The Riddle of Fate: How the Soviet pilot Ivan Datsenko became the leader of an Indian tribe

According to the official version, the pilot Ivan Datsenko died in 1944 over Lviv. Unofficially, he fled to Canada, where he became the leader of the Mohawks, nicknamed "The One who walked through the Fire." 

The story of the Soviet pilot Ivan Datsenko may seem fantastic at first glance, there are too many mysteries in it. The hero of Soviet aviation did not return back in one of the combat missions and was declared missing, and many years later the Soviet delegation met him in Canada on the reservation of local Indians. Ivan by that time received a new name Piercing Fire and became the leader of the Aboriginal tribe.

The story of Ivan Datsenko's rescue is usually attributed to the number of legends, since there is no direct evidence that the Hero of the Soviet Union lived the rest of his life overseas. During the war, Ivan proved himself a brave pilot, commanded an aviation squadron. A native of the Poltava region began the war on June 22, 1941, the official date of his death is the day of the last combat departure - April 10, 1944. Despite this, there is an opinion that everything turned out quite differently.

The official death certificate states that Ivan Datsenko died during the bombing of the Lviv‑2 railway station occupied by the Germans. According to an unconfirmed version, the pilot managed to jump out of the burning plane, after which, after landing, he was captured by the Germans. Apparently, the Ukrainian escaped, was detained by Smersh officers, convicted and went through the stage. On the road, he escaped and somehow miraculously made his way to Canada. There is another version: Ivan was a Soviet spy and performed an official task in the country of the maple leaf.

Anyway, for the first time Ivan was discovered by pop dancer Mahmud Esambayev. Having traveled to Canada with a delegation to speak at an international exhibition dedicated to the days of culture, Mahmoud had the opportunity to go on an excursion to the indigenous Indians on the reservation. There he was shocked to hear that the leader easily speaks Ukrainian and Russian without an interpreter. Elder Piercing Fire took the dancer to his hut, where he gave him vodka and even sang a folk Ukrainian song. In a heartfelt conversation, the "Indian" revealed his secret: it turned out that he was Ivan Datsenko and that he really missed his homeland, the village of Chernechy Yar.

Esambayev returned with such unusual news back. Residents of the village of Chernechy Yar repeatedly tried to find out details about the fate of their countryman, but the local leadership stopped these attempts in the bud. The main proof that the Indian from Canada and the Poltava pilot are the same person was the conclusion of the Moscow forensic expert Sergei Nikitin: he found from the photo that the facial features of both men coincided (the lines of the nose, chin, mouth and eyebrows remain the same over the years).

Many years later, his niece tried to find Ivan, enlisting the support of the "Wait for Me" program for this. Unfortunately, it was not possible to achieve clear results: Esambayev had already passed away by that time, John McComber (the Canadian name of Ivan) also died, and the two children who remained after him could not be found. Now the reservation in Canada has been disbanded, the Indians have dispersed to different parts of the country.