I've seen the Ukrainian reference pop up occasionally. And during this time, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. It didn't become independent until 1991.
So technically, Illya *could* have been born in the Ukraine. I think it comes from the mind reading machine episode in which Illya recalls being a child in Kiev apparently during WW2. Kiev is in Ukraine.
So he can be both Soviet Russian citizen AND be born in or grow up in Ukraine.
There has always been controversy over the Soviet part although if he was a defector, that would not be possible (1) because UNCLE was global and multi-national modeled on the U.N. and (2) we saw him in his Soviet uniform.
Yeah, I know: some have claimed he was working undercover [but he did also say in one of the movies he had served on a Russian submarine.] But the show was on NBC, an American network, in the 1960s, right in the middle of the Cold War. The NBC execs were skittish of Soviet references altho Felton and Rolfe left little clues. [ for example: Illya in disguise in Project Strigas looks exactly like Trotsky]
Nevertheless, to clear it up I asked Norman Felton point blank if they really intended Illya to be Soviet.
He said to me, "Do you know who John Reed is?"
I did. He's the American buried in the Kremlin [Warren Beatty played him in the movie Reds]
Felton said, "Well in college, I belonged to the John Reed society --- so that is your answer."
Sam Rolfe also wanted Illya to be Russian/Soviet so that the show would look beyond the Cold War.
The point was that the real war was not between the West and East, but the real threat was from those who sought power over the rest of us ---a group composed [please note] of billionaire industrialists, international gangsters, Nazis and fascists, and meglo-maniac scientists advised by a super computer. Solo explains it to Elaine Donaldson in the Vulcan Aff. My opinion remains that MFU was prescient and predicted a world we live in now.
It's also noteworthy that Ayn Rand liked Bond but not MFU. Not surprising.
So technically, Illya *could* have been born in the Ukraine. I think it comes from the mind reading machine episode in which Illya recalls being a child in Kiev apparently during WW2. Kiev is in Ukraine.
So he can be both Soviet Russian citizen AND be born in or grow up in Ukraine.
There has always been controversy over the Soviet part although if he was a defector, that would not be possible (1) because UNCLE was global and multi-national modeled on the U.N. and (2) we saw him in his Soviet uniform.
Yeah, I know: some have claimed he was working undercover [but he did also say in one of the movies he had served on a Russian submarine.] But the show was on NBC, an American network, in the 1960s, right in the middle of the Cold War. The NBC execs were skittish of Soviet references altho Felton and Rolfe left little clues. [ for example: Illya in disguise in Project Strigas looks exactly like Trotsky]
Nevertheless, to clear it up I asked Norman Felton point blank if they really intended Illya to be Soviet.
He said to me, "Do you know who John Reed is?"
I did. He's the American buried in the Kremlin [Warren Beatty played him in the movie Reds]
Felton said, "Well in college, I belonged to the John Reed society --- so that is your answer."
Sam Rolfe also wanted Illya to be Russian/Soviet so that the show would look beyond the Cold War.
The point was that the real war was not between the West and East, but the real threat was from those who sought power over the rest of us ---a group composed [please note] of billionaire industrialists, international gangsters, Nazis and fascists, and meglo-maniac scientists advised by a super computer. Solo explains it to Elaine Donaldson in the Vulcan Aff. My opinion remains that MFU was prescient and predicted a world we live in now.
It's also noteworthy that Ayn Rand liked Bond but not MFU. Not surprising.
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