Supermarine Spitfire. European Users, part eighteen. Soviet Spitfires.

 

Since June 1941, when Germany invaded the USSR and the Soviets joined the Allies, the USSR showed interest in acquiring the Spitfire. In fact, as early as August 1941, a Soviet test pilot was sent to Great Britain to test the type.

The first Spitfires to fly with the Soviets were of the reconnaissance variant. As early as 1942 three Spitfires PR.IV (a recon variant of the Mk. V) from Royal Air Force's No. 1 Photo Reconnaissance Unit, were left in Vayenga airfield, in Murmansk. In 1943 and 1944, using the same delivery method, the Soviet Northern Fleet acquired five more operational Spitfires PR. IV plus two seriously damaged ones. They were then employed by the 118 ORAP (118th Independent Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment) until 1946.

During early 1943, one hundred and forty-three Spitfire Mk. Vb were delivered to the USSR by road via the Iranian port of Abadan. These aircraft were first assigned to 25 ZAP (25th Reserve Air Regiment), from where they were transferred to at least two fighter regiments on the frontlines.

The first of those Air Regiments was 36 IAP (Fighter Aviation Regiment), which was awarded the title of 'Guards' and was renamed to 57 GIAP (Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment). After several months, however, the Spitfires were withdrawn from front-line regiments, onyl after three months of service, in the Kuban sector, as they were considered unsuitable for use in the front. 
Some Mk. Vs were sent to Moscow's anti-aircraft defence units, where they were employed against Luftwaffe's Junkers Ju.86R, the high-altitude bomber variant of the Junkers Ju.86.

From February 1944 the USSR began to receive the Spitfire Mk. IX. A total of 1.183 LF.IX and two HF.IX were delivered by the end of the war. Some Russian studies point that nine additional Mk. XVI were also delivered in the spring of 1945. 
As we said, after the first experiences in the battlefield with the Mk. V, the Soviet Air Command considered the Spitfire to be unsuitable for frontline use, so almost all those Mk. IXs were assigned to PVO (anti-aircraft defence) units. At the end of the war, twenty-six of eighty-one PVO's regiments were equipped with Spitfires. 
In 1944 out of 5.318 aircraft in PVO's inventory, there were 297 Spitfire Mk. IXs and in 1945 the number rose to 825, out of a total of 5.047 aircraft.

Not very much is known about the combat usage of the Spitfires in the USSR. The only known episode, is the shooting down of a late variant of a Junkers Ju.88 (probably either a Ju. 88S or a Ju. 88T) near Leningrad on 8th March 1945, achieved by two Spitfire Mk. IX pilots: V.  Rybin (from 11 GIAP) and A. Fedotov (from 102 GIAP).

Towards the end of the war, some Spitfires were employed to test a television-guidance system. This worked in such a way that the image of the situation from the ground radar was presented on a screen placed inside the cockpit. Two Mk. IXs from 26 GIAP, flown by Lt. Col. W. Macjewicz and Capt. N. Szczerbina were modified.

In the operational history of the Spitfire in the USSR, the official magazine of the PVO stated the following: "... Although the Spitfire did not leave a significant mark on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, at its end and during the first post-war years, it became irreplaceable in the role of a high-altitude interceptor of the PVO".

After the end of the war, Spitfires remained in PVO's fighter pool until 1947/1948, with the last being withdrawn in 1951. Towards the end of their career in the USSR, they served as a transition aircraft for retraining pilots for jet fighters. This was due to the excellent high-altitude characteristics of the Spitfire, incomparably better than any Soviet piston aircraft. 
An unknown number of Spitfire Mk. IXs were converted to two-seaters, following Soviet doctrine of retraining pilots in two-seater versions of front-line fighters. This conversion has been commonly known as Spitfire Mk. IXUTI.

After the war, several of those Mk. IXUTIs were used to break parachute jump altitude records. On 25th September 1945 V. Romaniuk set a new world altitude record by jumping from a Mk. IXUTI piloted by A. Proshakov, at an altitude of 13.105,5 m.

In addition to unit service, all versions of the Spitfire delivered to the USSR underwent testing in research facilities. 

Also, according to unconfirmed reports, a number of Soviet Spitfires were transferred to Communist China in the early 1950s. This however, is most likely false.

Sources:

1st AJ-Press - Monografie Lotnicze 40 - Supermarine Spitfire Part 3 (translated)

2nd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Supermarine_Spitfire_operators#USSR