The Kazan Victory Park features an outdoor display of historic aircraft and armour.
The USSR lost at least 11 million soldiers and between 7 to 20 million civilians in the Great Patriotic War (World War II). There are Victory parks, dedicated to the memory of those killed in many cities and towns scattered across the Russian Federation.
Kazan is the capital of Tatarstan and is approximately 500 miles (820 km) east of Moscow. The fifty-acre Kazan Victory Park, planted with 1418 trees, one for each day of the Great Patriotic War, lies just outside the city centre.
The memorial complex is in the South West corner of the park and contains a small selection of historic aircraft, military vehicles and the conning tower of the submarine Kazan, all of which are stored in the open air.
Soviet Union aircraft design organizations frequently did not operate the production facilities for the aircraft they designed. Prior to 1941, the Soviets had several aircraft production centres concentrated around Moscow and Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg).
With the German advance in 1941 these many of these were rapidly evacuated east and the Moscow and Leningrad plants were assimilated into the Gorbunov, Kazan Aircraft Factory to form a facility well out of the range of German bombers.
By 1942 the plant was producing 10,000 Pe 2 and Pe 8 bombers a year. Kazan remains one of the major aircraft production centres in the Russian Federation, producing and upgrading the Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bomber and the Tu-214 airliner.
The Kazan helicopter plant founded in 1940 launched production of the Mil Mi-1 in 1951 and has since produced 12000 Mi-4, Mi-8, Mi-17, Mi-24, Ansat and Aktai helicopters. Many of the aircraft displayed in the park were produced by these two plants.
Designed by Vladimir Petlyakov the Pe 2 was to become the best Soviet light tactical bomber and was comparable in some respects to the Ju88 and de Havilland Mosquito.
The Pe 2 in the Kazan Victory Park gives no clue as to its origin or previous history. All its openings have been covered and it has been coated in a thick layer of paint; hopefully with the intention of protecting its internal structure.
The display in Kazan includes a Mil Mi-2 (NATO codename Hoplite), a small lightly armoured utility helicopter and a Mi-8 (NATO codename Hip). Although primarily a medium-lift helicopter the Mil Mi-8 fulfilled many roles.
The version on show in the park has four UB16 rocket launchers mounted under the fuselage empennages for use in the ground attack role. Earlier photographs of the Mi-8 show it with a dark green repaint over a just visible green and dark earth scheme. The Mi-2 and the Mi-8 helicopters appear to have been restored to something resembling their original schemes.
The other aircraft include a Mig 27 (NATO codename ‘Flogger’), the dedicated ground attack version of the Mig 23. This example was originally installed in the park in what looked like its original well-weathered camouflage colour scheme and bearing the number Red 41. This has since been stripped back to bare metal.
In recent years all the exhibits have been repainted and mounted on jacks to ensure the tyres remain inflated.
Aircraft:
Aero 29 Delphin (Red 36)
Sukhoi Su 7B (Red 53)
Mi-2 Helicopter
Mi-8 Helicopter
Mig 17 displayed on a plinth (Red 01)
Mig 27 (Red 41)
Petlyakov Pe2
Replica Po8
The site also contains a display of armoured vehicles including an SU152 self-propelled gun, a T34 tank and a Katyusha rocket launcher on a BM-8 truck.
