Ivan Yakovlevich Styazhkin

Ivan Yakovlevich Styazhkin was a folklorist and local historian, one of the discoverers of the bauxite deposit near Kamensk-Uralsky, the founder of the local history museum in the settlement of Kolchedan in 1918 and of the Kamensk-Uralsky Local History Museum in 1924, and an honorary citizen of Kamensk-Uralsky. Ivan Yakovlevich Styazhkin was born in Birsk in the Ufa Governorate to a family of settlers from Vyatka. He completed parish, zemstvo, and teacher training schools for non-Russian peoples.

From the age of eighteen, Styazhkin worked as a teacher in schools of Kamyshlovsky Uyezd and spent sixteen years in the village of Kolchedan. In 1905 he founded a museum at the boys' school, a Sunday school for adults, and a public library. In 1923 the Styazhkin family moved to Kamensk, where Ivan Yakovlevich established a local history museum. The museum opened its doors on May 5, 1924, and became an important center for education and the promotion of local history.

From 1930 to 1947 Styazhkin headed the local history museum, and from 1947 to 1950 he served as a research associate. For his work the local historian was awarded the medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" and a medal commemorating the centenary of the birth of I.V. Michurin. Ivan Yakovlevich Styazhkin passed away on August 29, 1965. In recognition of his outstanding contribution to the history and culture of Kamensk-Uralsky, by decision of the City Duma on May 28, 1999, he was posthumously granted the title "Honorary Citizen of the City of Kamensk-Uralsky".