ZVEZDA — broadcast
20260920 020000 UTC
342 transcript segments
Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking
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[00:00:01] what, with his help, could
[00:00:04] have been known
[00:00:08] to the enemy about our forces, in
[00:00:11] particular my operational
[00:00:14] means, as we call it, all
[00:00:17] of this, of course,
[00:00:18] caused damage.
[00:00:25] The investigators meticulously reconstructed Ilyinsky's map
[00:00:28] of residence in post-war... in the Soviet Union, and here's what
[00:00:32] an interesting picture emerged. A year in
[00:00:35] Gorky, 6 months in
[00:00:38] Muram, a year in Kherson, 4
[00:00:41] months in Artsyz near Odessa, 6 months in
[00:00:45] Yaroslavl, 2 months in Molotov, now
[00:00:48] Perm, 8 months in Ufa,
[00:00:52] 6 months in Chkalov, now Orenburg, 6
[00:00:55] months in Kuibyshev, now Samara, 6 months in...
[00:01:09] What connects these cities? The answer came very
[00:01:12] quickly. In all places of Ilyinsky's long-term
[00:01:15] stay, by strange coincidence, centers
[00:01:19] of atomic defense production of the atomic
[00:01:21] industry were located. Except
[00:01:23] for Kherson.
[00:01:27] This was one of the cities where the retreating German intelligence...
[00:02:30] from
[00:02:30] his sister,
[00:02:37] whether Ilyinsky was involved in secret operations of American
[00:02:41] or German intelligence after the victory, and here everything may
[00:02:44] not be so
[00:02:45] simple.
[00:02:51] It is quite probable that there were also questions
[00:02:55] that were not included in the criminal case.
[00:02:58] Nevertheless, we were able to find one document that
[00:03:02] proves Ilyinsky was indeed a deeply
[00:03:05] undercover agent who actively
[00:03:09] worked against the USSR even after the war.
[00:03:12] From the resolution on filing charges. Ilyinsky
[00:03:16] is sufficiently exposed in that he caused enormous damage to the might of the USSR in the fight against
[00:03:20] fascist invaders and their satellites during
[00:03:23] the Patriotic War. In subsequent years, being an official
[00:03:26] employee, an agent of foreign intelligence agencies, pro...
[00:03:35] On March 3, 1953,
[00:03:37] the military tribunal of the Moscow Military District, at a
[00:03:40] closed session, after reviewing all
[00:03:43] the circumstances of the case, sentenced Ilyinsky-
[00:03:46] Lazarev, also known as Sidorov Boris Nikolaevich, on the basis of article
[00:03:50] 581 B of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR,
[00:03:53] to be subjected to the highest measure of
[00:03:56] punishment - execution by firing squad. And at this point, one could have put
[00:04:00] a full stop, were it not for the unexpected continuation:
[00:04:03] by resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of
[00:04:06] June 5, 1953, the petition for
[00:04:10] clemency was satisfied, the execution by firing squad
[00:04:13] was replaced by 25 years in labor camps, and this also
[00:04:16] raises questions. There was no general amnesty for
[00:04:20] traitors in 1953,
[00:04:23] especially of such a high level, Soviet courts were
[00:04:26] merciless. Nevertheless, Ilyinsky was lucky.
[00:04:30] It is quite possible that he was of interest as a carrier of some
[00:04:33] valuable information, for the effective use of which
[00:04:36] he was needed alive, but in history he
[00:04:40] remained a traitor forever.
[00:05:40] Results of the first day of the war.
[00:06:12] aircraft with improved
[00:06:13] characteristics.
[00:06:17] On the eve of the war, the Soviet air fleet had
[00:06:21] aircraft capable of fighting German machines.
[00:06:24] But new models Il-2, Yak-1,
[00:06:28] MiG-3, LaGG-3, Pe-2, and
[00:06:30] Pe-8, by the time of Germany's attack on
[00:06:33] the USSR, they had not been fully
[00:06:36] tested. The aircraft needed to be brought to combat readiness
[00:06:40] in a short time, and this was entrusted to the young
[00:06:43] Flight Research Institute, established only in March
[00:06:46] 1941. The order was extremely
[00:06:50] concise: complete tests and
[00:06:53] prepare all documentation for their serial
[00:06:56] production.
[00:07:03] Moscow
[00:07:04] speaking.
[00:07:20] The morning of June 22, 1941,
[00:07:23] at the Flight Research Institute began with
[00:07:27] an emergency meeting; on this day all
[00:07:30] test flights were canceled, for the first time in the Institute's
[00:07:33] history, but this time none of the pilots asked questions,
[00:07:37] war. All employees were ready
[00:07:40] and awaited further instructions.
[00:07:43] The head of the Institute, Mikhail Gromov, acted
[00:07:46] decisively; he was one of the few Soviet
[00:07:49] leaders who clearly knew what needed
[00:07:52] to be done now. The events at the front instantly switched
[00:07:56] me from peaceful work to front-line work. On the very first day
[00:07:59] of the war, my deputies, the heads of laboratories, received
[00:08:02] instructions on organizational measures
[00:08:05] and further work plans. It was necessary to make their
[00:08:09] contribution to the fight against the aggressor as quickly as possible.
[00:08:14] Mikhail Gromov began testing aircraft back in
[00:08:17] 1924, and soon after, he could
[00:08:20] no longer imagine his life without
[00:08:22] flying.
[00:08:24] He participated in testing almost all new
[00:08:27] Soviet aviation machines and even set a world record
[00:08:31] for non-stop flight range. On the
[00:08:33] An-25, he covered over 12,000 km in just
[00:08:37] over 70 hours. For exemplary
[00:08:40] performance of flight assignments, in 1934
[00:08:44] he became a Hero of the Soviet
[00:08:46] Union. The highest certification
[00:08:50] commission awarded Gromov another title -
[00:08:53] Professor of Technical Operation of Aircraft
[00:08:56] Engines. He was one of the first to develop a methodology
[00:08:59] for blind and night flights. It is not surprising that
[00:09:02] he was entrusted with creating the Flight Test
[00:09:06] Institute. It was organized not
[00:09:09] just quickly, but one might say rapidly.
[00:09:12] So much so that at first, they overlooked a somewhat unusual
[00:09:16] abbreviation. It sounded like
[00:09:19] I-L-I, Institute of Flight
[00:09:21] Research. They had to rearrange the initial
[00:09:25] letters to get LII, and
[00:09:29] the Flight Research Institute, with which it entered
[00:09:33] the history of aviation
[00:09:35] science.
[00:09:37] In the institute, the first tests of all new
[00:09:40] aircraft were carried out. It was here that the actual flight
[00:09:44] characteristics were determined, first of all, the piloting qualities
[00:09:48] and reliability of the onboard systems.
[00:09:51] The LII also developed methods and algorithms for making
[00:09:55] decisions during flight, which helped significantly
[00:09:58] minimize pilot errors.
[00:10:01] In a short time, the Flight Research
[00:10:03] Institute formed the subsequently famous school
[00:10:07] of Soviet aviation ergonomics, the science of
[00:10:10] effective and safe use.
[00:10:12] of aircraft,
[00:10:18] but with the outbreak of the war, all fundamental research
[00:10:21] had to be suspended.
[00:10:25] The war demanded concentrating all efforts on launching
[00:10:28] new combat aircraft into production, by the design
[00:10:32] bureaus of Alexander Yakovlev, Semyon Lavochkin, Artyom
[00:10:35] Mikoyan, Vladimir Petlyakov, Nikolai
[00:10:38] Polikarpov, and Sergei
[00:10:40] Ilyushin.
[00:10:43] Designed but not yet fully tested models stood in
[00:10:46] hangars, while the enemy at this time dominated
[00:10:49] the air across the entire front.
[00:10:52] They had to go to extreme measures. New
[00:10:55] bombers, fighters, and attack aircraft were tested directly in
[00:10:59] combat.
[00:11:01] All levers of the government and military
[00:11:05] apparatus immediately went into action. Commanders manned the regiments,
[00:11:08] then immediately distributed them to squadrons and
[00:11:11] flights. Engineers and technicians taught pilots to
[00:11:14] independently service the aircraft. Armament specialists
[00:11:18] prepared ammunition. Headquarters were inundated with maps,
[00:11:21] lists, all sorts of regulations and instructions.
[00:11:27] A few days after the start of the war, air regiments of
[00:11:30] the best Moscow pilots, which included LII specialists,
[00:11:34] were fully formed. Experienced
[00:11:37] pilots not only had to conduct combat tests
[00:11:40] of aircraft and train flight personnel to operate new
[00:11:43] machines, they also had to fight
[00:11:46] in the sky.
[00:11:50] Once we were returning from the People's Commissariat by car. Approaching
[00:11:54] the institute.
[00:13:25] A small team remained at Zhukovsky airfield, which submitted proposals based on data
[00:13:28] received directly during air operations.
[00:13:31] test pilots examined
[00:13:33] aircraft directly in combat, and Moscow
[00:13:37] technicians and engineers analyzed the flight and combat
[00:13:40] characteristics of new aircraft, repaired
[00:13:43] breakdowns, and gained invaluable experience in
[00:13:46] operation. A very important problem during
[00:13:49] the war was this:
[00:13:53] the explosion of fuel tanks,
[00:13:57] gas tanks when hit by
[00:13:59] even small shells.
[00:14:03] It was impossible to fight this; the machine
[00:14:06] was lost, and the pilots either died or
[00:14:09] were injured. They came up with a solution:
[00:14:12] it wasn't gasoline that exploded, but
[00:14:16] gasoline vapors mixed with air, which was
[00:14:19] above the surface of the gasoline in the tank. So, they introduced
[00:14:22] into the upper part of the tanks...
[00:14:25] tubes through which gas from the exhaust
[00:14:29] pipes flowed after combustion; there was no
[00:14:32] oxygen left there. Of course, there were explosions,
[00:14:35] but their frequency significantly decreased, and
[00:14:39] combat losses quite significantly
[00:14:41] decreased.
[00:14:43] by the time the flight...
[00:14:53] He himself returned to the work he
[00:15:09] knew best and truly loved, to test
[00:15:13] flights. He completed his last assignment as
[00:15:16] a leader in the USA, where he tested
[00:15:20] American bombers that were supplied through...
[00:15:23] On December 1,
[00:15:28] 1941, Mikhail Gromov returned
[00:15:31] to Moscow and personally appealed to Stalin with
[00:15:34] a request to send him to the front.
[00:15:38] A week later, he received his appointment and took
[00:15:41] command of the 31st Air Division
[00:15:44] of the Kalinin
[00:15:45] Front.
[00:15:48] The pace of aircraft production at aviation factories
[00:15:50] increased.
[00:15:54] The volume of work increased with each passing month. Already by
[00:15:58] 1942, fighters and
[00:16:00] bombers received more powerful engines.
[00:16:04] Improved by specialists of the Flight
[00:16:08] Research Institute, the engines significantly improved the flight
[00:16:11] characteristics of the Yak-1, Yak-7, and
[00:16:14] LaGG-3 fighters. Now these aircraft practically did not
[00:16:18] concede to the Messerschmitts. The Il-2 attack aircraft,
[00:16:22] which often returned to base literally riddled with bullets,
[00:16:26] became fully armored, including the gunner's cockpit.
[00:16:30] The LII quickly solved
[00:16:32] another problem that only became apparent during combat
[00:16:36] operations. In winter conditions, aircraft engines
[00:16:39] were difficult to start. To warm them up, such
[00:16:42] heaters were usually used, in which
[00:16:45] gasoline was burned, and
[00:16:48] the air was heated, and
[00:16:52] through these fabric hoses,
[00:16:55] it was supplied to various parts of the
[00:16:58] engine, covered with
[00:17:00] cotton blankets.
[00:17:04] The heating process took 30-40 minutes.
[00:17:07] When a squadron took off,
[00:17:10] then it needed nine such heaters, or one
[00:17:14] after another. But this problem, of course, was not
[00:17:18] very flashy, but extremely difficult.
[00:17:22] LII specialists suggested that after a day of flying,
[00:17:25] a little gasoline be poured into the oil tank each time and the engine
[00:17:29] run at low rpm for 10 minutes so that the oil
[00:17:32] would thin out. In the morning, the engines started without
[00:17:36] problems. The bumps encountered in the first year of the war
[00:17:40] later turned into invaluable experience. Hundreds
[00:17:43] of defects were eliminated from aircraft designs,
[00:17:46] which would have taken years in peacetime.
[00:17:49] The fleet of combat aviation
[00:17:52] also rapidly expanded. Based on improved
[00:17:56] Yak and LaGG aircraft, their modifications
[00:17:58] were created. Prototype models of new machines
[00:18:01] were immediately sent to the front. In
[00:18:05] 1943, Mikhail Gromov already commanded
[00:18:09] the First Air Army, which operated in the interests
[00:18:12] of the Western and Third Belorussian Fronts.
[00:18:15] The aviation of the First Air Army mainly worked
[00:18:18] to ensure the defeat of the enemy's front line
[00:18:22] and operated quite successfully. I remember
[00:18:25] one of the offensive operations to capture Smolensk
[00:18:29] with particularly great satisfaction, as my creative
[00:18:32] success.
[00:18:35] Then in the battles for Smolensk.
[00:19:20] In this case, the enemy might think, since they are returning, the bombs have already been dropped, there can be no
[00:19:23] danger.
[00:19:25] The operation was so successful that the Soviet
[00:19:29] formation landed at its airfield without losses,
[00:19:32] while at the German airfield, almost all
[00:19:36] aircraft, buildings, and fuel
[00:19:38] tanks were burning.
[00:19:42] By the spring of 1943, the LII returned from
[00:19:45] evacuation to its home airfield
[00:19:48] Zhukovsky. The amount of work for Moscow
[00:19:51] test pilots continued to increase with the growing
[00:19:54] number of new aircraft
[00:19:56] models. We already had
[00:20:00] remarkable domestic machines. Soviet
[00:20:03] aircraft manufacturers honorably coped with an incredibly
[00:20:06] difficult task.
[00:20:37] radio communication, though it, like any novelty,
[00:20:41] needed testing, at first it often deteriorated during
[00:20:45] flight, and in some places it disappeared altogether, well,
[00:20:48] then it turned out... the matter was quite
[00:20:52] technically simple: moving parts of the aircraft
[00:20:55] are connected by such flexible wires so that
[00:20:59] static electricity does not flow
[00:21:02] between the aircraft parts and does not cause these
[00:21:05] interferences. On this aircraft
[00:21:08] model, everything was restored as it should be, as per the drawings,
[00:21:11] and everything stopped. It turned out that
[00:21:14] the communication range was better than the norm
[00:21:16] established at that time for
[00:21:20] this aircraft.
[00:21:26] the quality during the war, pilots knew
[00:21:30] well that equipment failures in the air during test
[00:21:33] flights were frequent, and
[00:21:36] therefore they were especially grateful to the developers for
[00:21:39] every improvement.
[00:21:42] During one of the test flights, Arseniy
[00:21:45] Mironov also had an accident. After the injuries he received,
[00:21:48] the medical commission forbade
[00:22:20] during the war, they discovered gliders as a special type
[00:22:24] of combat aviation. Some of them were so
[00:22:27] large that they could even transport military vehicles,
[00:22:30] artillery, light and medium tanks.
[00:22:34] Since they were absolutely silent, they were actively
[00:22:37] used in airborne operations to supply
[00:22:40] partisan detachments and drop reconnaissance and sabotage
[00:22:44] groups.
[00:22:48] Thanks to the developments of Fley's engineers.
[00:22:50] gliders were already produced with dual controls,
[00:22:53] landing ski cushioning, and the
[00:22:56] designs themselves became much
[00:22:58] stronger.
[00:23:01] By the end of 1943, German aviation had almost completely
[00:23:05] lost its dominance in
[00:23:06] the air.
[00:23:09] And in early 1944, the clear advantage in the sky
[00:23:13] was already on the side of the USSR. By this time,
[00:23:16] the Soviet Union began to produce fighters.
[00:23:20] Yak-3 and Yak-9U,
[00:23:23] aircraft that at combat altitudes surpassed
[00:23:27] the best models of the Luftwaffe.
[00:23:31] The Soviet Union managed to mobilize all its forces
[00:23:34] in just a few years and made a real breakthrough in combat
[00:23:38] aviation. By the beginning of 1945,
[00:23:42] the Soviet Air Force had
[00:23:45] more than 15 thousand new combat
[00:23:47] aircraft, which fully covered
[00:23:52] After the Victory Parade, for exemplary performance of government
[00:23:56] assignments in aircraft testing, the entire staff of the
[00:24:00] Flight Research Institute was awarded
[00:24:03] the Order of the Red Banner of Combat, the institute
[00:24:06] deserved it by right, because during the war alone, more than
[00:24:09] 500 combat
[00:24:12] aircraft were tested at the Zhukovsky airfield.
[00:24:15] LII specialists
[00:24:20] collaborated closely with design bureaus of the
[00:24:23] aviation industry throughout the war, supervised
[00:24:26] production and immediately provided a full package
[00:24:30] of recommendations for all new models. On April
[00:24:34] 26, 1986,
[00:24:36] the institute was named after its first
[00:24:39] head, Hero of the Soviet Union, Mikhail
[00:24:43] Mikhailovich Gromov. In
[00:24:45] his honor, a square
[00:24:49] in Zhukovsky, a city where even today, but already for
[00:24:52] peaceful purposes, the Flight Test
[00:24:56] Institute continues its research
[00:24:59] work.