Mikhail Znamensky
Mikhail Stepanovich Znamensky was a Russian writer, memoirist, painter, caricaturist, archeologist and ethnographer.
Znamensky, who knew many of the Decembrists personally through his father, protoiereus :ru:Знаменский, Стефан Яковлевич|Stepan Znamensky, is credited with having authored the first ever Russian novel on the Decemberists, The Vanished Men. Part two, Tobolsk of the Forties, was serialized by the newspaper Vostochnoye obozreniye. Part three, The Fifties in Tobolsk remained unfinished.
Znamensky left numerous drawings and paintings which include the portraits of the Decembrists he had known, as well as the illustrations to the works by Pyotr Yershov, Ivan Goncharov and Kondraty Ryleyev, among many others. Iskra published more than 300 of his caricatures, most of them depicting the life of Siberian provinces.
Znamensky left important memoirs on Pyotr Yershov, Matvey Muravyov-Apostol, Ivan Pushchin, Vasily Tisengausen and Ivan Yakushkin, and authored several ethnographical works, mostly on Tobolsk and its surroundings. Two streets, one in Tobolsk, another in Khanty-Mansiysk, bear his name.
