Azi Aslanov
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Azi Akhad oglu Aslanov (Azeri: Həzi Əhəd oğlu Aslanov, Azeri Cyrillic: Һəзи Aслaнoв, Russian: Ази Асланов; January 22, 1910, Lankaran—January 24, 1945, Latvia) was an Azerbaijani Major-General of the Soviet armoured troops during the Soviet-German war, who participated in the liberation of Ukraine, Belorus and the Baltic states. Aslanov was awarded twice Hero of the Soviet Union.
Aslanov graduated in the Transcaucasian Preparatory Military School in Baku, Leningrad Cavalry School and passed courses in the Military Academy of Armoured Troops. He began his Red Army service in 1929 and took part in the Soviet-Finnish War. In the beginning of the Soviet-German War Aslanov was in the 10th Soviet Tank Division and met his first battle in the town of Zlochev. Then he participated in the battles for Moscow and Stalingrad against Field Marshal Manstein. Tank brigade under his commandership run from Stalingrad through Borisovo, Vileyka, and Minsk to Vilnius and Riga and participated in battles of Rostov and Taganrog. The 35th Tank Brigade commanded by him liberated the town Pleshinitsy.
On 24 of January 1945 he met his death during new operation bringing freedom to people of occupied Baltic Republics. In the memory of Azerbaijan people his name has left forever as a hero who died in the name of freedom.
A subway station and a street in Baku were named after him.
Azi Aslanov was twice Hero of Soviet Union. He received his first star in 1943 for the heroism in Stalingrad. The second one was supposed to be given for the cross of Berezino river, under the recommendation of Gen. Chernyakhovsky, but because of discriminatory treatment he got it posthumously, 46 years later, in 1991, after a special appeal by Azerbaijani intelligentsia to Gorbachev.
References
- Герои Советского Союза: Краткий биографический словарь. Т.1. М., Воениз, 1987.
- Золотые Звезды Азербайджана. Баку, 1975.
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