Stalinist equivalent of "Lieutenant Kije"?

[Prof Steven P Hill]

Dear colleagues:

Around 1950 the Soviet film industry released a famous (or infamous) 
farm  musical comedy entitled "Kubanskie kazaki" ("Cossacks of the 
Kuban"), directed by Pyr'ev, written by Pogodin, and starring Ladynina 
(one of the director's sequential wives).  Everybody has taken a turn 
at subjecting that old Stalinist opus  to criticism, so let us not add 
to the heap.

For something different,  I raise a trivial little linguistic question, 
perhaps reminiscent of Tynianov's "Lieutenant Kije" (Podporuchik 
"Kizhe," misintrerpreted from "Podporuchiki zhe"). Far down in 
the list of actors appearing in "Kubanskie kazaki," I notice one 
curiously-named performer, listed in one reference book** as 
"S. IL'D," and in one data base**** as "S. IL'IA."  Perhaps even 
the monolithic Stalinists were plagued by typo gremlins.

But, have any of you good folks out there ever heard of a surname 
"IL'D"?  If it exists, it must be rare...  On the other hand, might 
I ask, how common as a SURNAME is "IL'IA," in one or another 
part of the former USSR? 

When I think of famous creative people like " EL' " Lisitskii  and 
" VIL " Lipatov, whose intialisms may be derived from less exotic 
names like Lazar' and Vladimir Il'ich Lenin,  I wonder whether 
our mysterious friend "IL'D" (if not a stupid typo!) might even 
be a similar initialism, for whatever reason.  Or an in-joke,  
such as a nickname for a family member of Pyr'ev's or Pogodin's 
clan, who slipped on-camera for a moment of fame...

Maybe one of these decades a new Tynianov will appear, who 
could utilize our mysterious friend "IL'D" as the basis for another 
witty satire like "KIZHE"...
_ ___ _ __ ___ __ 

 ** "Sovetskie khudozhestvennnye fil'my 1918-57 gg.,"  v 3 tt.
 **** "HTTP://US.IMDB.COM"
_ ___ _ __ __ __ _ 

Best wishes to all,
Steven P Hill,
University of Illinois.
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ 

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