Ilya Artemovich Mertov

**Ilya Artemovich Mertov "The Dead Man from Ryazan"** (**Илья Артемович** **Мертов**) was a soldier during World War 1, and a 3-Star General.

## **History**

### **1889**

**Ilya** born in the city of Ryazan. Born with a flatfoot and eyeball cancer. It was very likely that he would die early, but due to unthinkable circumstances, he got cured. This would lead to however, him getting diagnosed with the stone man syndrome, a painful disease that caused muscle tissue to turn into bone.

### **1899**

**Ilya** got diagnosed with stone man syndrome, which turned the muscle tissue into bone. The first symptoms were that he felt an insane pain in his shoulder. Then it evolved into an insane pain ranging from his shoulders to his back. His doctor, Ludomir Marszczyk, looking at **Ilya**'s medical history, he was shocked that he survived an eyeball cancer at such a young age. The problem was, the stone man syndrome couldn't be cured, or treated, but Ludomir Marszczyk still tried to do it anyways. After 4 months of treatment, **Ilya** somehow got cured from the stone man syndrome, but many suspected that **Ilya** had prayers towards Kaasuran Virteleen, the Thulean God of Air. And after another 3 days, **Ilya** was free to leave the hospital. Ludomir Marszczyk would write a fantasy book based on the early life of **Ilya Artemovich Mertov** and how could his life continue. Unfortunately, his father and mother died of smallpox, and he would be infected as well, forced him to go back to the hospital. However, he had no money, meaning he couldn't get treatment. However, Ludomir Marszczyk did not care and treated **Ilya** anyways.

### **1900**

**Ilya**, now recovered from smallpox, homeless. He made a rough trip from Ryazan to Kiev, and there, he was adopted by an ukrainian family. But it turned out, they were from Chernobyl and they were just visiting relatives. **Ilya**, and his step-brother actually got along really well until terrorists shoot both of them. **Ilya** survived, his step-brother didn't. This was really a tragedy, and would lead him to become the man who he will become. Later this year, **Ilya** got infected with the spanish flu, but this time he would spend time in his room, watching the outside world. It would take him 1 month to recover. At this point, his adoptive parents really thought how could he survive so much diseases. **Ilya** however at this point, he was mentally broken. Facing death too many times. This is the year, where he lost all of his emotions.

### **1907**

**Ilya** joined the Imperial Russian Army, hoping he could make fame, money and friends along the way. He was deployed in St. Petersburg to suppress a revolution. After 2 months of shooting revolutionaries, the revolution was suppressed. After this, **Ilya** was awarded with the Order of St. George. However, his job wasn't done yet. The finnish were also seeking for independence. And after a decisive shooting in Helsinki, that revolution was also put down. These actions, made him earn the nickname in the Imperial Russian Army, the "Enforcer of Russia". The reason behind the nickname was that **Ilya** was the most effective at putting revolutions down. Another notable example was the Alaskan Revolution, where the local native americans revolted against the Tsar. They had 5 weeks to prepare against **Ilya**, but they did it poorly. And, after 5 weeks and 3 days the revolution started, it was put down by **Ilya**.

### **1910**

**Ilya**, sensed that the world is about to have a war really soon, so he decided to station his forces in Warsaw. However, instead of idling and doing anything, he shot anyone who was about to organize a revolution, or someone who was suspicious. In 1910, he killed 30000 civilians, and it really seemed like that there's no one could stop him from doing so. People in the Imperial Russian Army were too scared of **Ilya**, and the Imperial Family would lose a great opportunity. The polish people became so angry, that they'd declared Poland and independent state. However in the next day, **Ilya** forced the revolution to It's knees, killing 5000 poles. The news spread across Russia, making him even more fearful. The polish people after this, couldn't accept that they lost, but they weren't stupid, and wouldn't try to revolt for a long time. Instead, planning an organized revolution. **Ilya**, however, he force his men to go through advanced training.

### **1914**

**Ilya** witnessed the start of World War 1, and was forced to go from Warsaw to the german-russian border to fight. Him, and his forces were expected to hold for 1 days. they held for 20 days, only to be pushed back to Warsaw. Unable to push back the germans, but were able to defend Warsaw. However, **Ilya** himself witnessed that the supplies won't last forever, and rarely they come, and even when they come, they send very few, so they were forced to use their enemies weapons. **Ilya** at one point, he ordered a bayonet charge on the stationing german forces, catching them off-guard. However, this wasn't enough to make the germans retreat either, because they were well supplied. However, **Ilya** exploited this to capture supplies from germans, and not relying on russian supplies. But as he described "Same war tactics, can't work everytime.", this meant they needed to do something in order to get supplies somehow. And then, the germans inevitably charged at them, but they couldn't break through the defense lines. However, there was a small gap between the german forces. **Ilya** used this gap to encircle german forces in Warsaw. At the end of the battle, 120000 german soldiers got killed just from the encirclement. However, this battle made **Ilya** and his forces to run very low on supplies and they were forced to retreat to Osowiec.

### **1915**

**Ilya** and his forces, yet again, were on the brink of running out of supplies. However, the germans weren't attacking. This made him very suspicious, as the extensive silence was never a good sign. And thus, 4 hours later, the germans launched 15000 men against **Ilya**'s now smaller force of 6400. However, he used ambush tactics to surprise attack the germans. He let them enter the fortress, and then catching them off-guard. This was proven to be successful, because those were trapped, were killed, the rest retreated. **Ilya** just had enough time to breathe peacefully, until he realized that this was not over. The germans introduced chemicals to the warfare. He realized this will not be another walk in the park. And the inevitable happened. The germans launched a gas attack on the fortress. It really seemed that everyone there died, but as a last minute escape, the russian forces put a cloth to their mouth to minimize the effects of the harmful gas. **Ilya** wasn't that lucky however, the gas rendered him unconscious for 2 minutes. After he woke up, he seen a dying soldier besides him, then talking to him "Get up, soldier, we didn't got orders to die". And with this, **Ilya** ordered to bayonet charge at the german forces, directly from the gas. However, before he could give out the orders, he had to cough out pieces of his lungs, ribs and other organ parts. But after he did it, the germans were completely caught off-guard, and in shock, they tried to retreat, but the russian forces shot too fast before the germans could do anything. After this attack, **Ilya** leaned against the wall, ordering one one of his men to give him a glass to see the damage done to his face. And he seen a completely deformed face of his. His cheekbones exposed, skin damaged, jaw slightly dislocated, and his right eye was about to fall out of his place. As there was few supplies coming in, he couldn't do anything. And with this, he ordered his men to charge towards Warsaw to retake the city.

### **1916**

**Ilya**, still having a deformed face, alongside with his remaining men, they charged at the germans stationing in Warsaw, shocking them both, because the germans couldn't believe that people in pain so much how could they still be able to wall, or even run. This time, some of the germans weren't shocked, but some just didn't had the courage to fire back, and with this, **Ilya**, with only 100 men, he recaptured Warsaw, and he continued to push the germans back into Germany. And after 2 months of unrelenting fighting against the germans, now were behind german borders, and began closing the distance between himself and the germans. As no more supplies coming in, he was forced to sack cities, no matter how. As leaving their radios behind, **Ilya** decided to take things into his hand to win the war. His superior getting reports of unidentified reports of russian forces charging towards Berlin, he quickly realized that it was **Ilya**, and what's left of his forces. At one time in a small german city, **Ilya** and his forces were pretending to be dead, and when the german forces moved ahead of them, they shot them from the behind. After this, they collect whatever they found useful and moved towards Berlin. Speaking about it, they were 5 kilometers away from it.

### **1917**

**Ilya**, at new years eve, successfully have reached Berlin, and had to face 1 million german soldiers, with his 100 russian soldiers. However, the Kaiser, Wilhelm II realized that their forces would lose to clearly outnumbered forces of **Ilya**, and quickly surrendered to Russia, pulling the russians out of the war. After this, **Ilya** paid his men's medical debts off and returned to his home in Kiev. In the honor of is services, statues of him were built in both his home city, Ryazan and in Kiev. After World War 1, he lived a peaceful life, until the Russian Revolution started. However, he wasn't a sympathizer of the ideas of the Bolsheviks, so he opted to join to the White Army. He was first fighting in Siberia, in a bloody fight for the railway, against the Red Army. However, due to the intense winter, and his physical condition, he was defeated in Siberia, with being shot in the head, and surviving. After 3 days of spending in the hospital, he returned to Siberia to continue fighting the Red Army. The fight would go on for 6 months until the Bolsheviks took control of the Trans-Siberian Railway. This didn't hurt mentally **Ilya**, as him having no emotions. However, disaster struck for the Bolsheviks when **Ilya** and his 100 men pushed them out of Ryazan, the last city in the revolution to not fall into Bolshevik hands.

### **1918**

**Ilya** relocated to Tsaritsyn, only to be lying half-dead in the Red Square alongside his men's corpses. His men were all dead but him, he was not even close to being fully dead. After the Red Army soldiers moved a bit away, he decided to shoot out, what would have been later called the Continuation Massacre, forced the Bolsheviks to retreat to safer places of the city. **Ilya**, being alone, he decided to hide in a library in the case of the bolsheviks do anything funky. They did not. However, the nearest White Army forces were 400 kilometers away, and without a direct conflict, there was no other way to avoid the bolsheviks. And that's where **Ilya** would earn his nickname, "**The Dead Man from Ryazan**", because when he approached the bolsheviks, he got shot 23 times and still lived. After this, he started to shoot at the bolsheviks, not even taking a cover, securing a street for the White Army. After this, everyone wondered how **Ilya** was still alive even after so many shot wounds. He didn't wanted to talk about it much and he moved on to secure the city. But after a decisive close quarters defeat, he realized that there's no victory for the White Army, but he still needed whatever he had to do.

### **1919**

**Ilya**, alone faced of 6500 Red Army soldiers across the river, but before they could do anything they got shot. After this, he needed to make sure that the only bridge across the river would get secured to the White Army, otherwise the last chance for victory will be lost. There was a huge problem however. He ran out of ammo. He had no choice, but to bayonet charge at the stationing soldiers on the river. However he got shot so many times, he was no longer recognizable. Unfortunately when he played dead, the bolsheviks still shot a few times at him so they would be 100% sure that he's dead. Unfortunately, he wasn't but he wasn't quick enough to shoot them all, and during is retreat, he got a deep penetrating shot in his leg and was forced to jump to the river. After this, he would not have been seen, until 2 hours later where a White Army offensive on the bridge happened. He surprised attacked the Bolshevik Commander, Sergei Gustav, and he killed him. After that, he got a fatal shot in the head, his last action, while being alive, was him falling to the river.

## **Legacy**

After the end of the revolution, the Soviet Government realized **Ilya**'s contributions to World War 1 and built a 540 meters tall statue in the outskirts of Moscow. Many great composers, artists and poets would create great many sorts of things about **Ilya Artemovich Mertov**. There was an attempted search of his corpse, but it was never found. Joseph Stalin, awarded **Ilya**, despite his death, with the Hero of the Soviet Union title. During Mansi's leadership, he awarded **Ilya** with the same title, 3 times more. Countless songs were written about **Ilya**, the most famous one being written by Damjan Kozaković. The song was strangely heavy metal, and not synthwave, and thanks to that, It didn't became, as famous as his other songs were.