The mini-quests covered in today’s first instalment of the Motor Sich odyssey:
An overview of the deep significance of the aeronatics factory - geopolitics between the Chinese Elon Musk Wang Jing, John Bolton, Erik Prince, and Russian military industry
The charismatic owner Vyacheslav Boguslaev, paradigmatic ‘Red Director’. Compromising photos with young women in Moscow clubs, the ‘pro-Russian’ businessman’s tensions with Russia, his 2022 arrest and current occupation of the liminal space between life and death
The prehistory of Zaporizhzhia - ‘beyond the rapids’. Cossacks, Tartars, and the Tsarist Dniepr defence line. How Aleksandrovsk became Zaporizhzhia.
Imperial industrialization. French investors in the Russian empire and their Leninist wayward daughters.
The Ilya Muromets bomber, the world’s first four-engine aircraft. The Kievan Igor Sikorsky and his national identity. Vyatrovych’s disavowal, purchase by Lockheed Martin
Motor Sich’s many aeronautic achievements. The Soviet Union’s first helicopter. The world’s largest plane, the strongest helicopter, and the ‘tenacious bastard’ Il-22.
Motor Sich worldwide - Iran, China, Gaddafi’s custom An-74
Motor Sich, Мотор Сiч, Motor Sich. I’ve been meaning to write about it for years, and the notes just keep piling up. What is Motor Sich?
