Smirnov, Mikhail Ivanovich (historian)

Born September 28, 1868 in the village of Big Brembola of Pereslavl Uyezd in the family of a priest. He studied at the Pereslavl Theological School with A. I. Svirelin . He entered the Bethany Seminary , which he graduated in 1889 .

After an unsuccessful attempt to enter the Moscow Theological Academy, Smirnov worked as a primary school teacher. At this time, he made the first notes on the history of his native village of Big Brembola. In 1900, Smirnov’s first article was published: “Vladimir natives are pupils of the Bethany Theological Seminary. 1797-1897 "

The teacher’s meager earnings forced Smirnov to go to Ukraine in 1897, where he became an official of the Kiev provincial excise department. The new service was clerical in nature and did not correspond much to the true aspirations of the self-taught historian. Here he went in for genealogical searches.

In 1911, Smirnov became a student of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the Moscow Archaeological Institute , who graduated with a gold medal in 1914 ( since the course of the archaeological institute was at least 3 years ^{[ clarify ]} ). His first book is “Pereslavl-Zalessky. His past and present ”(1911) became a thesis.

In 1917, Smirnov and his wife Natalya Viktorovna (nee Meshcherskaya) returned to Pereslavl . The historian headed the Pereslavl police department, but devoted all his free time to studying his native land. In 1918, Smirnov was commissioned to organize a local museum, the first exposition of which opened in May 1919.

In the 1920s, Smirnov discovered Neolithic sites on the shores of Lake Pleshcheyev , and organized excavations. S. D. Vasiliev participated in archaeological searches.

M. I. Smirnov was among the founders of the Pereslavl-Zalessky educational society (Pesanprobe). The society was closed in 1930.

In 1930, Smirnov was arrested, convicted under Article 58-10 and sentenced to three years in Turukhansk Territory . In 1934 he was released and worked in museums of the Moscow Region. In the same year, Smirnov prepared the monograph “Pereslavl-Zalessky” for the publishing house “ Academia ”. (The book was published only in 1990.) He never returned to Pereslavl, despite the invitations of K. I. Ivanov .

In 1940 he retired. He died on November 2, 1949 in a wheelchair in the village of Cherkizovo near Kolomna . The grave is lost.

• Brother Sergey Ivanovich Smirnov - professor of church history.
• Brother Vasily Ivanovich Smirnov - historian, ethnographer, archaeologist, worked hard for local history in Kostroma province and Arkhangelsk.

About half of the material written by Smirnov was published by him during his lifetime. ^[one]

After the death of serious publications were not.

Books published in Pereslavl in 1990 and 1996 were prepared with errors: there was no scientific editor, almost no proofreading, and bibliographic references, dates and citations were not verified. ^{[2] [3]}

Materials of M.I.Smirnov at the Optical Institute of State Historical Sciences (fund 191), at the State Autonomous Okrug (fund R-913), in the Russian Federation at the State Autonomous Okrug (administrative work of Smirnov in Pereslavl), at the Pereslavl Museum (materials Pezanprob and correspondence), at the Moscow Aviation Administration (fund of the Vladimir scientist archival commission), in the GARF (reports on work), in the museum of the city of Kolomna, in the personal archives of its correspondents.

A review of the archive of M. I. Smirnov, made by S. B. Filimonov, is being prepared for publication.

• Filimonov S. B. Archive of M. I. Smirnov: From the History of Soviet Local History.

• Works M.I. Smirnova on the website of the Pereslavl Local Lore Initiative .
• Diary of M.I. Smirnova in the electronic case of personal diaries "Live . "