anti-Fascist Croats. The Serbian Chetniks pursued genocide against Muslims and Croats and Partisan Serbs, the Wehrmacht carried out mass executions of civilians in retaliation for resistance activity e. g. the Kragujevac massacre. In the same time, the country was destabilized by internal tensions, however, rather than reducing tensions, the agreement only reinforced the crisis in the countrys governance. These events resulted in Yugoslavias geographical isolation from potential Allied support, Air force officers opposed to the move staged a coup détat and took over in the following days. These events were viewed with great apprehension in Berlin, and as it was preparing to help its Italian ally in its war against Greece anyway, the plans were modified to include Yugoslavia as well. On 6 April 1941 the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was invaded from all sides by the Axis powers of Germany, Italy, during the invasion, Belgrade was bombed by the German air force. The invasion lasted little more than ten days, ending with the surrender of the Royal Yugoslav Army on 17 April. Besides being hopelessly ill-equipped when compared to the German Army, the Yugoslav army attempted to defend all borders, also, large numbers of the population refused to fight, instead welcoming the Germans as liberators from government oppression. Two of the constituent national groups, Slovenes and Croats, were not prepared to fight in defense of a Yugoslav state with a continued Serb monarchy. The only effective opposition to the invasion was from units wholly from Serbia itself, the Serbian General Staff was united on the question of Yugoslavia as a Greater Serbia ruled, in one way or another, by Serbia. On the eve of the invasion, there were 165 generals on the Yugoslav active list, of these, all but four were Serbs. The terms of the capitulation were extremely severe, as the Axis proceeded to dismember Yugoslavia, mussolinis Italy gained the remainder of Slovenia, Kosovo, and large chunks of the coastal Dalmatia region. It also gained control over the Italian governorate of Montenegro, and was granted the kingship in the Independent State of Croatia, Hungary dispatched the Hungarian Third Army to occupy Vojvodina in northern Serbia, and later forcibly annexed sections of Baranja, Bačka, Međimurje, and Prekmurje. The government in exile was now recognized by the Allied powers
9.
Republic P-47 Thunderbolt
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The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was a World War II era fighter aircraft produced by the United States between 1941–1945. Its primary armament was eight. 50-caliber machine guns and in the fighter-bomber ground-attack role it could carry five-inch rockets or a load of 2,500 pounds. When fully loaded the P-47 weighed up to eight tons making it one of the heaviest fighters of the war. The P-47 was designed around the powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine which was used by two U. S. Navy fighters, the Grumman F6F Hellcat and the Vought F4U Corsair. The Thunderbolt was effective as a short-to-medium range escort fighter in high-altitude air-to-air combat, the P-47 was one of the main United States Army Air Forces fighters of World War II, and served with Allied air forces including France, Britain, and Russia. Mexican and Brazilian squadrons fighting alongside the U. S. were equipped with the P-47, the armored cockpit was relatively roomy and comfortable, offering good visibility. A modern-day U. S. ground-attack aircraft, the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, both had fled from their homeland to escape the Bolsheviks. In 1939, Republic Aviation designed the AP-4 demonstrator powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-1830 radial engine with a belly-mounted turbocharger. While the resulting Republic P-43 Lancer was in limited production, Republic had been working on an improved P-44 Rocket with a powerful engine. The latter was an aircraft powered by the Allison V-1710 liquid-cooled V-12 engine. The United States Army Air Corps backed the project and gave it the designation XP-47, as the war in Europe escalated in spring 1940, Republic and the USAAC concluded that the XP-44 and the XP-47 were inferior to the Luftwaffe fighters. Republic unsuccessfully attempted to improve the design, proposing the XP-47A, kartveli then designed a much larger fighter, which was offered to the USAAC in June 1940. The Air Corps ordered a prototype in September, to be designated the XP-47B, the XP-47A, which had little in common with the new design, was abandoned. The XP-47B was of construction with elliptical wings, with a straight leading edge that was slightly swept back. The air-conditioned cockpit was roomy and the seat was comfortable—like a lounge chair. Main and auxiliary self-sealing fuel tanks were placed under the cockpit, the cowling admitted cooling air for the engine, left and right oil coolers, and the turbosupercharger intercooler system. At full power, the pipes glowed red at their forward ends, the complicated turbosupercharger system with its ductwork gave the XP-47B a deep fuselage, and the wings had to be mounted in a relatively high position. This was problematic since long-legged main landing gear struts were needed to provide clearance for the enormous propeller
10.
Lisunov Li-2
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The Lisunov Li-2, originally designated PS-84, was a license-built version of the Douglas DC-3. It was produced by Factory #84 in Moscow-Khimki and, after evacuation in 1941, the project was directed by aeronautical engineer Boris Pavlovich Lisunov. The Soviet Union received its first DC-2 in 1935, although a total of 18 DC-3s had been ordered on 11 April 1936, the government of the USSR purchased 21 DC-3s for operation by Aeroflot before World War II. A production license was awarded to the government of the USSR on 15 July 1936, Lisunov spent two years at the Douglas Aircraft Company, between November 1936 and April 1939 translating the design. One of the engineers who accompanied him to Douglas was Vladimir Mikhailovich Myasishchev, design work and production were undertaken at State Aviation Factory 84 in Khimki. The Soviet version was given the designation PS-84 - Passazhirskiy Samolyot 84, customary units to suit Soviet standards. No small task for Vladimir Myasishchev to accomplish, the Russian standard design practice also usually mandated fully shuttered engines in order to cope with the extreme temperatures. A slightly shorter span was incorporated but many of the alterations were less evident. The passenger door was moved to the side of the fuselage. The structural reinforcement included slightly heavier skins necessitated since the metric skin gauges were not exact duplicates of the American alloy sheet metal. Standard Russian metric hardware was different and the various steel substructures such as engine mounts and landing gear, wheels, later modifications allowed the provision of ski landing gear in order to operate in remote and Arctic regions. The first PS-84s began to emerge from the GAZ-84 production line by 1939, by the time Germany invaded the USSR on 22 June 1941,237 PS-84s had been built at GAZ-84, all in civil passenger configuration. After a monumental struggle, the factory was producing PS-84s again by January 1942, some military versions of the Li-2 also had bomb racks and a dorsal turret, unlike the military C-47 development of the DC-3. The PS-84 had flown with Aeroflot primarily as a passenger transport before World War II, when Germany attacked the Soviet Union in 1941 many of the PS-84s were taken into military use and redesignated the Lisunov Li-2 in 1942. The military models were equipped with a 7.62 mm ShKAS machine gun, the aircraft were used for transport, partisan supply, bombing, and as ambulance aircraft. A version designated Li-2VV had a nose for extra defensive armament. Smaller bombs could be carried inside the fuselage and thrown out of the hatch by the crew. A total of 4,937 aircraft were produced of all Li-2 variants between 1940 and 1954 and it saw use in Eastern Europe until the 1960s
