United States. War Department

“ Many adjectives have no sh forms; especially some whose stems end in [nj] , such as верхний "upper" and those in [sk] , such as русский "Russian." The latter have adverbs with ending [-i] : дружески "in a friendly way," and often with no- prefixed: по-русски "in Russian." Other instances are more isolated: большой "big" has no sh forms; those of великий "great" are used instead; маленький "little" has none; those of малый are used instead.
Comparative Forms. Many adjectives have comparative (cp) forms. ”

“ The accent stays in the same place throughout all the long forms.
Some adjectives are habitually used, in one or another gender or in the plural, without any noun, in noun-like constructions and meanings ”

“ In the other endings where ы (и) is written the sound is actually [i] : прямым, прямые,: плохой "bad": плохим, плохие [plaxjim, plaxjiyi] ; старым, старые [star'm, star'yi] ; диким, дикие [djikj'm, -kj'yi] ”