Latvian singer. He was born in a noble family of an Orthodox historian and philosopher, who emigrated to Germany after the October revolution in Russia. In 1933 the family moved from Germany to Latvia and settled in Rezekne, where there was a large Russian community. Ivan began to sing in the Church choir. In 1940 Latvia became part of the Soviet Union. Although Assur's father did not serve in the white army, he was arrested as a white immigrant. He died in prison, and Ivan and his mother in 1945 found themselves in a camp for displaced persons in the American occupation zone. For five years he worked in a music publishing house, in his spare time he studied singing with M. Sera. Since 1950 - in the United States, worked at Ford factories, sometimes sang at charity concerts and parish holidays. In the 1950s he became known as a performer of romances and Opera arias. Since 1956, for 30 years he was a soloist of the Zharov's Cossack Choir. In parallel, he performed in the Cossack choir named after ataman Platov under the direction of N. F. Kostryukova, and also gave solo concerts. Since 1985, he has repeatedly performed concerts in Russia and Latvia, gave interviews, participated in the filming of documentaries. In 1997 he finally moved to Rezekne.
