Preparing to overthrow the monarchy, this comrade managed to marry a married woman and improve anti-aircraft guns. After the revolution, he was carried away by diplomacy and scientific activity.
It is believed that politics is a kind of bloodthirsty deity to whom people sacrifice their lives. The nature of a weak person can also be subdued by a less ambitious dream. Strong and talented people manage to achieve a lot both in the public sphere and in others.
Childhood
The peasant Mikhail Ignatiev became famous after during the Russian-Turkish war he raised the issue of protecting people from diseases spreading from dead animals. He was invited to work with the capital and soon became one of the city's leading veterinarians. As a reward for his contribution to the health of the people, the sovereign bestowed upon him the rank of actual state councilor and hereditary nobility. The newly minted aristocrat immediately married a girl from a noble family.
In 1879, the couple had a child. The boy was named Alexander. The father dreamed of seeing his son as a luminary of science and tried to give him the best education. Sasha was sent to study at the 10th classical gymnasium. The boy quickly learned the material and delighted his parents with success. In his free time from school, he loved to read. True, the student preferred literature that was prohibited in tsarist Russia.
Youth
The young man loved exact sciences, therefore, after graduating from the gymnasium, he entered the physics and mathematics faculty of St. Petersburg University. In 1904 his mother died. Grief and workload did not allow Sasha's daddy to notice that something was wrong with his son. The student appeared less and less at lectures and more often at meetings of revolutionaries. It all ended with the fact that in February 1905 the young rebel was wounded with a saber by a Cossack who was dispersing a workers' demonstration.
The injury allowed him to temporarily interrupt his studies. To improve his health, Alexander Ignatiev went to Finland, where his parents' estate was located. An ammunition depot was organized in the victim's house. In 1907, the owner of a dangerous mansion became the leader of a combat technical group, which was preparing sabotage against important officials of the Russian Empire. A year later, the secret police went on the trail of terrorists and many of our hero's comrades were detained. He hid his wealth until better times and escaped arrest.
Political passions
While the former student was preparing for action, an uprising took place in Moscow under the leadership of Nikolai Schmidt. The rebel leader died in prison and bequeathed his property to the RSDLP party. Naturally, it was impossible to legally receive the inheritance, it went to the sisters of the deceased, who were ready to enter into fictitious marriages with revolutionaries in order to transfer funds to those to whom they were intended.
Elizabeth Schmidt was already married. Her husband was Victor Taratuta. The faithful was hiding from the authorities abroad, so the lady could not give him the money. Friends convinced her to marry Alexander Ignatiev. The newlywed was not supposed to attempt on someone else's wife, but Lisa was so good that he could not fulfill his promises. In 1910, the couple went abroad, where they were already met by Elizabeth's rejected husband. Ignatiev tried to get rid of him with the help of slander. He declared the unfortunate traitor and urged to deal with him. An internal party investigation has denied all allegations.
Household chores
Alexander was afraid that an unpleasant incident would affect his personal life and that his beloved would return to the slandered husband out of pity. In 1911 he and his wife returned to their homeland. There the tsarist gendarmes were waiting for him. Our hero was brought to trial as a fighter of the RSDLP, but there was not enough evidence of his guilt for the verdict. Ignatiev was released. He suddenly wanted to study again.
Curiosity led the revolutionary to the ranks of students at St. Petersburg University. He did not get a diploma, the First World War began and all men fit for military service were taken into the army. Here Ignatiev was enrolled in the artillery, where he was able to demonstrate his talent by creating a device for adjusting fire on air targets. In February 1917, the inventor was on leave in St. Petersburg, but chose not to interfere in the capital's affairs. He returned to the front, where he was elected to the regimental committee.
Multifaceted talent
Political adventures were of little interest to our hero now. He wanted to make a career as a gunsmith designer. In 1920, he introduced his innovations to Vladimir Lenin. The leader of the proletariat invited Alexander Ignatiev to try his hand at diplomacy. Young Soviet Russia needed intelligent representatives abroad who would refute the stereotypes of folk art about wild Bolsheviks.
From 1921 to 1925 Alexander Ignatiev served as the trade representative of the USSR in Finland, then he was sent to Berlin. Designing has become a hobby for him. The result of a healthy rest for the mind is improved metal cutters. The inventor drew an innovative idea from observations of the fauna, more precisely, of rodents, whose teeth self-sharpen in the course of work. In 1929 Ignatiev returned to the Union, moved to Moscow, where he founded the State Union Research Laboratory of Cutting Tools and Electric Welding. A man with a complex biography and outstanding abilities died in March 1936.
