| abstract | - The Second World War proved to be a dark time for the Soviet air-force. With the USSR beaten and it's treasury rendered nearly dry in its desperate final struggles to escape defeat, countless Soviet planes were relegated to the metal works to be processed into more "civilian" applications... all under the watchful eyes of the Allied peacekeeping forces of course. Such was the fate of planes like the Yak fighter and its kindred, with the end result being a nation rendered completely devoid of a truly solvent air capability. However, there was some elbow room that the Allies were willing to grant their vanquished adversary. In order to grant the USSR the bare minimum of air defense, mostly as a way to avoid any treaty-based squabbles, the Allied forces allowed the USSR to retain a small contingent of MiG fighters for the purpose of national self-preservation and protection. This proved to be a backhanded mercy at best however, as the trials of war had consumed all but the most fleeting amounts of jet fuel needed to power the aircraft, making them for all intents and purposes "grounded." With the yoke of defeat on its shoulders however, the USSR had little choice but to accept its victorious adversaries demands, adding yet one more bauble in their bag of post-war humiliations; an air-force that couldn't fly.
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