Russia's Revenge

Written by Rick Archer
July 2014

As we all know today, the Alaska Purchase was without a question one of the greatest real estate swindles in history. Shortly after the conclusion of the Civil War in 1867, upon the advice of William Seward, Secretary of State, the United States government acquired this vast northern paradise for the princely sum of 2 cents an acre.

Oddly enough, at the time, most commentators assumed Russia got the better end of the deal.  For example, The New York Tribune's Horace Greely exclaimed:

"Alaska contains nothing of value but furbearing animals, and these animals have been hunted until they are nearly extinct. Except for the Aleutian Islands and a narrow strip of land extending along the southern coast, the land would not even be worth taking as a gift."

And then one day they discovered yellow gold in Alaska.  That changed people's opinions in a hurry.  Then they discovered oil - black gold - in Alaska. 

Now it was obvious that Russia had made an enormous blunder. 

However, Russia got even in a manner of speaking.  Here is a little known story from World War II about Alaska where Russia actually got some payback.  

Alaska Highway

Prior to World War II, the only way to get to Alaska was by plane or boat.  That situation quickly changed when we went to war with Japan. 

We all know that Hawaii maintains an important military presence in the Pacific.  Any visit to Pearl Harbor will strongly reinforce that notion. 

It turns out that Alaska has a powerful military presence as well.  Alaska serves as an important outpost against any aggression coming from an Asian nation. 

The Lend-Lease Memorial in Fairbanks, Alaska, commemorates the shipment of U.S. aircraft to the Soviet Union along the Northwest Staging Route.  I saw this monument during my June 2014 visit to Fairbanks, but was unaware of its significance at the time.

The fact of the matter is that the Cold War was Russia's doing. 

America did everything possible to help Russia overcome the dangerous German invasion.  America showed friendship and was rewarded with betrayal and constant threats of war.

During World War II, the United States used the proximity of Alaska to aid the Soviet Union against Germany. America had a "Lend-Lease" pact with the USSR. 

Great Britain was on its heels under constant attack by the German Luftwaffe.  America basically kept Great Britain alive thanks to Roosevelt's "lend lease" program.  Tons of food and military supplies were shipped to Great Britain during those terrible months when German bombers raked the countryside.  Without America's help, Great Britain probably could never have withstood Hitler's assault.

Once Germany attacked Russia, America commenced a similar program.  Russia's military lacked arms and its people were starving. Sensing imminent collapse, Roosevelt authorized a similar Lend-Lease policy for the USSR.

Lend-Lease provided vital help for the Soviet Union when the country was in desperate straits.  America made a significant contribution to the final victory. It also strengthened Josef Stalin. This fact did not escape Roosevelt, who saw beyond the Allied victory and looked at Stalin with increasing dread.

Some of the supplies were sent to Murmansk, a Russian port near the northernmost part of Norway.  Other supplies were shipped north from Iran.  However, the most valuable (and safest) route of all proved to be Alaska.

With the outbreak of war, American lines of communication with Alaska by sea were seriously threatened by Japan. Alternative routes had to be opened. Consequently a string of hastily built airports through the lonely tundra and forests of northwest Canada provided an air route to Alaska which was practically invulnerable to attack. 

When the Russian Lend-Lease campaign began, the Alaska Highway had just been started. It seemed to be in the best interests of international defense to open a highway which would at once be a service road for the airports and a means for transporting essential supplies to the Alaskan outposts.

In response to this need, United States Army engaged in the Alaskan Highway project.

American aircraft were a major part of the Lend-Lease program.  That's right, the USA gave Russia airplanes as well. 

Due to the close proximity of Siberia to Alaska, American pilots flew massive transport planes over to Russia.  After the planes landed in Siberia, the frozen eastern part of Russia, the planes were then flown by Russian pilots across the vast expanse of Siberia to distribute food and supplies to Russia's Eastern front.  This is how American supplies were shuttled all the way across the USSR. 

Of course the Russians appreciated the lifeline.  But they wanted something else... Stalin coveted America's new line of long range bombers... the B-29, the Flying Fortress.

After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt had a burning desire to retaliate by bombing Japan.

This became an obsession with him, but Japan was out of range.  The only long range bomber in our arsenal was the B-17, but it maxed out at 1,000 miles.  So the idea of reaching Japan became increasingly remote. How were we going to accomplish this seemingly impossible feat?  We needed a Super Bomber, but did not even have one on the drawing board.

Roosevelt turned to General H.H. "Hap" Arnold.  General Arnold was already pushing for a more sophisticated Air Force with long range capability.  Arnold sent a request to all the aircraft companies seeking designs for a Super Bomber. Boeing had been working on such a design and won the contract.

They were to deliver two flying prototypes by 1942. It was to be the fastest, largest, heaviest plane ever mass produced. The U.S. ordered 250 sight unseen. Then Germany attacked Russia. The number was quickly increased to 500 planes.

On September 21, 1942, the Boeing XB flew out of the Seattle plant.  This $3 billion dollar gamble was the largest government commitment ever to a single project, including the Atomic Bomb.  The advances were startling. Never before had so many new ideas been put together so rapidly in a single aircraft.

The first bombers were sent to the CBI area (China, Burma, India).  With a range of 5,000 miles, these lethal aircraft began to bomb Japan into submission. 

Noting the power and effectiveness of these long-range bombers, the USSR repeatedly asked to be given lend-lease American B-29s.  They were always turned down.  No sane person would dream of allowing the Soviets to get their hands on these bombers.

The American pilots were supposed to return to China after bombing Japan.  However, America needed a place for planes to land after bombing Japan if they were badly damaged.  So Roosevelt asked Stalin for permission to land in Siberia.

Stalin evaded answering the request.  Russia had their hands full fighting the Germans.  However, since Russia was not at war with Japan, Stalin did not want to open up another front by aiding the U.S. air force and taking on Japan.  By giving no answer, Stalin stayed neutral.

Roosevelt understood why permission wasn't being granted.  However, Russia was an American ally, yes?  Roosevelt assumed they could not refuse an emergency landing.

The word was passed down.  In an extreme emergency, the crews were given permission to land in Vladivostok, Russia. 

On the morning of July 31, 1944, Capt. Howard Jarrell and his 10-man crew took off from Chengtu, China, on a mission against a Japanese steel mill in Anshan, Manchuria.

Capt. Jarrell's plane made a normal bomb run and may have been hit by a flak burst, but any damage was at most minor. When the pilot started his descent to cruising attitude for the trip back to Chengtu, the inboard right engine "ran away" and could not be feathered (turning the propeller blades parallel to the airflow to minimize aerodynamic drag).

The engine had to be shut down and the increased drag of the unfeathered propeller made it obvious that the plane would not be able to safely get back to Chengtu due to insufficient fuel.

The plane was still over Japanese territory so the crew began destroying all classified material on board including operating manuals, orders and instructions in case they were forced down in enemy territory.

Vladivostok is approximately 500-600 miles northwest of Japan 

Now what to do??

Captain Jarrell decided to follow the emergency orders.  The pilot headed toward the Russian base at Vladivostok to land the damaged plane in what he assumed was Allied territory.

As the bomber approached a Russian airfield, a squadron of Russian fighters was scrambled to "escort" the plane.

The Russian planes fired near the B-29, but it was unclear whether they were trying to hit the plane or force it down. Capt. Jarrell was confused.  Was this threatening gunfire necessary?  Weren't the Americans and the Russians supposed to be allies? 

However, it was too late now to turn around, especially with the hostile Russia escort on either side of his crippled ship.  Jarrell had no choice but to land here.  After a few more minutes of this firing nonsense, a Russian fighter pilot motioned for the plane to land. The B-29 began to head toward a field with a concrete runway, but the fighters started shooting again and indicated the plane should land at the grass fighter strip.

This was a dangerous move that put the plane and its crew at risk.  Although the grass field was too small for a giant B-29, Capt. Jarrell lined up to land since he had no choice. As he lowered the landing gear, all the shredded classified material stored in the nose wheel well streamed out and fluttered down into the waters of Vladivostok Bay. The plane touched down at just above stalling speed and stopped just before running off the end of the runway.  It had been tight, but everyone was safe.

After landing, Capt. Jarrell ordered the crew to stay aboard the B-29 while he left and tried to communicate with the Russian pilots.  Unfortunately, none spoke English.  A few hours later, the crew left the plane and joined Capt. Jarrell on the tarmac.

Eventually the Russians located an interpreter.  Capt. Jarrell asked to be allowed to contact the American Consul in the city, but permission was denied. The Russian "Allies" interrogated the American crew for three days trying to obtain operational details about the plane and its capabilities. The crew refused to divulge secret information, but the Russians were relentless.  Finally, after three days of endless questioning without contact from the American Consul, the crew took a vow of silence.  If they were going to be treated as enemies, they would refuse to speak.  This went on for an entire week.

On the 11th day after landing, the crew was finally allowed to speak with the Consulate located in Vladivostok.  Unfortunately, the crew was not released to the consulate.  They were forced to remain prisoners of the Russians for seven months before being released along with about 100 other U.S. Army and Navy fliers who had also been forced to land in Russian territory during WWII.

Jarrell later said with bitterness that the Soviets had not been even remotely friendly to him or his men.  But he could never forget how overjoyed they were to see the B-29 on their runway.  He spoke enough Russian to understand they referred to the plane as a 'gift'. 

As he watched the Soviets feast their eyes on the majestic Superfortress, Jarrell overheard one Russian general call the plane 'dar Bozhii'... a gift from God.

Jarrell shook his head in frustration.  Jarrell wished he had landed the aircraft in the sea nearby and taken his chances.

Andrei Tupolev

Andrei Tupolev (1888-1972) was a Russian aviation engineer who was nothing short of a genius.  Tupolev had been designing aircraft practically his entire life. During his career, he designed and oversaw the design of more than 100 types of aircraft, some of which set 78 world records.  In 1925, he designed a twin-engine bomber, the TB-1, which was considered one of the most advanced designs of the time.

1937 was the year when the TB-3, an improved version of the TB-1, made a successful landing in extreme weather conditions at the North Pole.  Flown by the celebrated Russian aircraft test pilot Valery Chkalov, not only did the plane make a perfect landing, the plane was later able to take off without a problem as well.

One would assume such a triumph would be rewarded, but instead Tupolev met with a bizarre fate.  Scarcely four months after pilot Chkalov’s flight to the Arctic, Tupolev was caught in the madness of Josef Stalin’s party purges.

On October 21, 1937, Tupolev and several fellow engineers were arrested on trumped up charges of sabotage and espionage.  Records released in 1997 from the KGB archives show that the charges against Tupolev were very serious. 

The documents indicate that Tupolev was found guilty by the Military Collegium of the Soviet Supreme Court.  Not only was Tupolev accused of aiding the Russian Fascist Party, Tupolev was accused of selling Soviet aircraft designs to Germany.

The charges: 

“Comrade Tupolev was guilty of having led a harmful anti-Soviet organization within the Soviet aviation industry and, personally and through his agents, conducted harmful sabotage with the aim of weakening the Soviet Union’s defense capabilities. Additionally, Tupolev was said to have been an agent of French intelligence since 1924 and . . . has turned over Soviet secrets to French intelligence.”

It is unlikely that Tupolev was guilty of any such thing, but that didn't matter to the authorities.  Under torture, Tupolev had confessed to a wide range of “crimes” against the Soviet people. 

Tupolev expected to die like many of his colleagues who had already been executed, but to his surprise, he was spared.  Instead Tupolev was sent to prison.

Two years passed.  Then in 1939, without any warning, Tupolev was taken from his jail cell and shoved into a car.  The secret police moved him from prison to a sharashka for aircraft designers in Bolshevo near Moscow. 

A "sharashka" was the name given to the secret research and development laboratories in the Soviet Gulag labor camp system.  The scientists and engineers at a sharashka were prisoners picked from various camps and prisons and assigned to work on scientific and technological problems for the state.  Living conditions were usually much better than in an average taiga camp, especially bearing in mind the absence of hard labor.

What Tupolev did not know was that Stalin and his secret police chief, Lavrenti Beria, had realized they had made a mistake. War was threatening Europe.  Now without its guiding spirit, Soviet aviation was in chaos.  Tupolev was rescued from Moscow’s Butyrskaya prison and transferred to Bolshevo prison to head a new design bureau controlled by Beria’s secret police, the NKVD.

Tupolev discovered several other aeronautic  engineers had already been sent to work there, but the men he really needed were missing.  Now Tupolev created a Stalinist version of Schindler’s list.  He handed his captors the names of some 150 imprisoned engineers and scientists whom he declared essential to his patriotic work.

Beria dutifully retrieved this elite cadre from throughout the Gulag archipelago, undoubtedly saving the lives of most of them.  The men were grateful to their saving angel.  It didn't take long for the sharashka to be given a new name.  It was dubbed Tupolevka in honor of its most eminent inmate. 

Ironically Russia just couldn't leave the man in peace to do his work.  Tupolev was soon given another trial.  He was tried and convicted again in 1940, this time being handed a ten-year sentence. 

No matter.  Russia was at war and in spite of the bizarre leadership, at heart Tupolev was a patriot.  Tupolev got to work.  While still prisoners, Tupolev and his fellow designers created the Tu-2 bomber, a huge improvement over what the Soviets had been using to date. 

The Soviet supreme court granted Tupolev clemency as the Nazis overran western Russia in July 1941, just in time for him to evacuate his workshop to Omsk, a far superior laboratory safely located in a remote corner of Siberia.  Strangely enough, despite his accomplishments, Tupolev was still constantly treated with suspicion.  Tupolev would not be fully rehabilitated until two years after Joseph Stalin's death in 1953. 

It has to be one of the greatest ironies of history that the man who did as much as any single Russian to save his country from the German invasion did so as a prisoner of the state for sixteen years. 

Tupolev Makes History

In 1944, Russia got its big break when Captain Jarrell was forced to land his bomber on Russian soil.  Stalin could not believe his good fortune.  The USSR had repeatedly asked unsuccessfully for lend-lease B-29s.  Now the prized American bomber was in his possession.  Stalin rubbed his hands with glee.  He quickly ordered his men to confiscate the plane.  Then he contacted Andrei Tupolev. 

Tupolev was assigned to head the major project of reverse engineering the American Boeing B-29 strategic bomber.  Tupolev began to copy the American plane bolt for bolt, wire for wire.

It took him only one year.  In 1945, Tupolev succeeded in creating an exact replica of the original down to the most trivial detail.  To his delight, the "Russian clone" flew perfectly on its first trial.  Ironically, just about the time Tupolev made his breakthrough, the Enola Gay, another B-29, became the world's first nuclear delivery platform when it dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima.

Now Tupolev got the plane into volume production.  Over the next two years, he made sure that crews were fully trained in time for the 1947 May Day parade.

Western observers watched in shock as a brand new Tupolev TU-4 proudly flew overhead.  At first, they thought the giant plane was the same B-29 that Stalin had stolen from them, but cold chills ran down the spine of these observers once they realized this was not the same plane at all, but something the Soviets had created.  At the time, the Western experts did not know the story behind this plane, but they understood immediately the implications.  For the first time, the Tupolev TU-4 gave the Russians the capability to reach any industrial centers of North America they wished to attack.

This had been a remarkable engineering accomplishment.  Its success spoke volumes about the genius of Tupolev.  Thanks to him, the Russians were able to successfully copy America's top secret bomber.  This act of Cold War piracy landed quite a blow to America's sense of security.  One of our most closely guarded technologies was now in Russian hands.  

At the time, these bombers were the world's first and only nuclear delivery platform.  Thanks in large part to American negligence, the USSR now had a way to bomb the United States using its own weapons against them.  

Slowly but surely the details behind this technological breakthrough leaked out.  American engineers were aghast.  How on earth did the Russians do this?  The U.S. had previously not believed the Russians had the capability to clone the B-29; it seemed totally inconceivable. However, the public debut in the Russian Aviation Day parade in 1947 changed their minds.

The U.S. found itself in a panic situation when they learned the TU-4 was indeed a reality, capable of hitting any target in the U.S.  Now there were reports of missions taken by hundreds of TU-4s practicing for a potential attack on U.S. soil.  The planes would fly to the edge of North America and turn around.  This intolerable situation forced an enormous new round in arms buildup.  The Americans had no choice but to beef up their Radar systems, surface to air missiles, and interceptor jet fighters. 

Thanks to America's "trust" in the Russians, the Russians had been given a huge head start into the Cold War.

Interestingly, the experience of reverse engineering the B-29 would pay even more dividends for Russia.  The MiG-15 (known as "the Mig") was a superior Russian fighter plane of the early 1950's.  This plane was so dangerous that it shot down several American B-29s during the Korean War and forced the entire fleet of planes to be grounded. 

And where did this new plane come from?   The lessons learned from "reverse engineering" the B-29 were transferred to a plane design confiscated from the Germans.  The precision in manufacturing required by the Tupolev project was transferred directly into the MiG program.

There was only one problem... the German plane lacked a superior engine.  No problem.  Someone suggested buying a prototype Rolls Royce engine from Great Britain. 

Everyone laughed.  No one was that stupid.  But the Russians decided to ask anyway.

Keen to thaw Anglo-Soviet relations, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee invited Soviet scientists and engineers to come visit the Rolls-Royce jet facility.  He wanted to show them how the superior British engines were made.  In a show of further good will, Attlee further offered to license production to the USSR.  However, Attlee was no fool.  He cleverly extracted a solemn promise that the engines would be utilized only for non-military purposes.   The Russians promised they wouldn't dream of weaponizing the engine.

The offer stunned the Americans, who protested loudly.  Had the British lost their minds?  Had they forgotten the lessons of the confiscated B-29?

And the Soviets? 

Russian aviation historian and Ukrainian native Ilya Grinberg says, “At the time, Stalin couldn’t believe it. Stalin said, ‘Who in their right mind would sell anything like this to us?’ ”

Grinberg added, “In fact, the project to duplicate the B-29 dragged not only the aviation industry but all of the Soviet industries up to a higher level. Once Tupolev showed what could be done, a sense of pride infused the entire scientific community at what could be accomplished.  It also helped that Stalin stopped killing off his top scientists.”

Those Rolls Royce engines did the trick.  The new MiG first flew on the last day of 1947.  Though the MiG remained inexpensively built and very much spartan, the finished product was rugged and reliable.  And it was fast. 

The Atom Bomb

Nor did it stop there.  The Soviet project to develop an atomic bomb had actually begun shortly after the start of World War II thanks to a clever deduction by one of its scientists.

Soviet physicist Georgy Flyorov had been following the progress made by German, British and American physicists into uranium fission research.  Now at the start of the war, Flyorov noticed scientific journals had mysteriously ceased publishing papers on the topic.

Flyorov correctly deduced that this meant such research had now been classified.  He had a hunch what this meant.  So in April 1942, Flyorov wrote to Stalin.

In his letter, Flyorov pointed out what he suspected was going on.  He went on to cite the lack of response he had himself had encountered while trying to generate Soviet interest in similar research.  Flyorov warned Stalin of the consequences of atomic weapons: "...the results will be so overriding that it won't be necessary to determine who is to blame for the fact that this work has been neglected in our country."

In other words, there would be no one to blame because there would be no one to blame.

Stalin got the message. He turned to his talented spymaster Lavrenti Beria and told him to investigate.  Beria began to recruit scientists abroad.

By September 1942, Beria presented evidence of the Western nuclear programs to Stalin.  Stalin was appalled.  He asked Beria for advice.  Beria suggested Stalin launch a Soviet program to develop an atomic bomb headed by Igor Kurchatov.  Beria added he had ways to "speed up" the research.

What that meant was Beria had been successful in penetrating the security cloak around America's top-secret Manhattan Project.  Thanks to its supposed "ally" status, security was somewhat lax in America where the USSR was concerned. Beria now made concerted efforts to recruit even more scientists to keep tabs.  Beria knew full well that thanks to his "Atomic Spy Ring", Russia would be able to liberally borrow ideas from the West.  Indeed, the USSR would benefit enormously from highly successful espionage efforts on the part of the Soviet military intelligence.  Well after the fact it was discovered that several Manhattan Project scientists such as Klaus Fuchs had consistently leaked valuable information of the American nuclear project.  Furthermore Germany was the gift that just kept giving.  The Soviet atomic project was charged with gathering intelligence on the German nuclear energy project as well as the American nuclear efforts; spymaster Beria was able to infiltrate the German program as well as the American program.  Consequently, after the war, the Soviet Union knew right where to look.  At their first chance, Soviet secret police sent by Beria confiscated all German research facilities and military reactors.  In addition, Russia forcibly removed the German scientists from Germany and put them to work on the Russian project. Now Russia began to make up the lost ground in a hurry. On 29 August 1949, in the deserts of Kazakhstan, then a Soviet territory, Russia became the second nation after the United States to detonate a nuclear device.

The RDS-1 was a top-secret Russian R&D project.  While not quite as impressive as America's bomb, it was devastating nonetheless. It was supposed to be a "secret", but apparently the United States was well aware of what was going on. The U.S. assigned it the code-name 'Joe-1' in sarcastic reference to Joseph Stalin.  The bomb was exploded on 29 August 1949 at 7 am at Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR.

Cold War

Surely anyone over 50 will recall the classic 1956 Khrushchev taunt... "We will bury you." 

Once they discovered Russian missiles on Cuban soil, suddenly Khruschev's threat didn't seem quite so idle anymore. 

I for one remember our weekly atom bomb drills at school during that period... as if that would have done any good.
 

"I remember President Kennedy once stated... that the United States had the nuclear missile capacity to wipe out the Soviet Union two times over, while the Soviet Union had enough atomic weapons to wipe out the Unites States only once... When journalists asked me to comment... I said jokingly, "Yes, I know what Kennedy claims, and he's quite right.

But I'm not complaining... We're satisfied to be able to finish off the United States first time round. Once is quite enough.

What good does it do to annihilate a country twice? We're not a bloodthirsty people."

- Nikita Khrushchev, former Premier of Russia
 

And there you have it.  Thanks to American and British generosity and naïveté, the Russians came very close to winning the Cold War using weaponry developed in America and Britain... and Germany as well.  Ah, Germany.  Russia would have likely succumbed to the German onslaught were it not for American aid.  And how did the angry Russian bear show its gratitude? They repaid us with treachery and betrayal. So much for America's Lend-Lease program.  No good deed goes unpunished. The story of the Soviet confiscation of the B-29 bomber foreshadowed the deterioration of relations with the Soviet Union, our supposed ally during World War II.  Sometimes we have to wonder about just how smart our leaders really are.  Of course, to be fair, we have the benefit of hindsight. In retrospect maybe we should have let Germany win and moved in right behind via Italy and Normandy while Germany was preoccupied with Russian occupation. It would be interesting to know if that possibility was ever considered.

In this world, there are fools everywhere.  To begin with, what Russian fool would dream of selling Alaska to America?   And what American fool said that buying Alaska was "Seward's Folly", a complete waste of money? And what American fool thought that landing America's most valuable plane in Russia was a good idea?  Get out the parachutes, radio for help, and put the damn plane in the water near the shore.  Then swim.  Or better yet, toss out a life raft too. And what British fool decided that selling the world's most advanced airplane engine to Russia was a good idea? Stalin's master plan worked to perfection.  By conveniently filling the vacuum created by the German collapse, he had untold territory and knowledge fall right into his lap.  Using technology gained from the Germans, Russia was able to close the nuclear gap almost as fast as it had closed the gap of America's air superiority. Thanks to William Seward, America clearly won Round One.  But thanks to the lack of foresight regarding Russian intentions, Russia clearly won Round Two.  Russia had its revenge.  Now one has to wonder how Round Three will turn out.