Pyotr Pumpur

Pyotr Ivanovich Pumpur
Born	25 April 1900 Plātere Parish (now Ogre Municipality), Kreis Riga, Livonia Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	23 March 1942(1942-03-23) (aged 41) Saratov, Russian SFSR, USSR
Allegiance	Soviet Russia (1918–1922)  Soviet Union (1922–1941)
Service/branch	Soviet Air Forces
Years of service	1918–1941
Rank	Lieutenant general
Commands held	Air Forces of the Moscow Military District Air Forces of the Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army
Battles/wars	Russian Civil War Spanish Civil War
Awards	Hero of the Soviet Union Order of Lenin (2) Order of the Red Banner

Pyotr Ivanovich Pumpur (Russian: Пётр Иванович Пумпур, Latvian: Pēteris Pumpurs; 25 April 1900 – 23 March 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.