Ivan Yakovlevich Yakovlev

Ivan Yakovlevich Yakovlev was an enlightener, an Orthodox missionary, an educator, and an organizer of public schools. He was born in the village of Koshki-Novotimbayevo in the Simbirsk Governorate. In 1863 Yakovlev graduated from the surveying and tax-assessor classes and worked as a surveyor until 1866. He graduated from the Simbirsk Classical Gymnasium and the History and Philology Faculty of Kazan University. In 1868 he founded a private school in Simbirsk, which became the first national school and the first pedagogical educational institution for the Chuvash people.

In 1871 Yakovlev, together with like-minded colleagues, created the Chuvash alphabet based on the Cyrillic script and published a primer. From 1875 to 1903 he served as inspector of Chuvash schools in the Kazan educational district. From 1903 to 1919 he headed the Chuvash pedagogical educational institution he had established in Simbirsk. As an inspector, he organized pedagogical courses and teachers' congresses, and also promoted the opening of numerous rural schools for the peoples of the Middle Volga region. Ivan Yakovlevich Yakovlev died in Moscow on October 23, 1930.