Ahmadiyya Jabrayilov

Ahmadiyya Mikail ogly Jabrayilov (Əhmədiyyə Cəbrayılov, Ахмедия Джебраилов; 22 September 1920, Ohud village, Shaki Rayon, Azerbaijani SSR – 11 October 1994, Shaki, Azerbaijan) was a celebrated Azerbaijani activist of the French Resistance.

When World War II started, he was drafted into the Soviet Army. In May 1942 he was severely wounded, taken prisoner by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp in Montauban. With the assistance of French personnel of the camp he managed to escape, and joined the Maquis, among whom he became known as Armed Michel. Being fluent in German, he became involved in intelligence and sabotage operations.

Jabrayilov became known for his brave actions in battle. He was again severely wounded during an operation to rescue 500 children, who were being deported as a labor force to Germany. Dressed as a German army captain, with a German I.D. on him, he was picked up by a German patrol and delivered to a military hospital. After treatment in hospital he was appointed deputy to the German commandant of the town of Albi. He used this position to free hundreds of prisoners from German captivity. The German command offered a reward of 10,000 Reichsmarks for the head of Jabrayilov. However Jabrayilov continued his daring actions against the Germans until the end of the war. He personally knew the leader of the French Resistance Charles de Gaulle.

For his services Jabrayilov received high military decorations of France, amongst others the orders of the Légion d'honneur, the Croix de guerre and the Croix du combattant volontaire. After the end of World War II he was granted French citizenship and worked for the French government. However, in 1948 he decided to return to his native country.

Like other returning war prisoners, Jabrayilov was subject to a screening process in which the returning servicemen were to be individually cleared or arrested for collaboration with the enemy under a regimen of often-arbitrary security checks done by the NKVD – of the majority who were cleared, many were still placed under restrictions. Though never arrested in the end, Jabrayilov remained under a cloud of suspicion and for a while was permitted work only as a shepherd at the local kolkhoz. He was deprived of his decorations, which were kept in a museum, and lived in obscurity until the early 1960s, when French war veterans started inquiring about their friend.

In 1966, French President Charles de Gaulle expressed a wish to see Jabrayilov during his first visit to the USSR. Jabrayilov was immediately brought from his village to Moscow to meet de Gaulle, after which he was recognized as a hero of World War II in the Soviet Union. In 1975 he was allowed to travel to France to meet with his former comrades-in-arms. He received a number of Soviet decorations, including the Order of the October Revolution.