9.6.1922 - 17.9.1987

Musa Gareev was a squadron commander of the 76^th Guards Ground Attack Aviation Regiment of the 1^st Guards Assault Aviation Division of the 1^st Air Army of the 3^rd Belorussian Front.

He was born on June 9, 1922 in Ilyakshide village, today Ilishevski region, Bashkortostan in a peasant family. Bashkir. A member of the CPSU (B) / Communist Party from April 1944. He completed two years of People’s Commissariat of Railways in 1940.

He was designed to the Red Army on December 15, 1940 by Zhdanov military commissariat of Ufa, Bashkir ASSR. In 1942 he graduated from the Military Aviation School of Engels. After graduating from flying school from September 25, 1942 - in the army.

He started fighting as a sergeant – a common pilot. In 1944, he became commander of the squadron. The war ended as a major, air navigator of the Regiment. He fought in the battles of Stalingrad, in the Donets Basin, the Crimea, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, and East Prussia. Contribution made by M. Gareev to defeat the Nazis, is a shining example of courage, bravery and heroism, boundless love and devotion to the Motherland.

Guards Captain Gareev, by August 1944 had made 164 sorties, displaying courage and heroism, for what by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet dated February 23, 1945 he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (№ 6227).

For 207 sorties performed by March 1945, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet dated April 19, 1945 Major Musa Gareev was awarded the second Gold Star medal. On the same day aerial gunner of the crew - Guards Top Sergeant, Alexander Kiryanov was awarded the 1^st Class Order of Glory, becoming a Full Cavalier of the award.

In total during the Great Patriotic War, M. Gareev made about 250 sorties. Participated in historic Victory Parade in Moscow on June 24, 1945.

After the war, a brave pilot commanded the attack aviation regiment. In 1951, he graduated from the Frunze Military Academy, in 1959 — the General Staff Military Academy. The Colonel (1956). Since 1964 - in reserve. Lived and worked in the capital of Bashkortostan - Ufa. He was chairman of the Bashkir Republican Committee of the Voluntary Association for Assistance to Army, Aviation and Navy (1965-1977). Elected deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the 2^nd - 4^th convocations (1946-1958), deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Bashkir Autonomous Republic of the 7^th-9^th convocations. Awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of the city of Ufa.

He died on September 17, 1987, was buried in Ufa in Victory Park.

He was awarded the Order of Lenin (1945), three Orders of the Red Banner (1943, February 1944, November 1944), the 3^rd Class Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky (1945), the Order of Alexander Nevsky (1944), two Orders of the Patriotic War of the 1^st Class (1945, 1985), the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1971), three Orders of the Red Star (1943, 1955, 1956), medals (including “For Courage” (1943) and “For Combat Merits” (1951)).

A bronze bust of twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Musa Gareev, was installed in 1948 in his native Ilyakshide village, and in 1960 was moved to the city of Ufa and installed on the Boulevard of Fame. On the wall of the house 4 in Khudaiberdin street in Ufa, where M. Gareev lived, a memorial plaque with a bas-relief of the Hero was installed. The basalt version of the sculptural portrait of Gareev, created in 1947, by the People’s Artist of the USSR, sculptor N. Tomsky, is in the Tretyakov Gallery.