Alexandra Alexandrovna Kuratova

Alexandra Alexandrovna Kuratova – educator, local historian. Alexandra Kuratova (née Kolegova) was born on February 22, 1925 in the village of Yb into a peasant family. After finishing seven years of schooling she qualified as an educator. In 1942 she first worked at the Belyaevsky kindergarten (Obyachevo village, Priluzsky District), then was assigned as senior educator to the Noshul orphanage.

In 1945 she entered the Syktyvkar Pedagogical Institute, after graduating from which she worked as a mathematics teacher at the Obyachevo and Yb secondary schools. Later she was the director of the Yb school and an organizer of extracurricular activities. She founded the “Iskatel” (Seeker) club to collect information about participants of the Great Patriotic War. A handwritten Memory Book was compiled. In 1975 a memorial to the fallen fellow villagers was opened in the village and Victory Square was laid out.

Gradually the search work expanded to include collecting information on the history and ethnography of the village. Exhibits were gathered for the school museum, which later became the Yb Historical and Local Lore Museum. After retiring, Alexandra Alexandrovna worked at the Yb Ethnographic Center. Being skilled in various types of traditional handicrafts, she passed this knowledge on to children. Club members practiced embroidery, patterned knitting, folk doll-making and costume work. Alexandra Alexandrovna passed away on January 27, 2006.