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Sketch of a Doukhobor Prisoner in Siberia
Commentary by Jonathan J. Kalmakoff
The
following is a drawing from an artist’s sketchbook, unknown and unavailable for
over a century, of a Doukhobor prisoner in Siberia. The discovery of this rare
work will be of particular interest to those researching the exile of Doukhobor
military conscripts who refused military service in late-nineteenth and
early-twentieth century Russia following the historic Burning of Arms. The
following is a discussion of the drawing by Jonathan J. Kalmakoff.
The drawing is by the famous artist-painter Boris Vasilyevich Smirnov
(1881-1954), whose Soviet works are found in many Russian and foreign museums
and galleries, but whose pre-Revolutionary drawings are almost unknown. It was
drawn in 1904 when the artist was deported as a political prisoner along the
Great Siberian Highway by the Tsarist regime. It is one of a collection of
ninety-nine rare drawings and watercolors by Smirnov at the Novosibirsk State
Museum of Regional History and Folklife. The collection was acquired from the
artist in 1950.
The drawing uses rich black charcoal heightened with white on grey paper and measures
29.5 by 22.3 centimeters. It bears an inscription with the artist’s name as well
as the date it was drawn. On the obverse, it bears an inscription with the title
Arestant – Dukhobor (“Doukhobor Prisoner”). The drawing is a bust of the
subject in profile facing forward.
Smirnov depicts his subject in a realistically informal pose, with hair
slightly disheveled and coat unbuttoned. The prisoner’s expression is at once
thoughtful, plaintive and resolute, a man who has paid the price of faith with
unwavering courage and humanity. It is presumably this intensity of expression
which drew the artist’s attention to the subject.
Regrettably, Smirnov did not record the name of his subject. It is known,
however, that the artist sketched the drawing at the prison for exiles in Irkutsk,
Siberia. This prison was an étape, or stopping place, for Russian convicts and
exiles on their way to their destinations. It can therefore be deduced that the
prisoner was one of the over one hundred Doukhobor military conscripts exiled
from the Caucasus, via Irkutsk, to Yakutsk, Siberia between 1896 and 1905 for
refusing military service.
Perhaps there are family researchers – grandchildren and great-grandchildren of
the Doukhobor exiles in Siberia – who might be able to identify this Doukhobor
prisoner who, while en route to exile in distant unknown lands, humbly agreed to
pose for Smirnov over a century ago. It is intriguing to think that there might
be literally hundreds of his descendants living in Canada today.
This
article
was reproduced by permission in ISKRA No.1978 (Grand Forks: Union of Spiritual
Communities in Christ, 2006).
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