Murad Ozdoev was an Ingush flying ace that served in the 431st Fighter Aviation Regiment during the Second World War. After executing a "fire taran" attack in January 1944 and was believed by the military to have died doing so, after which he was nominated for the title Hero of the Soviet Union; but before he could be honored with the title the repressions of the Chechens and Ingush began. Ozdoev had parachuted out of his plane seconds before ramming it into the German railway and hence survived but was taken prisoner. After the prison camp where he was held was liberated by Allied forces on 8 May 1945 he was welcomed back to the 431st Fighter Aviation Regiment by his friends, and continued to serve in the regiment with a promotion to link commander until Soviet authorities ordered he be deported to Akmola like the rest of his family because he was Ingush.
Early life
Ozdoev was born in 1922 to an Ingush family in Nazran, Ingushetia of the Russian SFSR. After completing secondary school he studied at the Grozny aeroclub while working in local industries. After completing flight training in Grozny he joined the Red Army in 1940, upon which he underwent further training at the Armavir Military Aviation School before being deployed to the warfront of the Second World War as part of the 431st Fighter Aviation Regiment.
World War II
Ozdoev scored his first aerial victory in September 1941 and went on to become a flying ace, totaling eight shootdowns of enemy aircraft, including a high-altitude Focke-Wulf Fw-189 which had been labeled by the Soviet Air Forces as a difficult target. Throughout the war he piloted Po-2, LaGG-3, Yak-1, Yak-7B and Yak-9 aircraft. During the Battle of Kursk, he shot down two Fw 190s in one sortie while escorting a group of Petlyakov Pe-2 dive bombers. In Autumn 1943 he provided air support in the Polotsk and Leningrad-Novgorod offensives. While escorting a group of bombers on 25 January 1945 his plane was hit by an anti-aircraft missile from the ground; while his fighter was falling to the ground he directed the stricken fighter into a railroad to inflict maximum damage on the enemy seconds before bailing out of the burning plane. The pilots of the planes he was escorting witnessed his "fire taran" attack and presumed him to have died as a result of executing the maneuver, which was nearly always suicidal for pilots. Ozdoev had actually survived, unbeknownst to his colleagues, but was severely wounded and had been captured by the Germans. He was nominated for the USSR's highest title, Hero of the Soviet Union; but before the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet could award him the title, all Chechen and Ingush peoples were collectively repressed and exiled to Central Asia. After he was captured by the Germans he was sent to a prison camp in Lodz, Poland and later relocated to a different prison camp in the Czech Republic. Throughout his imprisonment he attempted to escape twice but was unsuccessful; after both attempts he was tortured and badly beaten. On 8 May 1945 Soviet forces took over the prison camp and in June he was allowed to return to his regiment. Upon return he was welcomed by his comrades who were shocked he had survived the suicidal attack and Ozdoev was promoted to link commander, but was not allowed to stay after he was ordered to be exiled to Central Asia like the rest of the Ingush nation; it did not matter to the authorities that Ozdoev was a flying ace and war hero who had been nominated for the title Hero of the Soviet Union; only his Ingush ethnicity mattered to the authorities and that was all it took for him to be considered an "enemy of the people".
Later life
In January 1946 Ozdoev was forcibly deported to the Akmola Region of the Kazakh SSR where the rest of his family had been deported. His parents had been forced out of Ingushetia just shortly after receiving a notice that their son was killed in action. Four years after the death of Stalin, Ozdoev returned to his hometown of Nazran, where he lived for the remainder of his life. On 8 May 1995 he was belatedly honored with the title Hero of the Russian Federation for his actions in the war. He passed away on 25 February 1999 at the age of 76.
