Awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union in the midst of World War II for his first 14 shootdowns, he later became a survivor of the infamous Mauthausen concentration camp, having been shot down and taken captive by the Nazis.

Having started out as a pilot in the 1st squadron, then under the command of Aleksey Alelyukhin he rapidly increased his tally of aerial shootdowns, flying the Yak-1 and later the P-39 after unit received them in summer 1943.

Earlier that year on 10 May 1943 he was nominated for the title Hero of the Soviet Union, having been a flight commander with 301 sorties, 14 solo and 9 nine shared shootdowns at the time.

Wounded and knocked unconscious from the incident, he was taken prisoner by the Nazis and detained first in Sevastopol before enduring imprisonment in various other POW and concentration camps after several unsuccessful escape attempts.

[3][4][5] At the time when Karasyov's regiment was deployed to China with the rest of the 303rd Fighter Aviation Division shortly before engaging in the Korean War, it was staffed with only three small squadrons instead of the usual four.

Later that month he gained his next victory, shooting down an F-80 in early morning on 24 June when he led over two dozen flight crews from his regiment in a mission to intercept enemy aircraft, during which they encountered four F-80s at an altitude of 2000 meters.

Before moving on to a promotion to deputy commander of flight training of the 303rd Fighter Aviation Division, he went on to claim a final aerial victory during sortie on 27 October.

After having left the 523rd Fighter Aviation Regiment for a leadership position in the division, he occasionally went on combat sorties, but did not claim any additional victories before returning to the Soviet Union in February 1952.