August 5 in Russian history

Tune in for tonight’s Historama to learn about two big military achievements on this day in the 1930s and 1940s.

­Soviet aviator performs first ramming attack on surface target

Today in 1939, a kamikaze-style attack was carried out by Soviet pilot Mikhail Yuyukin.

This was during the Soviet-Japanese border war, which lasted two weeks and ended with the defeat of the Japanese army.

Yuyukin’s bomber was hit by ground fire and began to fall out of the sky.

He told his two co-pilots to eject. One followed the order, but the other decided to stay.

Yuyukin then directed the burning plane at a large group of enemy soldiers and perished with them.

­First World War II salute warms hearts of Russians

The first salute during World War II was given on this day in 1943.

It commemorated the liberation of two cities, Orel and Belgorod, from Nazi forces.

The salute was fired in Moscow with the help of 124 weapons. They were allocated all over the capital – mainly on stadiums and bare places – so that any Moscow resident could hear the salvos.

There were 12 of them fired with 30 second intervals.

Read more on third day in Russian history

Leave a comment