Dasha Akayev

Dasha Ibragimovich Akayev (Russian: Даша Ибрагимович Акаев; 5 April 1910 – 26 February 1944) was the first Chechen pilot and a regimental commander in the Soviet Air Forces. He was killed in action leading an attack on a heavily fortified German airfield just three days after the NKVD began the exile of the Chechen people.[1][2]

Dasha Ibragimovich Akayev
Native name
Даша Ибрагимович Акаев
Born5 April 1910
Shalazha, Terek Oblast, Russian Empire
Died26 February 1944(1944-02-26) (aged 33)
Rakvere, Estonia
Allegiance Soviet Union
Service/branch Soviet Air Force
Years of service1933 – 1944
RankMajor
Commands held35th Assault Aviation Regiment
Battles/warsWorld War II
AwardsOrder of the Red Banner

Civilian life

Akayev was born on 5 April 1910 in the Chechen village of Shalazhi, then part of the Russian Empire. His father, Ibragim Akayev, was a veteran of the Caucasian Native Cavalry Division. In the early 1920s, he and his family moved to the village of Zakan-Yurt in the Achkhoy-Martan district. He studied at the Federal Law School of Rostov after graduating from the Yermolovskaya Boarding School, which he had to beg his father to let him attend. He went on to work as a mechanic at a Rostselmash factory while attending a local aeroclub in his spare time. In January 1931 he enrolled at the First United School of Civil Aviation Pilots in Biysk, and in 1933 he became a pilot in the Transcaucasian Agricultural Aviation Sector.[3][4]

Military career

In 1934 he graduated from the Odessa Military Aviation School to become a naval aviation pilot in Yeysk. During the start of the German Invasion of the Soviet Union he was a lieutenant in the Amur Red Banner Flotilla in the Russian Far East. He immediately filed a request to be sent to the front, but was instead appointed as a deputy squadron commander. But after his repeated requests to be sent to the Eastern front, he was eventually granted a transfer to the Baltic Fleet in January 1942.[5]

Upon arrival to the Eastern Front, Akayev initially made sorties on the Beriev MBR-2 "flying boat", gaining a total of over 122 flight hours. In late 1942 he was sent to an aviation school to be retrained to fly the Ilyushin Il-2. Upon completing training he was assigned to the 35th Assault Aviation Regiment of the 9th Assault Aviation Division in the Baltic Fleet Air Force. Less than a year later in September 1943, he was promoted to the rank of Major and appointed as commander of the regiment.[6][7]

Akayev was killed in the line of duty on 26 February 1944 along with seven other members of his regiment while leading a mission that successfully destroyed a heavily-defended airfield used in the bombing of Leningrad that was considered unattackable. Three days before his death, the NKVD began the deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people into exile, which included Akayev's family; his mother received the last letter from her son just one day before the deportation. While in exile when she inquired about the fate of her son, she was only told vaguely that he had not returned from a mission.[4][8]

Awards and honors

References
  1. "ЖЗЛ. Даша Акаев. Летчик из Закан-Юрта. (Видео)". ИА Чеченинфо (in Russian). Retrieved 2018-12-07.
  2. "Герой ВОВ летчик Даша Акаев". chechnyatoday.com. 6 May 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
  3. Musa, Geshaev (2006). Знаменитые чеченцы. Moscow: Мусаиздат. pp. 416–443.
  4. "В прорыве Ленинградской блокады огромную роль сыграл Даша Акаев, чеченец по национальности". grozny-inform.ru (in Russian). 2009. Retrieved 2018-12-06.
  5. Шахбиев, Хуважбаудин (2017-09-05). Кредо жизни (in Russian). Litres. p. 213. ISBN 9785040711741.
  6. "Даша Акаев. Забытый герой незабытой войны. - Чеченский сайт - GovzPeople.Ru". govzpeople.ru. Retrieved 2018-12-06.
  7. Они сражались за Родину: представители репрессированных народов СССР на фронтах Великой Отечественной войны : книга-хроника. С. И Аккиева, Николай Федорович Бугай, Институт российской истории (Российская академия наук). Moscow: Новый хронограф. 2005. ISBN 5948810143. OCLC 61489315.CS1 maint: others (link)
  8. Драбкин, Артем (2017-09-05). Я дрался на штурмовике. Обе книги одним томом (in Russian). Litres. ISBN 9785457856110.
  9. "Акаев Даша Ибрагимович, Орден Красного Знамени :: Документ о награде :: Память народа". pamyat-naroda.ru. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
  10. "Акаев Даша Ибрагимович, Орден Красной Звезды :: Документ о награде :: Память народа". pamyat-naroda.ru. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
  11. "Акаев Даша Ибрагимович, Медаль «За оборону Ленинграда» :: Документ о награде :: Память народа". pamyat-naroda.ru. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
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