Soviet vs. axis and alied technology

[Graham Boak]

Do you mean avionics or aeronautics in general? The Soviets did not fight an electronic war in the same sense that the RAF and the Luftwaffe did, so lacked the pressure to develop airborne electronics at the same pace. Their radar development seems to have been closer to Japan's than the West. Many of their fighters lacked radios until late in the war.

More generally, their aerodynamics and structures were sound, and their engines were developed well, if a little lagging in getting them into production. However their general emphasis was different from most Western nations, relying much more on simplicity in production and operational use which tended to reject the more esoteric (even "goldplating") approaches favoured in Germany. This gave considerable advantage in numbers: the arguments about the trade off between quantity and quality existed long before and have continued ever since.