looking for good sources on Andrei Tupolev

[phrenzy]

I've managed to wrangle Andrei Tupolev in a biography exorcise at uni which suits me just fine (though my first choice was Korolev). If I was just writing about the
Tupolev bureau aircraft I think I could do almost all of it off the top of my head if I had to, but this project is really about the life of the person and their relationship with the state. Did they benefit from favoritism, were they persecuted and if so when and why, what was their family background, how are they treated under tsarism, did their career benefit from the revolution etc. etc.

So I was wondering if anyone could point me towards some good material on Tupolev's life? Online sources would be great as I have found the local and university libraries pretty slack in these kinds if fields. I have some material but you don't know what you don't know and I figured a few people here might be able to help.

I also assumed there would be some good documentaries but I can only find doccos on a couple individual TU- aircraft.

He seems to have led a fascinating life. Definitely someone who's career is inextricably linked to the regime. If there really isn't one, I think his life would be a great documentary subject.

Any leads on info more in depth than the wiki article is greatfully recieved.

 

[Arjen]

'Stalin's Aviation Gulag: A Memoir of Andrei Tupolev and the Purge Era' by L. L. Kerber, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996.
http://russianhistoryblog.org/2011/03/the-sharashka-phenomenon/

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

I sent you something possibly useful via Google drive.

 

[phrenzy]

I'm sorry I haven't posted this sooner, I've had the flu and a shoulder dislocation which is bad enough but has put me behind in my studies. I wanted to say a big thank you to you both. Very helpful stuff. A lot of the general info online, like so much of the more interesting aerospace stuff, is a bit of an echo chamber, excerpts taken from Wikipedia or one site paraphrasing another without much original stuff.

You'd be amazed at the size of our university and state library and yet there's a complete lack of good information on these sorts of subjects. I have a pretty hefty personal library of military/aerodpace history/reference but nothing specifically on Tupolev, only as an entry in a few and on the aircraft and I was really after his personal story and interaction with the state.


Again, big thanks.