I did fly some russian build airplanes.They are tough,can take a lot of dammage.The An24 ,for ex, has a MTOW of about 21 T (if my memory is corect) and could have easily take off with 3-4 T more. We had one entering in bad weather and getting out like a swaitzer,full of holes in the wings and still flying like new.the structure was made of bars like railroad tracks.
There are indeed,made like battleships. Most of them,actually,were designed to be easily used as military planes (transport-the AN,bombers-tu 154,144)
Most can land on grass rwys,even the mighty An124.
They are very good designers,and are still making a lot of nice new planes.