Rufina Sergeyevna Gasheva (; 14 October 1921 1 May 2012) was a Soviet

Polikarpov Po-2 The Polikarpov Po-2 (also U-2 before 1944, for its initial Glossary of Russian and USSR aviation acronyms: Aircraft designations, ''uchebnyy'', 'training', role as a flight instruction aircraft) was an all-weather multirole Soviet Union, Soviet b ...

navigator during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

who served with the all-female 588th Night Bomber Regiment and recipient of the title of

Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union () was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society. The title was awarded both ...

. Postwar, she continued to serve and was a lecturer in foreign languages at the

Malinovsky Military Armored Forces Academy The Malinovsky Military Armored Forces Academy (Военная академия бронетанковых войск имени Маршала Советского Союза Р. Я. Малиновского) was one of the Soviet military academ ...

before her retirement. After retiring, Gasheva worked in the Bureau of Foreign Military Literature at

Voenizdat Voenizdat () was a publishing house in Moscow, Russia that was one of the first and largest publishing houses in USSR. The name is a Russian abbreviation for Voennoe Izdatelstvo (), meaning "Military Publishing House". Voenizdat was establi ...

Early life

Gasheva was born on 14 October 1921 in the village of Verkhnechusovsky Gorodky in

Permsky Uyezd Permsky Uyezd () was an administrative division of Perm Governorate, Russian Empire, existed until 1923. The administrative center of uyezd was the city of Perm. Area: 27,270.9 km2. Demographics At the time of the Russian Empire Census of 189 ...

, part of the

Perm Governorate Perm Governorate (), also known as the Governorate of Perm, was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and the Russian SFSR from 1781 to 1923. It was located on both slopes of the Ural Mountains, and its admi ...

. She soon moved to the village of Vasilyevo, living there until 1927. Between 1927 and 1928 she lived in the village of Kasimovo in what is now

Permsky District Perm District (, ) is an administrative district (raion), one of the thirty-three in Perm Krai, Russia.Law #416-67 Population - 116,353 (2021) Geography The Perm district is located in the suburban area of Perm. It borders on Krasnokamsk munic ...

. Gasheva lived in Perm for the next two years, before moving to Moscow in 1930. In 1939 she graduated from high school, and by the summer of 1941 she completed two years at the Moscow State University of Mechanics and Mathematics.

World War II

Gasheva volunteered for service in September 1941. She graduated from a navigators' course at the Engels Military Aviation School of Pilots in February 1942. Gasheva was posted to the all-female 588th Night Bomber Regiment of the

Red Air Force The Soviet Air Forces (, VVS SSSR; literally "Military Air Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"; initialism VVS, sometimes referred to as the "Red Air Force") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Sovie ...

, then forming in

Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''

Battle of the Caucasus The Battle of the Caucasus was a series of Axis and Soviet operations in the Caucasus as part of the Eastern Front of World War II. On 25 July 1942, German troops captured Rostov-on-Don, opening the Caucasus region of the southern Soviet ...

. In February 1943 the regiment became the 46th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment. Gasheva fought in the Air Battles in the Kuban, the Kerch–Eltigen Operation, the Crimean Offensive, the Mogilev Offensive, the Belostock Offensive, the Osovets Offensive, the Mlawa-Elbing Offensive, the East Pomeranian Offensive, and the

Battle of Berlin The Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II. After the Vistula–Od ...

. Gasheva's aircraft was shot down twice. On the first occasion, Gasheva and her pilot reached Soviet lines, but on the second they bailed over minefields and pilot

Olga Sanfirova Olga Aleksandrovna Sanfirova (; – 13 December 1944) was a captain and squadron commander in the Night Witches, 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment during World War II. She was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet ...

was killed when she stepped on an anti-personnel mine. During that incident, Gasheva landed on an anti-tank minefield several hundred meters to the South of Sanfirova; after making it back to her regiment she began flying with

Nadezhda Popova Nadezhda Vasilyevna Popova (, ; 17 December 1921 – 8 July 2013) was a squadron commander in the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Regiment during the Second World War who achieved significant domestic publicity after completing 18 bombing sorties ...

. By the end of the war she flew 848 combat missions as a navigator of the

Po-2 Po2, pO2, , or PO2 may refer to: * A military rank: ** Petty Officer 2nd Class in the Canadian military ** Petty Officer Second Class in the United States military * Polikarpov Po-2 or U-2, a Soviet aeroplane * Partial pressure of Oxygen, that is, ...

light bomber; after accumulating 823 sorties by December 1944 she was nominated for the title

, which she received on 23 February 1945. Gasheva ended the war as a senior lieutenant. She married bomber pilot Mikhail Plyats at the front.

Postwar

Gasheva served with the regiment in the

Northern Group of Forces The Northern Group of Armed Forces (; ) was the military formation of the Soviet Army (Russian Ground Forces starting 1992) stationed in Poland from the end of Second World War in 1945 until 1993 when they were withdrawn in the aftermath of the fa ...

until October 1945. Postwar, Gasheva and Pliats had a son, Vladimir, and a daughter, Marina. Pliats reached the rank of colonel. In 1952 Gasheva graduated from the

Military Institute of Foreign Languages The Military University of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation named after Prince Alexander Nevsky () is a Russian military university operated by the Ministry of Defense of Russia (MOD). It is located on 14 Bol'shaya Sadovaya Stree ...

, becoming a senior lecturer at the Foreign Languages Department of the

. She worked there until August 1957. She transferred to the reserve in December 1956 with the rank of

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

. From 1961, she worked as a senior editor in the

Bureau of Foreign Military Literature, and between 1967 and 1972 she was a senior editor in the Office for Publication of Military Literature in Foreign Languages of the USSR Ministry of Defense. She lived in Moscow and was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 2000 before she died on 1 May 2012 and was buried in the Vostryakovsky Cemetery.

Awards

(23 February 1945) *

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

(23 February 1945) * Two Orders of the Red Banner (25 October 1943 and 14 December 1944) * Two Orders of the Patriotic War 1st class (26 April 1944 and 11 March 1985) * Two Orders of the Red Star (30 November 1942 and 30 December 1956) *

Medal "For Battle Merit" The Medal "For Battle Merit" () was a Soviet military medal awarded for "combat action resulting in a military success", "courageous defense of the state borders", or "successful military and political training and preparation". It was created on ...

(19 November 1951) * campaign and jubilee medals

References

Bibliography