Ivan Fyodorovich Zakharov

About museum

Ivan Fyodorovich Zakharov-Kylyadyy Uus – Honored Worker of Culture of the Yakut ASSR, an honorary citizen of the Vilyuysky Ulus, a veteran of the home front and labor, a musical instrument maker, and a laureate of folk arts. He was born on March 15, 1920, in the Bekcheginsky nasleg of the Vilyuysky Ulus. He began working at the age of 13 as a blacksmith on a kolkhoz. He worked for 7 years as secretary and chairman of the executive committee.   

Since 1975 he retired and devoted himself to blacksmithing: casting women's jewelry (earrings, breast ornaments, pendants, rings), and began making khomus (jaw harps). He contributed to the preservation of the traditional culture and crafts of the Sakha people, and to the spiritual and aesthetic education of the younger generation. He was the first in the republic to make two- and three‑tongued khomuses. In 1990 he organized a republican school for making khomus, where he taught many people this craft. He appeared in the first Yakut ethnographic film “Orto doidu” in the role of a blacksmith. Khomuses made by I. F. Zakharov were exhibited at many exhibitions across the republic, in other Russian cities, and abroad.   

In 1980 Ivan Fyodorovich was granted the title “Honorary Citizen of the town of Vilyuysk.” In 1985 he received the Yakut ASSR title “People’s Master of the musical instrument khomus.” In 1989 he was awarded the title “Honored Worker of Culture of the Yakut ASSR.” Ivan Fyodorovich was the head of a large family, father of 13 children, nine of them daughters. He died in February 2005 and was buried in Vilyuysk.