Kamensky District Museum of Local Lore

The history of the museum's creation in Kamen-na-Obi dates back to 1917. The idea of creating a museum was repeatedly discussed among the city's teachers and intelligentsia, but the "first stone" in its implementation was the discovery of fossilized animal bones in the Kamensky Uyezd. They were found in the area of the Allakskaya Suyeva (a tributary of the Ob), 10 km from Kamen, in the water, after the river became shallow. Two large cartloads, weighing about 1 ton, were brought in. The petrified exhibits were brought to the barn of one of the teachers, Lyapustin, and then handed over to the zemstvo administration, the department of public education. The museum corner was gradually replenished with other exhibits.

A small exhibition operated in this way until the beginning of 1919. At the same time, Mikhail Antonovich Krukovsky, a native of St. Petersburg, arrived in Kamen. He was appointed head of the zemstvo department of public education (under the White Guard government). Krukovsky did not stay in this position for long; he was soon appointed head of the 1st library in Kamen, and he immediately designated one of the rooms for a museum, taking the surviving exhibits of the museum corner under his supervision.

Krukovsky was a writer by education; he had written over 20 pre-revolutionary books. In April 1921, the museum moved from the library to another building, the house of the merchant Pudovkin, one of the best buildings in the city, where it occupied the second floor. But soon – in the winter of 1922 – the museum had to move again; it was given a room at the beginning of Lenin Street, behind the church, on the bank of the Ob. Before the revolution, this house belonged to the peasant chief Laptev; after his death, no heirs were found, and the estate was considered "escheated."

Krukovsky was very pleased with the new premises, as the museum was protected from fire by wild rocks on one side and the Ob River on the other. The museum, which had just begun to work, soon ceased its activities, as the premises were given over to military barracks. Krukovsky appealed to the highest authorities, and soon a telegram signed by Trotsky and Lunacharsky arrived in Kamen, demanding the return of the building to the museum. The building was returned, but already in a ruined state, requiring repairs. There were no materials, money, or manpower for this.

There were no other employees in the museum besides the director, who was a jack-of-all-trades. But, passionate about science, Krukovsky did not fit well into Soviet reality. Being non-partisan, he was subjected to constant attacks, accused of "academism," and expelled from the cultural and educational union. In 1927, Krukovsky resigned and moved to Tashkent. He was replaced by Pyotr Ivanovich Yukhnevich. He did not share the views of the "previous leadership."

With the beginning of his activity, expeditions were organized only to the nearby districts. In 1932, all non-local exhibits were removed from the exhibition, and the museum became a local one. In 1937, the museum moved again to the Pudovkin merchant's house. During the Great Patriotic War, almost all of the museum's collections were lost. The museum building was given to the agricultural institute evacuated from Voronezh, which, upon leaving Kamen in 1944, apparently took the herbariums, botanical, and zoological collections with it. After the war, out of more than 4,000 exhibits, only 47 survived!

After the war, the museum was allocated a new building at 59 Lenin St. In 1976, the museum moved to another building at 6 Kommunalny Lane. On November 3, 1987, the institution found a new address – 49 Lenin St. – the former trading and residential house of the merchant Vinokurov. More than 30 years have passed since the museum has been located in this majestic and beautiful building.