2 Roubles AMET-KHAN SULTAN

Amet-Khan Sultan flew 603 combat sorties during the Second World War, was shot down and survived multiple times, and finished the war as one of only two pilots to receive the Hero of the Soviet Union twice while flying exclusively on the Soviet-German front. Born in Crimea to a Lak father and a Crimean Tatar mother, his ethnic identity became complicated after Stalin deported the entire Crimean Tatar population in 1944 — while Sultan was still actively fighting. He continued test piloting experimental aircraft until 1971, when he died in a crash during an engine test flight.