Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2016 number

The article is devoted to a high spot in the history of Soviet-American cooperation during World War II - the Alaska-Siberia Airway along which the Lend Lease supplies were delivered to the USSR. The article is based on analysis of recently declassified archival documents of the Government Purchasing Commission of the Soviet Union in the USA, memoirs and documentary publications. Special attention is payed to the problems of the initial stage of organization of the airway, difficulties of supplying equipment to the airfields of Krasnoyarsk airway, which were part of Alaska-Siberia Airway. Flights fr om Alaska to Siberia started on 7 October 1942. Soviet pilots faced numerous difficulties, connected with the weather conditions, great distances, “loneliness” of pilots of fighter aircraft flying in V-formation after the lead bomber aircraft. There was a close cooperation between the Americans and Russians along the Alaska-Siberia Airway. Government Purchasing Commission situated in Washington, D.C., organized delivery of US supplies to Siberia in order to provide the Krasnoyarsk airway with necessary equipment. The Commission’s special department was opened in Fairbanks in Alaska, from wh ere the route to Russia started. Its representatives exercised control over the pre-arranged regular supplies, checked technical conditions of equipment sent to the USSR. For their part, the Americans instructed the Soviet pilots at the airbase in Alaska. Russians took care and made technical improvements of the American aircraft adjusting them to specific battle conditions on the Soviet-German front. The role of Alaska - Siberia Airway in the Lend Lease program was substantial. Out of total of 14 203 American planes sent to Russia 7925 were delivered by that route. It was also used as a safe airline for political and business leaders who flew from the USA to the USSR, and back. It was a sort of bridge of practical cooperation between the USA and USSR during the war.