Birth of Siberian explorer, teacher, publicist, historian, ethnographer Nikolai Alekseevich Abramov

Nikolai Alekseevich Abramov was born on April 17 (29), 1812 in the city of Kurgan, Tobolsk province, in the family of a priest, a former teacher of the Tobolsk seminary. The Abramovs attributed their origin to the first clergy sent to Siberia during the spread of Christianity. Nikolai Abramov received his initial education at home, then studied at the Kurgan District People's School. In 1832 he graduated from the Tobolsk Theological Seminary. He was fluent in Latin, Tatar and Hebrew. He began his service as a teacher at the Tobolsk seminary. In 1836 he entered the Tobolsk district school as a teacher of history and geography.

From the beginning of the 1830s Abramov was interested in the history of Siberia. P. A. Slovtsov had a significant influence on his formation as a researcher. Abramov's scientific interests were diverse: meteorology, agronomy, geography, statistics, archeology, church history in Siberia, Tatar and Russian languages, toponymy, ethnography.   

February 1842-1849 he continued to serve in the Ministry of Public Education with the rank of superintendent of the district school in Berezov. Here, his talent as a local historian was fully developed: he collected various information in local archives, including statistical, geographical, ethnographic and folklore materials. Abramov introduced into scientific circulation works that had been kept in collections in Tobolsk for a long time: the Siberian Chronicle, the “Notebook” of the 17th century, “A Brief Description of the Ostyak People” by G. Novitsky.

Nikolai Abramov conducted meteorological observations, experiments on growing wheat and potatoes in the region. He willingly shared his knowledge with researchers who traveled across Siberia, for example, with M. A. Kovalsky and E. K. Hoffman, who made a scientific expedition to the Urals. As a figure in public education, Abramov contributed to the education of Ostyak and Samoyed children, who began to be accepted into the school under him. “Tenderness and simplicity of treatment of Nikolai Alekseevich, his special concern for children, the successes of his students visible to all and their good behavior were the reason for the multiplication of students at the Berezovsky School”, - writes one of his first biographers A. I. Sulotsky.

In 1849 Nikolai Abramov transferred to the position of superintendent of the school in Yalutorovsk, and from 1851 to 1853 he served as a caretaker in Tyumen. On the initiative of Abramov, a women's school was opened in Tyumen - one of the first in Siberia. For his pedagogical activity, he was awarded the gratitude of the Minister of Public Education several times. Moving to the civil department, from 1853 to 1854 he served in Omsk as a clerk in the Main Directorate of Western Siberia. From October 1854 he became an adviser to the regional government in Semipalatinsk. Here his scientific activity continued for another 15 and a half years.

For cooperation with the Russian Geographical and Russian Archaeological Societies in 1848 Nikolai Abramov was elected a member of these societies and in 1858 their full member. Abramov’s scientific works were awarded medals of the Russian Geographical and Russian Archaeological Societies. 

The list of publications by Abramov includes about a hundred works. He published works in the Journal of the Ministry of Public Education, Notes of the Russian Geographical Society, Izvestia of the Imperial Archaeological Society, the Wanderer magazine, and the Tobolsk Gubernskiye Vedomosti. N. A. Abramov’s essays (“Description of the Berezovsky Territory”, “On Ancient Seals and Emblems of Siberian Cities”, “Tyumen City”, “Semipalatinsk City” and others) are characterized by synthetic character, a pronounced personal attitude to the history and current state of the region, publicistic emotionality of style combined with documentary and rich statistical data.

Nikolai Abramov died on May 3 (15), 1870 in Semipalatinsk, where he was buried. His activities are marked by numerous distinctions, including the orders of Stanislav III and II degree, St. Anna III and II degree, St. Vladimir IV degree.

Contemporaries found Abramov an unusually hardworking and very modest person: “If he happened to be in society at times in a circle of well-known people, he was usually quiet, friendly and harmless to those around him, joking”. Nikolai Abramov lived on a small salary, almost never received payment for his research and articles, but he always helped his old mother, two sisters and orphans.

Lit.: Беспалова Л. Г. Живое прошлое: писатели XIX века о Тюмени. Свердловск, 1987. С. 30–55; Беспалова Л. Г. Исследователь Сибири // Мое достояние. Тюмень 425 / глав. ред. Н. А. Завитневич. Тюмень, 2011. С. 100–101; В помощь краеведу: материалы к календарю знаменательных и памятных дат Тюменской области на 2007 г. Тюмень, 2006. С. 50–53; Менщиков В. Творчество Николая Абрамова // Тобольск и вся Сибирь: альманах. Книга 23: Курган. Тобольск, 2014. С. 213–215; Митрофанов В. В. Просветительская и краеведческая деятельность Н. А. Абрамова в Берёзовском крае // Очерки по истории Тобольска, Берёзова и Сургута в XIX веке: монография. Екатеринбург, 2016. С. 82–92; Огрызко В. В. Отечественные исследователи коренных малочисленных народов Севера и Дальнего Востока: биобиблиографический словарь. М., 2013. С. 6–7; Петухов Ф. Николай Алексеевич Абрамов // Абрамов Н. А. Город Тюмень: из истории Тобольской епархии. Тюмень, 1998. С. 4–46; Решетов А. М. Н. А. Абрамов – известный исследователь Западной Сибири // Словцовские чтения–99: тезисы докладов и сообщений научно-практической конференции. Тюмень, 1999. С. 258–261; Рогачёва Н. А. Абрамов Николай Алексеевич // Большая Тюменская энциклопедия. Т. 1: А–З. Тюмень, 2004. С. 49–50; Сулоцкий А. Биография Николая Алексеевича Абрамова. Иркутск, 1874. 60 с. (Извлечено из «Иркутских епархиальных ведомостей», 1974. №8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20); Тобольский биографический словарь / авторы-составители: В. Ю. Софронов, Ю. П. Прибыльский. Екатеринбург, 2004. С. 8–12; Тобольский краевед Н. А. Абрамов и Русское географическое общество // Труды Тобольской комплексной научной станции УрО РАН: тематический сборник научных трудов. Выпуск 4: Исторические науки. Тобольск, 2014. С. 86–99.

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

Абрамов Н. А. О введении христианства у берёзовских остяков. [Тобольск], [1852];

Абрамов Н. А. Описание Берёзовского края. [Тобольск], [1857];

Абрамов Н. Сведение о чудотворной иконе Божией Матери Семипалатинской. Тобольск, 1859;

Абрамов Н. А. Ермак, покоритель Сибири, 1581-1584 г. [М., 1867];

Абрамов Н. А. Евлампий, архиепископ Тобольский и Сибирский, 1852–1856 гг. [СПб.], 1869 (доступно в ЭЧЗ);

Абрамов Н. А. Святитель Филофей, в схиме Феодор, просветитель сибирских инородцев. [Омск], 1882;

Абрамов Н. А. Тюменский Троицкий монастырь. Тюмень, 1902;

Петухов Фил. (Сулоцкий А.) Николай Алексеевич Абрамов. Б. м., [19--].

Based on the materials from the Tyumen branch of the Presidential Library