Jaqipbek Maldybayev

Jaqipbek Maldybayev (Kazakh: Жақыпбек Малдыбаев, Russian: Жакыпбек Малдыбаев; 15 May 1907 — 8 June 1938) was the first Kazakh combat pilot. Trained as a reconnaissance pilot, he participated in military operations against the Basmachis and in the Spanish Civil War as a soldier-internationalist.

Early life Maldybayev was born on 15 May 1907 to an impoverished Kazakh family in Shengeldy village. He received a basic religious education where he learned to read before starting work in a gold mine at an early age, and also worked as a herdsmen. He was drafted into the Red Army in 1929.

Military service After joining the army he was stationed in the Turkmen SSR and became an assistant platoon commander In 1932 he graduated from the Central Asian Military School named after Lenin in Stalinabad,

He died in a plane crash in Tashkent while returning from his service in Spain. He was buried with full honors in a pilot's cemetery at a military airfield in the city. In 2022 a monument to him was erected in Oskemen. There are streets bearing his name in several cities in Kazakhstan and a secondary school named in his honor in his native village of Shengeldy.