[Andrey Dikov]

>How frequent and desired was this membership among flying personnel of the VVS?

A membership was some kind of natural next stage of your life.

As for desired... I think that it looked 'strange' if you was a good and seasoned pilot and you're not a member.

During a war the content of CP changed radically. Before the war, CP wasn't so big and consisted much of old revolutionists and party functionaires. As the war started they generally became Komissars. So on early stages there was some kind of irony attitude to those communsits/komissars who ruled the situation, but generally they had no military education or any other kind of education except party one. In case of aviation these komissars were not even pilots.

As far the war united the society, soothed the affect of revolution, collectivization and purges, and more and more frontline soldiers and officers joined the party, its content changed step by step. A CP membership became some kind of honour -more and more brave and talented people became members.


>Was such membership, or clear display of pro-Party attitude "frowned upon" by other colleagues, as it appears to have been the case in the Luftwaffe?

Generally not. Don't forget the difference between those two ideologies. In common words, Nazi ideology divided people as Germans and non-Germans, Communist one - as 'good' people and 'bad'.