Mushoil Iagudaiev was born in 1896 in Derbent, in a family of Mountain Jews. In 1915, he was recruited into the Tsarist army and took part in World War I. In 1918, he went over to the Red Army and fought in the Russian Civil War. In the interwar period, Iagudaiev worked at a kolkhoz (collective farm).
In 1941, when the Soviet-German War broke out, Iagudaiev was drafted into the Red Army. From January 1942, he served as a rifleman in the 33rd Separate Rifle Brigade, which was deployed in northern Russia, mainly in the Leningrad region. He was wounded several times, but was returned to active service each time.
After the war, Mushoil Iagudaiev told his children and grandchildren the story of his most serious wound. The doctors who treated him were about to amputate his arm, because they were afraid of sepsis. The surgeon who was to carry out this amputation found a piece of paper in Iagudaiev’s pocket; there was a Jewish prayer written upon it. The doctor asked: “Are you Jewish?” – and, having received an affirmative reply, he promised to spare Iagudaiev’s arm. The doctor did not say a word about himself, but Iagudaiev was certain that he, too, was a Jew. The doctor saved his arm, but Iagudaiev returned home in 1946 as a disabled person.
After the war, Mushoil Iagudaiev worked at a winery. In 1971, when his wife Istir fell ill, Iagudaiev swore that, if she were to survive, he would move to Israel. His wife recovered, and the Iagudaiev family immigrated to Israel in 1973. They lived in Beersheba.
Mushoil Iagudaiev died in 1985.
