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Valerian Mikhailovich Vasilyev
About museum
Valerian Mikhailovich Vasilyev was a Soviet Mari linguist, folklorist, ethnographer, local historian, educator, teacher, and public figure. He was a founder of Mari linguistics, ethnography, folklore studies, and musicology, and one of the first Mari writers. He was born in the village of Susady-Ebalak. He studied at the Birsk teachers' school and the Kazan Theological Seminary, and worked as a clerk and a teacher. In 1907 he took part in the creation of the first Mari periodical, 'Marla kalendar'. In 1917 he headed the Mari section of the Society of Small Peoples of the Volga Region and founded the newspaper 'Ӱжара'.
After graduating from Kazan University, Vasilyev worked as a professor at the Kazan Eastern Pedagogical Institute. In 1930 he moved to Yoshkar-Ola, where he was arrested and exiled on charges of 'bourgeois nationalism'. Despite the repressions, he continued his scholarly, pedagogical, and educational work. Vasilyev defended his Candidate's and Doctoral dissertations, becoming the first Doctor of Philological Sciences in Mari philology. Valerian Mikhailovich Vasilyev died on May 3, 1961. A street in Yoshkar-Ola and MarNIIYALI are named after him. In his native village there is a house-museum.
Date of birth
01 January 1883
Date of death
02 May 1961
Occupation
Local historian