Abramov, Igor Alexander

Born in Kursk; became hard of hearing at age 3 due to ototoxic medicine. Completely deafened at age 11 by an accident. Attended the Kursk Residential School and graduated from Moscow #30 School for the Deaf (Mikaeljan). Attended Moscow State University of Technology, earning a master's degree in optical electronics and going to work as a researcher for the Soviet military industry. President of the Moscow Society of the Deaf; after the fall of Russian Communism, visited the U.S. in 1992. Earned a Ph.D. from the Moscow Academic Science Institute in 1993, and also studied at Gallaudet University, National Technical Institute for the Deaf, and California State University, Northridge. Became manager of two companies that employed more than 70% disabled employees, qualifying them for special tax breaks from the government. Crime mafias took advantage of this, setting up deals with him for using his companies as covers for crime operations; he became wealthy as a result. When he fell out with one of the crime leaders, he was shot down by a gunman in the doorway of his Moscow apartment. As of 2001, his murder remained unsolved.