He had a very unusual hyphenated name: Eduard-Dominik. Eduard-Dominik Karlovich Ilnitskiy, wholived in Norilsk from 1950 to 1952, chief engineer of the Norilsk mining complex No. 1/7. We do not know when he died. Last year they celebrated the 100th anniversary of his birth). About his life one could make a film in several parts with utterly interesting actions, and its greatest value would be the fact that none of the scenes were invented.
His mother, a plain semstress from a Russified Lithuanian family, bore the name Akulina, which did not sound Lithuanian at all. Maybe for that reason she decided to give her first-born son the “exquisite” name of Eduard-Dominik. Nobody was worried about this: for this name existed everywhere in the world, where nobody would feel astonished about names, nationalities or dialects, not even about the most strange and ridiculous sounding. Judge for yourselves: his mother was Lithuanian bearing a Russian first name, his father half German, half Pole, his place of birth – a Ukrainian village with the meaningful name of Frantsuzskoe, not far from the multinational town of Odessa.
After Eduard-Dominik three daughters were born – Anna, Yelena and Milya. Later the children became orphans: Karl Ilnitskiy was arrested for having aided and abettet in a murder committed on a rural police officer. To be more exact: Nikolai Tieri, his cousin, killed the officer, while the father merely hid him in his house; but they were arrested and sentenced together. The cousin was hanged, Karl deported. Soonafter, the community expelled the “wife of a terrorist” and her four children were from the village. The family moved to Odessa, where Eduard-Dominik, now being the only male in the family, had to go to work at the age of eight years to support his mother and sisters. At first he sold newspapers. When he was fourteen he became the apprentice of a lathe-operator working for the “Elvorti” factory.
And then the war broke out. In July 1917 they called him into the army. They said good-bye to eachother, as if their separation would not last for long (“Don’t worry, Mum, the war will be over soon!”), they were torn apart forever: Eduard-Dominik never was to see his family home again.
Automn 1917, general headquarters of the south-west front. The staff officer are discussing the events, about which the whole front is talking: the young cavallerist of the Trans-Amur regiment, Ilnitskiy, fought against enemy patrols without any help. He massacred two of them, the third one – a Magyar offier – he took prisoner of war. The officer start to make conjectures about whether or not he should b awarded some war decoration. He is, of coure, an audacious young fellow, although he has only been fighting for two months. Finally, they decide to propose him for a medal and send the corresponding application to Petersburg. Two months later, an officer from Petersburg, who has come for the special purpose to decorate the lower ranks, hands the George’s Cross over to Ilnitskiy. And then he gives the staff a etailed report on all the news from the capital. In Petersburg the revolution broke out, Kerenskiy’s government has been brought down, the bolsheviks have come into power, the front is breaking down, and nobody knows, what is going to happen next and how things will be going on. The staff officers are deeply worried, they smoke and keep silent.
Soonafter, the south-west front is breakin down, too – the soldiers start to disperse. Ilnitskiy joins a partisan unit bearing the famous name of “Lithuanian-Lett Unit of the Red Bombers”! That sounds good, although nothing but one of the first formations of the Red Army is hidden behind this expression, which tries to prevent the Romanian troops from advancing into the depths of Bessarabia. In January 1918 the “Bombers” push forward to Tiraspol and storm the bridge across the river Dniestr. They engage the enemy, attack him. Ilnitskiy, being the first to run up to the Romanian trenches, stabs a rifleman with his bayonet. At this instant, there is an explosionbehind him; he falls to the ground. When he regains consciousness, he looks directly into the eyes of a guffawing, shaven man, who is bending over him. – “Well, then it’s you, who took the bridge? What a daring fellow you are! How about joining me as a messenger?” – “And who are you?” asks Ilnitskiy, who is hardly able to open his lips. – “I am Kotovskiy”.
February 1920 at the Wrangel front. The Red Army is preparing an assault to the Isthmus of Perekop (Krim). Meanehile Ilnitskiy has been appointed commander of the artillery batallion in Kotovskiy’s cavallery corps, which is part of the combat patrol. The combat patrol makes a “frontal” attack on the Isthmus of Perekop by diverting the main armed forces of the Whites. Strictly speaking, they are doomed men, for during the attack they are to attack fortified positions by climbing a very steep slope under violent gunfire. Almost all soldiers of the combat patrol are killed during the first attack. They find Ilnitskiy alive immediately after the battle is over. He obviously succeeded in jumping right into the first line of trenches and, in spite of his wounding, beat back the counterattack of the Whites. A few days later, right here on the Isthmus of Perekop, the soldiers of the combat patrol are decorated by Frunse. Considering the courage they have shown, they are subject to a special reward: all 28 survivors of the battle receive the order to work for the Krim-ChK (commission combating counter-revolution and sabotage; translator’s note) in Simferopol. Ilnitskiy is one of them.
Simferopol has just been liberated by the Wrangel troops. Every evening Ilnitskiy accompanies Sofia Skvortsova, who is working for the ChK as a mechanic, home to the door, for there are troubles in the streets. Sofia is the daughter of some baptized Turkman. Soonafter, the oung couple gets married. A simple wedding celebration, congratulations. A few days later, they ask Ilnitskiy to come to the head-quarters, where they inform him that he has officially been admitted to the ChK units charged with a very serious task. He has to leave without delay. “When will you be back?” his wife is asking him, when they say good-bye at the station. “Soon”, Ilnitskiy promises, although he is not sure, whether he tells her the truth.
Evidently, a mutiny has broken out in the fortifications of Vedeno, in the Chechen mountains. The troops are urgently forming up to suppress the uprising. A Chekist unit is under Ilnitskiy’s command. Their task is to work their way to the fortress with great secrecy, open the fire and hold out, until the armed forces have advanced. In the darkness of the night Ilnitskiy’s troops, when approaching the fortres, run into another unit of ours, which is on a reconnaissance march; however, this does not come to light until late. The fire was opened. In its course half of Ilnitskiy’s troops, as well as the commander of the oncoming unit, where killed …
Before the military court. Ilnitskiy: “May I as k you to give me the possibility to make up for my guilt by laying down my life for my country?” – The sentence: demotion. He becomes a private soldier and is sent to the most dangerous military sector. Ilnitskiy is expelled from the party without having the right to join the party again for a period of 25 (!) years. A few days later he becomes a POW; the enemy put him in chains. A machine gun ridles him with bullets. For several months heis hovering between life and dead. Nobody can imagine that he will survice. They transfer him to other hospitals – Rostov, Cherkassy, Kharkov, Kiev. Only in Kiev he regains consciousness and has to attempt at walking from the very beginning.
His bed neighbour in the sick-room is a basic airman from Kharkov. Aviation – that is the most passionate love of the young republic; they look at pilots as if they were living gods.
The basic airman talks Ilnitskiy over to go with him after their discharge – “we are always in lack of regular soldiers, who are able to read and write. Moreover you finished the parish school and learned a profession afterwards!”
Ilnitskiy agrees. He rises into the air only three months later. He accepts the task to take aerial photographs for the third reconnaissance flight squadron. Ilnitskiy is appointed as head of the airport in Kharkov; his wife comes there to live with him. He is happy and content and in love with aviation. His daughter is given the name “Asa”, which means “Red sky of aviation”.
One day a medical commission finds him unfit for further military service. The command staff surrenders him the order to attend training courses in mining. He becomes a foreman.
Later, he listens to lectures taking place in the auditorium of the Dnepropetrovsk Institute of Mining. Again and again he starts a new, unknown and exciting life.
At the age of 27 he is appointed director of a pit, two years later had of the huge Ilich pit in the town of Ordzhonikidze in the Krivo Basin. Afterwards they transfer him to Geogia, for he is considered a competent expert with readiness to show initiative. There he is to supervise the construction of the Korobsk Combine not far from the town of Oni. The combine is finished in a record time of eight months only! Ilnitskiy is awarded a certificate of honour by the Main Administration of the Production of Tungsten and Rare Metals of the USSR Ministry of Metallurgy. The certificate has been signed personally by Kaganovich. Apart from this document he receives the order to set out for a different place of work – to Kabarda, where the Tyrny-Ausk Molybdenum Combine is to be built in the village of Nizhniy Baksan. At the age of 37 he becomes chied engineer of the combine.
A certin Vorontsov, who is working for the processing plant of the Tyrny-Ausk Combine, did not get along with engineer Ilnitskiy at all. Thus, he denounced him to the NKVD by letter: they say that during the construction of the factory Ilnitskiy delayed the handing over of plans and technical drawings to the worker with intent, so that the building process went on with unnecessary retardation …
Ilnitskiy is aware of the fact that Vorontsov denounced him. However, he decides to attach no importance to it – a new plant is going to be built here, after all, and he is not going to get distracted by such small matters! The evening before the plant is going to be put into operation, they come to fetch him. He is arrested. A short judicial inquiry. He is sentenced on section 58-7 “for having unermined state industry” (“Tell us, how you did not pass on the technical drawings to the workers!” – “The work plans!” Ilnitskiy politely rectifies).
He is sentenced to a 10 years’ camp detention.
He is a clever metallurgist, a good organizer. In accordance with the contingent plan (number of prisoners needed for forced labour projects; translator’s note) of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Metallurgy, Ilnitskiy is taken to Monchegorsk on a prisoner transport, where they have just begun to build a nickel combine. In less than one year the brigade of the master and prisoner Ilnitskiy develops into a group of Stakhanov workers for setting the record in the construction of the “Severonickel” Combine! He himself will be awarded a letter of commendation for being a record setter in the field of metallurgy. The document is signed by Kaganovich again … Ilnitskiy … Ilnitskiy … Whre does he know this name from? He is a good worker. By the way, has any petition come in to reexamine his case? It urns out that theparty and Soviet organs of the Kabardine- Balkaric SSR put in good words for him, and the workers of the Tyrny-Ausk Combine are even writing collective petitions. Something like this never happened before in the fate of an enemy of the people … IlnitskiyÄs case is actually reeaxamined … and he is acquitted of all charges!
At this time the war beaks out. They start evacuating the “Severonickel” Combine to Norilsk.
Ilnitskiy succeeds to persuade the authorities to trabsfer him to Ryrny-Aus – “I am much more needed there than in any other place right now”. Having returned to Tyrny-Aus (Vorontsov, who put him in this awkward and difficult situation, meanwhile is in prisonhimself), he immediately carries out a planning conference. He reports, how “Severonickel” was evacuated. “Are we prepared for an evacuation, as well?” – someone is asking him. “What?” – Ilnitskiy replies. “You know very well that the Germans are unable to pass through up to here!”
Summer 1942. The Germans, in fact, did pass through. Their tanks advance up to alchik. Ilnitskiy starts making preparations to evacuate the Tyrny-Ausk Combine to Baku. Representatives of the district committee make one thing perfectly clear to him: if you are too quick in your decisions and blow-up the factory too early – we will bring an action against you; if you hesitate too long and leave the factory to the Germans – we will shoot you dead on the spot.
Ilnitskiy succeeds in transporting off the most important technical aggregates; he himself is the last to leave. He makes a sign to the commander of the mine-layer unit: “Ready to blow-up!”
Summer 1943. The Germans are falling back behind the Don. Ilnitskiy returns to Tyrny-Aus and is appointed supervisor of a new construction project for the rebuilding of the combine. In the spring of 1944 the Tyrny-Ausk Combine reopenes and Ilnitskiy receives three distinctions at once: the medal “for having defended the Caucasus”, the medal “for having heroic work in th hinterland” (for the quick reconstruction of the plant) and the “Red Star” Order (for his merits as a whole).
In February 1950, by direction of the Main Directorate of the Mining, Ironand Steal Industry, Ilinskiy arrived in Norilsk. The reason for his trip was to compensate the incompleteness of the technical cadres within the Norilsk Combine. The first office Ilinskiy was invested with was the post of the chied engineer for pit No. 1/7. Several months later he was reappointed deputy head of the Mining Dirctorate for underground mining. When the head of the administration, Fugsan, went away, he lft the execution of all his tasks to Ilnitskiy.
Unfortunately, he was only working in Norilsk for a short time. Already in the summer of 1952 the chairman of the medical commission made a not for his personal records that “Ilnitskiy is unfit for working in the remote north, due to a chronic nephritis”. Norilsk became the last serious event in his turbulent life: after that, Eduard Karlovich Ilintskiy went on pension and moved to Kharkov, the town of his youth, early in the 1960s. I wonder, if he often recalled his stay in Norilsk. Maybe he did, although, sooner or later, he would have come her anyway. For this is exactly the mission of Norilsk – to attract unusual and outstanding people. Just such ones as Eduard-Dominik Ilnitskiy.
WL. TOLSTOV
“Zapolnyarnaya pravda”
September 1, 2000, No. 132 (12370)
(Newspaper published in Norilsk)