Historian Alexei Mosin refused to be Yavlinsky's confidant. We're all gatherers

The famous Ural historian Alexey Mosin does not agree with the said patriotism carried out by our officials. For many years he has been studying family history and is sure: there is nothing more patriotic than knowledge and love for one’s homeland and one’s ancestors.

Each of us is the result of the life of our ancestors

Alexey Gennadievich, for many of us, ancestral history is a concept, if not new, then not very clear. How important is it to know your family history?

- First of all, the study of ancestral history is important in itself, because ancestral history is our memory of our ancestors. By learning who they were, where and when they lived, we learn something new about ourselves. Our fellow countryman Mamin-Sibiryak swami said that in some sense, each of us is the result of the lives of all our ancestors. As a rule, today we either know nothing or know offensively little. Knowing the history of our ancestors helps us have a different attitude towards history in general, about big history. And this is the second important aspect of studying tribal history.

- From the private to the general?

- Yes, history ceases to be something abstract, it becomes humanized. Some of our ancestors participated in large construction projects of the first five-year plans, were participants in the war, or participated in the construction of the first Ural factories. The archives store many recorded pages from the life of our family.

- So archives are the place to start studying the history of your ancestry?

- No. You need to start with your family - interview your loved ones: the more information you can collect within the family, the easier it will be to search the archives. Perhaps some records, documents, award certificates, letters from family members to each other, letters from the front, old photographs have been preserved. All this needs to be organized and recorded. Build a primitive pedigree chart, and then go to the archive.

- And which documents should you apply for?

- In the pre-revolutionary era, there were two main groups of population registration documents - church and civil records. The church kept metric records. When a person was born and died, entries were made in the metric books.

- Are they really preserved?

- Preserved. Another thing is that the degree of preservation is different. There were wars and revolutions. The end of the 20s of the 20th century is remembered for the famous waste paper campaign, when everything that was needed and not needed was carried in waste paper.

There are 500 names in our tree

- To find information about your ancestors, you need to be a pathfinder to some extent...

- We must be a caring person, show interest in who, what surrounds us, what happened before us. Pushkin said that, unfortunately, we are lazy and indifferent. So, we all need to know this laziness and lack of curiosity and overcome it.

My dream is this: one day, in every home, in every family, there will be a family tree hanging on the wall. I drew such a family tree for my son. There are about 500 names of his ancestors!

- How long does it take to make such a branchy tree?

- It varies, sometimes it takes many years, but in other cases the information is given quite easily.

- And how are you?

- On my father’s side, our ancestors are from the Urals, but they lived in different villages and villages. And according to my mother’s, they are Volga relatives, and one branch separates and goes to the Smolensk province. Another one - to Vladimirskaya.

- Did you have to travel all over Russia collecting information?

- It’s very interesting to go to where your ancestors lived. When my son turned 10 years old, we went together to the village of Mosino - the homeland of our ancestors. It was founded at the end of the 17th century by our distant relative Moisei Sergeevich; there were no surnames then. And from the name Moses the name of the village Mosino and the surname Mosin were formed. It was important for me to see for myself and for my son to see: our ancestors lived here, their houses stood here. They showed me one field that is still called Ustinov’s. My great-grandfather Ustin Mikhailovich Mosin plowed it.

- Knowing the history of your family, do you begin to have a different attitude towards the place where you live?

- It's starting to matter. You don't have to be a rootless person. The twentieth century mixed everything up and tore people from their homes. A person often becomes helpless when he loses connection - he has nothing to rely on. When you have 300-400 years of your ancestral history behind you, you understand that you are continuing the life of your ancestors. A sense of responsibility appears - so many people lived before you so that you could appear.

We're all gatherers

- Alexey Gennadievich, you are the author of several books. Which ones are most important to you?

- Probably, these are “Ural surnames”, “Historical roots of Ural surnames”, the dictionary “Ural historical onomasticon”. The textbook for schoolchildren “My Family in History” is very important to me. You have to deal with the little ones while their eyes are burning, then it will be difficult to reach them.

- What is the position of the authorities?

- I am afraid that the program for the development of patriotism, which the authorities are trying to implement today, will again go in the wrong direction - towards the development of official patriotism. And what could be more patriotic than knowledge and love for one’s homeland, one’s ancestors!

- Your friends call you the Ural Dal...

- (Smiles.) Maybe there is something in common... Vladimir Dal is one of my favorite Russian people of the 19th century, along with Alexander Pushkin and Pavel Tretyakov. They are all from the breed of gatherers. It is very important to collect what we have wasted, confused, what can be forgotten. Collect your story. Dahl collected words, Tretyakov collected paintings, and then they made their collections publicly available. If I have done something that is perceived with gratitude by my fellow countrymen, well, thank God!

There is nothing more interesting than getting information from archives! What's it like to jump with a parachute from a height of 10 km... You come to the archive, they bring you things, you open it and find your ancestors who lived 200-300 years ago. That's where the adrenaline is!

Dossier:

Alexey Gennadievich Mosin Graduated from the Faculty of History of Ural State University in 1981. Teacher at UrFU. Doctor of Historical Sciences. Author of books and the program “Ancestral Memory”.

The range of scientific interests of the Yekaterinburg historian Alexei Mosin is wide: archeography, the history of the Urals and Ural families, the Demidov family... In the early nineties, he began to study his ancestry and was amazed at how much information in the archive about his ancestors - simple Ural peasants. He wanted to help his fellow countrymen, who also wanted to know more about their roots, and he developed the “Ancestral Memory” program, wrote many articles and even books on this topic. Alexey Gennadievich Mosin spoke about what he owes to his artist father, about his childhood and his own parental experience, family traditions and interest in genealogy.

born on April 28, 1957 in Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod) in the family of the Ural artist Gennady Mosin. Soon the family returned to their father's homeland.

In 1981 he graduated from the Faculty of History of the Ural State University with a degree in historical and archival studies. Defended his Ph.D. thesis (1986) on the topic “Book culture and handwritten tradition of Russian
population of the Vyatka region (XVII - mid-XIX centuries)", doctoral dissertation (2002) - on the topic "Historical roots of Ural surnames: experiencehistorical and anthroponymic research."

Professor of the Department of Russian History at Ural State University (Ural Federal University). Head of the Department of History and Vice-Rector for Research at the Missionary Institute.

Chairman of the Ural Branch of the Archaeographic Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences (since 2003). Laureate of the All-Russian Literary Prize named after. P. P. Bazhov for the book “The Demidov Family” (2013).

Married since 1983, has a son and two grandchildren.

About family history, choice of profession and the journey of an old coin

— Alexey Gennadievich, your father was an artist, and you went into science.

- Maybe this is a calling. Children of artists often follow in the footsteps of their parents, and my younger brother Vanya also became an artist. This is natural - when you are brought up in the family of an artist, you become involved in this from a young age. I had an interest in drawing—I was best at copying portraits of great people from books. When I was in the 10th grade, Vanya was in the 8th grade and was preparing to enter art school, and my dad suggested to me: “You also come to my studio, I will make productions.” Vanya and I drew together, dad thought I was good at it, but still I made a choice in favor of the university, entered the history department, and, very importantly, dad supported me. Said: “That's right! I see that you have serious interest. You will be a historian."

Fragment of the documentary film by Gennady Shevarov “Alexey, son of Gennady”, 2008.

— Did your interest come from history lessons?

— No, I hardly remembered my school history lessons. Dad was always interested in history and painted many paintings on historical themes. And when I was about 8 years old, my parents and I were vacationing on the Volga, we were going to go on a motorboat to the other side, my dad and mom were preparing the boat, checking the engine, and meanwhile Vanya and I were walking along the shore and began to “bake pancakes” - throwing them into the water flat pebbles. I picked up another pebble from the ground and saw that it was not a pebble, but metal. I rubbed it with my hand and something sparkled there. Dad came up and looked: “Oh, this is an old coin!” It turned out that it was two kopecks from 1812. I still think: if these two kopecks were not from 1812, but from 1813 or 1811, would it have made such an impression on me? And then dad immediately started talking about 1812.

Then it turned out that this coin was minted in our city, Yekaterinburg. There was a mint here that supplied the whole country with coins. This coin was born in our city, then was in circulation, somehow ended up in the Volga, the Volga washed it in Vasilsursk, and I, an eight-year-old boy, found it on the shore and brought it back to our city! She made such a journey in time and space!

In Vasilsursk we lived with my grandfather, and it turned out that he had a collection of coins. In his youth, he was a party worker and was so passionate about this work that by the age of 32 he practically became disabled; doctors strongly recommended that he leave the city for nature. In 1935, immediately after the birth of his daughter, my mother, he left for the village of Vasilsursk - a picturesque place where the Sura flows into the Volga. (This place has always attracted artists; Levitan painted there!). I think this saved my grandfather, because in 1937 most of those with whom he worked were destroyed, and they somehow forgot about him, since he was no longer employed.

In Vasilsursk, grandfather became interested in local history, led excursions for vacationers - there were several rest houses and sanatoriums there - and friends and acquaintances, knowing about his hobby, when they found something, brought it to him. So he collected a collection of coins, it even included coins from the 17th century, then he gave this collection to me. This greatly contributed to the development of interest in history.

— How did your parents meet?

— Dad studied at the Academy of Arts, after the second year they were sent to the open air for practice, and one of the Academy’s bases was in Vasilsursk - I already told you that artists loved this place. Dad’s classmate from Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod was then called Gorky) knew what a wonderful place it was, so he asked to practice there and persuaded dad. He said: “Let’s go, Gena, you won’t regret it. What kind of fishing is there!” And dad went, met my mother there, she was finishing school, they immediately liked each other, and the very next year dad himself asked for an internship in Vasilsursk. They got married in 1955, when dad was still studying in Leningrad, and mom was in Gorky, at the pedagogical institute, went back and forth, I was born in Gorky, when my mother was finishing college, then they went to my dad’s mother in Berezovsky (a city 12 kilometers from Yekaterinburg), and only in 1960 did dad get an apartment in Sverdlovsk.

When he graduated from the Academy, his teacher, Viktor Mikhailovich Oreshnikov (a wonderful person and artist), invited him to stay in Leningrad. He said that they couldn’t give me an apartment yet, but they would set me up in a hostel, and dad could work in his, Oreshnikov’s, workshop. Dad thanked me, but refused, explaining that he wanted to live and work in his homeland, in the Urals. And he left!

— How much time did he spend with you? On the one hand, the artist does not have to go to work, on the other hand, the creative work of some people is so absorbing that they no longer have enough time for anything else: neither for rest, nor for family.

- This is not about dad. He always worked hard and enthusiastically, but was a very homely person, a family man.

He himself grew up without a father - his mother left her husband before his father was born, lived for some time with her parents in the village of Kamenoye Ozero (now the village of Kamennoozerskoye, Bogdanovichsky district, Sverdlovsk region), and then they were dispossessed, and when dad was only a year old , she went with him to Berezovsky. He grew up there, at the age of 16 he entered the art school in Sverdlovsk, every day he walked ten kilometers there and ten back - through the forest, and it was post-war, deserters met (deserters killed one of my father’s comrades for a loaf of bread, which he was carrying to his mine father).

Dad knew from childhood that he wanted to become an artist, and he worked towards this goal, although almost no one close to him took his hobby seriously. My mother, my grandmother, dreamed that he would become an engineer; when he said that he would be an artist, my mother’s relatives and friends laughed: what kind of profession is this? Here is an engineer - it’s clear: a respected person. Only one aunt, Aunt Anya, supported him, said: “Draw, Gena,” all the time giving him sets of colored pencils and albums. Dad remembered her with gratitude until the end of his life.

Dad was the only breadwinner - mom didn’t work... More precisely, she didn’t earn money. I don't remember my mother sitting idle. She washed, cooked, sewed, and devoted all her free time from household chores to my brother and me: she read aloud to us, took us somewhere. This is a lot of work! And dad himself said more than once that only thanks to his mom he has the opportunity to focus on creativity. And thanks to the fact that my mother did not work, we did not go to a nursery or kindergarten. We had enough communication with our peers - we walked a lot in the yard, but lived at home.

— Was it really possible for an artist to feed his family at that time?

“We have never lived in luxury, and there have been very difficult periods financially. Now there may be different customers, but then there was only one customer: the state. If the state did not want to commission an artist to work, it actually doomed him to hunger and poverty. The Soviet state considered it necessary to control everyone, especially creative people, but dad was a man of principle, he made decisions himself, acted as he saw fit, and this sometimes backfired on him.

For example, their joint film with Misha Shaevich Brusilovsky, “1918,” caused a storm of indignation. No one had painted Lenin like this before; in all Soviet paintings he was depicted as so domestic, with a kind squint, but here it is clear that he is a tough dictator speaking in front of an impersonal mass of soldiers. Neither dad nor Misha Shaevich were dissidents, they were typical sixties, and, like almost all intellectuals of that time, they believed in “the most humane person”, in the need to return to Leninist norms. But as realists - what they did was called the “severe style” - they portrayed the leader in such a way that many were indignant. The authorities came from Moscow and discussed whether it was even possible to exhibit such a picture, then there were various articles, including abusive ones.

G. Mosin, M. Brusilovsky. "1918"

But they never let my dad’s painting “Political” pass through and didn’t pay my dad anything for it; for 15 years it hung in the studio behind a curtain. When friends came, dad pulled back the curtain. This picture made a great impression on everyone.

G. Mosin. "Political". Photo: Ekaterina Permyakova

Dad was not a court artist; he literally earned his bread by the sweat of his brow.

— But did you find time for your family and children?

— He spent all his free time with his family. We had the opportunity to observe how he worked and how he interacted with people. He raised us not with lectures, but with example. He knew how to do a lot with his hands, in this sense I am not at all like him, as my wife says, everything falls out of my hands, but my dad had a peasant’s grasp: if he took on something, he mastered it. He could fix and make a lot, loved to work on the land, was a passionate fisherman and hunter. I will never forget how my whole family caught sabrefish on the Volga. We vacationed there with our parents for many years in a row; we never went to pioneer camps.

Vanya and I spent a lot of time in his workshop - dad never drove us, and sometimes he called us himself. Since childhood, we understood that this was the place where dad worked, we did not interfere with him, but watched how he worked and studied.

There were often guests at home. When an exhibition opened (collective or someone's personal), after the opening the artists traditionally went to the Mosins, my mother baked pies, a table was set in a large room - about 30 people gathered. They sang songs and discussed something. We were never sent to another room, we always sat at a common table, listened to the conversations of adults, it was interesting to us. Many of the parents were family friends. For example, with Gennady Kalinin. An engineer, he became seriously interested in painting, became an amateur artist, painted a lot of sketches in his spare time, and sometimes our families went out into nature together.

In general, most of all we loved to go out into nature. When my dad was registering an object at a motorcycle factory in Irbit, the director of the plant allowed him to buy a motorcycle there (at that time you couldn’t just buy a car or a motorcycle; people stood in line for years). Dad bought a Ural motorcycle with a sidecar, and we rode it around the entire suburb of Sverdlovsk, and went further.

G. Mosin. "On Chusovaya"

I have already said that when we were little, my mother read aloud to us, by the age of three I had learned a lot by heart and sometimes staged mini-performances: I took a book, moved it along the lines and read aloud, and when I reached the end of the page, I turned it over and continued reading. If anyone didn’t know, he was under the impression that a three-year-old child could read. Well, at the age of five I was already really reading and teaching my brother, he learned to read even earlier, at four and a half years old. Everyone in the family loved to read, discussed what they read, and shared their impressions.

Our parents also loved music very much and instilled this love in us. Dad played the balalaika, guitar, and harmonica. In the sixties, there was an amazing creative atmosphere in Sverdlovsk; a community of creative people, not only artists, emerged. In those years, Anatoly Solonitsyn and Gleb Panfilov lived and worked here. An exhibition opens - everyone goes to the exhibition, the premiere of a film or play - everyone goes to the cinema or theater, a concert - everyone goes to the concert. It enriched us all. Not only the concerts and exhibitions themselves, but, no less important, informal communication. Already in the nineties I met Panfilov in St. Petersburg. With what delight he recalled that time!

- Your father died early.

— Yes, at the age of 52, in December 1982. The diagnosis was made in 1981 by his friend Mark Ryzhkov, pathologist, poet and translator of Armenian poetry. I even drew and showed him where the tumor was: where the esophagus connects to the stomach. Very severe cancer. Dad was just then preparing the first personal exhibition in his life. “Mark, how much time are you giving me?” - he asked. “I guarantee you three months,” Mark answered. “Okay,” said dad, “I’ll have time to make an exhibition.” He lived for another year and three months, managed to make two exhibitions: in November 1981 in Sverdlovsk, and in January 1982 in Moscow, in the exhibition hall on Tverskaya (then Gorky Street). Both were a great success.

G. Mosin. "Self-portrait". 1972

— Did his friends take care of you after he left?

“We still communicate, but when dad died, I was already old enough, independent, and didn’t need care. Vanya too. They always looked after my mother, she never felt abandoned. She is now 81 years old. Dad's closest friends - Vitaly Mikhailovich Volovich, Misha Shaevich Brusilovsky - are also alive: Vitaly Mikhailovich is 88 years old, Misha Shaevich is 85. When Brusilovsky sold several of his works, he used the money he received to publish Dad's album.

“Following my father’s example, I tried to spend time with my family”

— Did you get married after your father’s death?

- Yes, but I managed to introduce Lena to dad, and he approved of my choice.

— How did you and your wife meet?

— In my fifth year, I decided that I had learned everything and I no longer needed university, why not quit? This happens to undergrads. Stopped going to classes. Visiting was already free, but I completely abandoned my studies. My supervisor, Rudolf Germanovich Pihoya (later, in the 90s, he was the chief archivist of Russia), acted wisely: he neither scolded nor dissuaded, but advised me to take an academic leave. He said: “Work for a year, and if you decide to recover, you will have this opportunity. If you don’t want to, it’s your choice.”

I actually completed my academic degree and worked for a year in an archaeographic research laboratory. There, among other things, I was instructed to attract young people to archaeographic expeditions, so I went to my native history department to see the first-year students, got to know them, and 22 people became interested and came to us. Lena was among them. In the winter we took them out for reconnaissance, and in the summer there was a large expedition. In 1983 we got married, and in 1984 our son Mitya was born. I was already working then, and Lena was finishing university. Then she was assigned to the plant, in the technical documentation department, and she still works there, for more than thirty years.

— Did you have time to take care of your son?

— Of course, following the example of my dad, I tried, as much as work allowed, to spend as much time as possible with my family. Back in 1973, dad bought a house in the village of Volyn (near Staroutkinsk), and we still spend maximum time there in the summer. Our son grew up there, and now they are bringing our grandchildren there – the eldest, Vanya, is five years old, Yaroslav is one year and four months old. You could say this is our family estate.

We went on hikes in the forest, to Chusovaya, and my brother and his family often joined us. Our Mitya and his son Vanya are the same age, until the age of 13 they spent a lot of time together, then his brother and his family moved to St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, my brother Vanya’s life turned out to be even shorter than my father’s: 47 years. In 2007, his heart stopped. In a dream.

Alexey Mosin against the background of the Mosin stone on the Chusovaya River

As for my son’s choice, I didn’t even try to influence him. I realized that he was completely different. All people are different, and while I have always been more interested in the humanities, Mitya is a techie. Moreover, he is a practical person - he has never had much interest in studying, including the exact sciences, but he, like his grandfather, knows a lot and loves to do things with his hands. He is also good with computers. Now he works as a systems engineer in a large company.

Mitya did not become a bookish person like Lena and I. He reads, of course, but not as much as we might like. Now I’m studying with my grandchildren, I hope they will love the book. Vanya already knows all the letters, reads many of the words, but he’s too lazy to read books himself; he likes it better when they read aloud to him. But this winter I still plan to teach him to read. And he helps me in the garden. In general, now the happiest moments for me are those that I spend with my grandchildren.

Alexey Mosin with his grandson Yaroslav

Alexey Mosin with his grandson Vanya

“Ancestral memory”: bringing knowledge closer to people

— I know that you study the history of your family, although this is not your main topic.

— It’s hard for me to say what my main topic is, because if I take on something new, I dive into it headlong. At the same time, I am studying family history, Ural surnames, the history of the Demidov family, the history of the Urals, numismatics, and the history of the Old Believers.

I was amazingly lucky with my studies. As soon as my first year classes began, I got involved in an archaeological expedition - we were digging a Paleolithic site in the Tomsk region. I didn’t become an archaeologist, but I joined an archaeographic circle. Rudolf Germanovich Pihoya gave us lectures on archeography; he also led the study group. Archaeographers are searching for ancient books - handwritten, first printed - and most of these books were preserved by the Old Believers. I went on archaeographic expeditions for 18 years: to the Kirov region, to Perm, to Chelyabinsk, to Kurgan, to Bashkiria. Already in my third year I was the head of the detachment. This is a huge responsibility, but also a wonderful life school!

On expeditions I discovered the wonderful world of Old Believers. In general, this was the first meeting with deeply religious people; I saw how faith influences a person’s entire life, down to the smallest everyday things. For example, before picking up a book, you need to wash your hands. They taught us how to leaf through a book correctly: carefully take a leaf from the top and turn it over.

It was interesting for us with them, and for them with us, because the youth there were completely different - we more than once observed how young people disrespected the elderly: not only towards their faith, but also simply at the everyday level. And when these old people saw our genuine interest in them, many opened up and were frank. You talk to your grandmother, and she tells you her whole life: there was collectivization - everything was taken away, then the war, five sons went to the front, only one returned, she worked all her life on a collective farm, and the pension... I saw old women, one of whom had a pension 16 rubles, and the other one has 10! And what is most surprising is that they did not grumble or complain, but simply told how it was and is.

Close, trusting relationships did not always develop immediately. It happened that we knocked on the door, someone came to us, we introduced ourselves, but they didn’t invite us into the house - we sat down on the nearest bench or rubble, asked, they answered us, and parted. And a year later, in the same house, they greet you like good old acquaintances, take you to the hut, and give you tea. Not everyone, some kept their distance, and with some they developed relationships like grandchildren and grandparents.

Some even came to visit us: they bought books and asked to help resolve some disputes. They sometimes had disputes among themselves that they themselves could not resolve, and they turned to us as arbiters.

— How did your interest in Christianity begin?

- Serious - yes. But I was baptized only in 2004, when I felt that I was internally completely ready for it. I was used to taking everything seriously, so I didn’t consider it possible to simply be baptized for company.

— When did you become interested in the history of your family?

— The beginning was made in my student years, but this is the seed that did not germinate immediately. I was with my grandmother Ekaterina Fedorovna, my father’s mother, in Berezovsky, we got into a conversation, and she began to tell me where the family used to live, who’s name was, it seemed interesting to me, I took a piece of paper, a pen, wrote something down and even drew it her story has a small family tree. I arrived home, put the piece of paper in the desk drawer, and it lay there for about 10 years, and then, as often happens, I decided to put things in order, shook everything out of the drawers and saw this piece of paper. I felt ashamed that I, a historian, already a candidate of sciences, still know nothing about my ancestors. I took this piece of paper, made a plan of what I should roughly find out, went to the archive and was amazed - I couldn’t even imagine how much information about our past was stored there! I found out my ancestry through some branches before the 16th century. I found a record of my grandmother’s birth in the birth register - she was no longer alive, she passed away soon after my dad, in July 1983 - and found out that we always congratulated her on her birthday incorrectly. She said that her parents always congratulated her on St. Catherine - December 7 - then my parents finally found out from her when she was born, and we also began to congratulate her on November 4, but in the birth register I read that she was born on 4 November according to the Julian calendar. So, it was necessary to congratulate November 17th.

I, by that time already a fairly experienced source scholar, had no idea how much you could learn about ordinary peasants who lived in the 18th-19th centuries from archival documents. But I have a tool in my hands - I can easily read texts of the 17th, 18th, 19th centuries, because at the university we had the basics of paleography, and archaeographic practice gave me a lot - and most people who would also like to know the history of their family, in in this sense, unarmed. And I decided that I needed to somehow bring this knowledge closer to people. In 1995 he developed the “Ancestral Memory” program. Since then, he has published a lot on this topic and books have been published; the Ural Genealogical Society and the Ural Historical and Genealogical Society were created. There are hundreds of people, we hold conferences every year.

— Is your son somehow involved in this?

- No conferences, but he, of course, knows the history of our family. Back in 1994, during one of our hikes in the Urals, he and I went to the village of Mosino. This village was founded at the end of the 17th century by our ancestor Moses Sergeev, a Pinega peasant. He moved from Pinega to the Urals in 1645 or 1646. Our surname came from him.

We took the train to Kamensk-Uralsky, and from there by bus. My father’s cousin and cousin were still alive; they remembered Grandma Katya, who lived with them at one time when she was married to her grandfather. I managed to write down their memories, took photographs of them, and Viktor Konstantinovich Mosin, my father’s cousin, even remembered that somewhere there was an accordion of Uncle Sidor, my grandfather. It turns out he was an accordion player! They rushed to look, but, alas, did not find it.

— Do you teach this to students?

— One of the courses that I teach both at the Ural Federal University and at the Missionary Institute (it opened 8 years ago on the basis of diocesan missionary courses) is the theory and practice of genealogy. At the Missionary Institute, most of the students are adults, some are even very elderly, up to 75 years old, almost all receive a second degree. People who are successful in their professions: there are artists, actors, there are candidates and doctors of science. There are priests and even two nuns. Well, at the university, most of the students are yesterday’s schoolchildren, and if previously I taught only at my native history department, this year they decided to increase my workload and added hours at the philosophy and even chemistry departments.

Moreover, I taught 6 classes on genealogy at the gymnasium and gave all the gymnasium students a certificate that they had attended Professor Mosin’s course and signed it. Who knows, maybe they will need this in the future. Now everyone requires a portfolio.

— Is this interesting for young people?

— I give a minimum of theory on genealogy, the main thing in these classes is practice. To begin with, everyone must record the living memory of the family: ask the elders, what can be written down! And then, I say, I will teach you how to fill out a genealogical passport, we will make a list of the family by generation, both ascending and descending genealogy. Or rather, they do it themselves, I just help them - using material from my family, I show them how it’s done. They come to the test with their works. If necessary, I correct something, give them a pass, and leave it all to them.

Of course, people are all different. For some, this is just one of the subjects, maybe not the most interesting, but still, if a person wants to study and graduate from university, he will do this work conscientiously. Let him not do this later, but his achievements will remain in the family, and maybe in 10-20-30 years he himself, or his children, or grandchildren will become interested.

And many get carried away and continue the search on their own. And they come to my house and tell me how the work is going, and we meet with them at conferences. One of my former students recently boasted that he had already dug up his genealogy to the tenth generation.

“It’s all wonderful when family traditions are not interrupted.” And when parents or grandparents grew up in an orphanage, because their parents were repressed, and even their first, patronymic, and last names were changed in the orphanage, it is difficult to find out your ancestry.

- Of course, in this case it is very difficult, but it is still possible to find clues and collect at least some information. The main thing is to have the desire and not give up.

The famous Ural historian Alexei Mosin refused the status of a confidant of Russian presidential candidate Grigory Yavlinsky. About this Mosin wrote on his Facebook. He also called on the leader of Yabloko to refuse to participate in the election campaign. His address is given below in its entirety.

An open letter to candidate for President of the Russian Federation G.A. Yavlinsky

Dear Grigory Alekseevich! I am addressing you as your proxy in the ongoing election campaign and as your voter. Last December, at a meeting with you in Yekaterinburg, I agreed to be your proxy in the upcoming presidential elections in Russia. For me, such a decision was completely natural: I share your beliefs and support your program for improving all spheres of life of society and the state, for many years I voted in elections at various levels for the Yabloko party and for you personally, and in the 2016 elections I was a confidant of the party "Yabloko" and an observer from it at their polling station.

But that was two and a half months ago. There are three weeks left until March 18, and I cannot assess what is happening in our country as fair, legitimate, democratic elections. The entire power of the state machine, including television, the courts and even the Central Election Commission, is working to create comfortable conditions for the “main candidate.” The litmus test for the lawlessness that is being committed, which is countless, is the persecution of Alexei Navalny and the head of his election headquarters, Leonid Volkov, as well as the inadvertent publication of data on the voting process in the Tula region more than three weeks (!) before the opening of polling stations. Grigory Alekseevich, is this really possible within the framework of fair elections?

Having carefully observed what is happening, I regret to inform you, Grigory Alekseevich, that I cannot continue to represent you as a candidate for the presidency of Russia, since I no longer have any reason to call the ongoing campaign a presidential election. We are dealing with the reappointment of the current head of state for a new six-year term in conditions where the Constitution, trampled by the authorities, is unable to protect our civil rights. I thank you for the trust you have placed in me, but I am forced to resign as your trustee.

There is a good rule of life that I (like you, I hope) try to follow: do not participate in lies and violence. It’s a shame to pretend that nothing special happens when we are drawn into the schemes of the Kremlin’s thimblemakers. After losing the Battle of Pavia, the French king Francis I wrote in a letter to his mother: “Everything is lost except honor.” It is important to always retain the opportunity to say this about yourself. It seems to me that we have reached a point where this becomes relevant. Whether we will be completely honest with ourselves and those who trust us depends only on us.

Grigory Alekseevich, you have always been a person capable of performing civic actions. Take courage and refuse to further participate in something “that cannot be tolerated without meanness.” Don't take your eyes off those who look at you, who trust you. Tell the truth about what we still call “Russian presidential elections.” Don't be afraid, it's not scary. It is easy and pleasant to speak the truth. Another thing is scary: doing something that you are not convinced is correct. Sooner or later you have to answer for this to the fullest extent of the moral law.

With respect to you,
Mosin Alexey Gennadievich, historian, Ekaterinburg
February 25, 2018