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Gennady Nikolaevich Botnikov
About museum
Gennady Nikolaevich Botnikov was a Kostroma merchant and public figure, city mayor in 1898–1912, and a member of the Third State Duma representing Kostroma Governorate. He received a secondary education at the Kostroma Real School, and upon graduation in 1878, owing to his father's illness, had to take charge of the family trading business (grain trade), which he continued after his father's death. He was registered as a merchant of the 1st guild, owned several shops in the Gostiny Dvor, and was a co-owner of a steam-powered mill and a groats mill in the village of Ryzhkovo, Kostroma Uyezd.
Apart from his commercial activities he devoted much time to public affairs. From 1890 he was elected a member (glasny) of the Kostroma City Duma, and from 1896 a member of the Kostroma Uyezd Zemstvo Assembly and an honorary justice of the peace of Kostroma Uyezd. In 1898 he was elected Kostroma city head (mayor) and held the post until 1912. During this time much was done to improve the city: a state telephone network and an underwater telephone line across the Volga were laid, mandatory house numbering was introduced, and a slaughterhouse, fire station, and power plant were built.
At Botnikov's initiative the House of Industry, a library named after A. S. Pushkin, the Kostroma Trade School, the Klyrikov children's orphanage, the 5th Nikolaevskoye and 6th Alexeyevskoye parish schools, a land-surveying school, and a women's teachers' seminary were opened. In 1903 Botnikov became one of the initiators of the erection of a monument in Kostroma commemorating the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, which was unveiled in 1913. After the proclamation of the October Manifesto in 1905 he founded and headed the Kostroma branch of the Union of October 17. In 1907 he was elected a member of the Third State Duma for Kostroma Governorate. He joined the Octobrist faction and served on the commissions for public education, communications, urban affairs, and the budget. Gennady Nikolaevich Botnikov died in 1922.
Date of birth
01 January 1860
Date of death
01 January 1922
Occupation
Merchant