Mehdi Huseynzade
Encyclopedia
Lieutenant Mehdi Huseynzade ' onMouseout='HidePop("35533")' href="/topics/Azerbaijan">Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...

 – November 2, 1944, Vitovlje
Vitovlje
Vitovlje is a small village above Šempas in the municipality of Nova Gorica in western Slovenia. It is located in the lower Vipava Valley in the Goriška region of the Slovene Littoral....

, Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

) was an Azerbaijani
Azerbaijani people
The Azerbaijanis are a Turkic-speaking people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as in the neighbourhood states, Georgia, Russia and formerly Armenia. Commonly referred to as Azeris or Azerbaijani Turks , they also live in a wider area from the Caucasus to...

 guerrilla and scout during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. He was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union
Hero of the Soviet Union
The title Hero of the Soviet Union was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society.-Overview:...

 on April 11, 1957.

Early years

Mehdi Huseynzade was born on 22 December, 1918 in the village of Novkhany in the Baku province of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was the first successful attempt to establish a democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world . The ADR was founded on May 28, 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire that began with the Russian Revolution of 1917 by Azerbaijani National Council in...

. After the Soviet occupation of Azerbaijan
Red Army invasion of Azerbaijan
The Red Army invasion of Azerbaijan, also known as the Sovietization or Soviet occupation of Azerbaijan, was a military campaign carried out by the 11th Army of Soviet Russia on April 27 - May 11, 1920 to overthrow the government of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and to install a Bolshevik regime...

, his father, Hanifa Huseynzade, eventually became the chief of the Baku
Baku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...

 City Police Department Huseynzade graduated from the Baku Art School, then studied at the Saint Petersburg Institute of Foreign Languages. After returning to Baku in 1940, Huseynzade continued his education at the Azerbaijan University of Languages
Azerbaijan University of Languages
Azerbaijan University of Languages is a public university located in Baku, Azerbaijan. The student body consists of approximately 4000 undergraduates and 900 graduate students...

.

World War II

In August 1941, two months after Germany invaded the Soviet Union
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...

, Huseynzade was drafted into the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

. After graduating from the Tbilisi military infantry school in 1942, he was dispatched to the Soviet-German front line, where he commanded a mortar platoon during the Battle of Stalingrad
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...

.

In August 1942, near the town of Kalach-na-Donu
Kalach-na-Donu
Kalach-na-Donu , or Kalach-on-the-Don, is a town and the administrative center of Kalachyovsky District of Volgograd Oblast, Russia, located on the Don River west of Volgograd. Population: It was founded in 1708 as a Cossack sloboda...

, Huseynzade was seriously wounded and captured by the Germans. He spent the 1.5 years in the German PoW
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...

 camps in Northern Italy and Yugoslavia. In the early 1944, along with two other Azerbaijani POWs, Javad Hakimli and Asad Gurbanov, Huseynzade managed to escape and join the Yugoslav-ltalian guerilla corps. During the same year, he became a commander of the special reconnaissance diversionary unit of the 11th Corps' Staff of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, where he got his nickname Mikhailo.

Guerrilla Mikhailo

In the middle of January 1944, Mikhailo with the fighters has grasped topographic maps of the opponent. Next month Mehdi in the form of the German officer has made way into German barracks and, having enclosed a mine to fire extinguishers, had blown up the central premise.

On April 2, 1944, Huseynzade with another Azerbaijani guerrilla, Mirdamat Seidov, installed a delayed-action mine
Land mine
A land mine is usually a weight-triggered explosive device which is intended to damage a target—either human or inanimate—by means of a blast and/or fragment impact....

 in the "Opchina" cinema in Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...

. The explosion killed 80 and wounded 260 Germans, of which 40 died later in hospital. At the end of April 1944, Huseynzade, Hans Fritz and Ali Tagiyev blew up a bridge near the Postayno railway station, which led to a 24-car train crash. In May, Huseynzade and Seidov blew up a casino, where 150 German officers died and 350 were wounded. Growing concerned about these attacks, Germans set a reward of 400,000 Italian liras for killing Huseynzade.

Death

On November 2, 1944, returning from a successfully executed mission to destroy a German ammunition depot, Mikhailo stumbled upon a German ambush near the town of Vitovlje, Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

. After an unequal scramble with German forces, killing 25 of them, Huseynzade ran out of bullets and used the last one to kill himself.

Awards and honors

His life and heroism during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 was described in Imran Gasimov's book On distant shores ("Uzaq sahillərdə"), and the movie made in Soviet years by Azerbaijanfilm
Azerbaijanfilm
Azerbaijanfilm is an Azerbaijani state film production company. It was established in 1920 as a photo-cinema department at Azerbaijan SSR People's Commissariat, and in 1923 renamed to "Azerbaijani Photo-Cinema Office"...

movie studio. A football stadium in Sumgayit was named after him. Monuments in his honour have been erected in Baku, as well as in his hometown of Novkhany, Azerbaijan, and near Nova Gorica
Nova Gorica
Nova Gorica ; 21,082 ; 31,000 ) is a town and a municipality in western Slovenia, on the border with Italy...

, Slovenia.

Family

Mehdi Husein-Zade had two sisters — Bikya Khanum and Huriet. Nephew Agshin Alizadeh became well-known Soviet and Azerbaijani composer, People's Artist of Azerbaijan.

External links

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