Zachari Zachariev was born on February 4, 1904, the son of Simeon Antonov Zachariev

(1873-1969), a village teacher in Basarbovo, Bulgaria[1].

He served in the Bulgarian military. In 1928 he graduated from flight school
in Bozhurishte and became a pilot of 1st Reconnaissance Aviation Unit[2]. In
1931 poruchik Zachariev was discharged from the army because of his antifascist views (he
organized a strike on May 1[1]), and he and with his friends - pilots Kiril Kirilov, Boris Ganev
and Nikola Vatov - emigrated to the USSR. They were sent on the recommendation of Georgi
Dimitrov to flight training into the Tambov flight school, where Zachariev soon became an
instructor, changing his name to Volkan Goranov to prevent the pro-fascist government of
Bulgaria from persecuting his family.
In 1936 three Bulgarian instructors of the Tambov flight school wrote reports with a request to
enter a volunteer aviation unit, which was to be deployed to Spain.

In Spain Zachariev fought under the Turkish pseudonym Halil Ekrem[1], flying a Potez-
542 bomber, later a SB[3], carrying airstrikes against Francoist targets. He injured his leg,
when his airplane was attacked by Italian fighters and set on fire.[4][5] Despite his wound, he
saved his crew.[1][5]
When the nationalists started their attack on Madrid, he was evacuated from a Spanish
hospital to the USSR on board of a Soviet ship. Soon he was awarded the title of Hero of
Soviet Union and appointed as head of Tambov flight school. During the Great Patriotic
War Zachariev was appointed the head of the Civil Air Fleet training facilities, where he
trained personnel for the army. He was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union.
[citation needed]

In September 1944 the government of the Fatherland Front took power in Bulgaria, and

Zachariev returned to his home country and under his real name to rebuild the Bulgarian Air
Force. In 1945 he became deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Bulgarian Air Force. In 1947-
1955 he was Commander-in-Chief of the Bulgarian Air Force and deputy Minister of Defence of
the People's Republic of Bulgaria[6]. In 1947 he became major general and, in 1951,
lieutenant general.