Perthshire artefacts on display in Moscow

This year’s RAF Errol ceremony will coincide with a commemoration in Moscow celebrating the ties between Scotland and the Soviet Union during the Second World War.

Photographs and archives from the former base will go on show on Monday at an exhibition titled Factory Front about the 73rd anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender in 1945.

A number of airmen from the Red Army were stationed in Errol during the war, with another group housed and trained in RAF Montrose.

Star of the Moscow display will be a unique antiquity discovered in the cellars of one of the Russian airmen’s descendants – an RAF flight suit worn by a Soviet pilot, believed to be the only surviving relic of its kind.

The suit belonged to Airgroup Commander Korotkov, and his fleece-lined leather trousers and jacket, are thought to be the last surviving British-made Russian worn uniform left intact.

Anna Belorusova is the granddaughter of Soviet pilot Commander Peter Kolesnikov, who was one of 60 or so aircrew who travelled “in secret” from the former communist block to Perthshire and Angus at the height of the war.

In the past, she has joined other dignitaries at a memorial service in Errol.

This year, Anna and a number of Russian archivists will host a ceremony at the former Krasny Oktyabr sweetie factory in the Moscow Tribeca.

The Russian memorial, will take place at the same time as its counterpart in Errol, 4pm Moscow time, 2pm local.

Commander Korotkov’s RAF leather trousers.