Leather-bound book by V. Kulikov "Russian aviation in the First World War"

The book is written on the basis of the author's scrupulous study of documentary sources on aviation during the First World War. This is the first fundamental monograph on this topic in the last 50 years. The text is complemented by more than 400 illustrations, many of which are published for the first time. Publications devoted to aviation during the First World War relate mainly to the Western Front. They describe the combat work of the aviation of Germany, France, England, Austria-Hungary, Italy and other countries participating in the war. Meanwhile, readers know relatively little about the actions of military aviation in Russia before 1917. There are few works devoted to this topic: This is P.D. Duz's book "The History of Aviation and Aeronautics in Russia (July 1914 — October 1917)", written more than half a century ago, and separate articles in magazines. I hope that the history of the Russian Military Air Fleet and its combat use offered to the reader will help fill the gap in this area of national history. In Soviet times, the topic of the First World War in general and Russian aviation in particular was considered unpopular, and little attention was paid to it. This is especially noticeable when compared with countless publications devoted to Soviet aviation during the Great Patriotic War. The fact is that the First World War, according to the official version, was an imperialist war, a war waged by tsarist Russia and fought so persistently by the Bolsheviks. Many names of the heroes of the air war (Kozakov, Smirnov, Yanchenko, etc.) were undeservedly forgotten, since during the Civil War they preferred to remain faithful to the oath and joined the ranks of the White Army. The author worked for more than 15 years in the military historical archives and museums of the USSR and Russia, collected a large amount of documentary and illustrative material and presented it in the form of a book, which he offers to the reader. The combat operations of army, heavy bomber and fighter aircraft are described in detail in the relevant chapters and sections.

A brief description of the selfless work of military pilots, observer pilots, and balloonists is given. Tragic episodes of unequal struggle in the air, heroism and courage of Russian aviators are repeatedly noted in the cited documents and orders of the military command. A special chapter is devoted to the actions of naval aviation of the Black Sea and Baltic fleets, including the combat work of balloonists, naval pilots and shipboard aircraft. For the first time, the issues of personnel training for aviation and aeronautics during the war years were highlighted. A separate section tells about the development of the Russian aviation industry and the supply of foreign aviation equipment. The final chapters are devoted to the combat actions of anti-aircraft artillery and the assistance of aviation science to the front.