Last weekend, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Slovenian counterpart Borut Pahor opened a monument to Russian and Soviet soldiers who died on the territory of Slovenia in the World War I and World War II. There were more than 40,000 Soviet prisoners of war during World War II. There was a concentration camp in the city of Maribor where more than 5,000 Red Army soldiers were killed only in 1941-1942. Those who managed to escape became members of partisan groups. Legendary partisan and intelligent Mehdi Huseynzade (his nickname was Michailo) was one of those who he fought as part of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. The monument was opened in his honor. He became famous for harsh operations against the Nazis in Yugoslavia and Italy.
Last weekend, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Slovenian counterpart Borut Pahor opened a monument to Russian and Soviet soldiers who died on the territory of Slovenia in the World War I and World War II. There were more than 40,000 Soviet prisoners of war during World War II. There was a concentration camp in the city of Maribor where more than 5,000 Red Army soldiers were killed only in 1941-1942. Those who managed to escape became members of partisan groups. Legendary partisan and intelligent Mehdi Huseynzade (his nickname was Michailo) was one of those who he fought as part of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. The monument was opened in his honor. He became famous for harsh operations against the Nazis in Yugoslavia and Italy.
Mehdi Huseynzade was born in 1918 in Baku province. From childhood he loved literature and painting. Writer Suleyman Sani Akhundov was a Director of the High School where Mehdi studied. Professor and composer Seid Rustamov was his teacher. Mehdi was good at painting. He played the container and wrote poetry. After high school he entered the Huseynzade Baku Art School where studied such famous artists as Kazim Kyazimzade, Asker Abbasov Ali Zeynalov and Mursel Najafov. After graduating from college Mehdi failed to enroll the Leningrad Academy of Arts, but he was admitted to the Department of the French language at the Leningrad Institute of Foreign Languages.
War interrupted his plans to become a writer. In August 1941, a 22-year-old member of Komsomol Huseynzade joined the Red Army, and after graduation of the Tbilisi military infantry school he was sent to the front. Once he was seriously wounded and taken as a prisoner. Then he was sent to the echelon of prisoners of war to Berlin. He intended to escape and continue to fight against the Nazis. Knowledge receive at the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages were very useful in that situation. Mehdi spoke in Russian, Azerbaijani and French, that is way it was not difficult to learn German for him.
After courses of translators in Berlin Huseynzade was sent to the German city of Shorans where the 162th Turkestan German division was forming from part of Azerbaijani and the Central Asian legions. As a particularly gifted Mehdi was enrolled in the department dealing with propaganda and counter-intelligence. He was sent to improve their qualifications in counterintelligence school.
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All of these skills he used in his subversive work. A talented person is talented in everything, and Huseynzade, who had the gift of acting, managed to deceive Nazis and they believed that a young Azerbaijani intended to fight to victory on their side.
In 1943, after the capitulation of Italy, the division of the Mehdi from Shtransa was sent to Italy to suppress partizan movement where he managed to escape and join Garibaldi and Yugoslav-Italian partisans. His friend admired his extraordinary audacity and foes paid tribute to this. He could clearly implement operations plan, taking into account the realities of the German war machine, which he thoroughly studied.
Military merits by Huseynzade is difficult to name. They are mining of the railroad tracks and derailed the German troop trains, blasted a car with German soldiers and undermined bridges. He taught partizans how to draw topographic maps, prepared explosives, developed sabotage plans. He was an excellent organizer.
In April 1944, 80 Nazis were killed and another 110 were wounded as a result of the explosion by Michailo at cinema near Trieste. Then there was a raid on the German soldiers' barracks where 450 soldiers and officers were killed and wounded. Mehdi blew up a casino, killing 250 soldiers and officers, and then the printing house where the Nazi newspaper was published.
300,000 marks were promised from his death, but even this fact didn’t force him to stop.
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The creative nature Mehdi assisted in carrying out operations with quick change of clothes. Once Huseynzade in the form of the German technical officer infiltrated the enemy’s airfield and used time bombs to blew up two aircrafts and 25 vehicles. Several days later as a German officer stopped near a fascist company, and executed by shooting more than 20 soldiers and disappeared.
The form of Wehrmacht officers helped Michailo and the other in the course of the other operation, when he organized a raid on the local jail, freeing 700 prisoners and capturing the warden. There were three Rraiders, but German radio reported there was a 3,000 Partisan Division.
In total as a result of diversions, organized by Gusenzade in 1944, more than 1,000 German soldiers and officers were killed and injured.
In November 1944, the house where Michael stopped after executing the next mission, was surrounded by the Nazis. He started fighting against them, only with two hand grenade and a gun. The forces were unequal. Last bullet Gusenzade reserved for himself and shot in the heart.
