It is not the first year that the editorial staff of the «Golden Age» has been posting materials about our heroic compatriots on its pages, remembering and telling about their difficult life and military path, on the days of May, when the whole country honors war veterans, home front workers and all those who brought the Great Victory closer with their selfless work. Without changing its traditions, the editorial staff of the «GA» this time offer readers a short story about a man whose fate was inextricably linked with the armed Forces of Turkmenistan.

In May of this year, it was exactly twenty-nine years since the death of the first general, a native of Turkmenistan, Bagshy Atayevich Atayev.

This was not just an officer awarded such a high military rank; he was a true combat major general who went through the war of 1941-1945 from the first days until the Victory itself. When he graduated from the Baherden boarding school at the age of fifteen, Bagshy Atayevich did not even think about a military career. Coming from a simple family, he received his first rudiments of literacy there, in a boarding school, along with his peers from poor peasant families. After graduating from the Ashgabat technical school, he was sent to Kyzyl-kaya (now Gyzylgaya etrap of Turkmenbashy Balkan velayat) to work as a teacher. Before entering military service, he managed to work briefly as a teacher in Kerki (Lebap velayat).

But since October 1931, Bagshy Atayev has been a career military man. Childhood and adolescence were subconsciously leading to the idea of once and for all linking my fate with the army. Both at the boarding school and at the technical school, and even as a teacher, B. Atayev stood out from his friends and peers with his strict discipline and commitment to carrying out assignments. Thus, life itself led him to a conscious decision – to become a military man.

In the pre-war years, he completed reconnaissance training at the headquarters of the Turkestan military district.He then completed training courses for staff commanders at the Frunze Academy, and later the Higher military academy named after Voroshilov. B. Atayev stood at the origins of the formation of the 87^th separate Turkmen rifle brigade, which was later expanded into the 76^th Yelnya-Warsaw Red Banner, Order of Suvorov rifle division.

The war found B. Atayev in Iran, where he served in a group of Soviet troops. Upon returning to Ashgabat, at the age of less than 32, he was entrusted with a high position – deputy chief of staff of the brigade. A year later, in 1942, the hardest time of defensive battles on the fronts, Bagshy Atayevich was already the chief of the operations department of the division headquarters, participating in fierce battles near Yelnya, Orsha, Mogilev and Kovel. For his bravery and skillful leadership in the battles, and for the capture of Yelnya, Lieutenant Colonel B. Atayev was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

At the front, as in his youth, he was distinguished by incredible efficiency, resilience and courage. During short breaks in combat at night, he quickly prepared and developed staff documents and studied maps of combat operations. From the numerous recollections of veterans, his fellow soldiers, no one ever saw their commander simply resting. During the formation of the Vistula and the Oder, in the most difficult combat conditions, he carried wounded soldiers from the battlefield on his shoulders. He treated his comrades in arms with warmth and fatherly care.

Bagshy Atayev took an active part in the liberation of Poland and Germany. On his 36^th birthday he was on the Elbe, where a few days later he celebrated Victory day. His fluency in German proved useful in his later service – by order of the high military command, after the Victory, he was appointed to the position of chief of the operations department of the 26^th Pomeranian Rifle Corps of the Fifth Shock Army, and then military commandant of the Weissensee district commandant's office in Berlin. So he served for another two years. His combat career was marked by the Order of the Red Banner, the Red Star, Lenin, the Order of the Patriotic War 1^st degree, and the medals «For Victory over Germany in the War of 1941-1945», «For Courage», and «For Military Merit». After the war, Bagshy Atayevich worked in various military and government positions. He was the military commissar of Turkmenistan and head of the military department of the Turkmen state university. He is the author of a book dedicated to the combat path of the 87^th separate Turkmen rifle brigade. He conducted active search work for those who went missing during the war. Bagshy Atayevich raised four children.

According to the testimony of the niece of Bagshy Atayevich, Aygul Bashimovna Atayeva, her uncle has a large family. The eldest daughter, Tamara Bagshyyevna, graduated from the faculty of philology at the Turkmen state university in 1962 and worked for many years as a university teacher, enjoying great respect among the faculty and students. Sister Maya Bagshyyevna followed in footsteps of Tamara and also worked at TSU for many years. Daughter Maral Bagshyyevna is a sculptor. Relatively recently, son, Chary Bagshyyevich, passed away.

It remains to add that the unforgettable image of General B. Atayev is captured in the story «Star» by E. Kazakevich, in the book «Turkmen rifle» by M. Bekov and other literary works.