Career
Born to a working-class Jewish family from the Ukrainian city of Berdychiv in 1919, Gelman joined the Soviet military in October 1941 after repeated disqualifications of her attempt to volunteer as a result of her short stature. Following a course of training in aviation, she became a navigator in 1942 with the all-female 588th "Night Witches" Night Bomber Regiment, later known as the 46th Taman Division. Continuing her career as a professional military officer, she was sent for instruction as a military translator, graduating from the Military Institute of Foreign Languages in 1951.
Gelman settled in Moscow following her retirement from active service as a major in 1957.
She worked at the Institute of Social Sciences and taught political economy as a college instructor until retiring in 1990. Gelman"s memoirs of her years as a pilot were published in Moscow in 1982.
She died on 25 November 2005 in Moscow, where she was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery. Hero of the Soviet Union.