Exhibiting samples of enemy aircraft and its equipment in Moscow (1941–1943)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the exhibition of enemy aircraft samples in Moscow since 1941 (the beginning of the air raids on the capital) until 1943 (the end of the combat air raids on the capital and the creation of an Exhibition of samples of captured weapons in the Gorky Central Park). Within the framework of the study, a part of the museum and exhibition events in the USSR (almost all of them capital) of wartime was considered, at which trophies, damaged samples of enemy aircraft, their technical equipment, aviation weapons and ammunition(including high-explosive and incendiary bombs), including aviation ones, were presented. It was found that the first expositions showing samples of enemy aircraft were opened in the summer of 1941 (during the first air raids on Moscow). Over time, there have been more such artifacts that have become the object of display. These trophies performed various functions: educational (in the case of air defense of the capital), propaganda (due to the display, the idea was conveyed that such a formidable and strong enemy could be defeated). However, already during the war years, they began to be treated as objects of museum and exhibition display and artifacts of their time, which allowed them to be preserved in the future and reveal a number of topics related to the Great Patriotic War in the museum and exhibition space: from the topic of equipping enemy aircraft to the topic of fighting in the air during the Great Patriotic War. This was done by different methods. After the war, some of these trophies were melted down, but some got into museum collections.

Keywords:

aviation, the Great Patriotic War, trophies, Moscow, military museums and exhibitions, military history museums, collecting trophies