On July 12, 1927, the outstanding Russian poet and writer Ivan Ivanovich Savin, a hero of the White Movement and forced émigré, passed away. At 4 a.m., he uttered the word "God" and closed his eyes forever.

Ivan Savin was an extraordinary man who lived only 27 years. He survived the fierce battles of the Civil War, lost almost his entire family, endured the horrors of red captivity, became a renowned poet, and died in exile due to complications after an appendectomy.

Ivan Ivanovich was born into the family of Ivan Savolain and Moldavian noblewoman Anna Mikhailovna Volik, who was ten years older than her husband and had five children from her first marriage. The future poet had seven siblings.

After his birth, the family moved from Yelisavetgrad to the small town of Zenkov, where he spent the happiest years of his life. Here he finished school, began writing his first works, fell in love with the neighbor's daughter, and believed in his bright future. However, 1917 turned everything upside down, destroying real Russia.

With the Bolsheviks coming to power, the Savin family resolutely opposed the destruction of the country and almost completely perished. Sisters Nina and Nadezhda died of hunger and deprivation, two younger brothers were killed in the battles of 1920, and two older brothers, artillery officers Mikhail and Pavel, were murdered in the dungeons of the Cheka after the evacuation of the Russian army.

Ivan Savin himself, at the age of 19, enlisted as a volunteer in the Volunteer Army in the summer of 1919. At first, he stood guard during the identification of victims of red terror, among whom were his fiancée's parents, and then participated in the offensive on Moscow, survived the terrible retreat, and the immortal Crimean epic. Before the Novorossiysk catastrophe, he fought in the 3rd and 2nd cavalry regiments, then ended up in the 3rd combined cavalry regiment and later in the 12th Ulan Belgorod regiment.

In the autumn of 1920, Ulan Savin fell ill with typhus and fell into the hands of the Bolsheviks. A brave nurse burned his guard uniform and passed him off as a supply officer, which saved him from immediate execution. The Reds stripped Savin of all his clothes, beat and humiliated him, but he managed to survive. In 1921, Ivan reached Petrograd, and in the spring of 1922, thanks to his father's Finnish heritage, he moved to Helsinki, where he spent the last five years of his life.

Ivan Savin could not fully recover from his experiences but became a symbol of Russian emigration in Finland. He worked in a factory and wrote extensively, including for the Helsinki daily "Russian News." He led the Russian émigré youth and acted in theater.

In 1924, Savin married Lyudmila Vladimirovna Solovyova, the daughter of the commander of the 1st Finnish Rifle Regiment. In the same year, he began collaborating with the Berlin newspaper "Rul," the Riga newspaper "Segodnya," and the Belgrade newspaper "Novoe Vremya."

Savin's work inspired not only ordinary Russian émigrés but also outstanding figures such as writer Kuprin and artist Ilya Repin, with whom he became friends shortly before his death. His works reflect the glorious and difficult path he traveled. In his poems, images of General Kornilov, brothers fallen in battle and tortured in Crimea, as well as deceased sisters, emerge before readers. His stories documented the horrors of Bolshevik emergency measures and the inhumane conditions of captivity.

Ivan Savin sensed his imminent end and demonstrated incredible productivity. In 1926, he visited Valaam with his wife, met Anna Vyrubova, and contributed to the publication of the memoirs of a prisoner of the first Soviet concentration camp in Solovki. A year before his death, he published his only lifetime collection of works, "Ladanka."

In early summer 1927, Savin fell ill due to appendicitis, which had to be removed. The operation led to a tragic outcome: blood poisoning began, and the weakened body, having endured horrors, could not cope. On the night of July 12, the poet passed away. His young wife remained by his bedside until the end. Terrible pains tormented Ivan; he was given an injection, but it was already too late. Before his death, he asked for paper and wrote: "Promoted to second lieutenant by death of the Life Guards Lord's Regiment..." At four o'clock in the morning, he uttered: "God!" and then closed his eyes forever.

Ivan Savin was buried in the local cemetery, and his grave is still respected among Russian émigrés and tourists.