Rufina Gasheva

Rufina Sergeyevna Gasheva (Руфина Сергеевна Гашева; 14 October 1921–1 May 2012) was a Soviet aviator during World War II who served with the all-female 588th Night Bomber Regiment. She was a recipient of the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union. Gasheva served as a Polikarpov Po-2 navigator with the regiment. Postwar, she continued to serve and was a lecturer in foreign languages at the Malinovsky Military Armored Forces Academy before her retirement. After retiring, Gasheva worked in the Bureau of Foreign Military Literature at Voenizdat.

Early life
Gasheva was born on 14 October 1921 in the village of Verkhnechusovsky Gorodky in Permsky Uyezd, part of the Perm Governorate. 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. 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, then forming in Engels. She fought in combat from May 1942, fighting in the Battle of the Caucasus. 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. Gasheva's aircraft was shot down twice. On the first occasion, Gasheva and her pilot reached Soviet lines, but on the second they bailed out into a minefield and pilot Olga Sanfirova was killed when she stepped on a mine. She flew 848 combat missions as a navigator of the Po-2 light bomber and was awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin on 23 February 1945. Gasheva ended the war as a major. She married bomber pilot Mikhail Pliats at the front.

Postwar
Gasheva served with the regiment in the Northern Group of Forces 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, becoming a senior lecturer at the Foreign Languages Department of the Malinovsky Military Armored Forces Academy. She worked there until August 1957. She transferred to the reserve in December 1956 with the rank of major. From 1961, she worked as a senior editor in the Voenizdat Bureau of Foreign Military Literature. Between 1967 and 1972 Gasheva was a senior editor in the Office for Publication of Military Literature in Foreign Languages of the USSR Ministry of Defense. Gasheva lived in Moscow and was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 2000. Gasheva died on 1 May 2012. She was buried in the Vostryakovsky Cemetery.

Awards
Gasheva received the following awards.
 * Hero of the Soviet Union
 * Order of Lenin
 * Order of the Red Banner (2)
 * Order of the Patriotic War 1st class (2)
 * Order of the Red Star (2)
 * Medal for Battle Merit