Soviet Forces

Musa Gareyev

Born June 9, 1922, in the village of Iliakshidy, Bashkir ASSR. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union (Feb. 23, 1945, and Apr. 19, 1945); colonel. Member of the CPSU since 1944. Born into the family of a Bashkir peasant. Gareev has been in the Soviet Army since 1940 and graduated from a military aviation school in 1942. During the Great Patriotic War, as a pilot and the commander of a flight and squadron of the 76th Guards Attack Air Regiment, he participated in battles near Stalingrad and in the Donbas, the Crimea, Byelorussia, Poland, and Germany, and made about 250 successful combat flights. After the war he has held high command positions and graduated from the Frunze Military Academy in 1951 and from the Military Academy of the General Staff in 1959. He was a deputy to the second, third, and fourth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Gareev has been awarded the Order of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Alexander Nevsky, the Order of Bogdan Khmel’nitskii Third Class, the Order of the Patriotic War First Class, three Orders of the Red Star, and various medals. He has been in retirement since 1964. Il-2 Shturmovik - Famous Fliers: Aces: Many, including Talgat Begeldinov (seven kills), Ivan Drachenko (five) Notables: Georgiy Beregovoi, 185 missions, became cosmonaut on 1968 Soyuz 3 mission; Anna Yegorova, 277 missions; Nelson Stepanyan, 243 missions; Georgiy Alekseyenko, 223 missions; Musa Gareyev, 207 missions.