ALEKSANDR NILOV was a devoted Christian, loving husband and father who passed away peacefully at the age of 73, on Wednesday, February 22, 2023, at St. Catherine’s Hospital in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin with the presence of his loving wife Lyudmila Filatova. Aleksandr is survived by his younger brother Pavel (in Russia), wife Lyudmila Filatova, and two sons – Evan and Daniel.
Aleksandr was born on November 11, 1949, to the late Boris and Lyudmila Nilov in Moscow, Russia (USSR). He met his wife Lyudmila Filatova on February 4, 1990, married her in April 1990, and they immigrated to the United States on June 29, 1992 as political refugees.
Aleksandr was educated in Moscow’s schools and was an extremely intelligent person. He spoke Russian, English, French, Esperanto, some Polish, Spanish, and German, as well as understood many eastern European Slavic languages. Aleksandr had a master’s degree in Physics (plasma physics) from the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, located in Moscow, which is an educational and research institution, formerly known as Patrice Lumumba University.
From 1978 until 1988 (10 years) Aleksandr spent inside a Soviet GULAG labor camp prison named ‘Perm-36’ (https://mperm36.ru/about/history/) for being a political dissident. There were famous political dissidents in the ‘Perm-36’ labor camp – Vladimir Bukovski, Sergei Kovalyov, Anatoli Marchenko, Yuri Orlov, Nathan Scharanski, Gleb Yakunin and others. Aleksandr met and befriended there several of these remarkable people.
This GULAG labor camp ‘Perm-36’ was closed in 1988 and in 1994 it became a museum “Memorial for victims of political repressions”. The “Perm-36” Museum is located inside of the former labor camp ‘VS 389/36’ in the village of Kuchino, Chusovskoy district, Perm Krai. The history of the camp is as old as the Stalin era.
When he arrived in the U.S., he pursued a career in Information Technology (IT), firstly completing his education at Gateway Technical College located in Kenosha, WI. He graduated Gateway with two Associate degrees (with President’s Honor Award) in computer science and worked for more than 20 years at ZF Electronics in Pleasant Prairie as a senior computer programmer/ analyst.
In his younger years, he worked as a professor for three years, teaching physics to foreign university students at The Boumerdes Oil Institute in Algeria.
A few years after he arrived to the United States, Aleksandr began studying the art of Karate, eventually ranking up to a Black Belt.
Throughout his life, Aleksandr loved listening to his favorite music genre – classical and folk, which included the music of Tchaikovsky, Bach, and Chopin. Aleksandr loved poetry and knew many poems by heart in Russian, German, French, and English from many original poets.
In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations be made to St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Kenosha (4313 18th Ave, Kenosha, WI 53140). This parish has roots in Eastern Europe, but the worship, life, and ministry are in English. St. Nicholas Church is a church of the Diocese of Chicago and the Midwest of the OCA. The parish was established in 1912. The Mission of The Orthodox Church in America, the local autocephalous Orthodox Christian Church, is to be faithful in fulfilling the commandment of Christ to “Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. Serviced by the deanery clergy; www.stnickskenosha.org.
Let Aleksandr’s soul find peace and God have mercy on his soul.
Funeral Services for Aleksandr will be held in private setting.