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The Tupolev ANT-20bis first flew in 1938. It only had six engines, compared to the eight of the earlier “Maxim Gorky”, but they were more powerful.

The first plane served with Aeroflot on transport routes in Russia and Uzbekistan. On December 14, 1942, it crashed after the pilot allowed a passenger to take his seat momentarily - and the passenger apparently disengaged the automatic pilot, sending the plane into a nosedive from an altitude of 500 m and killing all 36 on board.

Plans to build a fleet of ANT-20bis aircraft were abandoned in 1939 - as Stalin’s purges of the aviation industry had resulted in a shortage of qualified engineers.