The aircraft arrived to the Belarusian airfield «Lipki» from the Leningrad Military District in 1976 in order to enrich the collection of the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War. In a few months it was already available to visitors of the museum, which at that time was located on Oktyabrskaya Square. The exhibit changed its place of residence in 2014, when the museum exposition moved to a new building. It is noteworthy that when the aircraft was transported to the new site, Nezavisimosti Avenue had to be blocked.

«The Li-2 aircraft is a unique exhibit of our museum: this is the only such aircraft in the Republic of Belarus,» says Ekaterina Kotlovskaya, Head of the Cultural and Educational Department of the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War. «The military transport aircraft is multifunctional. For example, it was used to deliver aerial bombs: its capabilities allowed to carry up to a ton of cargo. The Li-2 was also actively used for flights to partisan zones: as a rule, food and medicines were brought there, and on the way back the aircraft evacuated wounded partisans. It took only 10-15 minutes to re-equip it into a sanitary aircraft. The cabin could accommodate 18 stretchers.

In order to take a military transport aircraft, a specially equipped airfield was needed. 

«There were about 40 such airfields in Belarus. Some of them were built on frozen lakes,» specifies Ekaterina Kotlovskaya. «The ice thickness had to be about 40 centimeters. As a rule, the air strip on the ground was a cleared patch of forest. In order to take a board, fires were lit.» 

The aircraft on display is not from the military period. The on-board number, which was found during special research, indicates that it was produced in Tashkent in 1953. But the aircraft does not differ in any way from those that flew during the Great Patriotic War. The Li-2 was operated by a crew of six people: two pilots, a flight mechanic, a radio operator, a gunner and a navigator.

«It is symbolic that on such an aircraft on the night of May 8, 1945, the Soviet delegation was taken to Berlin to sign the German Instrument of Surrender,» draws attention the Head of the Cultural and Educational Department. «It also carried this most important document to Moscow together with the flag of Victory. An eloquent detail: the aircraft stopped for refueling in Minsk on its way from Berlin to Moscow.»

This year the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War is planning to hold an interactive program «Wings of Victory» dedicated to the 80th Anniversary of the Great Victory. Each young participant will have an important mission — to deliver the Victory Banner to Moscow. For this purpose it will be necessary to pass a whole course of preparation, which represents numerous tasks. The children are offered to perform them both on the aircraft platform and in a commandant’s house (exactly such during the war years were constructed on partisan airfields).

Veronica KANYUTA

Photo by Viktor IVANCHIKOV