Mikhail Znamenski (1833-1894)

Mikhail Znamenski was born in 1833 in the town of Kurgan, the Tobolsk region. He got primary education at the school initiated by the Decembrist Yakushkin. The priest Stepan Zmaneski, farther of the future artist, researcher and a public figure, was the official head of the school.

Michail Znamenski continued his education at the Tobolsk Theological school, where he revealed his inclination towards painting. Later Znamenski went to the studio of the icon-painter Kozlov. In 1851 Znamenski through M. Fonvisin’s efforts was sent to St.-Petersburg Theological seminary, where painting classes were opened. In St.-Petersburg Znamenski was influenced a lot by the democratically minded intelligentsia. One of his teachers was the famous engraver Nikolai Utkin. Socially oriented paintings by P. Fedotov had also a great impact upon the young artist.

In 1853, having completed his studies Znamenski came back to Tobolsk, where he would regularly write for the progressive satirical magazine ‘A Spark’. The majority of his works were related to the manners and public order of a provincial Russian town. Satirical and grotesque scenes were a precise characteristic of the contradictions in the public order in Tobolsk at that time.

In Tobolsk Znamenski gave lectures at the Teachers’ seminary and at the female gymnasium. His last years Znamenski dedicated to researches in ethnography, history, and archaeology that were published in books and stories on the history of Siberia. Zmaneski managed to register some unknown facts about the Decembrists’ life in Tobolsk.