Viktor Ivanovich Ilyukhin (; 1 March 1949, Sosnovka,

Penza Oblast Penza Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Penza. As of the Russian Census (2010), 2010 Census, its population was ...

– 19 March 2011, Kratovo,

Moscow Oblast Moscow Oblast (, , informally known as , ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). With a population of 8,524,665 (Russian Census (2021), 2021 Census) living in an area of , it is one of the most densely populate ...

) was a Russian

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deputy, member of the

Communist Party of the Russian Federation The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF; ) is a communist political party in Russia that officially adheres to Marxist–Leninist philosophy. It is the second-largest political party in Russia after United Russia. The youth o ...

, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on security, member of the State Duma's anti-corruption committee, member of the State Duma committee to consider of the federal budget on the defense and security of the Russian Federation, and Chairman of the Movement in Support of the Army. Ilyukhin was a sharp critic of the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n authorities since

perestroika ''Perestroika'' ( ; rus, перестройка, r=perestrojka, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg, links=no) was a political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s, widely associ ...

. Over the years, he brought charges of

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its d ...

against Soviet President

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

and two Russian Presidents,

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to ...

and

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

Early life

Viktor Ivanovich Ilyukhin was born on 1 March 1949 in Sosnovka, a small village in the Kuznetsky District,

of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. He was the eleventh son in a patriarchal family of Ivan Ionovich Ilyukhin (born in 1905) and his wife Ilyukhina Yekaterina Alekseyevna (died in 1977). In 1966, Ilyukhin worked for a year as a warehouse worker in a logging company of the town of Kuznetsk, studying in parallel to be a legal scholar at the Saratov Law Institute DI Kursk on extramural basis. Later on, he was transferred to full-time and successfully graduated in 1971. He had carried out his one-year compulsory military service, serving on a submarine depot ship of the Pacific Fleet at the Chazhma Bay near the village of Dunay, Primorsky Krai.

Legal career

Ilyukhin began as investigator in the Penza Regional Department of Internal Affairs, continuing his career after the navy in December 1972. He became a member of the CPSU in 1978. In 1984, he worked his way up to Deputy Prosecutor of Penza Oblast, occupying the position until August 1986, when he was promoted to Deputy Chief of the Main Investigations Directorate in the USSR Prosecutor General's Office. Ilyukhin led a taskforce to clarify the actual state of сrime соntrol on his first duty journey in Bashkiria, subsequently he investigated episodes of extremism in

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and the Baltic republics. In August 1989, Ilyukhin became, on the recommendation of the then USSR Prosecutor General Aleksandr Sukharev, head of the department for supervision over the implementation of laws on national security, a member of Prosecutor's Office and Senior Assistant of Procurator General of the Soviet Union. On 4 November 1991, Ilyukhin filed charges of high treason against Soviet President

under the article No.64 of the RSFSR Criminal Code in connection with the signing of the USSR State Council regulations concerning the recognition of the independence of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on 6 September 1991. As a result of the adoption of these regulations, the law of 3 April 1990, "On the Procedure for Deciding Questions Connected with the Secession of a Union Republic from the USSR", has been violated, because the Baltic republics have not held referendums on secession from the USSR. However, the Prosecutor General of the USSR closed the case due to the fact that the decision to recognize the independence of the Baltic states was not personally made by the President, but by the State Council. Two days later, Ilyukhin was dismissed from the USSR Prosecutor's Office. After leaving the office, he began to work as a columnist for the newspaper ''

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, 'Truth') is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most in ...

'', where he was the head of its legal department.

Political career

On 12 December 1993, he was elected to the State Duma of the first convocation for the single-mandate constituency No.136 in Penza Oblast, receiving 27,4% of the vote. In the same year, he led a public commission investigating Gorbachev's "anti-constitutional activities". In January 1994, he was elected Chairman of the State Duma Committee on security. On 11 April 1995, he entered the National Council of the Congress of Russian Communities, whose then chairman was Yuri Skokov. In December 1995, he was re-elected as a candidate of the

CPRF The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF; ) is a communist political party in Russia that officially adheres to Marxist–Leninist philosophy. It is the second-largest political party in Russia after United Russia. The youth o ...

to the State Duma of the second convocation from the single-mandate constituency No.136 in Penza Oblast, receiving 56,58% of the vote, and entered the CPRF faction. On 30 January 1996, he was re-elected Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Security. In 1998, he became Chairman of the Movement in Support of the Army after the murder of Lev Rokhlin, which had 76 regional offices and had united hundreds of thousands of people. On 15 December 1998, Ilyukhin accused Jewish members of the government, appointed by President Boris Yeltsin, of waging genocide against the Russian people because their economic policies had led to increased mortality and a fall in the population of 8 million. On 15 May 1999, Ilyukhin launched an impeachment procedure against President Boris Yeltsin, accusing him of the genocide of the Russian people in his speech at the State Duma hearings. The impeachment attempt, however, fell 17 votes short of required 300 to initiate the process of impeachment of the president. On 12 December 1999 Ilyukhin survived an assassination attempt by an unknown gunman at his front door in Moscow. In 2001, he accused Ukraine of supplying arms to

Chechnya Chechnya, officially the Chechen Republic, is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia. It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, between the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The republic forms a part of the North Caucasian Federa ...

and Afghanistan, prompting an objection from Kiev, which called Ilyukhin's words "provocative". He was a candidate in the gubernatorial election conducted in

on 14 April 2002, but came in second place, receiving 40.95% of the vote against 45.45% for the incumbent, Vasily Bochkaryov.

Death

Ilyukhin died on the evening of 19 March 2011 in his country house in Kratovo, waiting an ambulance. The Russian Communist Party was concerned why it took the ambulance so long to arrive, and announced an independent investigation since Ilyukhin appeared healthy and never complained of heart problems before his sudden death. Viktor Ilyukhin was buried at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery on March 22, 2011.

Memorials

On 24 March 2012, was held the opening ceremony of a commemorative plaque to Victor Ilyukhin on the house No. 160 in Suvorov Street of

Penza Penza (, ) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Penza Oblast, Russia. It is located on the Sura (river), Sura River, southeast of Moscow. As of the 2010 Russian census, 2010 Census, Penza had ...

, where he lived with his family. The plaque was made in Ukraine and installed by the CPRF communists, which was unveiled by his sister, Galina Manturova, and his colleague, Viktor Zhuravlyov.

References