MiG-3 entered into production around 20 December 1940, starting with the serial number 2100; at the date of the start of the war, it was more present on operative units than the other Soviet fighters of its generation, Yak-1 and LaGG-3, but the average Soviet pilots of the units that had already received it poorly mastered this plane: it was difficult to fly and unforgiving, and it caused many fatal crashes. So, few pilots dared to fly them, preferring the old and more stable I-153s already in service.

Test pilots of the NII VVS (the Scientific Institute of the Air Force), as P.M. Stefanovsky , went to operative units to demonstrate to pilots how to fly the new fighter, but this had an only partial success. While the Factory n.1 worked to introduce slats and reprojected tail planes and other improvements, the units had an hard time resulting into an high rate of accidents and faults. For example, at the date of 22 June 1941 the 31 IAP stationed in Lithuania had 54 MiG-3 of which 24 were on repair, forthemost due to accidents.

Very few photos of prewar operative MiG-1 and MiG-3s are of Soviet origin. The main photographic documentation on typical prewar MiGs is due to the photos of wrecks and of captured planes taken by German occupants on Soviet captured airports, particularly in Lithuania. They were attacked by German bombers and fighters at the dawn of 22 June 1941, destroying and damaging a large number of planes.

At the date of the German attack, 17 Soviet Air Force Fighter Regiments (IAPs) based near the Soviet borders had already received a total of 917 MiGs, plus 64 received by Baltic and Black Sea Naval Aviation; in spite of this, only pilots of few units (20th Mixed Air Division, 41st, 124th, 126th IAP of the Western Special Military District and the 23rd Kiev Air Regiment, 55 IAP on the Southern front) were able to fly this aircraft decently.

The attack came in a strongly unfavourable moment for Soviet Air Force, because:

• the most of  his experienced officers and pilots (many thousands of men) had been imprisoned or executed during the purges wanted by Stalin during the late '30s, so that the most of his officials at the date of the outbreak of the war had limited experience of command and of war;
• every initiative was discouraged by terror of terrible punishment, and political commissars supervisioned all unit commanders since 1937 until 1940, when this system was abolished;
• it was a transitional moment between two generation of fighters that required well different combat techniques;
• the new fighters, as the MiG-3, were not yet technically perfectioned.

Probably, Stalin was conscious of the weakening of his armed forces, and made anything to gain time delaying the war; he ignored many informations preannouncing the German attack some months before. He thought they were false informations, maybe created by British or by German officers that wanted him to react with some provocations to force Hitler to really start a war against him.
For example, Major General  S. Chernykh, commander of the powerful 9th Mixed Air Division of the Western Special Military District, noticed the tension on the border and repeatedly asked instructions to the High Command, that answered "Just don't give in to any provocation"; so the aircrafts remained aligned on their airfields and uncamouflaged; many front-line airports were at less than 10 km from the border, even within the range of ground artillery.

The days following the 'surprise' attack, where the 9th IAD suffered dysastrous lossed, Division commander General Chernykh was arrested as a "people's enemy" and shot, in spite of his value during the Spanish Civil War and of his award as Hero of the Soviet Union.

Air Force of the Red Army (VVS-KA) At the start of the war, the Soviet Front and Army Air force were organized by districts:	Leningrad Military District (LenVO, later Northern Front); Baltic Special Military District (PribOVO, later Northwest front); Western Special Military District (ZapOVO, later Western Front); Kiev Special Military District (KievOVO, later Southwest Front); Odessa Military District (OdVO, later Southern Front).
Soviet Navy Aviation (VVS SMF) The Soviet Navy Aviation (VVS VMF) was organized by fleets:	Northern fleet (SF) Baltic Fleet (KBF), Black Sea Fleet (ChF) Pacific Fleet (TOF). At the date of 22 June 1941, 64 MiG-3s had been received by the Baltic and Black Sea Fleets.
General look of operative MiG-1s and MiG-3s at the date of 22 June 1941
	At the sudden start of the German attack, on 22 June 1941, the Soviet military planes still wore typical prewar liveries and style of markings. MiG-3s came out of the factory painted with glossy dark green uppersurfaces and glossy light blue undersurfaces and six red stars with thin white outline on the fuselage sides, above and below the wingtips. The propeller was in fully unpainted aluminum on the front, while it was painted black on the 2/3 outer rear part. The shades of green looked uniform while the planes were brand new, but soon the paint of the metallic surfaces faded and became lighter than the one on fabric-skinned surfaces (including those with wood skinning covered with glued fabric for smoothness); it is unclear if this was because a different paint (A-19f?) was utilized on metal and fabric, or because the paint on the fabric (AII protective, often referred as AII green) was protected by further layerts of trasparent clear paint. The difference in shade was even more visible on the light blue of the lower part of the fuselage, that was visibly darker than the color of the visible metal parts as the fillet of the stabilizers; strangely, this doesn't seem related to the material, because the same difference isn't visible on photos at the transition between the central wingplan, metallic, and the outer wing consoles, wooden. So, it could be that the rear fuselage, that was painted before the final assembly, received a thinner layer of light blue paint on the green background, or that the paint was intentionally darkened to be not too visible from above. Left: wartime color images of a MiG-3 'White 12' captured by Germans, presumably at Kaunas airport, Lithuania, in June 1941. Another color photo of White 12. Some details of the internal colors is visible. The same dark green and light blue of the external surfaces covered many of the internal surfaces too.   Images by Pixpast from the web.
	At the outbreak of the war, the typical prewar numbering systems were still in use. The most typical of these consisted in numbers from 1 to 15 on the rudder, applied on the rudder without relation with the serials (that were written in factory on the rudder and fin and other parts of the plane, but are too small to be seen on the most part of the photos). The system is well described in the article of M.Timin on M-Hobby 12/2018. After 1938, the air force switched to the regimental system; each fighter regiments consisted of 4 squadrons of 15 aircraft each, and the bomber and assault regiments consisted of 5 squadrons of 12 planes each. In this case, the numbering system of the aircraft in the regiment was organized as follows. Each squadron had colored numbers from 1 to 15, (1 to 12 for bombers and assault planes) applied in Arabic numerals, as a rule, the following color: 1 squadron: red; 2 squadron: blue or dark blue; 3 squadron: yellow; 4 squadron: white; 5 squadron: black (bombers and attack planes only). Size and fonts were not regulated, they could change for each regiment. The numbers could have had some outline in black, white or other colors.   Right: the numbering of MiG-3s of 15 IAP, that was stationed in the Kaunas air base, Lithuania, in early summer 1941. The drawing aside is from M-Hobby 12/2018.

Bibliography and links:

M-Hobby 12/2018 and 4/2019, articles of M.Timin

Barbarossa Victims, of T. J. Kopanski, ed. Mushroom

Luftwaffe Airfields 1935-45, The Baltic States - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania By Henry L. deZeng IV

Aviacia i vremia 2-2011, article by Sergey Moroz

Air battles over the Baltic of M. Timin, ed. Helion.

Istrebitel MiG-3, of Medvedv, Khazanov, Maslov, ed. Rusavia

propjet.ucoz.ru

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Massimo Tessitori