Ivan Bogatslav was born in 1995 in St. Petersburg, the illegitimate son of a popular Russian Orthodox priest named Artyom Antonov. His mother, a young student, was disowned by her parents who refused to believe her claim, leaving her destitute and unsupported by both the state and Artyom. Ivan grew up in deep poverty, largely unsupervised as his mother worked constantly, passed from neighbour to neighbour, raised communally in a cramped flat, and surrounded by petty crime, alcoholism, and domestic violence in a neighbourhood ruled by local bratki. Without a male role model, Ivan gravitated toward gangsters, and by age eight was running errands for them in exchange for food, cigarettes, and small cash. At eleven, he seriously injured another student in a fight, prompting his mother to send him to a church over the summer where Artyom, now higher up in the clergy, put him to work, unaware that he was his father. Ivan’s behavior was reckless, stealing wine, tripping nuns, and nearly starting a fire, he returned home no better, only more bruised. At fifteen, he dropped out of school without telling his mother and began working full-time for the Bratva. At sixteen, he was arrested for assault after throwing a man under a police car and was sentenced to one year in prison. There, he quickly climbed the ranks by working with the tattooist, earning respect through his ability to create tools from scraps, becoming known even among guards for his charisma. Supplies arrived regularly from his mother and, strangely, from his father too, who sent him a Bible that Ivan never read. Upon release, housing and work were already arranged through a connection, but he first visited his mother, who tearfully welcomed him home. He was now deeply entrenched in the criminal underworld, handling collections and enforcing local rackets while relying more on diplomacy than violence as he learned to do in prison. At 22, he was sent to Dubai to assist in money laundering, where he learned Arabic and proved valuable in negotiations. At 24, he was sent to Argentina to help establish operations there and was increasingly trusted. At 26, he returned to Russia for business and, while intoxicated, accidentally ran someone over, landing back in prison. This time, he got another Bible and a letter from his father revealing not only that he was his biological father, but that he had once worked as a KGB agent before the collapse of the USSR, using the priesthood as cover after the regime fell. That revelation shattered and reassembled Ivan’s sense of self, and the line in the letter “God helps those who help themselves” reshaped his worldview. He began to see scripture not as judgment but as a call to action, embracing the paradox, “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” His life found new clarity, and when Wagner began recruiting from prisons, he joined, seeing it as divine trail for becoming weak. Ukraine was hell, filled with near-death experiences, but he survived and returned home forever changed. Seeking peace, he went to his father’s church in Tomsk, listened to his father’s story, and though not religious, began to see value in faith and structure. He left crime behind, began maintaining the church grounds, and turned the basement into a home and workshop. Now 29, Ivan lives quietly, professionally crafting and testing his inventions in the Russian wilderness, often spending nights alone with only his thoughts and visions for a new future.