Ivan F. Sysoev
    Article by N.M. Kalmakov  Richmond, BC Canada  Aug 24 1975
    __________________________________________________________
   Continued from Articles page
   _____________________

  Joining a large group of Doukhobors who were moving to British Columbia, the Sysoev family, in 1912 settled at
  first in the village of Plodorodnaya near Thrums, but later moved to Krestovoye near Crescent Valley, where in
  1915 Ivan married Agafya Popova. Here their first two children were born. In 1921, the new family moved back
  to Saskatchewan eventually to settle in Kylemore, where Ivan took up farming. Although farming occupied most
  of his time, he managed to continue with his poetic endeavors. His dream of becoming a poet was turning into
  reality. It was during this period, in the 1920s and 1930s that he wrote his best poems. To the poems, he
  composed beautiful, soulful melodies, and these hymns are still being sung by many Doukhobors today. Upon
  returning to live once again in British Columbia, he continued to write poetry almost to his dying day. He
  passed away at the Boundary Hospital in Grand Forks on Feb 13 1967, leaving his wife Agafya, three sons, Ivan,
  Fyodor, and Peter and daughter Tatyana. In the majority of his poems, he grieved about the fact that humanity
  including the Doukhobors, was not pursuing the ideal life that he envisioned. "Christianity, love and brotherhood
  do not exist on Earth; instead deceit and exploitation are rampant". The earnest plea expressed in his songs, he
  felt was "a voice crying in the wilderness". Personally, he lived a modest, unpretentious life, giving a lot but
  asking for little. Due to limited resources, his lifelong ambition to have his poetry published was not to reach
  fruition. His widow, Agafya, in her declining years, feeling the need to fulfill her husband's desire to see his
  poems in print, approached me with the request to do the work. Ivan Sysoev was the most prominent poet in
  the Doukhobor midst. Preparing his material for printing, I was awe-struck at the sincerity of the author's soul.
  In some of his poems, he expresses sorrow at the reluctance of his people to follow in the footsteps of their
  forefathers, in others he expresses not only his own subjective sentiments and point of view, but in a great
  measure the opinions of the society in which he lived. It would indeed have been a great loss if his life's work
  were all for naught and had died together with the author. It was this thought that impelled me to publish his
  literary works.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________

  A limited edition of Ivan Sysoev's poetry was produced in book form by Mr Kalmakov in Aug of 1975. A copy of
  the book was placed in the Saskatchewan Provincial Archives, also a copy in the National Museum of Canada
  in Ottawa, Ontario.

   Return to Articles Page