The exhibition of the Iskitim Museum of Arts and History includes a study “Road to Chemal”, one of the early works by the artist Ivan Petrovich Popov (1926–2007).

Just before the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, thirteen-year-old Ivan Popov left his home village of Srostki and went with his mother to the Kuban region and then to Komsomolsk-on-Amur. After his mother passed away, the young Ivan was forced to transfer to a trade school. He worked at an aircraft factory, first as a carpenter and then as a turner, “producing control knobs for the Il ground-attack planes.” There was no one else he could rely on. In his memoirs, Ivan Popov described the harsh years of war,

Having experienced all the hardships of war, Ivan Popov decided to join the front lines, along with other factory boys. However, the young volunteers were turned down at the recruitment office, as their help in building aircraft was considered more important for the country at that time.

Around the same time, Ivan Popov had a life-changing encounter with Vladimir Kostin, a sculptor from Kiev. He invited Ivan to paint posters and murals at the Baranov factory club. According to Ivan Popov, this is how his artistic education began. Later, he enrolled at the Taras Shevchenko Art School and later the Art Institute in Kiev. His teachers were the renowned artists Tatyana Nilovna Yablonskaya and Aleksey Alekseyevich Shovkunenko.