Travels of the highest persons: local historian Evtykhy Voznesensky in Kostroma

The war with Napoleon was coming to an end, when the son Eutychios was born in the family of the local father, Peter's father. There, in the Transfiguration Church on stilts, he was most likely baptized. Then everything went according to the rules: theological school, seminary, theological academy. The parish was poor, and for the son of the priest, such education was free.

After graduating from the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Evtykhy Voznesensky in 1839 defended his thesis and received the degree of candidate of theology. What happened in the following years, we do not know, but in August 1848 he was appointed librarian and then priest of the Assumption Cathedral in Kostroma. And here his opportunities were used to the full. He became a member of the spiritual consistory, the teacher of theological seminary, and then the provincial gymnasium.

In 1849, Father Evtykhy was elected a full member and clerk of the Kostroma provincial statistical committee. In fact, he led the organization. The formal structure that existed was brought to life by his enthusiasm. Voznesensky developed a program of historical and statistical essays.

According to the plan of the compiler, the work should be attended not only by members of the Statistical Committee by post - officials who headed various departments and the leader of the nobility, but also simple Kostromich, not alien to research interests. For them in the Kostroma Provincial Gazette for 1856 published a special version of the program.

In an address to readers, Voznesensky expressed the hope that "enlightened assistance will be provided from persons of all estates inhabiting the Kostroma province and wishing to see a statistical description of their homeland, in accordance with modern requirements of statistics."

Hope was justified, many responded, including non-rekhchan Mikhail Diev. The Committee began to receive materials about the settlements of the Kostroma province. Some of them were published on the pages of provincial newspapers, others are still waiting for their time.

Voznesensky himself organized a whole expedition, collecting news of visits to the province by members of the ruling Imperial House of Romanov. He not only revealed documentary evidence, but also recorded eyewitnesses. He wrote the book “Memories of the travels of the highest persons, safely reigning Imperial House of Romanov, within the Kostroma province, in the XVII, XVIII and current centuries”.

The researcher was completing his extensive work “Historical and statistical description of the Kostroma province”, when he overtook a sudden illness. Five weeks in a nervous fever - and on April 23, 1857, his death interrupted his scientific works. The small scientific community of Kostroma suffered an irreparable loss. The manuscript has not yet been found, whether it has survived is unknown.

The book about the travels of the Romanovs in the Kostroma province Pavel Andronikov, a colleague and associate of Evtykhy Voznesensky, published two years after his death. During the years of perestroika, the book was reprinted by archivists, and some materials from it are used on author's excursions."Kostroma at 15:15.".

According to the materials of the scientific consultant of the project “Kostroma at 15:15” candidate of cultural studies Larisa Sizintseva.