Zaur Rzayev

Zadir Rza oglu Rzayev , known as Zaur Rzayev (10 October 1937 – 29 January 2010), was an Azerbaijani military officer, Major General of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. He had served as the commander of the first Azerbaijani military unit created on the basis of Military Unit 18110 of the former Soviet Army, deputy commander of the 2nd Army Corps, front commander and the first deputy minister of defence during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.

Life and service Early years Zadir Rza oglu Rzayev was born on 10 October 1937 in Şürük, Lankaran District of the Azerbaijani SSR, then Soviet Union. In 1955, he entered the faculty of physics and mathematics of the Azerbaijan Pedagogical University, but dropped out of the university due to his family's economic difficulties. He studied at the Baku Higher Combined Arms Command School from 1958 to 1962, and graduated from there with honors.

Red Army In 1962, he was promoted to lieutenant and sent to serve in the Red Army stationed in East Germany. Rzayev then entered the Frunze Military Academy in Moscow in 1971 and graduated in 1975. From there he was sent to the Transcaucasian Military District as a deputy regiment commander, and later to Baku as a deputy head of the military department of Baku State University to train Azerbaijani officers. Rzayev, who rose to the rank of colonel, was appointed head of the department.