Viktor Ivanovich Ilyin (; born 26 December 1947) is a former
Soviet Army
The Soviet Ground Forces () was the land warfare service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1946 to 1992. It was preceded by the Red Army.
After the Soviet Union ceased to exist in December 1991, the Ground Forces remained under th ...
officer who attempted to
assassinate
Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives.
Assassinations are orde ...
the
Soviet leader
During History of the Soviet Union, its 69-year history, the Soviet Union usually had a ''de facto'' leader who would not always necessarily be head of state or even head of government but would lead while holding an office such as General Sec ...
,
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 190610 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev, his death in 1982 as w ...
, on 22 January 1969 in
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
.
Biography
Ilyin was born in
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
on 26 December 1947. He was less than two years old when he was taken away from his alcoholic parents and grew up in a foster family.
He entered a topographical technical school and desired to become a geologist. However, after travelling to many different regions, a "depressing impression" was left on him of "poverty, drunkenness, devastation" - different to what Soviet television showed. As a result, he drafted a reform plan which included a monthly payment to each citizen from natural resource sales, which he sent to the Kremlin, but did not receive a response. He said that was when he decided to kill Brezhnev so that everyone would know of his ideas, where he planned to speak about his plan in court. He spent almost a year preparing to assassinate him and joined the army after graduation to gain access to weapons.
[
He was distressed by the ]Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia
On 20–21 August 1968, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four fellow Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, and the Hungarian People's Republic. The in ...
in 1968,Prague Spring
The Prague Spring (; ) was a period of liberalization, political liberalization and mass protest in
the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected Secretary (title), First Secre ...
.
When Ilyin was on duty, he stole two Makarov guns and four magazines from his army unit's safe and went to Moscow. He went to the Kremlin, and looked for a good firing position, choosing a place very close to the entrance gate. When the motorcade entered the gates of Borovitskaya Tower, carrying cosmonauts and top Soviet leaders, Ilyin fired his pistols at the second vehicle that he erroneously thought was carrying Leonid Brezhnev. The vehicle was occupied by the cosmonauts Georgy Beregovoy, Alexei Leonov
Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov. (30 May 1934 – 11 October 2019) was a Soviet and Russian cosmonaut and aviator, Soviet Air Forces, Air Force major general, writer, and artist. On 18 March 1965, he became the first person to conduct a Extravehic ...
, Andrian Nikolaev, and Valentina Tereshkova
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (born 6 March 1937) is a Russian engineer, member of the State Duma, and former Soviet cosmonaut. She was the first Women in space, woman in space, having flown a solo mission on Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963. S ...
. A bullet killed the limousine driver Ilya Zharkov who was driving as a substitute on his last day before retirement. Beregovoy was wounded,Yuri Andropov
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov ( – 9 February 1984) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from late 1982 until his death in 1984. He previously served as the List of Chairmen of t ...
, head of the KGB, personally questioned Ilyin. During his interrogation, the recording of which was found in the Russian State Archives after 1991, Ilyin told Andropov that his motivation to assassinate Brezhnev was to have him replaced with his Second Secretary and Party Ideologue Mikhail Suslov
Mikhail Andreyevich Suslov (; 25 January 1982) was a Soviet people, Soviet statesman during the Cold War. He served as Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union#Secretariat, Second Secretary of the Communist Party of the Sovi ...
(whom Ilyin called "the most outstanding person in the party at the moment"). Whether this was true or if he was simply trying to provoke infighting within the Politburo remains unknown.psikhushka
Psikhushka (; ) is a Russian ironic diminutive for psychiatric hospital. In Russia, the word entered everyday vocabulary. This word has been occasionally used in English, since the Soviet dissident movement and diaspora community in the West use ...
for 20 years. In 1990, he was released.[''Юрий Стригун'']
20 лет в психушке отсидел Виктор Ильин за покушение на Брежнева.
gazeta.ua (23 января 2014 года)
See also
* Attempted assassination of Leonid Brezhnev
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ilyin, Viktor
1947 births
Living people
Failed assassins of heads of government
Soviet Army officers
Soviet assassins
Deserters
Prisoners and detainees of the Soviet Union