Move of Soviet Union factories (September 1941)

Alexander Yakovlev, Soviet aircraft designer

1st September 1941

Orders from above, Gosplan, the state planning agency for the economy. We have been ordered to move, together with our factory, further into the depths of Western Siberia, a harsh place of extremely cold weather. Once production of the last Yak planes are completed, we are instructed to pull apart and bring every single part of our factory aboard trains, to be reassembled once we reached our final destination. We must leave Moscow before September is over.

It is clear why we are ordered to move. The war does not seem to be going well for us. Those German dogs draw closer to Moscow, their tanks staining the land of the mother Russia with each passing day. Every day, the threat of war to our beautiful capital becomes a reality, as German planes continue to bomb our glorious city to frightening our civilians into submission, and attempt to destroy our Army’s morale.

Though I much rather be anywhere else other than the cold of Siberia, a desolate place where one hardly sees deadlight, it seems a straight forward enough choice once the alternative of facing the German bombs is considered. Once we are back up in production in Siberia, I believe the planes we will produce will help pay the Germans back in kind the same type of misery they have heaped onto us.