Move of Soviet Factories (January 1942)

Alexander Yakovlev, Soviet aircraft designer

1st January 1942

2 months ago, in November, the Defense committee has ordered the total production of 22000 planes from all the factories geared towards the production of aircraft. Production has been ongoing for the past few months. Since our perilous relocation to Siberia, combined with the difficulties of the move, especially the losing of equipment and manpower, we have focused intensively on the task of setting up whatever machinery required to produce now, the planes necessary for the Great War. Given that I designed the series of Yak fighter aircraft, any of which a match for whatever the Germans throw at us, our factory is now ordered to produce at much of my latest aircraft, the Yak-9, for our pilots to fly against the Nazi dogs. To my knowledge, we only have a few other designs besides my Yak-9, such as the Lavochkin La-5 fighter, so we must work hard to make up for the lack of variety with an overwhelming advantage in quality.