Memory
The last battle, the long road to the second Hero title, and lasting memory.
The last battle
In January 1945 the 35th Guards Tank Brigade was fighting hard against the encircled Courland grouping in Latvia. On 24 January, as always at the front line, at the command post, General Aslanov was mortally wounded by a shell burst and died the next day in a field hospital. Victory was a little more than three months away.
The general's body was brought home. Hazi Aslanov was buried with military honours in Baku, in the Alley of Honor. The whole city came to bid the hero farewell.
A second title — 46 years on
Already in 1944, for the crossing of the Berezina, Aslanov had been recommended for a second title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but at the time the award never reached him. Justice was done only in 1991: at the appeal of the Azerbaijani public, Hazi Aslanov was posthumously granted a second Hero title — 46 years after his death.
Where he is remembered
A metro in Baku
The Baku Metro station 'Hazi Aslanov', opened in 2002, bears the general's name.
Monuments
Busts and monuments to the hero stand in Baku and in his native Lankaran.
House museum
A house museum of Hazi Aslanov works in Lankaran, keeping the memory of its native son.
Stalingrad
Aslanov's name is immortalised on Mamayev Kurgan; a street and a stele stand in Volgograd Oblast.
The essentials, briefly
A Soviet tank commander, a Major General of tank troops, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, a native of Lankaran (1910–1945).
He commanded the 35th Guards Tank Brigade, distinguished himself at Stalingrad and in the crossing of the Berezina, and was regarded as a master of the tank strike.
The first Hero of the Soviet Union title in 1942 for the battles at Stalingrad; the second in 1991 (posthumously) for the crossing of the Berezina.
The 1944 recommendation was not acted upon at the time; the title was granted only in 1991, at the appeal of the Azerbaijani public — 46 years later.
He was mortally wounded in battle in Latvia in January 1945, during the fighting against the enemy's Courland grouping.
In Baku, in the Alley of Honor. A metro station is named after him, monuments have been raised, and a house museum works in Lankaran.
He did not live to see victory — yet victory carried his blow within it.