"....origionally built for the Russian Government."
Makes sense, for two reasons:
One, the sheer size of the thing.
Two, the Commies were big into plastic resin/phenol-formaldehyde impregnated materials, particularly in aviation, beginning in the 30's.
One wonders what they were going to do with the beast, post-war. It's my guess they weren't building consumer goods with it...
