Ivan spent the first eight years of his life in the village with his mother and grandmother, then in 1849 moved to Moscow where his father had started a small grocery shop at Ordynka.

[1] In the late 1860s Surikov met two poets, Alexander Levitov and Filipp Nefyodov, who helped him get his verses published in magazines like Delo, Otechestvennye Zapiski, and Semya i Shkola.

The leftist critics greeted the newcomer but deplored the rather limited thematic scope (peasant's hardships, stepmother's cruelty, set marriages, etc.)

Yet, while both of his spiritual forefathers employed traditional Russian folklore structures and motives as a template and, while being masters of the 'landscape poetry', could hardly be described as storytellers, Surikov's poems usually had plots and were full of drama, albeit of a simplistic brand, featuring only "strong", straightforward feelings, devoid of emotional undertones.

[1] Surikov had his "peasant cycle" too, but again, its poems were generic, protagonists representing "the voice of the common people," rather than putting forward personal views.

Even the democratic press which supported the self-taught 'people's poet', deplored the narrowness of his artistic spectrum which embraced trials and tribulations only of the most trivial kind (hardships of poverty, grievances of set marriage, stepmother's cruelty, etc.).