Alexander Kazakov flew
Morane-Saulnier,
Spad – SА2,
Nieuport 11 and
Nieuport 17 planes and is alleged to have the largest number of victories over enemy aircraft among
Imperial Russian Air Force pilots. Unofficially he shot down 32
German and
Austro-Hungarian planes, although his official tally is only 20 because only planes that crashed in Russian-held territory were counted. Russian military aviation tradition during World War I was different from that of its Western allies and rivals and the individual scores of pilots were considered to be of lesser value compared to their contribution to the overall war effort. On 31 March 1915 Alexander Kazakov successfully repeated the
aerial ramming attack first attempted by
Pyotr Nesterov, using a
Morane-Saulnier G as his piloted projectile. For this bit of daring, he was awarded the
Order of Saint Anne, first in the Fourth Class, then in the Third. He was appointed to command of 19th Corps Fighter Detachment in September 1915. Here he had
Nieuport 10s and
Nieuport 11s to fly. Five months later, Kazakov resumed his winning streak with his sixth victory on 6 May 1917, which was shared with
Ernst Leman and
Pavel Argeyev. By 25 May, with his eighth win, he switched to a
Nieuport 17, which he used henceforth. Between 1915 and 1917 he fought on the
Russian front as well as in
Romania and participated in the
Brusilov Offensive as a commander of 1st Combat Air Group. In January 1918, in the wake of the
Bolshevik Revolution, Kazakov resigned his Russian commission. ==Russian Civil War==