ILYA VASSILIKOV
Birthday: June 21, 1918
Nationality: Soviet
Occupation: Soldier (Sniper)
Gender: Male
BIOGRAPHY
Born just after Russia's withdraw from the first World War, due to the collapse of Imperial Russia, Ilya was born into the chaos of a developing nation but he was also born into a family that loved him deeply. His father was a school teacher and his mother a tailor living in a small town on the eastern edge of the Ukraine. Ilya was an only child but there were other children in the town and at synagogue so he was not without friends. His father being a teacher put Ilya into a social class above 'peasant' but only slightly. The separation of rich and poor was still vast despite the Bolshevik claims of equality. At the age of three, the Russian Famine of 1921 left Ilya's family starving (along with millions of others in Russia and the eastern Soviet Ukraine). His generation saw friends and family die wasting deaths before most children really understood what death was. This early tradgedy, modern psychologists would say, stunted Ilya's emotional development. Though his immediate family survived, Ilya lost grandparents, cousins, and friends. Nearly half the people he cared about died that year and though he struggled to understand it as a young child, the experience gave him deeply rooted abandonment issues that made him reluctant to care about others.
But the famine did not last forever and the next year saw the establishment of a stable government in the region: the USSR. Unfortunately this government would prove to be one of the most self destructive in all of human history. Stalin's First Five-Year Plan lead to another famine when the local peasants slaughtered millions of livestock rather than give them up to the Plan's collective farming system. Further famines were caused when the collective farming systems were neither enforced nor managed properly, leading to a massive decline in food production resulting in peasant uprisings and, ultimately, the Holodomor (killing by hunger) - a man made famine that lasted from 1932 to '33. Millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in what modern scholars are beginning to call an act of genocide but at the time was mostly considered neglect and poor management of resources. This catastrophic famine instilled a deep hatred of incompetence in the teenage Ilya as he watched his people suffer for their government's folly. Though slightly insulated from the true tradgedy by not being a peasant farmer, Ilya spent most of his childhood unsure of his next meal and waiting for the day the peasants in his town would burn everything in protest. Despite his father's corrections that the system was unjust, Ilya hated the peasants for their stubborn refusal to give in and work the fields as they were told. Like most middle class soviet youths he was fed endless propaganda villifying the peasants as lazy, greedy, selfish, counterrevolutionaries (a term equivalent to our 'terrorists') and, like most others, he fell for it. Young, stupid, and tired of being hungry, Ilya began going with his friends to 'guard the fields' from the peasants.
Ilya's father, still a school teacher, was outraged when he caught on to what Ilya had been doing and not only forbade it but began to speak out, publicly, against the collectivisation policies (confinscation of peasant farms, forcing peasants to work the confinscated land, confinscation of an unfair majority of the crop grown on said land, declaring food state property, making possession of food a crime punishable by death, forbidding peasants from leaving their homes to find food, I'm not kidding - look it up) that were to blame for this famine. Of course Ilya's father was summarily convicted of 'counterrevolutionary activities' and sentenced to forced labor in the Gulag - labor camps notorious for high mortality rates. His father's conviction opened Ilya's eyes to the reality of the Soviet situation. Their people were stubborn and ignorant while their government was corrupt and cared nothing for them. This gave Ilya a deep distrust for propaganda and the corruption it hides as well as a strong hesitance to speak his mind. But he made sure to have a mind after that. Determined not to be taken in again, he began reading more, studying, learning what he could about the world and the governments that ran it.
Of course Soviet censorship made Ilya's studies difficult and the loss of his father did not end the famine - it only made it worse. Without his father's income to support them, Ilya and his mother were left destitute and his father's conviction made the family undesierable within the Soviet community. They recieved some small help from the peasants and synagogue but both were no better off than they. In the end, it was a Russian soldier that saved them from starving death in the cold. The soldier, Dmitri Vassilikov, was stationed in the Ukraine to help keep the peace and guard the food supplies from peasant uprising. He took a liking to Ilya's mother and, after the effective death of her husband, she made a deal with the soldier to take her and her son across the border into Russia where food was less scarce and Stalin was not actively trying to kill the population. In exchange she agreed to become the soldier's wife. This agreement allowed Ilya and his mother to assume identities as true Russians and avoid persecution as Ukrainian nationals.
This wasn't the first and wouldn't be the last experience Ilya had with prejudice. Long held anti-Semitic (anti-religious in general) sentiments in the USSR had always caused Ilya's family pain for his mother's Jewish heritage. Ilya's father had not been a Jew but his mother was both ethnically and religiously. She raised Ilya in the faith and continued to practice her beliefs despite all religion in the USSR being considered 'the opium of the masses' and further discrimination against Judaism in particular. In the Ukraine there had been a large Jewish community (one of the largest in the world) to support and protect them but in a Russian military camp they were alone. Ilya renounced his faith when he came to Russia (having lost it in the famines) but his mother refused and experienced years of prejudice for it.
Still, life was better in Russia than the Ukraine. It was far from lavish but they knew there would be a next meal and had an apartment of their own. Ilya was able to finish his schooling and had time for his own studies (though had to be careful not to get caught with any banned books, which he read anyway). Living with a soldier gave Ilya a certain respect for the profession. The structure and clear purpose of it were something he particularly liked, having lived most his life in meaningless chaos. Most of all though it was the practicality of the station. Soldiers were given housing, food, jobs, recreation, special privilages, most anything one could want and all they had to do in return was stand around and keep people from doing things they shouldn't be doing in the first place. Ilya knew that was a gross over-simplification of the job but even the reality was better than mindless factory work. So in 1936 when the Soviet Constitution declared military service a 'holy duty' of all male soviet citizens, Ilya joined the Red Army at the age of 18. At the time the draft age was 21 but he joined early to avoid factory work and get away from his mother's new family which now included a two year old little sister. Even at that age he was not fond of young children and the military seemed his best option to get out of babysitting.
The early years of Ilya's military carrier were spent training, enforcing the peace on the western front, and avoiding the Great Purge - a witch hunt for 'counter-revolutionaries' in the Soviet government and military, and generalized repression of the people. His father's history, mother's heritage, and own disbelief in Stalinist ideals would have made Ilya a target of this Purge had he not recognized the danger early (having seen similar persecution) and put on a guise of patriotism to protect himself. Ilya carefuly hid his mother's heritage, never speaking of her or his father, and kept his mouth shut when politics came up. He tried not to compromise his own morals but found the very concept of morality increasingly bothersome and illogical, particularly once faced with the harsh ambiguity of war which Ilya first saw with the 87th Rifle Division in 1939 when the USSR invaded Poland as part of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (promising mutual non-aggression between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union). Later that year the division was sent into Finland to serve as reinforcements in the Winter War. After that war, the unit was transferred to the Ukraine in early 1940 where Ilya had to play soldier in peace keeping operations while pretending not to know the locals.
Ilya was still with the 87th Rifle Division in the summer of 1941 when three million Axis soldiers invaded the Soviet Union ending their treaty with the USSR and throwing the Red Army into the War. The next few years of his life would be a desperate struggle to survive the greatest war the world had ever seen. On the opening day of the war, Ilya's division was encircled and lost their commander on the third day but the division persisted through the Battle of Kiev and was officially awarded Red Guard status and re-designated as the 13th Guard Rifle Division for their distinction in combat. With the 13th Guard Ilya (narrowly) survived the Battle of Kharkov only to be sent into Stalingrad when the Luftwaffe reduced the city to rubble a few months later (September 1942). He was part of the first wave into the city, having to dodge snipers and airstrikes both to cross the river then fight hand to hand with Nazi soldiers once in the streets. From there Ilya was entrenched in the Battle of Stalingrad (crawling through rubble starving and cold to fight for the city one room at a time) until he was injured and spent the last few weeks of the battle in a field hospital. When the battle ended (February 1943) Ilya was awarded the Medal for Courage and Badge for Excellent Sniper along with the Medal for the Defense of Stalingrad but his greatest reward had been a relationship with one of the female soldiers, Anja Dotsenko.
After the battle the 13th Guard was pulled from the front to rest and resupply. Ilya used the time to court then marry Anja in the spring of 1943 and spent the summer with her before he was called back to join his division for the Battle of Kursk in August. After successfully defending Kursk, the 13th Guard was then sent on the offensive to liberate the Ukraine, which had fallen into Nazi hands. They gained control of the town of Poltava (not far from where Ilya grew up) in September 1943. Ilya received even better news two days after the battle when he got a letter from his wife telling him she had given birth to his son. She'd even sent a photo. In a mood to celebrate, Ilya went with a few comrades to find a bar. Several bottles later he stumbled back to the camp and caught what sleep he could before being called up early that morning to meet with a visiting officer.
Though hung over and tired, Ilya managed to pull himself together early the next morning. He even took the time to fit the little photograph of his wife and newborn son into the lid of the brass compass his mother gave him when he enlisted before braving the sunlight to find the officer that had requested him. Ilya wore his glasses, usually only needed for reading, to help with the blurriness caused by the hangover as he wandered to the edge of camp where the officer was waiting with a covered jeep. Ilya reported with a salute and did not question the officer when he was told to get in the jeep, despite the man's odd accent. Regrettably he should have.
Ilya was hit with a tranquilizer once he'd climbed in and the jeep pulled out of camp never to be seen again.
PERSONALITY
Distant, somewhat cold, ruled by practicality not morality, Ilya's personality contains what the military likes to call a 'moral flexibility' which makes him a good soldier. However he is not without scruples. Ilya believes strongly in the necessity of laws and will respect the authority of superiors but will not follow them blindly. If he deems a law or order illogical he will disregard it. If he deems a superior incompetent or corrupt he will attempt to remove them from authority. He will however not do this with talking. Ilya is a man of few words and decisive actions. When something needs to be done, be it cleaning a house or deposing a tyrant, Ilya will take action rather than speak of it. He is at least a cautious man as well so is not one to act without careful consideration - just without conversation.
A hard life in the USSR gave Ilya a healthy dose of paranoia. He will not share his thoughts or opinions freely. He will not speak of his past, his tastes, his fears, anything personal until he is intimately familiar with the person and even then he will only share what that person would not find objectionable. To those he does not know so well, Illya will be stoic, cold, professional, and if pushed he will lie - telling them something acceptable to make them stop asking. Because of this (and as a necessity of his history) he has learned to be a good liar, knowing how to bend truths and make others believe while keeping track of past lies without contradicting them.
On his darkest side, Ilya is not only slow to trust others but requires reason to care about them at all. Until given reason for compassion people are little more than animals to him - less than some animals. He will betray, injure, even kill another human being with the same guiltless casualness as a butcher would a pig. If there is reason to. He does not derive pleasure from the act, he merely does not feel guilt for it either. If there was reason to, cold logic to absolve the act. This was a necessary coping mechanism that started early in life and perfected in the War to help deal with the atrocities around him.
That said, Ilya is not incapable of compassion or even love (he loved his family deeply), it is just not freely given, instead something one must earn. To those he respects and cares for Ilya is steadfastly loyal, willing to risk everything for them and their cause. He does have difficulty expressing that compassion though.
-- LIKES
“I like quiet. Calm. Order. It makes things simple, lets me think clearly. I like having a plan and direction when doing things. I need structure and work to keep me busy else I can be. . . compulsive. When I don't have work I enjoy books, hunting, boxing, running, swimming, vodka, and cigars. I have been known to clean things when faced with a mess.”
-- DISLIKES
“I can not tolerate incompetence or corruption, particularly in superiors. It is not good for anyone. Nor do I have any love of useless people. Weakness I understand but idleness is reprehensible. People who talk without saying anything are irritations, people who live without doing anything are sinners.”
-- FEARS
“Open spaces make me uncomfortable since the war. I don't like my back to people, windows, or doors either. Vulnerability is an old fear, being weak and defenseless, having to rely on others. Have seen too many old, young, and injured left to die for needing help to survive. I. . . worry what could have happened to my wife and son. Did they survive the war? I am not sure I want to know.”
-- +STRENGTHS
+ Marksmanship
+ Wilderness survival
+ Stealth
+ Endurance
+ Prepared (Paranoid)
+ Lying
+ Boxing
-- -WEAKNESSES
- Does not play well with others
- Emotionally distant
- Low heat tolerance
- Bad with technology
- Paranoid
- OCD
- Color Blind
Items Lurking On Your Person:
• • Brass compass with small photo of wife and son in the lid, covering a Hebrew inscription: to find your way home.
• • Sidearm - German Luger (taken from enemy soldier in Battle of Stalingrad)
• • Reading glasses
Other:
Ilya speaks Russian, Hebrew, some Ukrainian, a few choice German phrases, and decent English but it is imperfect at times, particularly when he is angry. He has several small scars and a few old bullet wounds but no tattoos. Ilya is unlikely to develop relationships but he may feign one to manipulate an interested party (males included) and that could grow into something more mutual. The War gave Ilya a deep hatred of the Axis nations (Germany, Italy, and Japan) and he is likely to transfer that feeling across all generations (before and after).
Military Ranks/Awards
Sergeant
Medal for the Defense of Leningrad
Medal for the Defense of Stalingrad
Badge for Excellent Sniper
Medal for Courage
Order of the Patriotic War
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