Ivan Chtcheglov

Ivan Vladimirovitch Chtcheglov (Russian: Ива́н Влади́мирович Щегло́в; 16 January 1933 – 21 April 1998) was a French political theorist, activist and poet, born in Paris to Ukrainian father and French mother.

Ivan was the son of Vladimir Chtchegloff, a revolutionary sentenced to two years imprisonment following the 1905 Revolution. After his release, Vladimir left the Russian Empire with his wife Hélene Zavadsky. After originally staying in Belgium for three years, the couple moved to Paris in 1910, where Vladimir continued work as a taxi driver. He was active in the CGT and involved in the 1911 drivers strike.

He wrote Formulaire pour un urbanisme nouveau (Formulary for a New Urbanism) in 1953, at age nineteen under the name Gilles Ivain, which was an inspiration to the Lettrist International and Situationist International.

He and his friend Henry de Béarn planned to blow up the Eiffel Tower with some dynamite they had stolen from a nearby building site, because "its reflected light shone into their shared attic room and kept them awake at night." He was arrested at Les Cinq Billards on Rue Mouffetard in Paris and committed to a mental hospital by his wife, where he was subdued with insulin and shock therapy, and remained for 5 years. He died in 1998.

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