On February 3, as on May 9, the former Soviet countries commemorate the heroes who vindicated the honour of the country. The war is a thing for the youth, and during the Soviet era the children of the political elite's representatives fought and died for their country together with their peers from "common" families. Protecting the Fatherland was a holy cause, so the children of party and state leaders were bursting to go into action.
Jahangir (Vladimir) Bagirov was born in Astrakhan, where his father Mir Jafar Baghirov served as the head of the guard service, guarding the warehouse with military equipment. Back then Bagirov had not occupied any high posts, had not become known as "Azerbaijani Stalin" and one of the most controversial figures in the Soviet history of Azerbaijan.
In 1918, Mir Jafar Baghirov married Maria Sergeyeva, a Russian nurse who concealed her noble lineage. Туче year, Maria gave Mir Jafar a son. His father called him Jahangir, and his mother - Vladimir.
Maria Sergeyeva died when the boy was 7, and Jahangir had to understand all the hardships of pre-war life from his earliest years..
All this time he dreamed of the sky, was trained in the Baku aeroclub, studied at the Yeisk military aviation school and the Tashkent military school, graduated from the international faculty of Moscow State University. From the first day of the war, he was bursting to go into action and already in the middle of July 1941 he went to the front, but not as a pilot - as a Western Front commander of a rifle platoon of the 616th Rifle Regiment.
In late October Jahangir was wounded in battle and while rehabilitating after the wound, he studied at the Rustavi Military Aviation School of the Transcaucasian Front. Then his dream came true - after graduating the air school the fighter was sent to the 40th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment. There he quickly mastered the La-5 fighter aircraft and soon fired at fascists from it, and often Bagirov's fighter aircraft throw up fire into superior enemy forces.
In 1942, in a battle near Serpukhov, Bagirov was seriously shot in the arm, but managed to land the plane and was bursting to go into action again literally from the first days of treatment in the hospital. Doctors said that flying an aircraft once again is out of the question. After wading in a hospital bed for two and a half months, Jahangir decides to take radical measures - he writes a letter to his father, who at that time was first secretary of the Central Committee of the Azerbaijan Communist Party:
"Dear Dad, I have been out of place for two and a half months now, I'm eating bread, which is so expensive now, I'm here when my fatherland is in danger, when thousands of its sons are fighting at the war, not sparing their lives. And I should especially be in the place of the most fierce fight, because I'm your son, the son of our country, our party. If you knew how ashamed I am to look people in the eyes, because I'm young, healthy, but in the rear.
I ask you to speed up my departure to the front, I agree on anything, I do not need their glorified aircraft, which I have been waiting for two and a half months, I agree to fly the U-2, I will not sit around. I can wait for another week, but then I will go to the first unit I meet and to the front. I look forward to going to to the front and I will prove that your son is worthy of his father and his homeland.
Lots of kisses, Vladimir. 4.2.43"
Mir Jafar Baghirov found his son in the hospital and said: "Go to the front and come back alive with victory!" ...
On June 5, 1943 Jahangir Bagirov had an unequal fight with the Junkers and Messerschmitts. 11 German aircraft raided the Oboyan town near Kursk, which was guarded by the air regiment, where Bagirov served. Soviet fighters took off to intercept them. Bagirov shot down two German planes and realized that he was running out of ammunition. Then Jahangir made the decision that cost him his life - he went to ram the German fighter. Both planes exploded.
Jahangir (Vladimir) Bagirov is remembered in history as the first Azeri, who performed an air ramming attack. For this heroic feat, Senior Lieutenant Bagirov was posthumously awarded the Order of Lenin. They also wanted to award Jahangir the Star of Hero of the USSR, but his father rebelled: "How is my son different from other soldiers?"
... When Mir Jafar Baghirov was sentenced to death, he asked only one thing - a visit to the grave of his son.
