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On June 12, 1918, located in the village of Belaya Glina in the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union, Ivan Ivanovitch Garikow was born. World War I had ended but civil war continued to rage throughout Russia. Czar Nicholas II had been ousted the previous March and was assassinated on July 17, 1918. After Lenin's takeover of the Russian government became a reality, Joseph Stalin's ascension to power soon followed. During the purges and reprisals that characterized Joseph Stalin's rise to power, young Garikow attended one of two schools in Belaya Glina. His family which included his father, Ivan and his mother Anna Tchachkina, and one brother, Mihail, lived a relatively peaceful although impoverished life on a small ranch. Near the completion of his primary education, his artistic ability was noticed and Ivan was sent to painter's school. At age eighteen, he submitted his art work for consideration and was accepted to Repin Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Leningrad. In 1937, Ivan made the thousand mile pilgrimage to Leningrad from Belaya Glina to study art. This trip was quite a challenge for a young man who had no money. It is believed that he walked much of the trip, was offered an occasional ride on a horse and/or wagon, and perhaps he was able to do some traveling by rail as there was a railroad in the town of Belaya Glina. It is uncertain how long it took Garikow to complete his trip. Eventually, he arrived at the Academy and began his classical art training. He told family members of the difficulties he had at school just to survive. Housing was less than adequate. Garikow had no housing. In order to have a roof over his head, he along with a few other students would have to sneak back into the Academy's classrooms during the night with most of them sleeping on the floor. It was not uncommon for six to eight other students to share one room. Most of them slept on the floor. Soup and an occasional piece of bread were his meals; and more often than not, he went completely without food. Academic study was not an easy pursuit for Garikow. Life was hard.
Garikow was taught the fine art of painting from some of the best teachers and brilliant artists in Russia. Ivan completed his studies at the world famous Repin Academy in the late spring of 1941. He was without question one of the last students, if not the last student to successfully complete his classical art training at the original Repin Academy before the Nazi destroyed and demolished not only the Academy itself, but also all of the school's documents, records, and paintings. Garikow's dreams of becoming a master painter in the free world would suddenly come to an abrupt halt when Hitler's troops invaded Russia. Garikow was near Leningrad on June 22, 1941 when Adolf Hitler's armies invaded Russia and the siege of Leningrad began. Along with hundreds of other Slavic people, Ivan Garikow was taken captive as a prisoner of war. He, along with the others, was considered to be an "untermench" (sub-human). It was understood that these people would be exterminated as undesirables by the Nazi regime.
The officers were so impressed with his drawing that Garikow was assigned to a compulsory labor camp in Krems, Austria, rather than being sent to a main concentration camp where POW's were being exterminated in great numbers every day. Garikow spent the next four years of his life being held captive. How was it possible for Garikow to avoid the inevitable death sentence? For four years, he managed to survive. A victim in the truest sense of the word; his physical pain would heal, but his emotional pain would never heal. A small portion of Garikow's paintings reveals a darker side - An apparent reminder of his days as a prisoner of war.
Understandably, Garikow did not like to talk about his time at the concentration camp. It is reasonable to assume that Garikow painted portraits for the Nazi officers and guards while he was a prisoner, and for his artistic efforts, he was given ample food and drink. Art saved his life. One surprising comment Garikow made to his sister-in-law was that "his belly was never so full" than when he was being held captive; even so, he never shared information about what he saw.
Garikow was one of three hundred Russian POW's rescued by U.S.troops when Mauthausen was liberated on May 5, 1945. Mauthausen had a capacity of 12,000 prisoners, but because of Hitler's last order, the number of POW's grew to 20,000. The human furnaces ran day and night, never ending. After the U.S. troops disarmed the Nazi SS, the prisoners rioted and killed most of the Nazi officers. U.S. troops took control and then placed the freed Russian prisoners in southern Austria which was within the American sector of the Allied occupied zones. World War II had ended, and Garikow was finally a free man. The early post-war years were tough. Garikow survived those years by painting people portraits and landscapes of farms and homes. Many times he would finish the painting and then show it to the property owner, hoping that he would be able to trade the painting for food or money.
Ivan's big break came between August 14-29, 1948, when his oil paintings, Salzburg and Innsbrucker Bundesstrabe, were exhibited in the first art exhibit of its kind following World Word II. Hundreds of paintings were shown at this Grosse Austellung. The directors of the exhibit admired Garikow's work so much that they featured it prominently in the vestibule.
The marriage was in trouble right from the start. Even with the birth of their son, the incompatibility of their ages and other irreconcilable differences forced their divorce on December 1, 1950. Ivan immediately registered at the Assembly Centre Hellbrunn as a "displaced person". Garikow wanted to come to America, the "Land of Opportunity", to further seek his fame and fortune as an artist. His early success in Austria was only the beginning for Garikow. He believed that in America "where the streets were paved with gold" he would achieve greatness. Garikow had faith. He believed that Divine guidance would enable him to find the "American dream." With all of the necessary paperwork in order, Garikow awaited official word from the American authorities. In August of 1951, confirmation arrived and the family prepared to depart for their new country. In a surprising turn of events, Lilli decided not to depart for America and to keep Ivan's son with her in Europe. Although saddened by Lilli's decision, Ivan did not allow it to dissuade him from going to this new homeland, the United States of America.
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Part 1 - The Early Years in Europe
Garikow found his way to Salzburg, Austria. There he would stay there with the hope of becoming an established, well-known artist. In the winter of 1948, Ivan met Maria Schneider and her two daughters, Lilli and Lana. During the ensuing months, Ivan became enamored with Lilli's beauty. On April 6, 1949, just two and a half months before his 31st birthday, an old world marriage took place. Ivan married Lilli who was just sixteen years of age. On February 17, 1950, Garikow's son, Arnold, was born. Life was good-- for the moment. Garikow's reputation as a painter grew quickly. He became one of Salzburg's favorite artists. He was beginning to find that recognition he so desperately wanted.
As his art work became popular, photographic reproductions of his paintings were made into postcards and sold to tourists, an accolade only given to a city's most popular artists. City by the River, 1949 became a popular postcard of the era. Sometimes known by the name of Salzburg by the River or Riverbank, Ivan painted many pictures of the Salzburg skyline; each with subtle differences usually found at the water's edge. Ivan Garikow had established himself as a renowned artist.
