Republican Aviators in the Soviet Union

La Gloriosa (The Glorious One), the nickname Republicans gave to their air force, needed pilots to fly the modern aircraft that arrived from the Soviet Union during the war. To achieve this, they launched a training program there, in which around 800 men participated. These pilots underwent accelerated courses lasting only four or five months in two locations: Kharkiv (Ukraine) and Kirovabad (today Ganja, Azerbaijan). The photo shows six of the trainees at Kirovabad, one of whom is holding a model airplane.

When the Civil War ended, the last group of students had not yet completed their training. Those who requested to return to Spain immediately became suspects in the eyes of the Soviets, and many ended up in the gulag. Others chose to remain in the Soviet Union. They were later joined by several dozen veteran aviators who, after spending time in French concentration camps, managed to reach the USSR. However, the Soviet air force refused to make use of their services.

The shortage of Soviet pilots resulting from the disasters and heavy losses of aircraft and men in the initial months of the war against Nazi Germany changed this situation. In 1942, the Spaniards were assigned to take part in the defense of the Baku region, a key area due to its oil production, against Nazi attacks.

The courage, effectiveness, and loyalty of the Spanish pilots were recognized by the Soviets, to the point that they formed the air escort that accompanied Stalin to the Tehran Conference in November 1943. The man who commanded the squadron was the Republican ace José María Bravo (1917–2009), one of the Spanish pilots who has shot down most enemy aircraft in combat in the history of Spanish aviation. His life largely reflects the fate of the Spanish Republican pilots exiled after the war.

Bravo spent time in the Gurs and Argelès-sur-Mer camps before reaching the USSR. He continued his studies in Kharkiv and joined the Soviet Air Force in 1942. He was demobilized in 1948 and returned to Spain in 1960 without being harassed by the Francoist authorities. With the restoration of democracy, he fought through the Association of Republican Aviators, founded in 1976, to gain recognition for the merits and ranks of Republican pilots. As a result, in 1978, he was appointed a colonel in the Spanish Air Force. From then on, he dedicated himself to promoting historical knowledge of Spanish aviation, especially La Gloriosa, collaborating with the Infante de Orleans Foundation, and through it the Spanish Aeronautics Museum in Cuatro Vientos, outside Madrid. There, he worked alongside other former airmen, some of whom had fought on the opposing side during the Civil War.