Background
Pyotr Nikolaevich Chermensky was born on October 13, 1884, in Chermny, Tambovskaya oblast, Russian Federation. His father, Nikolai Andreyevich was an honorary citizen and psalmist. Pyotr was the youngest, fifth child in the family.
Pyotr Nikolaevich Chermensky
the Saint Petersburg Imperial Institute of History and Philology
the Tambov Theological Seminary
Order of Saint Stanislaus (House of Romanov)
Order of Saint Anna
the Tambov Theological Seminary
the Saint Petersburg Imperial Institute of History and Philology
Order of Saint Stanislaus (House of Romanov)
Order of Saint Anna
archaeologist historian local historian
Pyotr Nikolaevich Chermensky was born on October 13, 1884, in Chermny, Tambovskaya oblast, Russian Federation. His father, Nikolai Andreyevich was an honorary citizen and psalmist. Pyotr was the youngest, fifth child in the family.
A 9-year-old boy, Pyotr Nikolaevich entered the Shatsk Theological School, where teachers not only taught how much they tormented them with punishment. The eternally hungry young Pyotr studied perfectly and found consolation in reading.
In 1898 Pyotr Nikolaevich entered the Tambov Theological Seminary. In February 1902, a riot broke out in the seminary: with glass breaking and furniture crushing. The seminary was temporarily closed, 50 students were expelled and 150 were left in the second year. Pyotr Nikolaevich was not among the punished, but he did not begin to study at the seminary.
In the summer of 1903, Pyotr Nikolaevich entered the Borisoglebsk gymnasium, which he graduated in 1905 with a gold medal. On the recommendation of teachers, he continued his education at the Faculty of History of the Saint Petersburg Imperial Institute of History and Philology. In the third year of the institute, Pyotr Nikolaevich began writing his final work on the history of the Tambov Region under the scientific supervision of Professor Seredonin. At the same time, he entered the Imperial Archaeological Institute. In May 1909, he successfully defended his Doctor of Philosophy work entitled "The History of the Colonization of the Tambov Territory"; it was published in 1912 in the Izvestia of the Tambov Scientific Archival Commission.
In June 1909 Pyotr Nikolaevich traveled to Germany, in Marburg, to take German courses.
Pyotr Nikolaevich began working that same year at the Saint Petersburg District Gymnasium, where he taught history and Latin. He combined his work with studies at the Archaeological Institute and research activities, and as a volunteer, he attended lectures by the classics of Russian historical science at St. Petersburg University. At this time, Pyotr Nikolaevich gained experience in conducting archaeological excavations: he was at the excavations of the ancient Greek colony of Olbia on the Black Sea at the mouth of the Bug River.
In 1917, Pyotr Nikolaevich was preparing to become a professor of Russian history in Petrograd, but the revolutionary events and the outbreak of civil war drastically changed his life. In the spring of 1919, he came to Lebedyan, where his relatives lived: brother Andrei Nikolaevich, mother and wife. At this time in the provincial city was a process of new cultural construction. An important place in it was occupied by Andrei Nikolaevich. Having received the position of head of the museum section at the out-of-school sub-department of the county department of public education, he joined in the work of creating a museum of local lore.
In 1919-1920 Andrei Nikolaevich visited many large villages of Lebedyansky district, telling about what a museum is and why you need to study the history of your native land. He prepared instructions for museum workers, developed a program for the development of local history, and indicated ways to implement it. In February 1920, he examined 10 local archives, where documents of 17 Lebedyan institutions were stored, and compiled a report on their sad condition. With the participation of Andrei Nikolaevich, the first local history society was organized in Lebedyan
In May 1920, at the invitation of the head of the provincial archive, Andrei Nikolaevich moved to Tambov and took the post of a researcher at the provincial archive and at the same time the head of the historical and archive departments of the Tambov National Museum. On July 1, 1921, he was appointed head of the Tambov People's Museum.
In 1923, Pyotr Nikolaevich was elected secretary of the newly created Tambov Society for the Study of Nature and Culture of the Local Territory. At that time, his articles and books were published on the history of the Tambov Region, in particular, "The Cultural and Historical Essay of the Tambov Province" (1925) and "From Serfdom to October in the Tambov Province. 1861-1917. Essays on the economics and culture of the post-reform period" (1928).
On July 15, 1928, Pyotr Nikolaevich was transferred to the planning committee of the newly formed Central Black Earth Region as a scientific secretary. He and his wife moved to Voronezh. On February 5, 1939, he returned to Lebedyan. Only in October, he was able to get a job - he taught German at a local pedagogical school. In 1940 he moved to Kursk, where he survived the years of occupation. Here, from 1942 to 1943, Pyotr Nikolaevich was the director of the museum of local lore and, together with other employees, managed to save part of the exhibition and funds from plunder.
In August 1947, he worked as a lecturer in the history of the ancient world at the Kursk Pedagogical Institute. He tried to work on his dissertation, but a new wave of repression and ideological studies did not allow him to do this.
In 1956, he became a full member of the Geographical Society of the USSR. In the period from 1959 to 1970 he published 12 articles in scientific periodicals on history, in 1961 he published the monograph "The Past of the Tambov Region".
