Kovtunovich Ilya Dmitrievich

Born in 1895 in Kiev, into a noble family. Completed 4th grade at the Kyiv Real School, the Naval Corps in Petrograd (1914), and navigation classes in Helsinki (1918). Until 1917, he served as a midshipman in the Baltic Fleet. After 1917, he served on warships in navigation positions. On September 29, 1918, he was arrested by the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission in Petrograd for participating in officer conspiracies. He was held in prison for 5 months, was not convicted, and was released from custody on February 17, 1919. From February to August 4, 1919, he served in the 5th Division in Kronstadt as a divisional navigator, then was transferred to the position of assistant chief navigator of the Volga-Caspian Flotilla. From July 1920 to March 1921 - Chief Navigator of the Caspian Fleet, from March 1921 to May 1926 - in the Black Sea Fleet, his last position was commander of the 1st rank cruiser Komintern. He lived in Sevastopol, Lenin Street, Building 16, Apt. 10, together with his wife and daughter. On May 23, 1926 (according to other sources - May 24, 1926) he was arrested by an authorized representative of the Sevastopol Department of the State Political Administration and employees of the Special Department of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol for the fact that "in 1925, as commander of the destroyer Nezamozhniy, while on a foreign voyage in Constantinople, he associated with individuals engaged in espionage activities, white émigrés, and was part of a counter-revolutionary monarchist-minded group of the command staff of the Black Sea Fleet." By the Resolution of the OGPU Collegium dated 24.02.1927 under Art. 58-4, 58-10 of the Criminal Code, he was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment. He served his sentence in the Solovetsky camp, worked in the White Sea-Baltic Corrective Labor Camp of the NKVD of the USSR. On 22.07.1933 he was released early. He lived in the village of Povenets, Medvezhegorsk District, Karelian ASSR. From August 1933, he worked as a civilian employee in the White Sea-Baltic Canal Administration: from 01.04.1935 he was appointed head of the Segezha pier of the White Sea-Baltic Canal, from 21.08.1937 - head of the Soroka pier of the White Sea-Baltic Canal, from 08.12.1937 he worked as head of the environment service of the White Sea-Baltic Canal. He was arrested again on 28.02.1938 by the 3rd department of the BBK NKVD USSR on charges of "being hostile to the Soviet government, having connections with repressed enemies of the people, taking advantage of his official position to clog the apparatus with former prisoners, and systematically disrupting the cargo transportation plan." By the resolution of the NKVD troika of the Karelian ASSR on 21.03.1938, he was sentenced to capital punishment. He was shot on 10.04.1938 in the Sandormokh tract and buried there. He was rehabilitated on 28.03.1959 by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR based on the 1927 verdict and on 26.10.1957 by the Military Tribunal of the Northern Military District based on the 1938 verdict.