In his work “The Parliamentarian, ” the Soviet painter Taras Georgievich Shevchenko (1929–2015) presented the collective image of the selfless peacemakers of wartime. At the same time, the work has a real prototype — Captain Ilya Afanasyevich Ostapenko, after whom a street in Gorlovka was named. Taras Georgievich donated the painting “The Parliamentarian” to the Gorlovka Art Museum in honor of his 80th birthday.

The Soviet artist was inspired to make this work during his creative trip to Budapest. The painter recalled that at the entrance to the city he was struck by a bronze monument to a soldier of the Soviet Army holding a flag of a parliamentarian in his hands. Most importantly, he was impressed by the real story of the heroically deceased countryman. The hero of Shevchenko’s painting is depicted against the background of flashes of fire and explosions, walking through thick smoke with a white flag in his raised hand. His face is calm, his gaze expresses fearlessness and faith in victory.

Ilya Afanasyevich Ostapenko, who became the prototype of the hero of the painting, was born in 1904 on the territory of Sumsky Uyezd. He lived in Gorlovka, worked as a hewer at the Lenin coal mine. In 1942, he was drafted into the army. In 1942–1943, Ilya Ostapenko took German language courses.

Ilya Afanasyevich participated in the liberation of many cities of the Soviet Union. In December 1944 he took part in the decisive battles for Budapest. By that time, the Soviet troops had surrounded the Nazis, their further resistance was useless, but they did not surrender their weapons. The capital of Hungary was on fire, and in order to save the city and its inhabitants from senseless bloodshed, the Soviet command decided to present to the enemy an ultimatum to surrender.

A parliamentary group of three people, headed by Captain Ilya Ostapenko, by that time fluent in German, was supposed to hand over the package of documents. The besieged German-Hungarian force, which had been warned about the advance of the group, opened fire on them, but the soldiers kept going forward to the enemy positions.

The parliamentarians were allowed to hand over the package with documents on surrender to the commander of the enemy group, but the latter rejected the ultimatum. When the group was returning to the location of the Soviet troops bearing the same white flag, the Nazis opened fire on their backs. Ilya Afanasyevich Ostapenko died, and the rest of the parliamentarians managed to escape. The Soviet troops rushed into battle, which lasted the whole day. Budapest was subsequently liberated.