People of the Russian province

Bogorodsk is a small provincial town. All the more amazing to learn about its history and residents, once known throughout the country.

Meeting at the museum. With a bust, the caption on which amazes: "The famous self-taught astronomer K.I. Kaplin-Tesikov". The inscription called for a search, you do not often find mention of peasant astronomers!

Konstantin Ivanovich Kaplin-Tesikov (1835-1900) was born on September 18, 1835 in a poor family of a mitten. As a child, he went around the village with a bag, begging for alms. At the age of eight, he studied literacy from a church deacon, and then mastered fractions, algebra and trigonometry from other people's textbooks. He wrote poetry and drew. The young poet knew all the village of Bogorodskoye, many read his poems by heart. The landowner Sergey Vasilyevich Sheremetev was surprised, wanted to send him to study, but then simply appointed him a scribe. Konstantin Ivanovich began to secretly read books and newspapers coming to Sheremetyevo by mail. He studied French to read books on mathematics and astronomy.

After the abolition of serfdom, a 25-year-old peasant rushes into science, reading everything he can get. From Paris, he writes the Monthly Astronomical Survey, studies higher mathematics and still produces astronomical observations and calculations on the movement of celestial bodies without a telescope. These calculations he sends to the International Astronomical Committee in Paris, after which begins his correspondence with the famous astronomer of the time Camille Flammarion.

He observes the celestial bodies in the small observatory he built behind his garden, in a field near the cemetery, introduces fellow villagers to science, and even invites him to look through a telescope at the starry sky. In the 90s of the 19th century, Konstantin Ivanovich wrote in French (!!!) “A Short Course in Astronomy” (“Astronomy for Amateurs”) and “Overview of the Geological History of the Earth” – books published in France and still not translated into Russian. It's in magazines. In 1910 he wrote about the publication “Russian nuggets in biographies and images”. Issue II. Scientists

A close friend of Konstantin Ivanovich F.A. Zheltov wrote: People of science were interested in the personality of the Bogorodsk nugget. A report was made about him at a meeting of the Astronomical Society in St. Petersburg, a member of this scientific collection Predtechensky made a trip to the village of Bogorodskoe to meet with K.I. Tezikov.

The writer L.N. Tolstoy spoke highly of the self-taught astronomer. (The writer even invited an interesting peasant to visit him) Maxim Gorky wrote about him: "...there is a great role in the village of such Kaplin-Tesikovs."

A peasant boy takes from his peasant neighbors textbooks on algebra, trigonometry, and astronomy. And they had them! And, therefore, he is not the first who in Bogorodsk looked at the stars.

The peasant, who makes a living sewing mittens, watches the stars and writes: The Nebula of Orion shakes every mind and unwittingly elevates the soul to God. And by his example, neighbors watch the stars and even start learning French. In God-forgotten Bogorodsk. Well, in God-saved Bogorodsk, as you prefer.

Are you still sure you know about the peasants and the Russian province? Come to Nizhny Novgorod, we will not tell you that. We'll show you!

And in the photo - a peasant astronomer Kaplin-Tesikov, a book about him and Bogorodsk, in the early 20th century and this summer.