VVS Aircraft Markings and Camouflage

Camouflage of the Russian Air Force, or VVS (which is an ancronym for some long Russian words which are hard to pronounce even in your head) was largely determined at the factory level. The NKAP, or People's Commissariat for the Aviation Industry, finally got around to issuing templates to the factories around 1943, but like most government efforts at micromanagement, they were largely ignored. Paints used were often whatever was available, and patriotic slogans could often be found scrawled on the planes by the workers who built them.

The latest authoritative word on the subject is Erik Pilawskii's "Soviet Air Force Fighter Colors 1941-1945".