Ivan Sytnikov
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Ivan Sytnikov Іван Ситнiков | |
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| State Minister of the UPSR | |
| In office October 3, 1955 – July 17, 1971 | |
| Preceded by | Vladislav Pudovkin |
| Succeeded by | Aleksander Shelyapin |
| State Minister for Agriculture | |
| In office April 7, 1948 – February 6, 1950 | |
| Preceded by | Evgeny Mosin |
| Succeeded by | Adam Yandarbiyev |
| State Minister for the Integration of the Republics | |
| In office February 6, 1950 – June 19, 1952 | |
| Preceded by | Panu Lahti |
| Succeeded by | Yuri Yolkov |
| State Minister for External Affairs | |
| In office June 19, 1952 – October 3, 1955 | |
| Preceded by | Rastsislav Svyontak |
| Succeeded by | Dmitry Guskov |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 18, 1909 Samistopol, Soravia |
| Died | November 12, 1986 (aged 77) Samistopol, Soravia |
| Resting place | St. Peter's Church, Samistopol |
| Political party | ZVNP |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Soravia (1931–36) UPSR (1936–44) |
| Branch/service | Army |
| Years of service | 1931–44 |
| Rank | Major |
| Battles/wars | Great War: Horn Offensive |
Ivan Savelyevych Sytnikov (/sɪt'nɪkɒv/, 18 April 1909 – 12 November 1986; aged 77) was a Soravian politician who served as the second and penultimate State Minister of the UPSR from 1955 to 1971. During this time, he was the principal architect of de-escalation between the UPSR and many authoritarian socialist states as well as several military clashes and heightened tensions with the global north.
Sytnikov began his career in the Soravian Army, serving in the Great War from 1931 onwards and surviving the particularly bloody Horn Offensive in 1934. He joined the ZVNP in 1936 after the establishment of the UPSR, and remained in the army until 1944, where he left to participate exclusively in party politics. Known for his strongly-militarist mindset, his career as a soldier helped garner respect within the party and particular notoriety as a member of Samistopol's City Council. Pudovkin personally took a notable liking to Sytnikov, and in 1948 was appointed as State Minister for Agriculture. As Pudovkin's behaviour became more erratic and his ability to govern diminished, Sytnikov became a crucial part of Soravian policy-making in the early 1950s, first as State Minister for the Integration of the Republics, where he oversaw an immense crackdown on independence movements in coordination with the PDP, and later as State Minister for External Affairs from 1952 to 1955.
The Polkom appointed Sytnikov as State Minister in 1955, where he orchestrated support for Tengarian patriots during the Tengarian Civil War. Relations between Samistopol and various socialist nations eased during the latter half of the 1950s, particularly after the Amathian-Valduvian split and the rise of equalism, where intervention from the UPSR kept the Amathian equalists from collapsing during the Thistle Uprising. Despite this, Sytnikov and the UPSR supported the repression of socialism in Etruria and Piraea, also privately expressing support for Etruria's invasion of Tarpeia in 1961. The foundation of the South Euclean People's Republic in 1963 ushered in a new era of goodwill between the UPSR and the equalist states, motivated by good interpersonal relations between Sytnikov and inaugural SEPR General Secretary Bastitou Couderç. During this time Sytnikov also developed close relations with Ali Sayyad Gharazi of the Union of Khazestan and Pardaran, and the UPSR became a major opponent of condemnations and sanctions from the Community of Nations during the Irvadistan War, often exercising its Security Council veto powers. The late 1960s saw the beginning of economic, social and political decline that ultimately ended in the dissolution of the UPSR in 1983. Sytnikov resigned in 1971 and was succeeded by Aleksander Shelyapin.
Noted for his strong sense of individual, Samistopol's relations with various countries ebbed and flowed based on Sytnikov's own personal relations with their leaders. He kept tight control over policy within the Polkom, where he was the dominant political force alongside noted friend and advisor Oleksii Dobrovolsky and later his successor Shelyapin. In Eastern Euclea, he was commonly ridiculed as Little Ivan or Petit Ivan due to his height of 167 cm (5 ft 5 in), and state-released pictures often artificially increased his height. Sytnikov remained in the ZVNP after his resignation, and was an enabler and supporter of party hardliners who instigated the January 3 coup in 1983. For this he was expelled from the party, and lived in relative obscurity in Samistopol until his death in 1986, where Shelyapin denied him a proper state funeral and prevented his burial at the traditional Necropolis Heroyam, instead receiving a burial nearby at St. Peter's Church.