In 1939 Russia was part of the Soviet Union and was communist. In the Soviet communist system there were two types of airplane companies, companies that designed aircraft known as design offices or OKB, and companies that made airplanes called zavods. Artom Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich had been designers in another design office helping a designer called Nikolai Polikarpov. One airplane design that Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich worked on at Polikarpov was called the I-200. When Nikolai Polikarpov lost the trust of the Soviet leader Stalin, Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich were given the I-200 design to finish. This airplane was given a new name and was called the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-1. As it was being made, ways to make the MiG-1 into a better airplane were found and airplanes with these changes became known as the MiG-3 and later the MiG-7. However even with changes the MiG fighter airplanes were not as good as the fighter airplanes designed by the design offices of Lavochkin or Yakovlev.