Pyotr Pumpur

Pyotr Ivanovich Pumpur (Russian: Пётр Ива́нович Пу́мпур, Latvian: Pēteris Pumpurs; 25 April 1900 – 23 February 1942) was a Soviet Air Forces fighter pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union, and lieutenant general of Latvian ethnicity.

Pumpur joined the Red Army in 1918 and became a mechanic and driver in its fledgling air service due to his civilian mechanical and driving experience. After the end of the Russian Civil War he became one of the first to graduate from newly established flight schools and served as a fighter pilot during the interwar period, rising to command a fighter brigade in the mid-1930s. Between 1936 and 1937, he commanded the Soviet aviation group assisting the Spanish Republican Air Force during the Spanish Civil War, claiming five victories. For his actions, Pumpur was made a Hero of the Soviet Union, and promoted to the rank of Komkor, skipping one grade, upon his return to the Soviet Union.

He was arrested in the Purge of the Red Army in 1941 on 31 May 1941 and executed the following year.