Nikolai Mikhailovich Martyanov

About museum

Nikolai Mikhailovich Martyanov – founder of the Minusinsk Regional Museum of Local Lore, pharmacist, botanist. Due to his family's financial difficulties, Martyanov was unable to finish gymnasium and began working as an apothecary's apprentice. After qualifying as a pharmacist, he became interested in the natural sciences, collecting botanical and mineralogical specimens. In 1872 Martyanov moved to Kazan, where he became a member of the university society of naturalists and published scientific articles. From 1874 he lived in Minusinsk, where he organized a local history circle and headed the local museum, founded in 1877. Martyanov conducted a number of expeditions across the southern Yenisei province, the Kuznetsk Alatau, the Sayan Mountains and the Uryankhai region (now Tuva). He assembled an extensive ethnographic collection reflecting the everyday life and culture of the Khakas people. At Martyanov's initiative a meteorological station and a public library were established in Minusinsk; the library became one of the best in Siberia thanks to its book holdings. Nikolai Mikhailovich Martyanov died on 13 December 1904 and was buried in Minusinsk. The Minusinsk Regional Museum of Local Lore is named in his honor.