In accordance with para 1 of Presidential Executive Order No. 681 dated November 28, 2018, On Naming Certain Geographic Features after Individuals with Special Services to the Fatherland, the President resolved to name Saransk International Airport after Mikhail Devyatayev.
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Mikhail Devyatayev (1917–2002), a legendary Soviet fighter pilot and Hero of the Soviet Union, is best known for one of the boldest escape operations in World War II. In February 1945, together with a group of nine fellow prisoners of war, he hijacked a German aircraft from a secret military centre on the island of Usedom in the Baltic Sea. The island was home to the secret Peenemünde Army Research Centre, where the German military developed and tested the V-2 rocket. The site also included an airfield and a concentration camp where prisoners were exploited for forced labour. The group seized a Heinkel He 111 bomber, equipped with systems for launching V-1 flying bombs, and escaped from the concentration camp. After evading German pursuit, Devyatayev successfully flew the aircraft across the frontline and belly-landed within the operational zone of the Soviet 61st Army.