 One of the premier fighter jet aircraft that Russia employed throughout the duration of the Cold War was the MiG.In a Britannica Academic article, Siddiqi explains that in 1939, Joseph Stalin called for the creation of a new jet aircraft for the Russian military.The men chosen to lead the design of this new fighter were Artem I. Mikoyan and Mikhail I. Gurevich; the abbreviation MiG is a conjunction of the last names of these men.