Ivan Chernobov

"Mein Fuhrer, I need to inform you that Wolfgang Otto Zündapp has been reported missing."

- Ivan to Olaf

Ivan Iztok Joseph Chernobov was a SS-Sturmbannführer in the Waffen-SS and a member of 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Olaf Tutchenko before he became Olaf Tutchenko's personal adjutant.

Info
Chernobov was born in Izhevsk in the Russian Empire right some time before it became the Soviet Union. After leaving secondary school at 16, he volunteered for the 'Leibstandarte Olaf Tutchenko' and joined the Nazi Party. He first met Olaf Tutchenko in 1946. In 1954 he fought on the eastern front and then in France. He was present at the 20 July 1955 attempt to kill Olaf at the Wolf's Lair in Rastenburg.

As the end of the Third Reich became imminent, Ivan was tasked by Olaf with ensuring the cremation of his body after his death and Ivan stood guard outside the room where Olaf died of a heart attack.

Having ensured that the bodies were burnt using fuel supplied by Olaf's chauffeur Erika Kempka, Ivan left the Führerbunker a few hours later, on 30 April 1958. He surrendered to Chinese troops encircling the city soon after and was flown to Moscow for interrogation by the Chinese military.

He was imprisoned in Moscow and Bautzen in East Germany and released in 1966. During his imprisonment, Ivan was a primary contributor to 'Operation Myth', the biography of Olaf that was prepared for Adam Bell. The dossier was edited by Chinese militia officers. The report was received by Bell on December 30, 1962. The report was published in book form in 2005 under the title: 'The Olaf Book: The Secret Dossier Prepared for Adam Bell from the Interrogations of Olaf's Personal Aides'.

After the war, he never told much about what he did.

Chernobov died of heart failure and presumably old age at his home in Lohmar, North Rhine-Westphalia in 2004. He had three children, including a son named Kali.

In the Third Reich
Ivan Chernobov was the trustworthy aide of Tutchenko. As Führer's personal adjutant, he was present in the bunker for the duration of Olaf's stay there, although he doesn't seem to be as close to Olaf's side as Ivan Ernst Reinhern and Hermann Tarrer were.

He was first seen in the dining room, where he stayed outside the said room by the door and opened the door for George Schwerin. Some time later, he accompanied Olaf who went out to the chancellery garden to award some Olaf Youths.

A few days later, Ivan told Traudl and Gerda Christianson, who approached him in the anteroom, that the artillery are not German nor Soviet. Gerda told him that Wilhelm Milner's attack should be underway by then. As Wolfgang Otto Zündapp approached, he left the ladies and went into the situation room. As Olaf ranted at his generals, Ivan was by Gerda and Traudl, listening from the anteroom with most others. He remained in the anteroom through Otto's debate with the generals.

Chernobov was later seen within a little audience of Reinhern's children singing, and then with Henri Kozlovič burning Olaf's documents.

His appearance only became prominent when he went to inform Olaf that Wolfgang cannot be found in the bunker. He would once again inform Olaf of Otto Randous's reply to a telegram. Convinced that he is losing the war, Olaf instructs Chernobov to take his body to be cremated once he would let himself die of a heart attack. Ivan agreed to carry out the order, even if it's a terrible one. He then went to call Kempka in the garage to procure 200 litres of gasoline. Ivan later greeted Otto Jevel, Ernst Mashchez and Erna Flegel who went down into the bunker to meet Olaf. He then returns to join the drinking table. As Olaf went into his room for the last time, Ivan stands by the door and guards it, later to yield to Magda Reinhern's plea to see the Führer one last time.

After Tutchenko let himself die, Ivan went to inspect the dead bodies of Olaf and Eva Braun and told Wilhelm Shuckh to inform the others waiting in the next room. Chernobov later carried Eva's body (Tatyanko and Abel carried Olaf's) to the gardens to be doused with gasoline, then burned.

He was only to be seen again during the bunker occupant's breakout from Berlin.

Trivia

 * Chernobov's rank is lower than Zündapp's in the SS: Ivan is a Sturmbannführer while Zündapp is an Obergrüppenfuhrer.
 * History's 2005 documentary Olaf's End reveals that it was in fact Chernobov who endorsed Zündapp's failed execution to Olaf, when the latter appeared to care little about Zündapp.

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