The World War 2 fighters designed by A.S. Yakovlev’s and his team are rightfully considered the weapon of the Victory in the history of the Soviet Union and Russia. Their speed, maneuverability and firepower made them famous over the Eastern front. Yet until present days historians and aviation enthusiast continue to debate whether the design of these machines was adequate. The goal of this book is not to end these debates, but rather to present as precisely as the documents available to the authors allow the story of the first aircraft in the long lineage of Yakovlev’s fighters – the Yak-1 . Many new, sometimes unexpected facts about this important machine are presented in this book.