Valerian Grigoryevich Tolstov-Atnarsky

Valerian Grigoryevich Tolstov-Atnarsky was a Soviet and Russian educator and cultural figure.  He was born in the village of Shorovo, Kurmyshsky Uyezd, Simbirsk Governorate (now Krasnochetaisky District of the Chuvash Republic), into a peasant family. For one year he studied at the Chuvash Pedagogical College in Cheboksary; the college was then moved to Tsivilsk, where Tolstov-Atnarsky completed his studies in 1933. After graduating from the college he took a job as a teacher. Valerian Grigoryevich took part in the Soviet-Finnish War and the Great Patriotic War. After demobilization he returned to teaching at Shtanash Secondary School.

 

In 1950 Valerian Grigoryevich graduated from the Faculty of Geography of the Moscow Pedagogical Institute named after V.I. Lenin with a specialization as a teacher of physical and economic geography for secondary schools. From 1950 to 1970 Tolstov-Atnarsky taught at Khodar Secondary School. From 1970 to 1973 he served as director of the Berezovskaya eight-year school. After retiring he continued to be active in public work. For thirty-five years he was a propagandist and lecturer for the district committee of the CPSU, engaged in local history work, and was a member of the Geographical Society of the USSR and the Union of Journalists of the USSR. In 1977, at Tolstov-Atnarsky's initiative, a local museum was established in the village of Krasnye Chetai; it opened in 1979. He became the first director of this museum and held the position until 1993. Valerian Grigoryevich Tolstov-Atnarsky died in 1994, leaving a significant mark on the history of education and culture in Chuvashia.